“Tonight I'll dream while I'm in bed/when silly thoughts go through my head/about the bugs and alphabet/and when I wake tomorrow I'll bet/that you and I will walk together again/I can tell that we are gonna be friends/Yes I can tell that we are gonna be friends.” -The White Stripes, “We Are Going To Be Friends”

The next Friday Nick was pulling into his driveway after coming home from work — he was a pizza delivery boy and lost all his dignity because of it — when his phone started ringing. He picked it up as he stopped and held it to his ear as he put the car in park and smiled as he thought about how much his mother would yell at him for not being fully parked before answering (he liked to live on the wild side).

“Hello?” he said.

“Nick?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s Samantha.”

“Hey! What’s up?”

“Oh nothing,” she said, sounding unsure.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Just cause it’s,” he checked the clock on the dashboard, “only eight o’clock and you’re usually with Luke tonight.”

“He had to work so we couldn’t meet up. That’s sort of why I called you actually.”

“Okay…” he said.

“Would you completely hate me if I had to cancel tomorrow?”

“Cancel tomorrow?”

“Like if I couldn’t hang out tomorrow.”

“But tomorrow’s Saturday.”

“I know,” she said.

“And we always hang out on Saturday’s.”

“I know.”

“Is a family member sick?”

“What?”

“Is your grandmother sick?” he asked.

“No.”

“Did your mom get into a car accident and you have to watch your sister?”

“No.”

“Did some uncle of yours that lives out of state get arrested and the family is going there to hold an intervention?”

“No,” she said.

“Then why the hell do you have to cancel tomorrow?”

“I-”

“No, really. You’ve ditched me so many times since you and Luke have started dating-”

“I know but-”

“And now you’re trying to cancel hanging out with me on our day. The day we always hang out. So tell me your reason. It better be a fucking good one,” he said.

“Nick, please.”

“Please what? Calm down for a second so you can tell me that you’re ditching me for your boyfriend? Is that it?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Well then I don’t care what in the hell you have to say. Goodbye.” He hung up and knocked his head against the steering wheel a few times before turning off the car and getting out.

…

The next day Nick didn’t wake up until almost one, which was odd since he could never sleep in. He realized it was probably because he fell asleep next to his record player at three in the morning. For some reason that cheered him up.

Then he realized he probably slept on his floor too much and that it couldn’t be healthy. He pushed the thought away but then all he was left with was that he had no plans for today. So he was back to being depressed.

His mother, being a mother, predicted him being in a bad mood and had left him a breakfast sandwich in the fridge and $20 for lunch on the counter. According to her note, she and Gwendolyn had gone to the mall, which was a town away.

Nick,

I know you are upset for some unknown reason and that combined with your raging hormones has caused you to sleep late but I would not advise doing that again. Gwendolyn and I will be back from the mall later and will bring dinner back when we do. I made you breakfast (fridge) and left money for lunch (counter). I expect to see change so don’t not buy lunch and think you get to keep the money.

-Mom

Nick rolled his eyes but silently thanked god for his mother as his stomach grumbled. Breakfast sandwiches were his favorite, especially when his mother made them. Even more so when she doesn’t skimp on the cheese.

Luckily for him, the amount of cheese she put on the sandwich could make someone lactose intolerant just looking at it.

Juggling his sandwich, a can of Pepsi, the $20, his cell phone, and the landline in his hands, Nick made his way to the living room couch. He placed down the soda, plate, and cell phone before dialing the pizza place, the same one in which he worked.

“Leonardo’s Pizzeria, the home of the original meat tornado pizza, may I take your order?” Nick cringed, at both the generic and weird opening all employees were required to say and because he recognized this particular employee’s voice.

“Hey Ryan. It’s Nick Kincaid.”

“Hey Nick! How’s it going? You don’t get enough of this generic meat tornado shit as is?” Nick laughed.

“What can I say, I’m addicted.”

“You, dude, are a perfect example of Stockholm Syndrome. Anyway, how’s your Saturday going? Hanging out with Samantha I assume?” Ryan asked.

“Nope, not today.”

“Ditched you for Luke?”

“Possibly.”

“Aw that sucks dude.”

“Thanks, I’m surviving,” Nick said.

“Just for the record, I was always supportive of you two hanging out when she and I were dating.”

Ryan and Samantha had dated for a few months the previous year but had broken up when Samantha met James. It was a long story. But Ryan was a good guy, Nick had always liked him, and was close to dating Rosie now.

“Gee thanks, that makes me feel a whole lot better,” Nick said.

“Cut the snark, Kincaid. We don’t appreciate sarcasm at this fine establishment.”

“Yes because Leonardo’s Pizzeria is such a fine establishment.”

“Do you wanna order a pizza or not cause I gotta job to do dude,” Ryan said.

“Fine. I’ll take a large pepperoni with a side of ranch.”

“Ranch? Why do you need to get ranch?”

“It’s better with ranch,” Nick protested.

“Ugh fine, if you wanna spend unnecessary money be my guest.”

“Just put in the order, dumbass.”

Twenty five minutes later Nick had a beautiful large pepperoni pizza (with a side of ranch) sitting on the coffee table in front of him. He almost couldn’t eat it (almost) it was so beautiful.

He grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels until he found a rerun of The West Wing. It was such a good episode. It was from season one where Josh was speaking to a hall of college students while Toby and Sam go to bail a future Supreme Court justice from jail after he was wrongfully imprisoned. It was so good.

After that episode ended, another started. That meant that Nick had to keep watching, it was horrible not to. Then there was another episode after that. And another one after that. Soon it was dark outside and Nick was still watching.

He was finally getting ready to give in and get up to go to the bathroom when the doorbell rang. He sighed, placed the long-empty pizza box aside, and got up.

He opened the door and found Samantha standing there in the same dress she had worn the night she had met Luke. She was holding a pizza box and her heels in one hand and an old pair of Converse, which Nick was pretty sure she had stolen from him, on her feet.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be with Luke?”

“I just came from hanging out with him.”

“You were hanging out with him in that dress?”

“We were hanging out after we went to dinner,” she explained.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“You brought pizza I see,” he said.

“I did, you in the mood for pizza?”

“I had pizza for lunch.”

“So you don’t want pizza?”

“I didn’t say that,” he said, laughing.

“I can come in then?”

“I suppose. But once you put down the pizza you have to leave.”

“Whatever.” She dropped her heels by the door and walked past Nick and past the living room where the TV was still on and up the stairs. He turned off the TV and threw away the pizza box before following her.

When he reached his room she wasn’t in there, the pizza box was on the bed. He flopped down on the bed and turned on the TV to resume his West Wing watching. After a few minutes Samantha emerged from the bathroom with her dress in her hand and wearing Nick’s old sweat pants and t-shirt.

“Um I don’t think those clothes are yours,” he said.

“They are now. Besides, I already have your shoes.” She flopped down on the bed next to him and took a slice of pizza. Nick had convinced himself he was full but he grabbed a slice as well.

“We really should have gotten some napkins or plates or something while we were downstairs,” she said.

“If you think it’s so important why don’t you go downstairs?”

“Rock paper scissors?”

“Ugh I guess.”

Eight lousy games of rock paper scissors later, Nick made his way downstairs to get Samantha her precious plates.

When he came back upstairs she had turned the TV off and turned his record player on. When she saw him she held up the record she was holding, The White Stripes of course, and he nodded.

She carefully placed the record down and started the music. They both flopped back down on the bed again and Nick handed Samantha a napkin to go with her new slice of pizza and didn’t bother to grab one for himself.

The song ended but neither of them moved. Samantha finished her piece of pizza and then looked at Nick and said,

“Again?” He nodded. She started the song again and laid down next to where he was now leaning against the wall.

They laid there for a long time with their only movement being one of them getting up to start the song over again. About twenty replays in, Samantha whispered,

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Nick whispered back.

“It wasn’t nice of me. You were right, it’s not fair to ditch you on every other day and to ditch you on the one day we’re always supposed to spend together.”

“It really isn’t.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Just so you know, I talked to Ryan today and he reminded me how supportive he was of us having our day each week.”

“Oh that makes me just so happy that you and my ex-boyfriend get along,” she said.

“It really should.”

By the time they were both too tired to get up and restart the song it was almost midnight. Nick got up from the bed and tucked an almost sleeping Samantha under the covers and laid down on his floor. Again.

He tried not to think about how sad this was that he was sleeping on his floor again and just convinced himself that laying on his possibly clean clothes wasn’t horrible for his back.

At least it was better than sleeping in the same bed as Samantha. That just seemed like cruel and unusual punishment.

A/N: Aren't you guys psyched at how long this chapter is? I am! I felt so bad for having lame short chapters so I knew this one had to be longer. Not much happens persay but we have now met Ryan, one of two ex-boyfriends of Samantha (the other will be introduced before long. And just in case you forgot, Rosie is one of Samantha's friends. She hasn't been talked about that much so I don't blame you if you forgot her.

So do you guys like Ryan? Or have you not decided since he only showed up for like a second? Don't forget to give me feedback about the rest of the chapter!

Also, I have an announcement. I am writing a new story! It's going to be a dialogue story and is called "Just the Highlights." Before I can post it I have a to do list, which you can help me with by getting Broken Record to 1,000 reads. I'm not saying get BR to 1,000 reads on this update, I'm saying sometime in the future, maybe after the next update or the one after that. 

This chapter is dedicated to 13sweetdreams for all her comments on the last couple chapters (especially our whole conversation about the frequency of writers updating on here on my author's note a chapter or two back).

The photo on the right is who I have cast as Maddie, Mackenzie Lintz :)