"I'm sorry about ditching you at that party." A voice that I knew very well sounded throughout the quiet halls. I leaned against the corner to listen, swallowing any potential guilt that could have stopped me from eavesdropping.

"It's fine." Sam's voice was more monotone than normal, almost causing me to sigh in relief. Until I remembered that I was supposed to be quiet.

"Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed." Jocelyn's voice sounded alluring, which didn't help the growing feeling of distaste that was welling up in the back of my throat. "I was looking forward to having fun with you."

I could practically see Sam biting his lip. I doubted that Jocelyn notices things like that. "Yeah, but I had to help out one of my friends."

"Your friends?" She sounded shocked. "Oh, do you mean Sawyer?"

He hummed in response.

She started to chuckle, causing me to furrow my brow. I briefly contemplated trying to peek around the corner, but I knew that I would only end up getting caught. So I continued to listen like the creep that I was.

"Okay, be honest, are you planning something?" She asked.

"What are you talking about?" Sam replied, and I could hear his locker being closed.

"For Sawyer." Jocelyn explained. "Are you planning on doing something to him?"

"What?" The word took on a baffled tone.

I felt the same. I knew that she didn't know what was going on between us, but that was really bitchy of her. She genuinely thought that Sam was only hanging out with me so that he could fuck with my head. Which was so far from the truth. I was confident in Sam, and I trusted him wholeheartedly.

"Oh, come on, you know what I'm talking about." She teased. "What are you planning on doing to him? Or are you going to do something to that friend of his? Millie, the annoying one?"

Okay, now I was absolutely livid. Did she seriously just call Millie annoying? If I had my ears pierced, that would have been the part where I told someone to hold my earrings.

But then I heard a door open up, a few footsteps, and a different voice. "You're a real bitch, Joss. Did you know that?"

I knew who that was too. She went to our school? How did I never see her around the school? I couldn't possibly forget the voice belonging to the girl who kissed me without my permission. Sam's cousin, Alyssa.

What were the chances of both of them appearing at the same time? Did I just live in a bubble?

"Oh, hush up." Jocelyn sounded bored. "You're just jealous that I'm prettier than you."

Great, I got to listen to an altercation between two preschoolers.

"Joss, stop." Sam tried, but they were already distracted.

"I could be the ugliest person on this planet and I would still be prettier than you." Alyssa laughed humorlessly.

"You can't be the ugliest person and still have someone uglier than you." They seriously sounded like two five year olds.

"I can." She insisted. "Because no amount of makeup can cover up your shitstain of a personality."

As good as that one may have been, was Alyssa really one to talk? She wasn't exactly a gem herself, so how could she say something like that so confidently?

"Haha, so funny, aren't you just clever." Jocelyn retorted.

"You couldn't even come up with a comeback, so I don't think I did half-bad."

"Guys, knock it off, you're both being ridiculous." Sam tried to get them to stop, but Alyssa waved him off almost instantly.

"She pretty much just told you that she thought you wouldn't be friends with Sawyer unless you were planning on hurting him. Which is basically an insult."

"Yeah, and I'm aware of that." He sighed. "But I really don't need you two getting into a fight on top of it."

"Sam." Jocelyn was most likely rolling her eyes. "I don't fight. We're simply talking things out."

"You're even dumber than I thought." Alyssa laughed, causing me to flinch. Just when Sam almost had it under control, it spiraled all over again.

"And you're a peach." Jocelyn replied.

"Stop!" Sam tried again.

"Fine." Alyssa gave in, causing me to sigh in relief. "But you really need to just tell her to fuck off."

"Why should you care about Sam so much? Unless you're into incest?" Jocelyn drawled.

"Go, Joss! I don't want to hear it anymore!" Sam snapped, resulting in a long silence. I could feel the tension and I knew that Jocelyn was deciding on how to respond.

But she never did, instead the sound of her clicking heels reverberated throughout the corridor. She was fortunately going down the opposite hallway, so I didn't need to worry about her catching me eavesdropping.

I took the opportunity to make my presence known, turning and walking towards them as though I hadn't just heard the whole thing. Sam's face lit up when he saw me, while Alyssa had an unidentifiable expression on hers.

"You heard that." Sam told me, not even having to ask.

I winced. "Something like that."

He was biting his lip, leaning against his locker with tired eyes. I didn't think that he was tired from the lack of sleep, but more from the constant pressure of being so popular. What was it like to be Samson Warner? Having girls literally fall to his feet, always assuming things about him?

Alyssa watched as I joined his side, opening her mouth to speak. "I saw."

We both turned our attention to her, wondering just what she was talking about. There were a million different things she could have seen, none of which were a good thing. God, please give me a break for once.

"What?" Sam asked when she didn't say anything else.

She shrugged, her face was nonchalant, but her words made my heart go through my ass. "You two kiss at the party."

I blinked. Did I hear her right? No, no, I couldn't have. Or did I? Holy fuck, could anything go our way?

I turned my panicked expression to Sam, hoping that he had a better response than I did. He didn't, his eyes were just as wide as mine, his tooth dug into his lip as it always seemed to be. Even the stoic Sam had just blatantly shit himself.

"Calm down." Alyssa said, but it didn't do much to quell me. "I just want to properly apologize."

I blinked, furrowing my brow. Just how much could we trust her? Even if she was Sam's cousin, she wasn't exactly the nicest person I had ever met. That piece of information that she knew was very important. If she told anyone, so much could happen.

I looked over at Sam, trying to gauge his response as well. His eyes were narrowed and scrutinizing her, as if he could look right through her if he tried hard enough. Too bad that wasn't actually the case.

Unless he was some sort of superhero. Which would have definitely made things more interesting.

"What changed? You didn't apologize after you kissed me, so why now?" I finally said, hoping to understand what the hell was going on.

She raised a brow. "Isn't it obvious? I went from flirting with you, because-" she looked me up and down, causing me to shiver

"-you're hot, and it was funny to see Sam's reaction. Not that I really knew you were his friend. But when you both disappeared outside, I got curious and followed. So now I'm apologizing, because I shouldn't have kissed my cousin's boyfriend."

I didn't know why, but I turned to face Sam with a deep frown, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction. "I thought no one was there!"

He held up his hands defensively. "I didn't know she followed me like a creep."

"How the hell did you not notice someone creeping outside behind you?" I pointed out a perfectly valid point.

He shrugged, looking at Alyssa. "I don't know, she's the nosy creep who followed me! Why don't you ask her?"

She was watching us with curiosity brimming in her eyes. There was a long pause where Sam and I both waited for her reply. Until finally, she broke down in laughter, causing the both of us to get very confused.

What the hell did she have to laugh at? Did she have any idea how frustrating it was? Of course she didn't! She has no idea how much more complicated she just made things. God, I just wanted to curl up under Sam's blankets and take a long, long, nap.

She wiped tears from the corners of her eyes as her laughter began to simmer down. I gave Sam a weird look before she finally spoke again. "Ignore me. It's just so refreshing to finally see Sam with someone he likes. I don't think I could take another word from fucking Jocelyn."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"This-" She pointed to me "-Is perfect. You guys complement each other so well. I don't have to watch you two kiss to know that you guys have chemistry. I'm just glad that you're done wasting time on Joss."

Sam looked at her for a long moment, before finally deciding on how to reply. "I wasn't wasting time on Joss. She just wouldn't fucking go away."

Alyssa waved him off. "Quit defending yourself."

"I'm not-"

"Hush." She insisted, causing me to chuckle at their bickering. I still didn't trust her, but it was nice to not have to hide for once. "Like I said, I don't care that you're dating a guy."

Sam's face softened. "Thanks, Ally. I'm still pissed that you kissed my boyfriend, but thanks for being cool about this."

"At least I can promise that I won't ever kiss your boyfriend again." She started to walk away, before turning to call back to him. "By the way, you really know how to pick them. Sawyer is really hot."

She winked before leaving us alone.

"That happened." I let out a long breath, turning to Sam.

"If she was trying to make me feel better, she shouldn't have called my boyfriend hot." Sam pouted.

"So you're saying that I'm not hot?" I teased.

"Hell no." He replied, grabbing both my shoulders and planting a quick kiss to my lips. "You're the hottest guy alive... well, you're the only guy I find hot. So there is that."

I laughed, playfully batting his arm away before getting serious again. "Will she tell anyone?"

Sam shook his head, the sun coming in through the windows glinting off of his hair. "No. She may be a bit bitchy at times, but you can trust her."

"It's kind of refreshing." I said.

"What is?"

"Knowing that most people don't care that we're together."

"I get what you mean, but we'll eventually have to deal with conflicting opinions." Sam pointed out.

"I know." I sighed. "But it has to give you hope, right?"

"Just knowing that you're hopeful, is what keeps me going, Sugar." He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead before gesturing down the hallway. "As much as I don't want to go, it's probably time we head out to the courtyard."

I rolled my eyes. "Life is just so difficult."

"Dramatic ass." He laughed.

"Aw, my ass is pretty dramatic, isn't it?" I said.

"Shut up."

In that moment, I chose to forget about all of the possible outcomes to our stupid decisions. Maybe Alyssa would end up compromising everything. Maybe things on Friday wouldn't go so well. Maybe our entire world would come crashing down on us in only a matter of hours.

But for once in my entire life, I simply stopped caring. There was too many things that I needed to worry about, and I was sick of adding to the list.

I just had to hope that Sam and I would prevail.

•O•O•