NED

Standing on the blacktop was like standing in a thinly iced lake, cracking under the weight of Ned's feet. The more people around him, the closer his parents came towards them, more stress was created, and more cracks appeared. His heartbeat hit heavy against his chest, bruises blooming from every beat. 

Taking his final full breath of the night, Ned turned to his friends. "Let's book it."

Everyone but Sam nodded as Ned came up with the plan on the fly. "I think we can make it back to Indie's car back at the house. We might have to pile on top of each other, but maybe we can find the golf cart and just use that again—"

Sam grabbed Ned's arm with a reassuring squeeze. "We don't have to do anything. I don't think we should have to run."

"What's the big deal?" Griffin asked. "Who are these people?"

"Just wait," Indie said as less of a promise and more like a threat.

Lena shook her head. "I don't even think we can run."

And she was right as Sam's family car drove past to block their back exit and Ned's parents parked directly in front of Jason's van so he couldn't break free without owing big on the insurance. Ned's mom climbed out, still in her nice party clothes. Her dark hair bounced in the curls, and it was becoming clearer and clearer that their party was nicer than described. His mother was wearing pearls and red lipstick. His dad wore a dress shirt. Ironed.

Ned's eyes were so wide they threatened to snap.

"Ned Bartholomew Flowers!" His mothered bellowed like a bridge troll demanding Ned pay a toll. "Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea what we've been through tonight? We were supposed to pick your brother up from the airport hours ago."

"Ned," His father jumped in with his hands on his hips in the most disappointed in Ned pose possible. "You need to cut this out and get in the car. We're going home."

"I-I-I can't—" Ned stammered out, shaking so much even his split ends trembled. "I have something to do!"

His mother grimaced, her mouth the thinnest angry line Ned had ever seen. "I'm not entertaining this. Lena," she said. "Was this your idea? What were you guys doing?"

Lena held up her hands. "It wasn't me."

"Or me," Indie said, their fellow usual suspect.

The hand squeezing Ned's heart tightened until it popped. He had to force the words out through all the hurt. "It was my idea. Why couldn't this be my idea?"

Thankfully, Sam's parents strutting over cut him off and gave his nerves a mercy killing. "Sam, I've had it," Sam's mom snapped. "I'm not chasing you all night. If you ever want to see the outside of your bedroom again, you'll come home right now."

"Oh, if it isn't Beatrice" Ned's mother spoke up.

Ned's skin ran cold as he stared in wide eyed horror at the two women. He couldn't remember the last time they were actually occupied the same space. It was a landslide and a tornado meeting. It was the earth splitting and acid rain. Ned feared for their lives.

His mother scoffed. "I can see who's the cause of all this now."

"What's that supposed to mean, Autumn?" Sam's mother, Beatrice raised.

It wasn't Ned's mom or Sam's mom anymore.

It was Autumn Flowers and Beatrice Hayes. Just them in a deadlock glaring contest. Anyone who got in-between that was just asking to be hit with one of their sparks.

"I mean it exactly how it sounds," Autumn Flowers said, laying the condescension on thick with a side helping of disdain for Sam. "If there's anyone that was going to make a spectacle of themselves, it would be yours. Tell your kid to stop giving mine crazy ideas."

"HA!" Beatrice Hayes guffawed, crossing her arms with familiar challenging eyes. "Sam has never done anything like this in his life."

"And you think Ned has?"

"Well..." Autumn smiled as sweet as snake venom. "Whose son stays home? And which son tries sneaking in through Sam's window?"

Beatrice's jaw set, and bile curdled at the back of Ned's throat. He didn't know Sam's knew and the thought of her knowing as he tapped on the glass and tried to whisk her son away was going to be his thirteenth reason. What she must've already thought about him was much worse than thinking the only reason she didn't like him was because of his family. Now, Ned realized, it was personal.

"Mrs. Hayes," Ned tried to speak up, but his mother voice bulldozed his.

"You know," Beatrice snapped, "This wouldn't have happened if you didn't move in across the street."

Autumn laughed without humor. "You knew we were looking at this neighborhood."

"Oh, I didn't realize we were still in grade school. You don't get to "call" a whole neighborhood. It's in a good district!"

"Hey, mom," Sam practically begged, holding his hands up in surrender. "Let's tone it down, okay?"

"Mom!" Ned jumped to explain himself and his blush wasn't doing him any favors. "It wasn't like that! I never snuck in. I just knocked on the window. I can't even crawl up that high—"

In the corner of Ned's eye, he watched his brother, John's beat up car drive up behind their parents with Margaret in the passenger's seat.

Lena exasperatingly sighed. "Not another car."

"It gets worse," Jacob whispered as Ned noticed yet another car. Chad and his merry band of footballers crawled into the last in line spot. All here just in time for a front row seat to the mothers burning everything to the ground (probably to compare how the other would end the world better).

However, their mothers didn't seem to notice anyone else. To them, the only people that existed or mattered were each other, Ned, and Sam. And they could all tell something was off. Chad, his friends, and even John stayed in their car to stay out of it... but they couldn't help but watch like any car crash.

Autumn raised her hand at Ned, her son to keep him quiet as she snapped at Beatrice, "You don't know my kid and you obviously don't know yours either."

"I know a lot more than you think," Beatrice argued.

This set them off once again on a tangent of arguments about absolutely nothing from the house color choices, college choices, loud music, the holiday lights, and this inspired their fathers to join in and defend their wives.

His stomach tying into one too many knots, Ned grabbed Sam's arm. "I think we need to separate them. Why don't you go talk to your mom? I'll take mine?"

"No." Sam said the opposite of what Ned was hoping and his stomach twisted again, now feeling like a balloon animal with one too many knots. "We're not separating. They're going to have to get used to us being together..." Sam removed Ned's hand from his arm, only to thread their fingers together like strings to remember as if Ned was in danger of forgetting something important.

Sam stated, "Because we're together."

Their fathers continued to fight, but Sam's mom stopped. Beatrice's words caught in her throat as she snapped her eyes at the boys' intertwined hands. This caused Autumn to look too, and all the color drained from both their faces.

"This is my worst nightmare," Autumn muttered as if she never had meant to say it out loud and Ned's blood thinned to nothing. He had never heard his mother say anything close to that... and for it to be about him? Ned thought he was going to vomit.

Ned pulled his hand away and Sam's brows raised.

Beatrice drew closer, speaking in a hush. Suddenly, this conversation shouldn't be out in public, it shouldn't be aired out for everyone to hear. Just them. "You've got to be kidding me. Sam, I thought we had already gone through this." Beatrice held out her hands, almost in plea. "You can date whoever you want, but you cannot date Ned Flowers."

Autumn took another step closer, her face twisted in confusion (and Ned thought that look was only reserved for him). "What's that supposed to mean? You've already been through this? Ned, what does she mean?"

Ned mirrored her surprise. He looked to Sam's mom. "You... you never told her?"

"Told me what?"

Taking a deep breath, Autumn whispered. "At the time, I didn't know if you were out, and I didn't know how Beatrice would react if you were..."

"React to what?"

"Well, I mean a few years back um, Sam and me... um, kissed..." The more Ned drew it out, the more time his mother had to fill in the pieces. He flushed. "Why are you so mad? You already know I'm gay—"

The implication seemed to knock Autumn out of her stupor. She shook her head, pulling a hair tie out of her pocket compiling her hair up and out of her face, taking her frustrations out on her hair follicles instead of him. "It's not that. I love you and I'll love you no matter, but..."

Ned shrank a little, preparing for her words. She huffed, sparing a moment to scowl at Beatrice, before turning back to him. "Ned Flowers, I need you to understand that it can't happen again whatever is going on—" She motioned between him and Sam "—can't happen."

She caught herself. "But it has happened again and it's my worst nightmare. Ned, I'm willing to forget this entire night. No grounding. No more fights. We go home and have a nice Christmas Eve."

"But?"

"But you have to let Sam go and come home. You've taken this way too far."

"That's just like you," Beatrice spoke up, unafraid to meet Autumn in the eyes. "You really haven't changed since high school. Your first instinct is to run. Great advice."

Autumn's nose flared. "We're agreeing here, and I didn't ask for a tired lecture." She laughed, no humor in her voice. "That you have no business giving. You wanna talk about running away? Don't. Because there's no point in talking about something when it's over and done. What would you have me say? I was a kid."

"So was I!"

Sam held his hands up in defeat. "What is happening? I don't know what you're talking about. What's the big deal if Ned and I go out? It has nothing to do with you guys." He looked at his mother, who hadn't stopped staring at Autumn. "It never made sense to me why you're so fixated on the Flowers, if you hate them so much."

And that was when Ned saw it, simmering underneath all the hate. Something else was living in the belly of this fire. Ned asked his mother, "What did you run away from?"

Autumn frowned. "It wasn't running away because I didn't go. I stayed. I didn't want to run away. B, I never wanted to run away."

"You never said that" Beatrice argued.

"How could I say it? You put too much on me. You put your entire future on my shoulders, but you were gonna graduate! I still had a year left of high school and you expected me to just leave? I was scared."

"You should have told me."

"You wouldn't have listened. You would've talked me back into it."

"I didn't tell anybody about us because of you. You. If you don't like being pained as the villain, Autumn than don't act like one. Don't try rearranging history here."

"I'm not. I can admit it. I made one mistake and you never wanted to speak to me again."

Sam eyes widened. "Were you friends in high school?"

Silence.

Burning, unbearable silence. It created too much smoke and clogged Ned's throat. Made his eyes itchy and hot.

Beatrice posed the question back to Autumn. "Is that what you would call what we had? Were we friends? Gal pals? Or would you call it a mistake?"

"That's not what I said. Stop putting words in my mouth."

"You didn't have to say it. It's the way you looked at me."

Ned looked at his mother. "Answer. Were you friends?"

His mother's lip trembled. "We were best friends."

Any tears Beatrice was building were held back as she straightened her shoulders. Ned could see the wall coming down. It rattled the earth and broke the asphalt at their feet. "Were we even friends? Were we ever even that or were you just pretending the whole time?"

Autumn took every punch. She admitted, "We might have been a little more than friends."

Ned's jaw dropped and he shed the tear for them. He tried to find more understanding, looking at Sam who was stunned, no color in his face with the same slacked jaw. It looked like he got the wind knocked out of him. Ned looked at his dad, whose head was hung avoiding his eyes. The only one willing to look at him was John.

John sat in his car with the window rolled down, watching Ned's reaction.

John knew.

And he never said anything.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sam eventually spat out.

Sam's mother shook her head. "She can say things like that because she left the relationship whole while I..." Finally, she looked at her son. "Ned's mother stood me up at prom. The night of my senior prom, I waited by the front door all night and I didn't find out until the next day that she went with someone else."

Ned snapped a look at his father. He knew his parents went to prom together. That it wasn't their first date, but it was the night Ned's dad realized he was going to be with his mom forever.

Teary eyed and almost desperate, Autumn walked closer to Beatrice. "I was scared, B. I didn't know what to do. Jack felt safe and he never asked me to blow up my entire life."

"I was heartbroken, and I couldn't tell a single soul. Have you ever wondered what that was like for me? Everyone thought I was crazy. Depressed for no reason and you just let everyone think that."

"I didn't want anyone to know. I was scared. I told you that my parents would've kicked me out. I needed their help to get through college. I asked you to wait and I would go with you, but you asked me to go anyways like I didn't have my whole future ahead of me. You just expected me to pack a bag and jump when you said so."

"Oh, please—"

"No. No. You asked for everything, and I couldn't give anymore, so when people asked me what was wrong with you, I said I didn't know. I didn't call you crazy. You just acted like it."

"Thanks to you!"

"You just can't stand to think you did anything wrong—"

"Okay, okay," Ned pleaded with them. With shaky hands, he held his mother's shoulders, finally getting her to take a step back. "Let's calm down, please? I'll go home. Sam, just go with your parents—"

#

SAM

Something inside of Sam had been breaking all night.

And the sound of Ned telling Sam to give up was his final breaking point.

He grabbed Ned's arm, keeping him there with him. "Are you kidding me? You wanna go home? After all of this?"

"Sam—" Ned said in that soft sweet way with those big dark eyes that was supposed to convince Sam of anything, but he wasn't having it.

"No. You started this Ned and it's your job to finish it."

"Sam, didn't you hear what they were saying?"

Sam had been talking about returning The Gregor.

But he realized, Ned was worried about everything else, but them. He fought for that stupid lawn gnome all night and in this moment, when it was about them, Ned couldn't vouch for their relationship. It was bullshit. Sam kept his head held high. "I love you. Don't go."

"Sam..." Ned opened his mouth with a look like Sam shoved him.

"Don't bother with him," Sam's mother said, and Sam closed his eyes, bracing himself for everything he didn't want to hear. "If you two were supposed to be together, you would have a long time ago. Obviously, Ned isn't interested."

Sam opened his eyes to Ned, pleading with everything in soul.

Say something.

Please, say something.

"It's—" Ned shifted. He couldn't only keep eye contact with Sam's mother for a half second before he was too tongue tied to argue. "It's- It's not that. I just wasn't—it's more complicated than that."

Sam's mother crossed his arms. "Weren't you two going on a date tonight? Separately? People who like each other don't do that. Stop messing with my kid, Ned. Leave him alone."

"I'm not," Ned tried speaking up again, but his words failed.

"Ned," Sam said as his mother touched his shoulder. "Tell them. Say anything."

But when Ned opened his mouth, nothing came out. He looked around at all their friends and family and couldn't say a word. Sam however wanted to scream. In a matter of survival, Sam Hayes stopped having thoughts. He let his body take over as shrugged off his mother's hand and made a dash right through Ned and Autumn.

"Sam!" His mother called after him, but he kept running.

He ran to Chad's car, desperately rattling the window. His nerves were stretched thinner than thin as his mother walked towards him as Ned just stared at him like he was nuts as everyone else waited to see what he would do.

"Hey, Hayes, you good?" Chad asked.

"No, please let me in."

"What? I don't know..." Chad glanced at Sam's mom still on her way. She was going to regret not running after him. They all were.

"I'd like to offer myself up as a hostage. Me in ex-change for The Gregor."

Chad's eyes brows jumped up his forehead. "You serious?"

"Please."

Chad nodded, eyes still trained on Sam as he called to the guys in the back, "Yo! Make room for Hayes. He's coming with us."

The van door slid opened, and Sam jumped inside.

This finally inspired life from the group. Ned started trudging over alongside Sam's mom. Ned almost immediately caught up with her as they called for him. Sam shook his head. "I'm not going home!" He pointed fervently to his chest, stabbing himself with his finger. "Unlike you, I'm not done."

"Sam, wait!" Ned called.

Sam shot him the middle finger and quickly ducked into the car. He fumbled into the backseat between two of the football players as Chad advised seat belts and for everyone to hold on. He backed up the car, whipping it around in the same long turn and sped up. He slipped into a random driveway seamlessly, twisted his wheel and slammed on the gas, tires screeching behind them. Sam looked around at Ned running for the car.

He twisted back and immediately broke into a sob. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Oop. Welp. I guess everyone knows now. Ned's mom stood up Sam's mom for prom. This is a warning for all of my future books, all my characters are queer until proven otherwise 😇

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! It's messy as always. What were your guesses to why the families hated each other? Was your guess close? And what is Ned going to do?? Will he trade The Gregor to get Sam back? Are the footballers going to be nice to Sam? 🥺

See you next week!  

(ALSO if you'd like to check them out, Wattpad is testing a new feature to add Spotify playlists to books. SO! All my books are linked with a playlist. Listen if you like~)