𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞
[𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒓𝒅𝒐 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒕; 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆]

❝𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭.❞

♡♡♡

VERONICA WALKED WITH SAMANTHA DOWN THE HALL, a knowing look on her face as she listened to the girl. "Youre telling me you were at Devin Foleys house, alone?" She asks curiously, raising an eyebrow. Veronica didn't know what was more surprising, Samnatha talking to Devin or her going to a boys house.

"We were just there to grab the jumper cable." Samantha admits as she shrugs her shoulders. Veronica hums as she places a hand on her hip.

"Right, and you couldn't have stayed in your car?"

"It was cold." Samantha tells her and a smirk forms on Veronica's face.

"And I bet he warmed you right up." She teases the girl who groans, tilting her head back for a moment.

"Roni, nothing happened." She denies instantly. Veronica laughs a bit before crossing her arms against her chest.

"Good, cause Kyle would literally kill you." Veronica points out and Samantha knew that was true.

"Yeah, cause he hates his guts."

"Dont know why but we stick together with our mutual loathing. Like we do for Steve." Veronica points out and Samantha bites the inside of her cheek.

"Hm." She hums, glancing around momentarily. "Can't say that Devin's not a little cute though." Samantha admits. She was a ride or die friend but she was also a realist.

"Not really my type." Veronica denies as she scrunches her nose up and Samantha couldnt help but scoff.

"Says the woman who flirts with everyone."

"I'm an opportunist." Veronica says with a wink and Samantha just laughs a little bit as she shakes her head.

"Right."

"Now, are we ditching or what?" She asks curiously and Samantha sighs, staring at her best friend.

"You know I can't." Samantha denies. If she was even gonna come close to getting into any schools she wanted, she couldn't slack off.

"Sorry, little miss perfect is incapable of missing one class." Veronica teases her and Samantha sighs a bit.

"Only one way to get the hell out of here." She mutters as she glances down at the ground before her eyes move over to the bulletin board. Samantha noticed Jonathan was stood stapling flyers.

"Has he talked to anybody?" Veronica asks curiously as they both stare at the man before he exits the school.

"I don't think so." She denies, biting her bottom lip as she stares at the poster. "I feel so bad for him and his mom." Samantha admits and Veronica nods her head.

"Yeah." She fiddles with her fingers. "Can't believe someone would take him." Veronica states and Samantha just glances away from the poster of a missing Will.

"This town was always a little too quiet." Samantha admits and Veronica just wraps her arms around the girl, resting her head on the girls shoulder.

"Come on, let's get to class."

♡♡♡

SAMANTHA BLOWS THE SMOKE FROM THE BLUNT BETWEEN HER FINGERS, looking up at the sky as she leant against the wall of the school. She hated that every single class she went into, Steve was either there or Devin was. She was supposed to hate Devin by association, Kyle despised him so she should too. But last night, he was so sweet with her, it made her see him in a different light.

Kyle would probably think it was all a manipulation tactic. And honestly, Samantha didn't know if she could ever fully trust someone coming from that group. Well, except for Kyle.

Her eyes move to the side as she hears a familiar voice and she notices her brother and Lucas coming up the hill with their bikes. She furrows her eyebrows, quickly putting out the blunt before walking toward them.

"Where are you two off to in such a hurry?" Samantha asks them curiously, catching their attention. They share a glance with each other, clearly thinking they've been caught.

"Uh, nowhere." Dustin denies and Samantha sees their yet again, one short.

"Wheres Mike?"

"Home. Sick." Dustin answers her quickly and Lucas nods his head in agreement.

"Thats where were going. To see him." Lucas adds on and Samantha flickers her eyes between them, narrowing them slightly.

"He needs you to check on him in the middle of the school day? Isn't his mom home?" Samantha questions. They shouldn't really be skipping school just to check on the boy.

"She had to work so he's home alone." Her brother tells her which only made her more confused.

"Will's missing. I doubt--"

"You know her, not very logical." Lucas says with a laugh before they go to turn again.

"Hold it." Samantha demands causing the boys to come to a halt. "Whats going on?" She asks, crossing her arms against her chest. Her brother just stares back at her.

"Nothing." He was never a convincing liar.

"Dustin." She warns, raising an eyebrow. Dustin looks toward Lucas who only firmly shakes his head. He lets out a sigh as he looks back at Samantha.

"I-i'll tell you later, okay? We just have to go right now." Dustin tells her before he and Lucas are running off with their bikes.

"Did you guys want a drive?" Samantha asks, even though it was the middle of the day, she wouldn't mind if they were a bit safer.

"No, we're good!" Dustin denies.

"Thank you!" Lucas shouts as they jump on their bikes, pedaling off.

"Well, ride safe!" She calls out after them before letting out a sigh as she places her hands on her hips. "Idiots." She mutters, shaking her head before turning and heading back into the school.

♡♡♡

LEANT AGAINST HER LOCKER, Samantha looks at her best friends-- mainly Kyle since she just told him about last night. "He didn't make any moves on you, did he?" Kyle asks with a stern voice, his arms crossed against his chest. Samantha shakes her head as she presses her lips together tightly.

"Of course not." She denies, looking down at the ground as she kicks her feet. "He was actually sweet." Samantha states, closing her eyes momentarily because she knew Kyle wasn't gonna like her comment.

"Sweet? Yeah, thats all fake." He scoffs out, glaring at the girl. Veronica just squints her eyes in his direction.

"Why do you despise him again?"

"Why don't you? He's part of the asshole posse." Kyle states and Veronica just continues to stare at the man, a bit suspiciously.

"Right, but you act as if hes murdered someone in your family." Veronica points out but Kyle just stays silent. "And can you really blame Devin if he did? She's got some goods." She says, winking towards the woman who raises an eyebrow.

"Thank you?" Samantha responds in a questionable tone. Kyle gives Veronica an annoyed look before glancing at Samantha.

"I just don't want you to get hurt." He admits and she smiles gently as she tilts her head.

"Dont worry, I'm not going out with him."

"Even though it would be an easy lay." Veronica mumbles underneath her breath. Samantha slaps her shoulder.

"Roni." She scolds and Veronica just scoffs as she holds her hands up in defence.

"What? Am I wrong?" She asks curiously.

"I'll find someone in my own time." Samantha tells her and Veronica narrows her gaze.

"Mhm." She hums, running her eyes along her best friend. "You do... entertain yourself though, right?" Veronica asks as she wiggles her eyebrows and Samantha's eyes widen a bit as she looks around.

"Seriously?" She retorts in a hushed whisper making Veronica snort a bit.

"Dont be such a prude."

"You think Kyle wants to hear this?" Samantha asks, not really wanting to discuss what she may or may not do in her private time with her guy best friend. It didnt matter how close they were.

"Oh, please. He masturbates all the time." Veronica points out with a shrug of her shoulders and Kyle looked offended.

"Its not all the time." He grumbles, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I focus on my schoolwork which is what you should be doing." Samantha states, pointing her finger at Veronica who smirks a bit, shaking her head.

"Our girls gonna be a virgin till the end of time." Veronica states with a dramatic sigh as she swings an arm around Samantha's shoulders. The girl rolls her eyes but she can't help a faint blush that forms on her cheeks. Because as her eyes flicker to the sides, they land on Steve who was leant against his locker.

As they walk past the man, Steve's gaze meets hers for a millisecond before she glances back in front of her.

♡♡♡

AS THE SO CALLED 'ASSHOLES POSSE' SAT IN THE CAFETERIA, Steve was barely listening to his friends as they talked about God knows what. He was just scanning the cafeteria, wondering where Nancy was. That was until he caught eye of Samantha. He sat up a bit straighter as she looked in his direction. He was about to smile a bit until he noticed who her eyes were actually on.

Devin.

Steve moves his gaze to his friend, seeing Devin smirk and wink in her direction. Samantha rolls her eyes but smiles gently before following Veronica out into the hallway. Looking at Devin who was just casually eating his food, Steve nudges him. "Whats up with that?" He asks curiously and Devin seemed confused.

"What?"

"You and Sam." Steve states with a bit of a scoff. Devin just blinks a few times.

"Oh, nothing. Just gave her a ride yesterday." He admits as he takes another bite of his food. Steve furrows his eyebrows.

"You gave her a ride? Doesn't she hate you?"

"Not more than she hates you." Devin retorts with a small smirk and Steve just glances away from him.

"You got princess welfare to get in a car with you?" Carol asks, raising her eyebrows with a scoff.

"Probably for a price, five dollars?" Tommy teases and Devin kicks him under the table, giving him a kook.

"Come on, she's not that bad."

"Oh, I know how his night ended." Carol says with a smirk playing on her lips before beginning to shake the table. "Oh, Devin!" She moans out causing Tommy to laugh. Devin rolls his eyes as he tosses his chips at her.

"Shut up." He says with a small smirk on his face but he could see the way Steve seemed uncomfortable, glaring down at the table.

"Is she wrong?" Tommy asks him, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing happened." Devin denies, taking a drink from his can.

"Shes not really your type, is she?" Steve asks suddenly, trying to be nonchalant. Devin chuckles as he shrugs his shoulders.

"Shes hot. What's not to like?"

"Yeah, but she wouldn't go for you." He denies and Devin stares at the man momentarily.

"You wanna bet, Harrington?" Devin asks him, knowing for a fact he could swing a date with Samantha if he really wanted to and if it pissed off Steve, that was only more incentive to do it.

"Come on, dude. We're not betting on this." Steve denies as he just rips the piece of bread in his hand. Devin raises his hands in defense.

"Geez, lighten up." He responds but Steve doesn't say anything else.

"Steve's right, stooping that low would make you lose all credibility in this town." Tommy points out with a scoff and Devin only glances toward him before looking back at Steve.

"Harrington, you have a girl, all right? So what do you care if I go for Sam?" Devin asks him, wondering why he had such an opinion on what happened with Samantha.

"I don't." He answers, a bit too quickly which was even more suspicious.

"Really?" Devin knew he could call Steves bullshit. "So, if i told you we made out, that would have no affect on you?" He asks the man who's eyes snap up. Obviously nothing happened between Devin and Samantha but Steve didn't know that.

"You what?" Steve's fist clench a bit and Devin just watches him, a bit confused.

"Seriously, dude. What is up with you?" Devin asks and Steve relaxes a bit, shrugging his shoulders.

"Nothing." He grumbles as he just gets up from the table. "We're late for class." Steve says and Devin narrows his gaze but gets up as well.

He wasn't an idiot, he knew something was going on but he wasn't sure exactly what. But one thing was for sure, Steve wasn't exactly the best secret keeper and Devin would find out what it was sooner rather than later.

♡♡♡

MUCH TO HER DISMAY AND PURELY AGAINST HER WILL, Samantha sat against her couch on the floor, her eyes purely on the notebook in her hands. Steve was sat across from her, although he wasn't doing much work, his time was mainly spent sparing her glances and thinking of how to start a conversation. Samantha had reluctantly invited him over because well, she'd rather not fail the class because her lab partner unfortunately was the local asshole.

She would just focus on the work and not pay him much mind. Steve was tapping his pencil against his paper, his eyes looking around the living room. "Your brother not here?" Words finally left his mouth for the first time in the hour he had been here. It mightve not been what he wanted to say but it was something.

Unfortunately, she didn't give him much back. "With his friends." She bluntly responds, flipping the page and continuing to write her notes. Steve nods his head slowly, biting the inside of his cheek. He tilts his head back for a moment, his foot fidgeting against the wood floor.

"You have any plans for tonight?" Steve asks curiously and Samantha sighs, annoyed that he wouldn't just sit in silence like she was.

"Wallowing in self pity." She responds sarcastically.

"I'm having a small party-- just a few people, if you wanted to come?" He suggests nonchalantly. This is what makes her stop, her pencil mid sentence. Samantha slowly moves her gaze away from her paper and over to the man across from her.

"Youre joking, right?" She asks with a scoff. Was he seriously forgetting everything that has happened? Everything his friends had done to her?

"Could be fun." Steve seemed to not be thinking much of it but she only glared at him.

"Yeah, let me just come hang out with Tommy and Carol who have made fun of me all my life, your new perfect girlfriend and a complete douchebag because that's exactly what I want to do on a Tuesday night."

"This is about Nancy?" Steve questions, furrowing his eyebrows and Samantha honestly found it hilarious how he truly wasn't grasping why she wanted nothing to do with him. As if he had no part in making her feel this way.

"Nancy's fine. She's actually really sweet which is why I can't understand how she'd ever get with a guy like you." She points out. Shes known Nancy forever because their brothers were best friends. Although they were never really super close and well, Samantha couldn't exactly stop her from getting with Steve, she didnt exactly know. "Its the fact that you willingly invite me to hang out with people who have done nothing but be mean to me. And well, no I don't particularly want to be around the girl you replaced me with." She sneers.

This makes the air between them tense. Steve dropped his head a bit. Samantha knew he was skirting around what had happened between them but she wasn't about to let him just move past it. Not when he was acting like he did nothing wrong. Not when he was inviting her to hang out with the girl who he apparently found much better than her.

"I didn't replace you."

"Really? You didn't replace me with a smarter girlfriend who happens to be white?" Samantha sneers, narrowing her gaze. That seemed like exactly what he did and she was sure his parents loved Nancy now.

"Sam--"

"Do you even think about us?" She asks him, a scoff leaving her lips. Steve frowns gently, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Of course I do." He assures her. He thought about her more than he should now that he was with Nancy. But every night, he found his mind drifting to Samantha.

"Then why'd you do it?" She asks him, crossing her arms against her chest. "Everything was fine, we were having fun together, weren't we? It was the summer of our lives, remember?" Samantha points out and she could see the guilty look on Steve's face as his eyes drifted to the ground.

"And then school started. And you... You acted like you didn't even know me. You walked past me like the past two months meant nothing to you." She tells him. The moment that happened, she felt confused, she felt betrayed but on top of everything, she felt like she was truly and utterly an outsider. That no matter how long she's in this town, no matter the friendships or how nice she is to everybody, they'll never see her as anything other than a freak.

"I didn't mean for it to come across like that."

"Than what did you mean, Steve?" Her voice was raised as she shakes her head. She didn't understand how he honestly wanted her to take it. "Seriously, what did I do to make you just forget about me? To make you hate me?" Samantha asks him. When they first broke up, she was angry, sad-- now she was just genuinely wondering why he did it.

"I don't hate you." Steve denies. "And you did absolutely nothing." It was his own stupidity that lead to the decision.

"Everyone already cast me out like I was an outsider, I didn't think you would do the same thing." She denies, her voice cracking a little bit. Samantha thought she had actually found somebody who cared about her, who liked her for who she was even though others made her life a living hell. She was so excited to tell Veronica, to tell Kyle she finally found somebody, and then it all came crashing down.

"Sam, please believe that I never meant to hurt you." Steve pleads, reaching over to her hand but she pulls it away like he was on fire.

"I don't believe that. Because you did." Samantha retorts, staring at him, trying to keep her emotion to herself but it was creeping up. Although the anger inside of her was overflowing. "I loved you, Steve. And you just used me." She states and she could see the way he seemed taken a back, a saddened expression forming.

"Loved?"

"You knew how hard it was for me to trust somebody. You were my..." She trails off, stopping herself as she shakes her head. She couldnt believe she had been so stupid. "You were my first, Steve." He knew that. He knew the part of herself she opened up to him, how vulnerable she made herself with him. "But i guess to you, I was just like any other girl." Samantha sneers.

She couldn't help but feel like he was just with her to claim a prize. Because everything was fine, they were happy, they were two teenagers falling in love. But at the end of the summer, when she finally gave him that piece, that seemed to be the only thing he wanted as he disappeared from her life not long after.

"No, you weren't." Steve denies instantly, shaking his head, seeming mad that she thought that. "You weren't like any of them, baby--"

"Dont call me that." She snaps, shaking her head as she gets up, brushing herself off. "Get out." Samantha demands as she gestures toward the front door. Steve doesn't move though, feeling like they hadn't really gotten anywhere.

"Can we please just talk about this?" He asks her but she just storms over to the door, opening it, her eyes hard and cold as she stares back at him.

"I'm not gonna say it again, Harrington. Get the hell out of my house." She tells him and Steve was reluctant but sighed, standing up from the ground. Grabbing his jacket from the couch, he walks over to her, hating the way things ended between them. Not just in this moment but at the end of the summer.

"I really am sorry." Steve says, staring at the woman who had her own gaze at the ground. He hangs his head a bit as he walks out the door. Samantha closes it quickly, pressing her body against it. She squeezes her eyes shut as she rests her head on the wood.

Why did she let him have such an affect on her? He threw her away like garbage, acted like she didn't mean anything to him. She should be doing the same thing. But for some reason her mind couldn't stop thinking of those endless summer nights with him, nights that she never thought would come to a stop.

Until they did.

♡♡♡