Chapter 24

Sammy was hustling to make it to class on time. As she turned the last corner, she very nearly knocked Leticia Blakely to the ground, but was able to grab her and help her back upright before she fell over.

"Sorry, Leticia! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Sammy. Don't worry about it," she replied cordially.

Sammy ordinarily wouldn't be so direct, but she was rushed, and she'd thought of little else. So it just popped out, almost without thinking.

"How was your date with Dave?" asked Sammy.

"It was great! We had a lot of fun!" Leticia replied enthusiastically.

"Oh," Sammy replied, trying very hard not to let her feelings show. "I'm, uh, glad. I want Dave to be happy," she said, a fake smile plastered on her face.

"Well, I made him happy alright," Leticia said with a wink. She leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "And he made me pretty damn happy too. Like, wow! But then, you probably already knew about that."

"Yeah, Dave's really, uh, he's a great guy," Sammy offered, her voice cracking just a little. "But, hey, I gotta run," she said.

"Sure, see you around," said Leticia.

Sammy stumbled on to her class and dropped heavily into her seat. The girl that sat next to her said, "Hey, Sammy, how was your weekend?"

"I... I don't know," she said softly. "I thought it was okay... but now, I'm not so sure."

Dave stood at the hallway intersection, where the route between their classes caused him to cross paths with Sammy at this time every day. They always looked for each other and paused for a shared hug and a brief kiss before they had to run on. Dave doubted he'd have time to talk to Sammy about how his date with Leticia went, but was anxious to see her nevertheless.

Today Dave had looked for her in vain, and was just about to head off to his next class, when he spotted her pass by at the far end of the hall. It wasn't her usual route, which was puzzling; he sprinted after her.

"Sammy, wait up," called Dave.

She acted like she didn't hear him, but he quickly covered the gap between them to gently touch her arm. He was surprised, as she seemed to recoil from his touch. He circled to stand in front of her, expecting her to walk into his embrace. He was startled to see that she appeared to be on the verge of tears, as she stopped just out of his reach.

"Sammy... what's wrong?"

"Dave... it's nothing, okay? I'll be alright."

"Well, what happened?"

"Dave, really, it's nothing. Can we talk about this after school - please?"

"Okay... do you want to get a ride home? I'm sure Collette wouldn't mind," he asked.

"No... can I call you at home?" she asked with a sniff.

"Sure. It'll have to be a little later; I've got practice, and then I'm going to the mall with some guys right after that."

Sammy stared at him with an expression Dave wasn't familiar with. "Is... is Leticia going with you?" she asked suspiciously.

"No," he replied slowly. "Why do you ask?"

"I ran into her earlier today. She was telling me about the great time she had with you," she said in an accusing tone of voice.

Dave was something very close to stunned. "Sammy... I thought... I thought you wanted me to try dating with Leticia."

"I guess my definition of 'try dating' is just a little different than yours," she replied crossly.

That stung Dave. "What are you talking about? You knew we were going out!" He paused as he struggled to reign in his emotions. But before he was able to regain control, he barked out, "And how is it living with Bobby so far?"

She gasped, and Dave could tell from her expression that he had touched on something she might not have been ready to share with him.

She was startled at the angry expression that appeared on his face, before he turned and stalked off down the hall without another word.

"Oh, fuck!" Sammy moaned in frustration with herself. "What the hell am I doing?"

Dave was a few minutes late to baseball practice. He hurried into the dugout, grabbed a couple baseballs, and headed out to the outfield where the players were warming up their arms to begin practice. As usual, he lined up opposite Bobby, joining one of the two parallel lines of players lobbing tosses back and forth. Bobby had been taking turns throwing with another teammate pair until Dave arrived.

After a few soft tosses back and forth, Bobby smiled as he threw the ball back to Dave. "So Dave, have you seen Sammy yet today?"

Dave was startled that Bobby would bring up something that personal when they were surrounded by other players that could hear everything said.

"Uh, yeah, just for a second though," he said doing his best to sound casual. He then fired the ball back at Bobby, nearly as hard as he could. He wanted to get his attention off the subject of Sammy and him as quickly as possible.