What I Didn't Say (35 page)

My fingers balled into fists.

“And he wanted me to be his little slave.  He yelled at me all hours of the day to clean this, cook that up.  I could only get homework done after he’d pass out or when he was at the bar.  One time I tried telling him that I had an essay to finish and he slapped me and told me not to talk back to him.  Flat out slapped me.”

Call the police!
I signed, rage and revenge filling me.

“No, Jake,” she said with a sign, shaking her head.  “I don’t want to have to deal with him anymore.  I just want to be done with him.  And it was only the once, about four days before you came to get me.  I thought it would be easier to wait the last few days out than to stir up an investigation.  I just wanted to come home.”

I looked at Sam, she finally meeting my eyes with her last few words.  I brought my fingers up, tracing the very last shadows of a bruise on her cheek.  I leaned forward, pressing my lips to hers. 

I didn’t ever want to have to let her go again.  I never wanted to not be there to fight guys like Mike off.

“I just had to keep reminding myself that six weeks wasn’t forever,” she said quietly.  “And I just kept telling myself that you were going to be there when that six weeks was over.  You kept me sane.”

This time it was Sam who leaned in and pressed her lips to mine.

“I dropped my History textbook on his nuts the night after he hit me,” Sam said with a chuckle as she backed away.  “While he was passed out.  He couldn’t walk straight for a day and a half later and had no idea what had happened.”

A silent laugh rumbled around my chest.  Soon I was laughing so hard I was on my back, hugging Sam into my side.

2 days since everything fell into place

Sam might not have been the most popular girl in school but neither of us could have guessed how much she was missed while she was gone.  She was mauled when we got back to school.  I thought almost everyone in the school came up to her, hugged her and said welcome back.  Well, everyone except Norah.  Sam was practically glowing as she walked down the halls at school.

We easily fell back into our routine over the next three weeks.  Classes went about as usual.  Sam worked harder than ever to keep her grades perfect.  She was still on track to be Valedictorian.  We continued to work at sign language.  I was actually getting better at it than Sam was.  Guess all my hours with Kali were finally paying off.  Kali had moved back out just two weeks after Sam’s return.

And Sam was just like another one of the family, just one that lived outside and I made out with.  She ate every meal with us, spent her evenings studying with the rest of the kids at the dining table or lounged out on the living room floor. 

One day we both got a big envelope from the University of Washington, both saying we had been accepted.  Sam got her full ride scholarship.  We’d spent hours online looking at student housing.  That picture I’d had of the two of us down the road in college was looking a little more solid.

The day came at the end of May that I was instructed not to go upstairs as Sam and Jordan got ready for prom with Mom’s help.  I hung out on the couch downstairs, prepping myself for at least an hour of hanging out in my tux while the girls got ready.

A knock on the door a half hour later brought me to my feet and I opened it to find Rain.

“Hey man!” he said, clasping my one hand and pounding me on the back with the other.  “You look sharp Hayes!”

I lifted my chin at him as I stepped away. 
You too.

“Thanks!  So I’m assuming the ladies are upstairs prepping for the night?” he said as he closed the door behind him and flopped down on a couch.

I nodded and grabbed a notebook from the coffee table. 
I’ve been exiled from setting foot on those stairs.

“Best to heed their warning,” Rain said, his face suddenly serious.  “River just about clawed my eyes out for trying to use the bathroom while she was doing her hair just before I left the house.”

Who’s she going with?

“Just a group of girls boycotting having to go with a date,” he said, rolling his eyes.  I wondered if he knew River’s secret yet.  He had to have his suspicions. 

Carter finally gave up then?

Rain chuckled.  “Yeah, he’s taking some sophomore named Daisy, or Rose, or some flower name like that.”

I suddenly remembered.  It was Lilly.  Lilly Ridd.

“How long you think they’re going to be?” Rain asked, his eyes floating in the direction of the stairs.

I shrugged my shoulders.

Half a second later I heard Mom yell from upstairs.  “Is that you Rain?”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, a smile crossing his face.

“Alright,” she yelled again.  “You boys be prepared to have your breath taken away.”

Feeling silly and formal, but dumb for not, Rain and I both rose to our feet.  We checked each other to straighten ties and jackets then turned toward the staircase.

Jordan came down first.  I had to admit, she looked good in her rosewood dress that hugged her in all the right ways.  Her hair was piled on her head in an intricate mess of curls and braids.

I thought Rain was going to piss himself when he saw her.  Rain took Jordan’s hand in his when she got down the stairs, pressing a very formal kiss to her knuckles.

I just rolled my eyes and turned back to the stairs.

And then there was Sam.  A smile crossed her face as our eyes met and she started down the stairs.

It sounded cliché to say she looked like an angel, but there was no other way to describe her.  Her knee length dress was silver with frills and gathers that made her look even more perfect than she already was.  She finally put on some weight over the last month and a half, giving her some curves back.  She wore matching silver stiletto’s that made her legs look nothing short of amazing.  Her hair fell down her back in a cascade of perfect curls.

Even if I wasn’t mute, I doubted I would have been able to say a thing as she stopped in front of me.

“What do you think?” she said, biting her lip-glossed lower lip, her eyes shining.

I didn’t answer her.  I simply kissed her to the point I knew most of my face was going to be covered in lip gloss too.

“Ooo…we!” Mom said as she walked down the stairs, camera in hand, flashing away at our public display.  “Now that’s a kiss!”  She was all smiles.

Everyone just laughed.

“Alright,” Mom said.  “Now I want a picture of the four of you together.  It’s too bad Carter isn’t here too.  Then it’d be just perfect.”

We all squished up together, wrapping our arms around each other.  Mom snapped one picture, then gave me one of those looks.

“Jacob Hayes,” she said in a Mom voice as she grabbed a tissue from the box on the coffee table.  “Have a little decency.”  She then set to wiping Sam’s lip gloss from my face.

Grapefruit.

After snapping about fifty pictures, Mom finally sent us on our way.

Prom was one night most of the restaurants on the island were actually busy in the spring.  Rain and I had chosen to take the girls to a little Italian restaurant. 

“Welcome you guys!” the hostess greeted us warmly.  She had only graduated one year ahead of us.  Some people never could escape the island.  Leading us to a seat right in the window, she left us with menus.

“I can’t believe the school year is almost over,” Jordan said as she opened her menu and started looking it over.  “You guys are going to be graduating in only three weeks.”

“Three weeks could not be soon enough,” Rain said as he shook his head.  I just barely caught the slightly saddened look on Jordan’s face.  I would be surprised if the two of them made it to the end of the night without having their first kiss. 

“Have you written your speech yet, Samantha?” Rain asked as he bit into a piece of bread the waitress set on the table.

Sam gave a crooked smile, her face blushing.  “It’s not a guaranteed thing yet,” she tried to defend.

“Yes it is,” Rain and Jordan said at the same time.  Everyone laughed.

“Okay, fine,” Sam said, shaking her head and grinning.  “I’ve worked on it a bit.  I’m really nervous to give it.  I’ve had more than a little too much attention this year.”

“Yeah, between everyone finding out about you being homeless and hooking up with the town pity boy, I don’t think you could have possibly drawn much more attention to yourself this year.”

I took a swing at Rain but he just ducked out of the way, laughing as he did.

“It’s been a memorable year,” Sam said.  She placed her hand on my knee under the table.  “That’s for sure.”

I met her eyes, a thousand thoughts running behind her own. 

After we finished eating dinner we finally headed out to Rosario Resort where prom was being held that year.  The decorating committee, which mostly consisted of parents, had gone all out.  The entire mansion was lit up with a thousand Christmas lights, the walk up to the doors illuminated and glowing.  Music softly poured out the open doors.

You ready for this?
I signed to Sam as I parked the car.

“This is going to be the best night of this whole year,” she said, a smile creeping onto her face.  She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my lips briefly.

“Party’s waiting!” Rain said, clapping a hand on my shoulder, ending the moment.  I was starting to question doubling with Rain.  It certainly wasn’t giving Sam and I any privacy.  Not that I had any secret plans for the night.

Arm in arm, Sam and I followed Rain and Jordan up the steps and into the ballroom that overlooked the water.  Most of the high school had already arrived it seemed, the room packed and hot.

Jordan immediately took Rain’s hand and led him to where others were dancing, pulling his arms around her waist.  Yeah, there was definitely something going on there.

“Let’s go look at the water,” Sam said, taking my hand in hers and leading me to the opposite side of the room.

There was a door that let out onto a narrow deck that hung above the still, calm ocean.  Seeing we were alone out there, I wrapped my arms around Sam’s waist, leaning against the railing toward the ocean.

“It’s so peaceful out here tonight,” she said, her voice thoughtful.  I pressed my lips to her cheek, just letting them linger there.  Everything in me felt relaxed, like this was exactly where I was supposed to be.

We stood out there for a few minutes longer, just enjoying the cool night air and the calm, before we went back inside and joined the others.  We found Carter and Lily, the both of them looking awkward together, like things weren’t quite clicking.  He seemed relieved when we joined them and danced and talked for a good fifteen minutes.

The DJ the school hired wasn’t the best and there was often long pauses between songs while he tried his best to figure out how to work the equipment in front of him.  But no one seemed to mind.  Everyone was having a good time.

A slow song came on and I pulled Sam into my arms.  She rested her head on my chest, taking in a deep, relaxed breath.  I rested my chin on top of her head, feeling her heart beat against my chest.

It could have been only the two of us as we slowly moved in a small circle, the music swaying us in the dark.  We didn’t need to talk.  At this point in our weird, challenged relationship it didn’t even feel like we needed words.  I could feel Sam’s contentment just by the way she held her body, by the way her head rested on my chest, by the way her hand laid in mine.  And I knew she could feel all those words she wouldn’t let me say, just by the way I held her.