"I'm not going to tell you!" Sam cut me off, laughing as he continued to drive.

He was taking me somewhere, and I don't know where that somewhere was. Which was really starting to drive me insane. I had never been good with surprises. In fact, I had a very bad story that explained my experience with them.

Once upon a time, it was my birthday. My parents wanted to surprise me with a birthday party. So when I got home and they jumped out, I screamed and punched my father in the face. He had a black eye for an embarrassing amount of time after.

Oh yeah, and the only person who showed up was Millie.

It was safe to say that we never had a surprise party after that.

"But—" I tried, pouting at Sam.

"Nope. I'm not saying a word." His lips were quirked up into a smile.

I grumbled, settling my elbow against the door and resting my chin in my palm. I could clearly see that we were heading out of town, which only intrigued me further.

I was going on my first date.

Holy fuck.

I couldn't even find it in me to care that the mess had just occurred yesterday, or that we couldn't even have fun in our own town. Hell, even going out at all was a major risk. But I didn't think that either of us could handle another second of our suffocating lives. We needed to get out and enjoy ourselves, even if it was for a short period of time.

The truth was, we had been avoiding any talk about what happened on Friday. It had been hanging over us like the moon, keeping us from being able to breathe properly. It was nauseating.

Right then, I felt alright. I was hoping that if we could just properly have fun, it would help us both move past it. I wondered how anyone could really move past that.

Then again, what did it mean? How much money did Drake want from him? Where was Sam getting that money? Why did he hurt us?

Would he ever be satisfied?

"Sugar." Sam hummed, his hand resting on top of my thigh. If there was anything that could distract me from my own thoughts, it was Sam's touch.

"Hmm?" I mumbled, tilting my head to look over at him. He was biting his lip again.

"Nothing, you just looked like something was bothering you." He glanced my way. "Is something bothering you? Because I can turn around and we can just chill at my—"

I shook my head, setting my own hand on top of his as assurance. "Oh, hush up, you know that I want to do this. I was just spacing out."

His lip was once again a large scab, and his cheeks were every color except the one that they were supposed to be. I knew that it was hurting him, but he refused to say a word about it.

He pursed his lips, looking between me and the road every few seconds. "Are you sure? I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable—"

"Sam." I laughed, focusing all of my attention onto him. "I'm one-hundred percent on board with this, I promise."

He visibly sighed in relief. I didn't know why he would have thought that I didn't want to go out on dates. We had alluded to it several times before, and I showed no signs of panic the whole car ride. Sure, I was a little scared that someone might recognize us, but we could always play it off as two friends wanting to hang out.

At least, I hoped we could.

The rest of the car ride was consumed by comfortable silence, up until Sam reached forward to mess with the radio. Some song that neither of us recognized started to play. He frowned.

A few seconds later, he pulled out his phone and connected the Bluetooth. We both laughed and sang the entire way, Sam skipping every song that I didn't know so that was could jam out together.

If the car ride turned out to make me feel that much better, then the rest of the day was bound to be perfect.

Suddenly the car began slowing down, causing me to take in my surroundings. The place looked like an arcade, which got me excited. I loved childish things, what could I say?

"An arcade?" I voiced my thoughts, glancing at him with a grin.

He turned the music down to a low rumble. "There's also a bowling alley, restaurant, and pool."

"So we're going to blow a shit ton of money on the arcade, fail at bowling, and then go swimming?" I asked.

"Precisely."

I furrowed my brow. "I didn't bring a bathing suit, though."

"You didn't need to. I brought you one." Sam said, cashing me to snort.

"Since when do I fit into your clothes?"

"Don't underestimate my wits."

We both made our way out of the car, and towards the large building. The parking lot wasn't very full, but I figured that it was because of how early it still was. Usually people did these things later in the day. We figured that an earlier time would benefit us.

I felt my heartbeat increasing when it finally hit me. It was not only my first date with Sam, it was my first date ever. How was it going to go? Hell, how did dates even work? Oh, God, please have mercy on my awkward self.

When we got inside, Sam and I went over to the counter and put money into one of those card things that you used to operate the games.

"What do you want to start with?" He asked me, nudging my arm playfully with a smirk.

I shrugged, taking in the mass amounts of games they had been splayed about. Some of them looked fairly new, while others looked older than my grandparents. It smelt like pizza, and there were a few kids running from game to game.

"No clue, you pick."

Sam shook his head at me, before heading towards the closest one to us. It looked to be a version of beer pong, but without the alcohol.

"Ever done this before?" He thought aloud, swiping the card before I even said anything.

"Nope, but I can certainly try."

I was good at some things, and complete utter trash at others. It seemed that Sam was good at everything he tried. But I didn't care that I sucked, because it was just us having fun together. Shockingly enough, my best game was the beer pong one. Which was Sam's least favorite game. We ended up returning to that the most, because Sam was so determined to do better than me.

By the end of that portion of the day, we had blown way more money then we originally intended. We were both laughing and yelling at each other to try to win.

Sam guided me to the prize counter, handing all of our tickets to the man behind it. Honestly, he looked like he wished that he was dead. Same bro, same.

He told us our ticket amount and Sam eagerly studied the items around us. Watching him was like watching a little kid. It only made me grow giddy inside. Today was already perfect and we had so much more to do.

Sam argued with me for a solid ten minutes, saying that he wanted to get the teddy bear for me. I kept telling him that he should just get something for himself. The guy watched us with a very awkward expression.

The only reason our argument ended, was because of some little kids coming up to trade in their own tickets. I ended up losing.

I carried the world's softest teddy bear I had ever felt as we headed into the bowling alley.

Music was playing through the speakers, and several people sat in their lanes, some playing, others either cleaning up after themselves or starting their round.

Our lane was at the very far end, right beside a family. The three boys were laughing loudly amongst themselves, perpetually annoying the parents the whole while. However, the little girl sat politely on her side of the lane, patiently waiting her turn. She reminded me a bit of an adult merely with the way that she carried herself.

"Here." Sam said, handing me my shoes.

"Thanks." I smiled.

The silence was comfortable as we both put our new shoes on. Was I the only one who hated the feeling of bowling shoes? And I couldn't even get started on the disgusting way they looked.

I watched as Sam began putting our names in. He didn't get very far before he turned to me with a frown. "Why is your name so long?"

I raised a brow. "It's only six letters long, I've heard of far worse."

"Yeah, but only three letters show up on the screen. Mine fits perfectly, but yours will just say Saw." Sam pointed out.

"There's only two of us, why does it even matter? I think we can handle who goes and when." I reminded him, placing a hand on his arm from where I sat on the couch.

He rolled his eyes, biting his lip. "I know, but I'm just saying. You should really come up with a better—"

He stopped himself halfway through that sentence, a smirk appearing on his lips. I frowned, taking my hand away. I didn't know what idea just popped into his head, but I didn't think it was a good one.

I looked up at the screen and sighed. One name was the perfect Sam, but the other had me annoyed.

"You should really ignore Millie more." I stated.

Sam had a very pleased expression on his face. Goddamnit, why did he have to be so fucking cute? "I'm not so sure about that."

The name read Soy.

Which I was fairly sure he got from the various times he heard Millie call me Soybean — my least favorite nickname of them all. Why couldn't he have just put my actual name in there?

"You look way too smug." I said.

"That's because I am."

After playing the first couple of rounds, we were once again laughing, cheering ourselves on, and degrading the opposite person. But we both knew that it was just for the fun of it. Nothing we said really meant anything. Except maybe every single time we flirted.

Which was quite a bit.

"How are you so good at this?" Sam's jaw was unhinged as he watched me make another spare.

"What do you mean? I just lost my streak." I sat next to him, but he made no effort to get up for his turn.

He looked me square in the eyes. "How?"

It didn't sound like a question. It was more of a demand.

"What are you talking about?" I flicked his forehead.

"How do you do it! I don't understand. I'm trying to do what you do, but it's not working." He pouted, pointing at the bowling pins. Then his eyes narrowed.

Sam leaned towards me, causing my heart to go all over the place. "Be honest, are you cheating?"

I pushed him away, doubling over with laughter. It didn't take long for him to join me, the both of us taking forever to recover. If you told me about what happened just yesterday, I wouldn't have known what you were talking about in that moment. Not the scrapes on my face, nor the scabs on my knuckles could ruin that moment.

"Are you guys friends?" A small high-pitched voice caused us to come to our senses.

I jumped a bit, looking to see that little girl staring at us with curious eyes. She was probably around eight or nine. Her parents were both distracted by one of her brothers.

"Of course we are." Sam offered her a lopsided grin, placing a hand on my shoulder.

Her mouth formed an O. "You guys look like really close friends."

I couldn't hold back a snort, and nor could Sam.

"You remind me of my momma and daddy." She continued.

Sam bit back a fit of laughter, tightening his hand on my shoulder. "How so?"

"Well." She said thoughtfully. "You're really touchy. Oh! And you smile every time you look at each other. Momma and Daddy do that too. Also you—"

"Nina! Will you leave those poor boys alone." Her mom scolded her, sitting beside her daughter.

Nina's lips fell into a flatline. "I wasn't doing anything wrong. We were having a conversation."

Sam dropped his hand from my shoulder and unconsciously intertwined our fingers together. I definitely noticed, though, my face feeling a bit hotter than usual.

"It's alright." He told her. "Your daughter is very polite."

Her mother's gaze fell to our hands for a brief second, before looking back up at us. "Really, I'm sorry she's ruining your date."

I was really happy to know that she didn't even care that we were on a date. But I was also a little bit shocked. Had I been overthinking everything the entire time? Or was it just because she seemed awfully young to have so many kids?

"Really, she's not." Sam insisted with a smile.

"Boys can date, too?" Nina spoke up, causing her mother's face to flush red.

"Of course they can, darling." She hissed, looking at us nervously.

"That's why they remind me of you and Daddy!" Nina concluded, causing her mother's face to go even more red.

"Nina, leave the boys alone and let them finish their date."

"But momma—"

"You heard me!"

"Didn't you know boys could date?" One of the older boys piped in, pulling on a strand of her hair slightly. Not enough to hurt her, but enough make her swipe his hand away. "It's because girls are so disgusting." He teased her.

Oh, no. Sam's hand tightened around mine, and we both exchanged a worried glance.

"Rylee, you knock that off this instant." Their mother snapped, as though he had been testing her patience for a while.

"That wasn't very nice of you." The second oldest — or maybe they were the same age, it was hard to tell — boy spoke up. He did not appear to be even remotely related to the rest of them. Maybe he was just a friend of Rylee's who decided to tagalong. "It's not because they think girls are disgusting."

"Yeah, it's 'cuz girls have cooties, and are annoying." The youngest one said, a toothy grin on his lips. He seemed to be even younger than Nina was, hence the comment about cooties.

"Rylee and Wyatt, both of you better save this conversation for later. You're teaching Mason bad habits." I started to feel bad for their mom. It seemed impossible to contain them all.

"No, it's because they're just not attracted to girls. They don't get to pick who they love." Wyatt continued with a frown, leaving me curious. Why did he care so much? "You're spreading misinformation."

"You're probably gay, too." Rylee said.

"Am not." Wyatt seemed panicked, though his voice was quieter.

"Sure."

"Boys!" Their father huffed, causing them all to go silent. "You are all going to drop this conversation, and let those boys enjoy the rest of their night. I don't want to catch any of you guys saying a word to either of them again, got it?"

"Yes Dad." Everyone except for Wyatt said dejectedly. My theory was probably right.

"Jesus." Sam mumbled under his breath.

"Tell me about it." I replied.

We resumed bowling after hearing several more apologies from their parents, trying our best to avoid the constant eyes of their children. I couldn't help but feel a little bit worried for Wyatt, he seemed to know too much about being gay. It could have had an underlying meaning. Everyone's story was different, and some people found out sooner rather than later. He looked old enough to be reaching puberty, maybe he already knew that he was gay.

I wondered what that would have been like.

I was kind of glad that I didn't find out sooner, because I liked that I ended up there with Sam. If I found out a long time ago, maybe I would have been somewhere else, with some other guy. Hell, maybe I wasn't actually interested in guys, but rather one.

Either way, I was happy to be there.

No amount of storms could change that.

•O•O•