Fandom: Popular

Series: Three Times Table

Title: Book by It's Cover - Sam

Author: Carla

*** The rest can be found in the first part ***

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Enjoy

“Male or Female?” 

I guess I shouldn’t surprised by Brooke’s question.  It’s a fair one and to be honest I don’t know that I even know the answer.  I like Harrison.  A lot.  I think Lily’s cute.  George was nice, safe.  He always took ‘no’ for an answer and that made me feel really special.  Josh is hot and I was curious that time but not curious enough. Carmen gives the best hugs. And Ina Brailovsky, the girl who sits two rows away from me in gym has a great rack. ! Carmen gives the best hugs.

“I don’t know.”

“Well when you have the happy dreams,” Brooke pauses to concentrate on squeezing the car into a parking spot.   This is rather pathetic because Brooke’s car is pretty small and the spot she’s pulling into could easily fit Mary Cherry’s Hummer.  Mission accomplished Brooke puts the car in park and turns to me in her seat. “As I was saying when you have the happy dreams, and I know you have them I’ve heard, who are they about?  You know who’s in them?”

“People, no one person in particular you know.”  Carmen gives the best hugs pops into my head again.  

“And last night…who was the ‘starring stud’ so to speak?”  Instead of answering her I elect to get out of the car.  Brooke follows.  I’m supposed to be at Barnes and Noble already.  Brooke is supposed to meet April at Wizards Wild, a game store the geeks hang out at, playing Dungeons and Dragons and something called Magic.  “C’mon Sam fess up.  Getting out of the car doesn’t mean you’re getting out of the question.”

“No really no one in particular.”

“Fine, be like that.”  Now Brooke’s pouting and I can’t help but smile at that.  Her lower lip is sticking out making her look like an indignant toddler.

“Oh for God’s sake not ‘The Pout’; anything but that please,” I poke Brooke in the ribs where I know she’s ticklish until she stops pouting and starts smiling.

“I’m going to find you a date Sammy.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes really.”

“Well don’t.  I can manage just fine on my own thank you.”

“Oh yeah right,” Brooke snorts, “George has been gone what?  A year, year and a half, we’re almost done with high school and you haven’t had a date since he left.  It’s not normal Sam.”

“No Princess ‘not normal’ was when you weren’t dating someone.”

“Ah but I was.”

“It doesn’t count if no one knows.”  I don’t actually believe this but now I’m irritated at Brooke and her assumption that I can’t get a date and I feel like being a shit.

“It does too!”  Shoot and score!  Brooke’s hackles are up now.  The scowl on her face disappears replaced by an ear to ear grin and a look in her eye that I can only describe as hunger.   I look over my shoulder and see April sitting on a bench outside Wizards Wild, reading a book and swinging her legs in time to whatever she is listening to on her walkman.

“Go.  I’ll see you tonight.”

“Call me if you need a ride home.”

“Don’t worry I’ll manage.”  We’re almost too where April is sitting and the excitement coming off of Brooke in waves is almost tangible.  April looks up just then and I become temporarily superfluous as far as Brooke is concerned.  “Hey April.”

“Hey Sam.”

“Later Brooke.” 

Brooke’s too caught up in hugging April and I think, I’m not sure, maybe sniffing her hair, to even realize that I’ve continued walking on without her.  I look at my watch and pick up the pace.  Barnes and Noble is a couple of stores down and my ‘date’, I guess you could call it that, is waiting for me in the magazine section. 

“Sorry I’m late.”

“No problem I just got here myself.”  We hug.  Tightly.  For a long time.  Long enough for me to identify the kind of laundry detergent you use.

“So umm what do you want to do?  I mean we could just hang out here and look around.  Have a latte in the café or something.”

“There’s this book I want to get for my mom but other than that…whatever you want to do is fine.”

“What book?”

“I think it’s called Women of the African Ark but I don’t remember.  They’re holding a copy for me at the service desk, I ordered it last week.”

“Special occasion?”

“Birthday.”

The clerk calls for the next customer and we go to the desk.

“I’m here to pick up a special order.”

“Name?”

You tell him and he goes off to search the shelves behind him.  While we’re waiting you pull me into another hug and this time I nuzzle your neck experimentally.  When you don’t recoil I lightly kiss the angle of your jaw.  You pull your head back slightly to look at me.  I’m thinking maybe I went too far so I start to pull away but your hands around my waist stop me.

“It’s okay,” you kiss my cheek, whisper in my ear, “Really okay”, and hug me even tighter. Which is nice but the truth is you don’t hug as well as your sister.