A Change of Heart || Sam & Jessica
Jessica smiled sweetly at Samuel as he closed the distance between the two of them, handing her the small flower. “Why thank you!”, she said, laughing lightly. The gesture was one of sticky sweet cliche, but Jessica found it endearing. Sometimes it was nice to be treated as a high school girl of unmatched innocence instead of a woman with a vast sexual history.
Sam kissed her hand, the smile still lingering on Jessica’s face. “I mean that this is totally unlike you! Not that it’s a bad thing”, she added quickly as to not offende Samuel. “It’s just a totally different side of you, I guess. But definitely nice!” She looked at him with a reassuring smile, letting him know that she appreciate the effort he was clearly putting forth.
“We shall”, Jessica stated, hooking her arm through Samuel’s and moving her feet in syncopation with his. The night was brisk, but the cold air felt splendid on her face. There was something about a cool evening that put Jessica in a state of absolute contentment and happiness. The snow on the ground crunched as they made their way to the sidewalk outside of the gates guarding the Galloway house.
“So what brought on this sudden interest in taking me on a date, Samuel?”, Jessica asked curiously, turning her attention to the tall boy beside her. It certainly did feel sudden from her point of view. Sure, Samuel had made his comment on her appearance in the past, but she was used to it. Many of the boys that jessica attended school with had made it almost a game to ‘woo’ her with their words and sexual advances. She played it off as a joke, making a sarcastic ‘you’ll never get this’-esque comment, but few of the compliments ever felt genuine.
“Not that I’m complaining or anything, it’s just a bit out of the blue, don’t you think?” A small pulling at Jessica’s core was suddenly felt. “This isn’t part of a dare or anything, is it? If it is just tell me and I’ll play along”, she added, hoping that it wasn’t all a ploy. Sure, she had never considered Samuel as someone she could be serious with and she wasn’t one to take things too serious, but Jessica still had feelings, and if this was all insincere, it would be a bit of a blow to her self-esteem.
Her words weren’t as harsh as they would’ve been if he were in a vulnerable state. Lucky for him, tonight wasn’t a night to be weak. For the past month or so, he’d been cautious, afraid of revealing the guy he really was. But her questions concerned him. Samuel had absolutely no idea on how to respond to them.
Should he tell her he’s just in need of someone real in his life? Or should he just go on and say that hes up for new experiences? Neither was a lie, but he was debating and deciding on which would be more content for the night he’d shortly planned for the both of them.
The look of Jessica’s smile was wonderful. As May had always described to him, he felt those things in his stomach that girls loved to call butterflies. He never fully understood that term up until now.
“Eh, who says its too late to change?” He fiddled out a smile with his rhetorical question and chuckled. “It is different, even for me..” He said that honestly, also completely surprised at his random in take for a date with Jessica. Not that it was a bad thing or anything.
His problem was that he could never fully understand himself. A part of him told himself that he needed Jessica to be the one real person he could keep in his life that was not related to him like May was. He needed to feel a love different than what his father’s supposedly was. He had to figure out what it felt like to be loved by someone who didn’t feel like they had to.
And so as his thoughts progressed in a manner that made his heart sink even more, he panicked in his mind in search of an answer.
“Sudden interest? Oh nah.” His hands in his jacket pocket, he turned his head to look at her as their feet dug into the snow. “You were with… Chase? I believe thats his name.” The name of the boy didn’t really matter to him, so he continued. “I may be a douche and an asshole, with a slight man whore type of name behind it, but I’d never reach for a girl that’s already got a kid by her side.”
Now he stopped their tracks to fully face her, body to body. “But I’ll be honest.” A smile crept onto his face as he stared at her genuinely. “I just want change in this.. ‘life’ of mine.” and I was hoping that change would be you, he thought to himself.
He winked at her once again and continued their walk, their arms still linked together. He fumbled with his words but came to the conclusion that’d he would retort that question. “Fill me in on why you said yes to me. There’s got to be a reason, after all, you don’t go on dates with just anyone.” Or at least that’s what he thought. “..Right?”
(Source: samuel-i, via jessica-eastlake-deactivated201)
