strngehorizons

[strngehorizons]

DIG sammy, my beloved 🤍

This outfit was a monumental piece of Sammy history and we must never forget it

[strngehorizons]

Cabin In the Woods

Jake Kiszka x reader

18+ only! Minors do not interact!

Warnings: graphic sexual content, drinking, swearing, oral sex, dirty talk, etc. y’all know me by now, I’m a mess.

"Alright," Josh says, hanging over his little brother's shoulder as Sam checks the weather doppler on his phone. "If we're going to make it back before the snow really hits, we should go now.

"Did you write a list?" Sam asks you, shoving Josh off a little. "Jesus, Josh...a little personal space would be nice."

"Touch," Josh jokes with the flourish of a stage actor. "the language of love, and brother Sam, I love you most of all."

"Fuck off." Sam rolls his eyes and then turns his attention back to you. "List?"

"I wish you guys just wouldn't go at all." You can't disguise the worry in your tone. And honestly, why would you even try? What would be the point? These brothers know you through and through, as you do them. You've been friends with Sammy since kindergarten. Truthfully, they are more your brothers than friends. You love them with your whole heart, with one exception. You cast your eyes in Jake's direction, watching him pluck at his guitar for a moment...does he ever put that thing down?

It's not that you don't love Jake, you do. In that strange way you love a cousin that you can't stand, the one you'd never miss if they just stopped attending family gatherings. It's a miserable kind of affection that you could do without. You'll never understand how you can adore Josh the way you do, and detest his twin at the same time. Not to mention your absolute adoration for Sammy, your person, your platonic soulmate...how are they all cut from the same cloth?

"It's not polite to stare, princess." Jake smirks over at you and you'd love to smack the smile right off his smug face.

"Here." You take the high road and ignore him, turning to Sam instead to hand over the list of items you'll need for the rest of your time tucked away in the little cabin you rented in the forests outside of Flint. "But seriously, Sammy, I don't think you should go."

"I'll be fine," He places his hand over the top of your head, squeezing lightly with his long fingers. "I'm the only Kiszka brother who actually knows how to drive. Plus, one of these assholes is going to come with and keep me company. Unless you've changed your mind about coming along."

You don't offer an answer to a clearly rhetorical question. He knows you're not going anywhere near the roads since the first dusting of snow fell the night before. Born and raised in Michigan or not, you don't do well with winter weather. It frightens you to no end to travel in it. How Sam had managed to talk you into coming after you all learned snow would be moving through during your time in the woods, you'll never know.

"Don't look at me." Jake stands and stretches, finally putting his guitar aside. "I plan to take a bath and then a nap." His nails rake across his lower stomach as he strides from the room holding up a half empty bottle of whiskey "Don't forget my refreshments." He calls out with his faux english accent. "I've only two bottles left after this one."

"Whiskey for Oliver, check." Josh shakes his head and begins shoving his feet down into his boots by the door.

You can't help it and roll your eyes. "I don't know why you guys encourage him."

"And I don't know how you can manage to dislike my better half as much as you do, love." Josh winks. "You realize we started as one person, right?"

"Better half my ass." You wink back. "Seriously guys, please be careful. Drive slow, pretend I'm in the backseat well on my way to a stress induced panic attack."

"This is why we're leaving you here." Sam salutes you and then blows a kiss in your direction. The door slams behind them, muting their boisterous laughter and conversation until the sound of car doors whacking shut silences them completely.

You look around the cozy living room of the cabin, trying to decide what to do to keep busy until their return. A bath and a glass of wine would have been nice, but the sound of the faucet pouring water in the distance reminds you that Jake is occupying the only bathroom with a tub, and a shower just doesn't hold the same appeal. Thanks, Jacob.

Moving to the solid cherry bookshelf that dominates a corner of the front room, you begin scanning titles, finally giving up out of irritation and general lack of interest, you yank a paperback out without glancing at the cover or summary...wishing for the hundredth time that Ronnie or Danny could have joined you for the trip.

~~

The jarring blare of a phone ringing jerks you out of sleep and into confusion. You can hear Jake's voice murmuring in another room, adding to your disorientation. You must have nodded off, but for how long? The afternoon light that had been pouring into the cabin when you snuggled down onto the couch to read had disappeared completely. Having given way to midnight blue skies and driving snow framed by the windows.

"Hey, sleeping beauty." Jake pokes his head around the corner. "That was Sam and Josh. The snow hit sooner than they thought and the roads are bad. They're gonna stay in town until morning and then head back once the plows come through."

"Oh..." You pull your knees up to your chest, hugging them.

"Wow." he widens his eyes sarcastically. "Astute observation."

"Fuck you, Jake." You snap, sounding a little more cruel than intended.

"That would keep us occupied, I suppose." he winks, sauntering off with an expression of superiority.

"Leave it alone." You mutter to yourself. What's the sense in pointing out that you hadn't meant it that way? He knows.

Once again, you grab your book, plucking it from the quaint rag rug that warms up the cabin's wooden floor. However, it does just as terrible a job of holding your interest as it did the first time...only now, you're too rested, thanks to your nap, and there is little chance of drifting off.

Spending the night here, essentially alone -given the company you have been bequeathed by fates with a sick sense of humor- sounds torturous.You roll onto your back and begin searching for hidden pictures in the grain of the large, rich, wooden beams that line the ceiling.

Soon, the mournful whines of Jake breathing into his harmonica begin to meander through the walls. It's undeniably soothing, warming you from the inside while the flames licking at the logs in the fireplace toast you dreamily from the outside.

You're chagrined to find a calm smile playing over your lips when you recognize the notes floating from his room...and if you try hard enough, you can almost hear the quiet wail of Joplin's trademark rasp as he plays one of your favorite songs.

How fitting that your gaze is transfixed by the fire while your heart is transfixed with the music he seems to be playing just for you. Does he know that it's one of your favorite songs? Does he remember the conversation you recall having with Josh months ago, about the pain in her voice, how it breaks your heart in two in the most achingly beautiful way? Was he listening to you? Hiding it away for a rainy day in some quiet corner of his mind?

You're being ridiculous. And also irritating yourself with this uncharacteristic, albeit private, display of rom-com starlette like thoughts.

You don't even like him, why would you care if he remembered that you liked a song? Certainly, you don't care that he's chosen it, even if he has chosen it for you.

A sudden flicker of light outside jars you from your revere. Jake must notice too, as the harmonica falls instantly silent. Moments into wondering what the hell it could possibly have been, a sharp rumble of thunder shocks you into a sitting position.

Thundersnow. Thunder and lightning during a snowstorm is such a rarity that despite living in an incredibly snowy region your entire life, you've witnessed it less than a handful of times. You pull the blanket up around your shoulders with a shiver that has little to do with being cold.

Jake struts into the room at a leisurely clip bearing a fresh bottle of whiskey and two low ball glasses which he promptly plunks down on the coffee table.

"I know you don't like thunder." he informs you as if he's a knight in shining armor. "Thought I'd sit with you."

"That doesn't help matters much though, does it?" you ask, training your eyes back on the pages of the previously forgotten book.

"Why's that?" he spins the cap off the bottle.

"Because, I don't like you either." You instantly regret the amount of venom in your tone, but he laughs, sloshing Maker's into both glasses.

"Don't be rude, doll." he snaps, shoving one of the glasses in your direction.

"You're the rude one." you wave the paperback around. "You see I'm trying to read." you resist the urge to tell him to leave the room even though you'd very much like him to.

A scoff precedes an eye roll. "You aren't reading that shit. It's not pretentious enough for you." Making a show of it, you turn a page and shoot him the middle finger.

"Well, you sure showed me, princess." That's another thing that gets under your skin to a fiery degree. You're neither his princess, nor his doll.

"Listen, it's just you and me tonight whether we like it or not. And I, for one, think the prospect of spending the night with no one to talk to but you, calls for copious amounts of alcohol. You're at least halfway tolerable when I'm fucked. So drink up, love," he points to the share he poured you. "Cheers."

It can't quite be classified as giving in when you grab the glass up and mutely suck down a large gulp. It can't be, right? You'd have to actually speak to him for it to be a concession. Or, that's what you choose to believe anyway.

You drink in silence for a while, avoiding words and communication of any sort aside from him refreshing your whiskey each time you stick your hand out and shake the glass around.

You're feeling more than tipsy when he softly breaks the silence. "Truth or dare?"

Stifling a groan you glare over at him in his chair on the other side of the coffee table. "Truth or dare? What is this, middle school? Seven minutes in heaven next?"

"Fine by me." he holds his glass up, a silently, snotty toast "Wouldn't be my first time hate-fucking someone."

Your mouth drops open in what, surely, is a very unflattering way. "You fucking wish, Jake."

He shrugs. "Not really, you're a bit uptight for my taste."

"I'm not uptight!" You're incredibly offended, though you shouldn't give a damn.

"Sure you're not." he laughs. "Prove it then, wild child...truth or dare?"

"This is so cliche' and stupid." You huff. But, squaring your shoulders, you accept the challenge. “This is how horror movies start, you realize. Stranded alone in the woods, truth or dare, drinking."

"What if it isn't what's out there that you need to worry about." he cocks his head toward the window but keeps his eyes on yours.

Your stare widens in mock fear. "Very ominous, Jakey. Truth."

"Why do you hate me?" he goes straight for the jugular, leading you to speculate on the possibility that he may have been sitting on this question for a very long time.

"I don't hate you." you answer honestly. "I just, I don't know, we don't click. Never have. Oil and water, I guess. Plus, you're smug and arrogant, and every time I turn around you've got some idiot girl crashing our parties with her big tits and mindless chatter."

"Does that bother you?"

"No.” You instantly feel a pang of embarrassment; you wouldn’t have mentioned it if it didn’t bother you at least a little. “You're cheating, by the way...you only get to ask one question."

He nods at you, holding his hands up as if to say 'I would never infringe on the rules'.

"Why do you hate me?” Why did you even ask him that? Do you really want to know the answer? Do you even care?

"I don't hate you either." he shrugs and strokes his palms down his jeans "You just push my buttons, is all...and not in a good way."

You find yourself wondering what it would be like to push his buttons in a good way, and the self loathing that comes along with those types of thoughts about Jake is, admittedly, a familiar feeling. The sexual tension that has always burned low in the energy between the two of you sometimes goes with the territory of disliking someone. Especially when the someone you dislike is as physically attractive as Jake happens to be. You push the thought away, and on you go in an attempt to make the most of your ruined evening.

~~

The game has evolved into to not really a game at all as the night wears on, and you're now mostly just trading increasingly inappropriate questions...the whiskey loosening your tongues and erasing inhibitions.

Jake abandons his glass and swills straight from the bottle and then passes it off to you. "What kind of porn do you like?" he asks as casually as he might ask for the time.

Coughing a little on the maker's as it burns a trail down to your belly, you feel your eyes widen. "Who says I watch porn?"

He gives you an 'oh please' look. "Play the game, Princess."

The booze has left you with no filter. "I fucking hate when you call me that."

"No you don't." He grins at you, inciting the urge to bite down on his smirking lips until you taste blood on your tongue. "Answer the question."

With a long pull on the bottle for courage, you figure, 'what the hell?' "Lesbian, mostly. It's hotter, they actually know what they're doing."

Jake's mouth drops open as though he is slightly astounded and a small noise sounds out of him that makes your stomach flutter. "That's fucking hot, princess. Maybe you're not as uptight as I thought."

He adjusts his position to the side a bit until his leg is blocking your view of his crotch. Coincidence? Or is he hiding an unwelcome erection? You shouldn't be as curious as you feel, but it can't be helped.

You offer him a small, conspiring smile, letting him know you're on to what might be happening in his lap "What about you, pervert?"

"Lesbian for me too, no contest." he answers without hesitation.

"The classic girl on girl threesome fantasy, no doubt." you shake your head in disgust "Guys are so predictable."

He gestures for the bottle and takes a guzzling drink without so much as a wince when you hand it over. "Who said anything about a threesome? The girl on girl stuff just focuses on oral more...and I like to eat pussy."

"Jesus, Jake!" you flinch as though he's been inappropriate, as though you don't like it, as though you aren't enjoying the mounting ache between your thighs.

"What?" he shrugs. "It's the truth. Do you like it?"

"Eating pussy?" You raise your eyebrows, borrowing his phrasing for shock value. "Maybe? I can't say for sure though, I've never done it."

"No. I mean do you like receiving." he corrects. "But goddamn, doll. Thank you for the visual."

"One for the old spank bank?"

You intend it to sound snarky, but he remains coolly unbothered. "Maybe so. 'Course it wouldn't be your first appearance there, though."

You get the impression he has revealed this to garner a reaction. It works.

"Really?" You can hear the frustrating intrigue in your tone, and pray that he can't. "Care to share?"

"Huh-uh." he points over at you, signaling that he won't be letting you slide that easily. "I asked you a question, answer it."

Your heartbeat thrums with a touch more frenzy due to the way he has spoken to you. You have never been one to enjoy authority being lorded over you, but the way he just ordered you to answer him has you wishing you were alone so you could make the pulsing ache between your legs go away.

"What was the question?" you sound quieter than you had intended, breathy even, like you're trying to sound seductive. Far from it though, and you want to find a way to tell him that.

'I'm not trying to be sexy, you're just turning me on to a painful degree and you should leave the room before I fall at your feet and ask you to show me what that hate-fucking you were talking about earlier is like.' Yeah, you roll your eyes internally, wouldn't that be smooth and not at all humiliating?

"Do you like receiving?" he reiterates, eyebrows raised as he brings the bottle up to his lips.

"Oh," you watch as his tongue makes the briefest appearance, the tip barely gracing the rim of the bottle before his lips wrap around it. Did he do that purposely? "Yes." you're surprised to hear yourself answer so honestly, so readily. "I love it. It's been forever, though. It's the only way I can get off...with a partner anyway." Why throw that in? You could blame the whiskey, but you know that isn't it.

He watches you silently, and without subtly for a long stretch, and finally leans forward, extending the bottle. He pulls his trusty silver tin out of his back pocket, preparing a small blunt while you watch and sip. "Why's it been forever? What about that one guy? Dude who called you dear like you two were 76 years old? That wasn't that long ago."

"Aaron." you can't help but stare when he drags his tongue along the blunt to seal it. "He wasn't into that."

"Wasn't into that?" He sounds inexplicably annoyed. "But didn't you just say that's the only way you can cum?"

Fuck. The way he words things so boldly without the slightest hint of shame is indescribably sexy.

You avert your eyes in lieu of an actual response, mainly because your throat is so dry you doubt you could make a sound.

"Well that's a fuckin' shame, princess." he smiles, understanding your silence. He flicks his lighter and holds it to the tip of the blunt, drawing steadily to get it going until his chest expands heavily, lungs filled to capacity with the sweet smoke. "Never made you cum?" he rasps, holding the hit in. "Not even once?"

You shrug and force yourself to maintain his stare. You won't be the first to look away.

"Nope. But I asked you a question too...you said I've popped up in your spank bank. You gonna tell me about that or are you too much of a chicken shit?"

A laugh shakes his shoulders as he offers you the blunt. "Alright, alright...Sammy's birthday party, the one our parents threw for his 18th?"

You nod for him to continue, forcing yourself to seem casual, as if you don't really care. Incidentally, why do you care so much?

"You had this lipgloss on. It was barely there, but it would catch the light every now and then." he shrugs. "I wanted to kiss you — amongst other things." He stares off with the wisp of a smile on his lips, as if reliving the moment.

You hadn't expected it to be so...intimate.

"Oh, and when you're being particularly hateful towards me, I have this fantasy where I slam you up against a wall and give it to you until you learn how to shut your fucking mouth. If that's more along the lines of what you were looking for."

"I..." One word is all you seem to be able to manage. Actually, one letter, to be more specific.

“Well look at you, princess. You like that?" He hums softly. "Don't worry, I like it too."

Shaking it off, you do a half-assed job of collecting your wits. "Just surprised is all. I thought you hated me."

"Hate's an awfully strong word." he corrects, flicking the ashes from the blunt he is once again in possession of into his abandoned glass. "You irritate the shit outta me, but I already told you, I don't hate you."

"What a charming sentiment, prince asshole." his admission stings, though it shouldn't. You know this. You've always known this.

He holds his hands up in a 'what're you gonna do' fashion. "What about me? Have I ever held a place of honor in whatever the feminine equivalent to a spank bank is?"

A genuine laugh trills out of you.

"What?" he laughs too. "I just always picture girls like, surrounded by candles in a bubble bath or something. Making a night of it."

"Not quite. Sometimes, not always. But yeah," you confess. He was honest, why shouldn't you be? "Once or twice."

Pinching the blunt out he leans forward. "Oh, do tell, princess." When he slides closer to the edge of his seat he gives you a mischievous grin, giving up on concealing the massive erection he is sporting.

"A couple years back, I stayed over because we drank too much. You were seeing that girl, the one who was obsessed with turquoise jewelry?"

He nods his understanding but doesn't fill in the blank where you have forgotten her name.

"I slept in Sammy's room because he insisted on taking the couch."

"A gentleman and a scholar..." he jokes.

You find yourself feeling shy out of the blue, possibly because he's just made such a normal 'jake' remark. But he twirls his hand, a silent signal for you to go on, and you comply.

"I heard you...” you clear your throat, stalling to call upon your liquid courage reserves. “I heard you fucking her. I tried not to listen, but I couldn't help myself. At first I thought you were just fucking her, you know, like normally—but then you said something to her and I realized you were going down on her..."

"What did I say to her, princess? Tell me what you heard." His eyes are hooded and more intense than you have ever seen them.

"You told her to cum." a short gasp escapes you followed by a sharp intake of breath. God, have you ever been this fucking hot before? "You told her to cum all over your face."

"And?" He whispers, sounding breathless.

You can't bear eye contact any longer, but also, you cannot fathom looking away. "And, I wanted it to be me. I wanted to be the one in there with you, the girl in your bed with your face between her legs."

"Fuck me." he groans quietly.

The room falls silent and you curse the heat rising to your cheeks. You know your face is burning red, betraying your embarrassment as well as your desire.

"How drunk are you?" he questions, at last breaking the tense quiet.

"I feel very sober at the moment." You breathe truthfully, watching his chest rise and fall deeply.

Suddenly, his boot darts out and kicks the coffee table away, clearing a path between the two of you. "Come here."

It isn't a request, and you're glad for that. It doesn't leave any room for you to overthink.

His eyes are wild and dilated when you find yourself standing before him. They ignite something primal and feral within you. You want to feel this way forever. You feel alive, as if you've been introduced to the real you. Hello, I've heard so much about you....

His fingers dip into the waist of your leggings, just a bit, teasing over your quivering stomach "May I?"

You nod, biting down on your bottom lip as your palms find his shoulders for leverage. He drags the fabric down your thighs slowly and then helps you step out. Leaving you in your threadbare fitted tee and panties. They're so plain. Just simple, white cotton bikinis and you can't even recall what bra you have on, but you can feel how comfortable it is and that isn't a good sign. You hate it to a sickening degree.

However, Jake doesn't seem to mind. His eyes are raking over your center with unmasked fervor. "Sit down for me, kitten." he runs his fingers along his denim-clad thigh until you spread your legs and have a seat.

"Kitten?" you sigh, pressing yourself against the warm, strong, muscle of his thigh. You're teasing him about it, but you think it's incredibly hot.

"What can I say?" his hands drop to your hips, cajoling you to rub yourself against him a little harder "You've got me thinking about your pussy. Kitten seemed fitting."

For a moment, you slip into a stunned state of shock. What the hell is even happening? This doesn't feel real. This is Jake, you've known him nearly your whole life. You two can barely stand to be in the same room together and yet...

"That's it, princess." he praises, pulling you out of your head "You look so sweet riding my thigh in your little panties. I can feel how hot you are, how wet. You like this, don’t you?"

"Yeah." you moan, nodding frantically as he presses up into your tingling cunt.

"You'd let me fuck you right now, wouldn't you?" his hands are now slowly drifting up your shirt, stopping just before your breasts before descending, over and over.

"Even though I haven't sucked your pretty cunt yet, and you say that's the only way you can cum." he continues when you promise that yes, you'd let him fuck you right now. "That's your problem. You concern yourself with pleasing too much, what about you, princess? Who pleases you?" His hands trail up and down, up and down, ignoring your nipples as they strain against your bra, screaming out for attention.

"I can please myself, thank you." You feel defiant, despite the fact that you just happen to be fucking yourself against his leg shamelessly.

"Oh, I don't doubt that at all." he grins up at you "But why? I'm right here. These gorgeous tits of yours, for instance, you think I can't tell how badly you want me to touch them? Why don't you just tell me what you need?" He leans forward and licks at your nipple through your shirt "I just want to make you feel good, just wanna make you cum."

You moan his name, ripping your shirt and bra up over your head together. It feels natural to cry out to him, it feels like this isn't the first time. "Suck them." you order gently when your breasts are bare and waiting for him.

His mouth is sweeter than you could have ever dreamed. Gentle one moment, lapping away at your pebbled peaks of flesh, dragging his teeth along your sensitive areola the next. Suckling and kissing away at them until you are arching your back into his face and grinding down onto his thigh, chasing a high you've never felt before. You aren't working towards an end, but you feel untouchable all the same.

"Are you gonna cum for me, princess?" he rasps, teeth clenched around your swollen left nipple.

"No." Your response is little more than a sigh of unrivaled pleasure "But I already told you, I just can't cum any other way. Don't stop though, everything feels so fucking good."

Either he isn't paying attention, or he just doesn't care that you've asked him not to stop — regardless, you find yourself being lifted off his leg and swung around until your back lands against the cushions of the couch he's carried you over to.

You expect him to drop to his knees to lick you...to make you cum so he can get on with things, men are always so impatient to get to the actual fucking. But instead, he leans back and looks you over, his gaze roaming slowly between your thighs.

"I love that your panties are white," he smiles, looking, but not touching "You've soaked them, I can see right through...so pretty, doll.”

"Jake..."

"Hmm?" he sounds far away, like he's a little lost in you.

“What're you doing?" you feel on display and self conscious.

"I'm looking at you, princess." his thumbs move forward and circle over the waistband of your underwear. "You’re the prettiest little thing." His gaze lifts to yours, proving he isn't just talking about the pretty places on your body he would like to fuck.

"I'm going to make you cum..." he promises gently "But not with my mouth, not yet. Lie back and relax."

"I told you," you start, actually feeling a flash of annoyance. You don't want to see the look of defeat on his face when he finally gives up.

"Shh..." he counters. "Just lie back and let me love on you for a little while. Are you my pretty little doll?”

You nod and catch your bottom lip between your teeth. If you’d known Jake would touch you and talk to you this way, you’d have thrown yourself at his feet years ago.

His eyes remain locked in on your face as he begins stroking light circles around your clit through the cotton barring his actual touch.

"You're soaked and that gorgeous clit is so swollen I can see it peeking out. Do you like it when I touch you where you're all pink and wet?"

"I love it." you stroke circles on your nipples in time with his fingers "I want to feel your mouth there."

"You will." he nods, dipping the middle finger of his free hand into your panties and into your warmth.

"Fuck yes, Jake..." you pant, moaning out like a wanton whore. A second finger joins the first, pressing upward carefully until he finds that secret spot hidden away inside of you.

"That's it right there, isn't it, princess?" he dips down and kisses your neck as his hand begins fucking you with slow curling strokes of perfection.

"Mmm..." you moan, clutching his forearms. Yes, that is most definitely the spot, only ever found and catered to by the curved vibrator – the one designed specifically for this purpose – you have back home, hidden in the back of your nightstand.

He works you with a slow, but firm hand. Murmuring intoxicatingly obscene things into your ear, and gentle coaxing praises in contrast until your vision is growing feathery around the edges, an orgasm lingering like blurring waves of heat on the horizon, a mirage of pleasure coming for you.

"Oh god, Jake..." you can feel your brows threading together as a delicious heat begins to rise in your belly "I think I'm going to cum."

"Don't think..." he murmurs, kissing your cheek. “Just let it come to you, princess. It’ll find you, I promise.”

Your eyes screw shut in concentration, focusing on his fingers inside you pressing and pushing, curling up and into your g-spot, guiding you like a beacon in the dark. He feels so good, and so tangible...a source of pleasure that breathes and bleeds and feels, no one has ever made you feel so undone. You didn't even know it was really possible.

The waters of bliss lap over you gently, pulling you out to a warm sea of pink, floral water...he is all around you, he is absolutely living and breathing inside you. It’s so soft and gentle...but, without warning, it strong-holds you. Takes you by the throat with magnificently tender force. Feel what he has done to you, it directs. Stay here, with him, forever. This is where you belong.

"That's right, princess. Good girl..." his tone is choked with awe. "You are so, so, fucking pretty when you cum. I almost feel bad for him that he never got the chance to see...almost."

"Jake..." you're moaning and writhing still, no matter that the remnants of your orgasm have faded. "Tell me I'm a good girl again." The instant you say it you look away timidly, you hadn't even meant for it to come out. You've never before wanted to please anyone the way you want to please him.

"You are, doll..." he pets your hair and smoothes his fingers down your cheek "You're such a good girl, letting me make you cum. Relaxing and letting go so well. You're my good girl, you're good just for me."

"Can I have your mouth now?" you venture quietly. "I wanted to be her so badly that night..."

"So tell me." he pulls your panties down and tosses them aside. "Tell me what you heard me doing, what you wanted."

His mouth is playing over your thighs gently, kissing and nipping his way closer to your soaked pussy, but taking his sweet time.

"I couldn't hear you at first..." a moan disrupts you when his tongue curls into the side of your clit. "Just her. And she sounded, mmm, fuck—she sounded like your mouth was the most sensual thing that had ever blessed her body. I wanted it, fuck I wanted it so badly."

Please..." you beg when his lips move to press light kisses into your folds.

"Talk to me, princess." he whispers so close to your center you can feel his lips move as he forms the words "Tell me what you heard me giving her cunt instead of yours."

Jesus fucking god.

"She just kept getting louder and louder, I knew you were about to make her cum. I wanted it too much, I had to touch myself. I shouldn't have..."

"Why shouldn't you have? There was no one there to see." his mouth drops delicately to find your entrance. He places an open-mouthed kiss there. "You think way too much."

Without waiting for a reply, his lips and tongue begin working your soaked center without mercy. His mouth is a fucking marvel...every kiss of his lips and stroke of his tongue unlaces you a little more until you are bucking up into his mouth, fucking his face, desperate to cum all over him just like he'd asked his obnoxious little girlfriend to.

"Cum in my mouth, princess." he whimpers the order into your cunt "Not on my face, in my mouth...I don't want to waste a fucking drop of you, cum right in my mouth...come on."

His filthy guidance is all you need to fall apart. His groans of appreciation hum into you, vibrating straight into your soul as you cum hard and fast, begging him to stop and to never stop at the same time.

Jake finally pulls back when your shaking thighs are clenched tightly around his head as you whine and struggle away from his soft, searching mouth.

He kicks his boots off and tugs his pants away, leaving him in nothing but his black boxer briefs and a dangling necklace spinning about at his sternum.

“God, you're fucking beautiful." you whisper, wishing you could just look at him like this for the rest of your life..

His sheepish smile surprises you, he's always so sure of himself, it seems. Even so, or maybe to mask his vulnerability, his brings your hand to press into the hard length of him still hidden away.

“Can I see it?" you ask meekly "I bet it's as pretty as the rest of you."

He nods and you eagerly tugs his boxer briefs down. His cock springs free and slaps against his belly, just as beautiful as you had imagined. Bigger, too. But not frighteningly so...fuck, you want it so badly.

You begin peppering kisses up and down the exposed length of him, intermittently introducing the tip of your tongue to join the fun. "Fuck me with this beautiful cock, Jake. I've never seen one so pretty. I'd wear a picture of it in a locket around my neck."

Where had that come from? You're unsure, but you know it is, without a doubt, the absolute truth.

"You wanna wear a picture of my cock around your neck?" it sounds so outlandish and stupid, but fuck if it isn't the truth. "That's the sexiest thing I've ever heard...where the fuck have you been all this time, princess?"

"I'm here now." you point out, sucking the head gingerly "Fucking give it to me."

With a gasp of confused shock, you find your body flush against the couch, breasts pressing flat into the rough, worn upholstery of the cushions.

"Give what to you, doll?" Jake's mouth moves against your ear as his body presses you down further, covering you like an explicit weighted blanket. "My cock? Do you want to feel it inside? Do you want to fuck?"

"Yes..." you beg, squirming against his hold on you, but not at all fighting it. You wish he would never let go.

"Are you gonna behave and cum again for me?" his dick has begun slipping through your soaked folds from behind rhythmically, while his mouth sucks and bites a path over your neck. "I want you to be such a good girl for me, princess. I know you can do it."

"Jake," you don't recognize your own voice "I just can't...you don't know how much I wish..."

"Come on, kitten," he interrupts. "Give me one more. C'mon baby, one more time. Wanna feel you cum around my cock..."

He drives into you hard and fast, groaning when a long, loud call of his name bursts forth from your parted lips.

"You're so warm, princess..." his fingers tangle gently in your hair, sweeping through the locks lovingly "You feel so fucking nice wrapped up tight and sweet around my dick."

He begins with a slow, yet forceful pace. Fucking himself into you deep, pushing his way in to the hilt, before dragging back out as you clench down, fighting to keep him inside.

"You feel so good, Jake..." you tilt your face back, searching for his mouth with your own until he closes the space with a hungry kiss "Fuck me until you can't hold back any longer. I want to feel you cum inside me. Please!”

"Begging for my cum..." he gasps, hips faltering, losing his rhythm for a split second. "I can't wait to watch it spill out of your beautiful little cunt."

The thought alone might have been enough to unravel you, but listening to him talk about watching his cum leak out of you shoves you over the edge of the orgasm you've been circling. "Fuck..." you gasp, sinking your nails into his forearms braced on either side of you. "I'm gonna cum, Jake...I'm...oh god...."

"I know, princess...I can feel it. I can feel all of it."

You know what he means, you're fluttering and squeezing, quivering and clenching down around his cock, pulling him in deeper, refusing to let him go.

And now, you can feel his orgasm taking hold as well. He swells and bursts inside you, flooding you with warmth as his beautiful nonsensical groans and quiet moans of your name drag you under like the most lovely drug you can imagine.

If you were forced to choose a solitary moment to describe why we are here, how beautiful life can really be, what love is...this would be it. This moment right here. This is everything. This beautiful euphoric connection with another soul, no matter how fleeting.

You stumble back to the here and now together, panting and clutching at one another’s hot, damp skin.

He finds his voice first, and shocks you with it. “It’s never been like that for me with anyone else, ever. That was....” he loses his way and falls silent.

“Me either.” You breathe, sounding less than eloquent.

When he pulls you up to stretch out on the couch in his arms, you find yourself comfortable in the strangest way, as if you’ve spent your entire life nestled in his arms.

Taglist: @weightofdreams-gvf @imdepressedaf1996 @wordvomit-foryourmind @alisonwonderland29 @agirlwithmanytastes @gretavanfleas @gretavangroove @janegvf @sparrowofthedawn @goattsintrees @greta-van-chaos @moonlightbrekker @theweightofstardust @celestialfauna @s0livagant @groggyvanfleet @kiszkathecook @shesalrightshesouttasight @brokenbellz @llightmyllovee @doodle417

[strngehorizons]

I WANT TWO BOYFRIENDS

[strngehorizons]

I always get so nervous to post 🙈 so thank you, it means a lot!

Talk

Sam x reader

Summary: You and Sam have been friends for years, but something has always lingered beneath the surface. It takes one Hozier song and a lot of pent-up tension to realize that you both feel the same way.

Heavily inspired by both this photo of Sammy and the song Talk by Hozier, but very lightly edited. Mostly just pure self-indulgent filth, I'm sorry

Warnings: cheating (oopsie), unprotected sex (I'm terrible at this so if it needs other warnings, someone pls tell me)

Your phone started vibrating in the cup holder as you pulled onto Sam's new street. You reached your thumb across the steering wheel to press the Bluetooth button before slowing down to read the address numbers neatly printed across the mailboxes out your tinted windows.

"Helloooooooooo?" You drew the word out, eyes still scanning for the house number that Sam had texted you hours earlier.

"Hey kid," Sam's raspy voice rang out through your car speakers, making you smile. "How far away are ya?"

"Hmmmm, about 10 houses," you answered, unexplained anticipation building like a lump in the back of your throat.

"Perrrrrrfect," he drawled. "I'm in the backyard, so just come through the gate at the side when you get here. Rose, get away from that!"

You heard a clatter in the background, before you heard Sam's quiet "fuck" come across the phone line. You giggled to yourself, surmising that the bouncy puppy had knocked something over.

"Gotta go. See you in a minute, kid." Sam hung up on the call before you could get another word out. It didn't matter, you were pulling into his lengthy driveway anyways. As tall pines surrounded the car on both sides, you thought about the situation you were heading into.

You and Sam had been friends for a few years. What started as acquaintances quickly blossomed into friendship when you realized how much you had in common - you had started cutting your teeth in Nashville as the administrative assistant to the head of Sam's record label, so you were often around the offices during meetings and the studio during recording sessions. As the months passed, and you memorized the guys' coffee orders, you had begun to build favour with the four of them. Sam had taken a particular liking to you during one of the label's industry dinners, picking your brain about music and movies and everything in between. The two of you had a friendship that couldn't be explained to anyone but you, and you had learned to ignore teasing comments from the other guys long ago. Your boyfriend, and Sam's girlfriend, were far less immune to the sensitivity of the other boys' teasing - your boyfriend didn't particularly care for Sam, and Sam's girlfriend didn't really care for you. You had tried to hang out as a foursome multiple times, but it usually ended with you and Sam in a conversation that the other two just couldn't relate or contribute to.

So, much to their dismay, you and Sam had resorted to hanging out every once in a while without the two of them. It made for awkward nights when you returned home to your boyfriend, but you knew that you had nothing to feel guilty about. Nothing had ever happened with Sam, and you were certain that nothing ever would. Your miniscule crush on Sam was suppressed into the deepest depths of your soul, because you were certain that he would never feel the same way. And there was no point in ruining your friendship, or your current relationship, for something that would never happen.

All of this is what brought you to the top of Sam's new driveway, bottle of wine and housewarming gift on the backseat, ready for a night to just hang out and exist together.

You gathered all of your items from the car before stepping out and grabbing your packages from the backseat. The car door slamming shut alerted Rose to your presence, and she started barking from the backyard.

You wandered towards the sound at the side gate that Sam had mentioned, taking in the beauty of his new house as you walked. The house had a rustic quality to it, and it definitely looked like it belonged in the woodland neighborhood. Sam had moved out of the hectic rush of Nashville's east side, and had chosen to settle about 30 minutes out of the city in a spot closer to the Tennessee mountains. The new property definitely seemed to be more his style, laid back and surrounded by nature just as you always pictured him to be.

You reached the gate, shuffling the items in your arms until you freed one of your hands to unlatch it. You were greeted by a bouncy puppy, smiling as you reached down to pat the top of Rose's head. She pranced next to you excitedly while you walked further into the yard, spotting Sam across from the inground swimming pool. He was kneeling on the stone patio, leaning back so that he was almost sitting on his bare feet. Spread out in front of him was an array of soils, plant pots, and orchids. He looked up when you approached, giving you a coy smile and making the effort to stand to his feet.

"Well, well, look who it is..." His smile spread across his face even bigger when you slid your sunglasses up into your hair like a headband. Sam walked closer to you, reaching out to take the items from your arms. You were suddenly glad that you had so many things to carry - it meant that there was a buffer in between you and Sam for the time being. You always felt awkward meeting up with him or saying goodbye when you had nothing in your hands... the two of you made a subconscious effort never to let physical touch linger too long, and you had never once hugged Sam in the years that you had been close friends. It was part of the reason why you felt your crush was not reciprocated - the man in front of you now clearly wanted nothing to do with touching you in any capacity.

Your mind brought you back to the present before you could spiral too far, and you turned to follow Sam as he walked towards the back door of the house. You spotted a broken terra cotta pot on the table next to the door.

"Is that what Rose broke?" You asked, pointing to the table.

Sam just laughed. "You heard that, huh?" You nodded, catching Sam's eye while he opened the door. "Yeah, she's a menace..."

Sam trailed off as you both entered his new space. Spread out in front of you was a sizeable kitchen, complete with a tiled island in the centre and a double oven on the far wall.

"Holy shit, Sammy," you lamented as you took in the room. He was smiling while he placed the items you had brought on the counter, turning around to put the bottle of wine in the fridge. "This is incredible!"

"You think so?" He asked, suddenly appearing self conscious. "I mean, it's been such a big change and I'm so happy, but.... sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision by moving out here."

"I think it's amazing," you answered honestly. "It's so peaceful, and just so... you."

He smiled so big at your statement that it showed off all his teeth, his plump lips pulling back in the most beautiful way. You cleared your throat and gestured towards the doorway that led to the rest of the house.

"But I want the full tour," you prompted, feeling butterflies erupt in your stomach from the way that Sam's eyes were studying you. He did this sometimes when the two of you would hang out - studying your every movement, down to the twitch of your nose or the slight crinkle between your eyebrows when you realized what he was doing. It felt like he was trying to decipher your deepest secrets, and there were definitely thoughts within your brain that you didn't want him to clue into. You had reached a careful balance of thoughts and actions over the years of being his friend, and the only time you felt the facade crack a little bit were times when he studied you like this.

You blushed under his intense gaze, reaching out to tuck a stray peice of hair behind your ear at the same time. This movement seemed to break his trance, and he suddenly remembered who he was and what you were doing.

"A tour, right! Follow me, I'll give you the grand tour..." Sam trailed off as he started walking out the kitchen doorway, reaching up to touch his fingertips to the door frame on his way out.

He gestured wildly as he toured you through the rest of the raised bungalow, taking you through the hallway that separated the bathroom and three bedrooms from the main space. One of the bedrooms was being used for art supplies and paintings, and another was being used for music equipment and instruments. He passed by the third bedroom door casually, raising a hand as we walked by.

"This is the master bedroom, where the magic happens, yada yada yada..." he trailed off, trying to remain nonchalant while he watched you peek your head through the doorframe. The room held the glow of the late afternoon sun, and the king bed that rested in the center was covered in dark green bedding and orange pillows. A mid century modern dresser stood against the far wall, with a framed picture of Rose on top next to an intense looking speaker system.

You ducked your head back out of the doorframe and turned your attention back to Sam in the hallway. "Wow, your room is very zen," you remarked, carrying on down the hall.

"Thanks... that means a lot, coming from the 'zen queen'," he joked. "The only thing I'm really missing from the old place is my plants," he continued, "but that's what I was starting to work on when you showed up."

"Well don't let me keep you from your important planting," you jested. "I'm sure I could find something else to do with my night if you want to continue..."

The hurt look that flashed across Sam's face at your comment caught you off guard briefly, but he quickly recovered.

"Actually, I was waiting for someone to show up cause I need some help. So I'm going to put you to work," he smiled. "Consider it repayment for the big fancy dinner I'm going to cook you later."

"It doesn't count as repayment if you haven't cooked the dinner yet, Sammy."

"Fine, prepayment, whatever..." he rolled his eyes as the two of you bickered your way back to the kitchen. He continued walking back to the door that led to the backyard, while you stopped next to the island.

"Want to get some wine poured while I run outside and grab something?" He asked, pointing to the cupboard next to the fridge. "Glasses are in there, and the opener is in the drawer above the dishwasher. I'll be right back." He gave a mock salute before slipping out the door.

You got to work on pulling wine glasses out of the cupboard Sam had pointed out, retrieving the bottle of wine you had brought from the fridge and twisting the top off. You poured two generous glasses, taking a sip from one while you watched Sam open the back door again. He was carrying a mess of rope and plant pots, placing everything on the tiled counter of the island before reaching for his wine glass. He hummed to himself, glancing over to where the bottle rested on the counter.

"You didn't need the opener?" He asked, swishing the wine around before taking a small sip.

"Sam." You leveled him with a look. "I learned my lesson with bottle corks years ago, remember? I've been using twist-offs ever since."

"Right, right, how could I ever forget?" He chuckled to himself, no doubt lost in the memory of you trying and failing to get the cork out of a wine bottle and smashing the whole thing on the middle of your kitchen floor. It had been a party at your apartment, and that spill had led to a days long argument with your boyfriend. He thought you had done it on purpose for attention. Sam had been the one to run to your pantry for extra paper towels, carefully bagging the broken glass and walking it out to the apartment building's dumpster before returning to the party. His girlfriend had watched the interaction with shifty eyes, but you were just thankful that he had taken over the cleaning. Your hands had been shaking too badly to risk having anywhere near the broken glass.

Sam took a longer sip of his wine, trying to clear the mildly unpleasant memory, and gestured to the materials he had brought in from outside.

"So I have these macrame plant holders," he started, "and I want to hang them in front of the kitchen windows. But I think it's a two person job, cause someone needs to hold them up while the other person drills the hooks into the ceiling."

You nodded as he spoke, following along with his plans. "Whatever you need, Sammy boy," you hummed, grabbing a macrame rope from the counter. He went to fetch the drill while you dragged a kitchen chair over to the first window frame.

"I think if you stand on the chair and hold up the hook, I can reach it with the drill since, ya know, I'm taller." He gave you a smirk.

"Congratutions on being tall," you rolled your eyes. "Can't relate," you added.

"I know you can't," he smiled down at you smugly, pressing the drill's button and whirring the machine in his hand while stepping closer to you.

You took steps backwards as he took slow steps forwards, until the backs of your legs hit the kitchen chair you had placed by the window pane. Sam held eye contact with you as you swallowed the nervous lump in your throat. Suddenly, he reached his free hand out to hold in front of you. You took it slowly, stepping up so that you were standing on the kitchen chair. You reluctantly let go of his hand once you were steady, wishing that you could have lingered longer with his touch on yours.

In your new positions, Sam's face rested at the height of your sternum. He reached up easily with the drill, to the place where he wanted the plant holder to hang from, and started making a preliminary hole. You watched his careful hands as they smoothed away the excess drywall dust, moving out of the way for you to reach up with the hook. You attached it into the ceiling, twisting the screwed end in to secure it and actively trying to ignore the way that you could feel Sam's exhaling breath landing on your slightly exposed chest. The closeness of his breathing made you wobble on the chair, losing your balance only slightly before Sam's free hand reached out to your hip in an effort to steady you.

"Careful," he rasped, watching you turn the screw the last couple of times before removing your hands from the ceiling. His eyes met yours when you brought your hands down to your sides, snatching his own hand away from your body as if it had touched an open flame.

"You good?" He asked, reaching out a hand for you to hop down from the chair. You just nodded, letting your feet hit the floor again and dragging the chair over to the next window opening in order to repeat the process.

The two of you worked in silent tandem, repeating the movements twice more to cover off all of the windows in Sam's new kitchen. When the last macrame holder was screwed in, you dragged the chair back to the table in the breakfast nook while Sam retrieved the potted plants from where he had left them on the island. You watched silently as he maneuvered the pots into the holders, adjusting the plants so that their leaves hung down between the ropes.

When he reached up to do the second plant pot, you realized that his black button up shirt had ridden up towards his belly button. A light dusting of hair trailed over his tanned skin and led into the confines of his pants, making you blush and turn away to your wineglass. You gave your head a slight shake to ward away the thoughts you were having about your friend - you tried to turn your mind to your boyfriend, wondering what he was doing at home right now. The problem was, you didn't really care.

"There," Sam proclaimed as he finished fluffing the leaves on the last plant. "That feels a little more like home to me." He smiled at your handiwork, and then turned to smile at you.

"Looks great," you agreed, nodding into your wine glass as you pushed it to your lips once again. Your cheeks were starting to feel flushed - you'd downed a fair bit of the alcohol while waiting for Sam to finish adjusting the plants.

"You know what would make it feel even more like home, I bet?" You asked, raising your eyebrows in Sam's direction.

"This will be good," he deadpanned in return.

"A record! You do have your player hooked up already, don't you?" Your eyes betrayed your excitement - Sam had the best record collection of anyone you'd ever met.

"Uhhh, duh!" came Sam's response, grabbing his wine off of the counter and waving a hand behind him for you to follow into the living room.

You settled onto Sam's pink velvet couch, the numerous throw pillows instantly engulfing you and making you sink into the cushions. You placed your wine glass on the coffee table in front of you while you took in the room in more detail than you'd been able to on your brief tour earlier.

The room was large, easily accounting for Sam's piano that stood in the corner. Across from the couch was a fireplace, a large screen TV hanging above it. The left side of the room is where Sam stood in front of a vintage looking sideboard. The cupboard of the unit stood open, and Sam was shuffling through the extensive record collection hidden inside. His record player stood proudly on the top of the walnut coloured piece of furniture.

While he searched for the perfect album, you took another sweeping look across the room. You noticed that the only photos in frames were of Rose and Sam's family. The only knick knacks around the space were the ones that Sam had brought home from touring the world. Your breath caught as you made the realization - you had yet to see anything belonging to Sam's girlfriend in his new house. On the one hand, it was his house... so it made sense that all the items would be his. On the other hand, they had been together for years at this point... you thought for sure that there would be some items of hers laying around, or at least some photos of them in the frames around the room.

"Uhhh, Sammy?" You started, stomach turning over as you anticipated asking a dumb question.

"Whats up?" He responded casually, finally choosing a record and flipping the cover over between his long fingers. He dumped the record out of the sleeve into his hand, placing it deftly on the turntable and dropping the needle onto the edge. You watched in a quiet trance as the beginning notes of Hozier's Wasteland Baby album began to play.

Sam turned around to you with his eyebrows raised, silently wondering if you were going to continue.

"It's just..." you didn't know how to phrase the question you wanted to ask. "I don't see any of Kayley's stuff around here. Or any pictures of you guys. Did I miss something?"

Sam huffed a small breath through his nostrils, settling into the couch beside you.

"I mean, we broke up if that's what you're asking."

You felt a jolt of electric energy shoot through you as you processed his words.

"What? When? We were with you guys like a month ago and everything seemed fine!" You blurted out, trying to process the new information.

"Okay, that was over a month ago, thank you very much," Sam mumbled. You threw him a look in response. "We just... we were on different pages. She assumed that me moving here meant that she was moving in, and I just... I wanted space. When I set her straight on the fact that she wasn't moving in here with me, she suggested that we see other people." He cleared his throat and glanced over at you. "Actually, she suggested that I see you instead."

Your mouth popped open in shock as you struggled to regulate your breathing. "Why on earth would she suggest that?" You mumbled, already knowing the answer. People had teased you and Sam about your natural chemistry for years. But it didn't matter, you had a boyfriend that you lived with and had loved for years. You loved him, right? Yes, you reminded yourself. Yes you did. At one point. But did you still? It didn't matter. Just because Sam suddenly found himself single didn't mean that he wanted to be with you. He hadn't ended his relationship. He would have still been with her, willingly, if she hadn't broken up with him.

All of these thoughts tumbled through your head as you and Sam maintained eye contact across the couch. He was studying you closely again, trying to peer into the depths of your thoughts and monitoring any twitch of movement on your face. The weight of his gaze was intense, and you were the first to look away.

You leaned forward to pick up your wine, taking a big gulp before setting the glass back down on the table. "Well I'm sorry to hear that, Sammy. I know how much you cared about her."

"That's true," he hummed. "I did care about her. But did I love her? I'm not sure."

You stared down at your hands, wracking your brain for something to say in return.

"Oh well, it's probably for the best," Sam continued with a sigh. "She was never really supportive of our friendship anyways. And she couldn't accept the fact that you aren't going anywhere. You're in my life for good, kid. I hope you realize that."

You glanced up, meeting the intensity of Sam's brown eyes while he took a big sip from his own wine glass.

"Trevor doesn't like it when we hang out either," you responded. "I'm pretty sure he thinks something is going on between us." You rolled your eyes at the absurdity of the assumption.

Sam let out a chuckle beside you. "I kind of gathered that," he laughed. "That dude looks like he wants to beat the shit out of me every chance that he gets."

You smiled too at that, knowing that Sam was only partially joking, and leaned back further into the plush pillows of the couch. The soft sounds of Hozier floated over you as you let your eyes close for a second.

"Sammy, these speakers are amazing," you mumbled out, eyes still closed.

"They're nice, huh? Want to see something cool?" You felt the couch shift beside you as Sam stood up, and when you opened your eyes he was standing in front of you holding an outstretched hand in your direction.

"I always want to see something cool," you replied with a smile, taking his hand and letting him pull you up from the comfort of the couch.

Sam kept a hold of your hand as he pulled you down the hallway that led to the bedrooms and the bathroom. He took a sharp turn into his bedroom, dropping your hand once you made it through the doorway and walking over to flick the power switch on the speakers that sat atop his dresser. The same Hozier song that was playing from the record in the living room boomed through the bedroom speakers.

"Holy shit, they're all connected?!" You asked excitedly. Sam just nodded at you, smiling at your reaction.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

"The coolest, Sammy. You're pretty much the coolest person I know," you smiled.

You sat down on the end of his bed as the final notes of Shrike played out through the speakers. Sam had been hovering near the dresser, but he slowly made his way over towards you while the first chords of Talk played out through the house.

You had spread your arms out behind you, propping yourself up on your hands while leaning back slightly to watch Sam as he approached. He stopped in front of you, stepping in between your slightly parted legs. His presence loomed over you in a way that made you short of breath. You held each other's stare as he took another small step forward, now crowding you slightly. You held your breath as the chorus of the song started.

I won't deny

I've got in my mind now

All the things i would do

So I'll try to talk refined

For fear that you'll find out

How I'm imaging you

As Hozier's words hung softly in the air around the two of you, Sam slowly brought his hand up to your face. He ran the pad of his thumb over your closed lips, catching slightly on the plumpness of your bottom one while he dragged his finger over it.

You swallowed thickly, leaning back even further and craning your neck up to maintain eye contact. The position allowed for your neck to be completely exposed, and the slow drag of Sam's hand followed the curve of it until his fingers lightly wrapped around your throat.

He leaned forward even more, making you almost horizontal on the bed, and whispered against your lips. "This song has always made me think of you."

It felt like fireworks were going off in your brain. What did he mean? Did he think of you in the way that you thought of him sometimes? Was he willing to risk your friendship for this? Were you willing to risk your relationship for this?

The alarm bells in your head were silenced by one simple thought that overrode all the others - you would go anywhere and do anything for this man in front of you, consequences be damned.

He brought your attention back to the present by lightly squeezing his fingers around your throat.

"Just say the word and I'll stop," he whispered, his breath fanning across your parted lips. "God, I need to know how you taste. You've been driving me insane for years..."

His voice trailed off as he leaned in impossibly closer to you, watching closely for the slight nod you gave before he finally covered your lips with his. He pressed himself further into you, letting go of your throat in favour of holding himself up with an arm extended next to your head. His lips parted slowly, inviting your tongue into his mouth and pushing back with his own to deepen the kiss.

Your moan was stifled against Sam's lips, but he seemed to take it as encouragement to kiss you even harder. You leaned back onto your elbows, eventually falling to your back as Sam drove you even further into the bed. Your hands skated their way up Sam's torso, pausing to undo the few buttons that had been done up on his shirt, and eventually they found their home in the hair at the base of Sam's neck. You gave a light tug to the strands, earning a deep groan from the man above you that vibrated against your lips. You couldn't help but smile against his kiss, making him pause and pull away from you for a moment.

"You have no idea how many times I've had to hold myself back from doing that," Sam admitted quietly, ducking down to brush his nose back and forth against yours a few times.

You smiled, adjusting yourself on the bed underneath him and lightly thrusting your hips into his. You could feel how hard he was already, even throught the layers of clothing separating you two.

He groaned again at your movements, reaching up to grasp your wrists before bringing them back down to pin against the bed above your head. He held you there for a moment, running his thumbs over the delicate skin on your wrists.

"Show me," you whispered. His eyebrows knitted together in silent question, not understanding what you meant. "Show me what else you've wanted to do to me," you clarified, daring him to make another move.

A devilish smirk appeared on his lips before he leaned down to nuzzle his lips into the skin between your neck and your ear. "As you wish," he mumbled.

Sam's lips began tracing a pathway from the side of your neck down to your sternum, pausing briefly to have you lift your shirt over your head. He began working back down, hovering his lips low on your hip bones while he shimmied your shorts down and off your legs. Lying beneath him in just your bra and panties for the first time, you didn't have time to be self conscious. He let out a shaky breath as he ran his hands delicately up your sides, taking his time feeling the smooth skin and admiring you in a way that he had never had the privilege of seeing.

His eyes traced up to your face while his hands made their way to your bra, keeping eye contact as he pulled the cups down to expose your nipples. They immediately pebbled in the cool air of the room, and Sam's glance down to them made him release a quiet whimper. He immediately leaned in, taking one into his mouth and suckling harshly. You let out a cry at the feeling, arching your back and tossing your head back into the mattress. Your hands reached down to hold the sides of Sam's head, holding him in place as he continued running his mouth around your chest.

He released the first nipple with a pop, and made his way over to the other side to repeat the process. His movements were quickly reducing you to a whimpering mess beneath him.

You arched your back again, bringing one hand down from the side of Sam's head to reach between you. You were desperate to feel him, desperate to make him feel as good as he was making you feel.

You slid your hand into the waistband of his linen pants, gliding over his smooth hips before wrapping a hand around his hard cock. As soon as you made contact, Sam's lips left your nipple and he rested his forehead on your sternum, breathing heavily.

"Fuck," he breathed out, trying to control himself.

"Is this what you always thought it would feel like?" You whispered into his hair, sliding your hand back and forth lightly. You collected a bead of precum from the tip, running your thumb along the underside and silently marveling at how big he was.

"Fuck no," he shook his head, lifting slightly to look down in between you at where your hand disappeared into his pants. "This is so much better." He looked up into your eyes, leaning forward to kiss you before continuing. "The amount of times I've jerked off and wished it was your touch..."

He trailed off as you smiled, somewhat proud that you weren't the only one pining in your friendship over the years.

"I've thought about you too," you admitted, continuing the slow movements of your hand.

Sam reached up to pinch your nipple lightly. "Hmmm," he mumbled, stumbling over his thoughts while your thumb ran around his tip again. "What did you think about?"

"Mostly how badly I wanted to feel you inside me," you blushed. "And I had a feeling you had a big cock."

"Oh my god," Sam sighed, dropping his forehead to rest on yours. "Are you gonna take it all?" He rasped, making you gasp and arch your back again as you nodded.

"Can I suck it first?" You whispered, biting your lip while you guaged his reaction. Sam squeezed his eyes shut, bringing a hand up to hold onto your throat again.

His thumb migrated over your chin and into your mouth, where you rolled your tongue over it and sucked softly. Sam drew in a shuddered breath, keeping his eyes locked to where his thumb disappeared into your mouth. You felt him throb in your hand, becoming impossibly harder.

"Fuck, as much as I would love that..." he spoke slowly and quietly, "I don't think I'll last very long. Next time," he whispered into the thick air between you. Butterflies erupted in your stomach at the mention of doing this again.

You smiled around his thumb in your mouth before he withdrew it, drawing away from you completely and moving to stand above you at the end of the bed. The elastic of his waistband snapped against his tan skin as he stood, your hand slipping out of his pants in the process. He slowly stripped while he stared you down from his position at your feet, throwing his shirt, pants, and boxers off to the side of his room.

You brought your hand up to your mouth as you watched him, licking away the salty precum from your fingers. Your eyes closed briefly as you savored the taste of him and you let out a satisfied hum. From the end of the bed, you heard a groan that made you open your eyes.

You had a perfect view of Sam standing between your bent legs, his own hand working slowly over his cock.

"Holy fuck, kid," he whispered. "You like the way I taste?"

You nodded at him with heavily lidded eyes, grinning at the effect you were clearly having on him. Your hands trailed down your own body, enjoying the way that Sam's eyes were following every move, until they reached the elastic band at the top of your panties. You made a point to slide them down slowly over your legs, bending your knees at a ninety degree angle so that you could slide them off completely. You tossed them to the side of the room where they landed with the pile of clothing Sam had already created, and planted your feet flat on the bed. You let your legs fall open slightly, intentionally giving Sam a sneak peek of your pussy.

He let out another strained groan above you, shaking his head as he moved to wrap one hand around each of your ankles.

"I think you're trying to kill me," he said softly. Your giggle turned into a yelping sound as he yanked you closer towards the edge of the bed, using his grip on your ankles to fold your legs back. He leaned over your lower half, eyes stuck on the way that your pussy was spread out just for him.

"Keep your legs just like this," he ordered, trailing his hands up to your calves and then to your knees as he spread your legs even wider. He kept his hands over your knees as he leaned down closer to your center, letting a trail of spit dangle from his mouth to land on your pussy.

You clenched around nothing as his saliva landed on you, and Sam was studying your body closely enough that he caught the subtle movement.

"You like that?" he questioned, eyes briefly flickering up to meet yours. You nodded in response, swallowing audibly while your gaze followed Sam's right index finger moving towards your core.

You gasped and tossed your head back into the duvet as his finger rubbed a slow circle over your aching clit. Again, you clenched around nothing while your head lifted slightly to look at Sam.

"Please," you whimpered, trying to maintain your composure.

"Please what, baby?" Sam teased, keeping his touch light. "You want me to fill you up? What do you want, my fingers or my cock? Use your words, sweetheart."

You groaned at his words, lightly thrusting your hips up into his hand in an effort to gain more friction from his finger that was still slowly circling you.

"I don't care, Sammy," you whispered. "Please, just do something. You're driving me crazy..." The last part of your sentence left your lips on a whine, desperate for Sam to touch you.

"Shhhhh, baby, it's okay," he soothed, dragging his finger down towards your entrance. "You can have my fingers for now, baby. Got to make sure you're nice and stretched out for me..."

His voice trailed off into a groan when his index finger slipped into you. You cried out at the sensation, thrusting your hips upwards once again to draw him in further.

He slowly drew his finger out of you before plunging it back in, repeating the pattern until you were writhing underneath him and begging for more.

"You want another?" Sam questioned softly, eyes glued to the spot where his hand connected to your body.

"Please, Sammy," you whispered desperately.

"You sound so pretty like this," he mused, removing his finger and rubbing it over your clit before bringing two back down to your entrance. "Deep breath, baby girl. You're so tight, I don't want to hurt you..."

You followed his instructions and inhaled deeply, accepting the added intrusion with ease. His fingers curled into you as you clawed at the duvet, desperate for something to hold onto.

"Sammy," you moaned out on a whisper. "That's so good. So good..." You trailed off, closing your eyes and turning to bury your face into the bedding underneath you.

Your eyes were ripped open again as you felt another string of saliva land on your clit. You watched as Sam's free hand left its resting place on your knee and began rubbing over your core. The combined sensation of both of his hands working over you drove you closer to the edge, and you clenched down hard around his fingers.

"Think you can cum like this, baby?"

"Mhmm," you nodded, hands reaching to pinch your own nipples. "Keep talking to me, Sammy. I love it when you talk to me..."

"God, you're so fucking good," Sam rasped, leaning over you more closely and letting his eyes trail over every inch of your body. "You're so fucking tight, and wet, I just know you're gonna feel so good wrapped around my cock..."

You clenched around his fingers again, making him moan out on his next breath as he started pumping them faster into you.

"Come on, baby, give it up," he coaxed. "I can feel it, you want to let go so badly. Make a mess of me, sweetheart, come on..."

His left hand moved faster in circles over your clit while his right hand drove his two fingers into you faster and harder. The edges of your vision started to blacken as you felt your hips lifting off the bed, pausing there while your eyes pinched shut and you cried out. You rode the waves of pleasure until you stopped seeing stars, Sam's eyes glued to your face the whole time.

"I could watch you do that every day for the rest of my life," he whispered, slowly withdrawing his hands from your core. He smoothed his hands around to your hips, working his way up over the soft skin at your sides and working his thumbs over the peaks of your nipples.

Your eyes slowly opened as you melted into the soft movements of his hands, humming to yourself and taking in the sight of him above you.

One of his hands left your body, and you watched him wrap a fist around his own cock that had been left to obscenely bob between you. You licked your lips when you spied a drop of precum glistening at the tip.

"Sam," you whispered, reaching out to grasp his torso. You pulled him closer to you in the process, your hands gripping the smooth skin of his abdomen.

"Are you ready for me, baby?" he questioned, leaning in to rest his forehead against yours while his hand continued its subtle movements between you.

You nodded, moving his face with yours in the process. You angled your face up slightly, tilting your lips towards his. He took the hint, capturing your mouth in a heated kiss as he moaned against you.

When you broke apart for a breath, you whispered against his lips. "Fuck me like you do in your dreams, Sammy..."

He let out a whimper, threading his free hand into your hair and taking a step even closer to you at the foot of the bed. His sudden closeness caused the tip of his cock to grind against your clit, and you cried out.

"There it is, baby," he rasped, continuing to rub himself against you. "That's how you sound in my dreams..."

With one more slant of his hips, he lined up his cock at your entrance. He slid in inch by inch, watching your face intently as your mouth dropped open and your eyes rolled back. He smiled, knowing that the intensity of the feeling was mutual, before pulling back slightly and slamming his hips back into yours.

Sam straightened his posture slightly, leaning back to watch where he disappeared into you. His hands wandered down your sides, coming to rest at your hips just above the crease where your legs start. Once he had a grip on you, he started moving with more intent. He pounded into you relentlessly, watching your tits bounce with every snap of his hips. The grunts escaping his parted lips matched the whines escaping yours, and the two of you were completely lost in one another.

"That's it, baby," Sam panted, nuzzling his face into your neck. His lips left a trail from your collarbone down to your nipple, where he latched on like his life depended on it. After sucking it harshly for a few seconds, his lips let it go and he licked softly over the peak. He let his tongue trace across the center of your sternum as he repeated the process with your other nipple.

"Sammy, please," you cried, fingers threading into his hair and keeping his face pressed into your chest. He was still moving his hips at a bruising pace, his cock swelling inside you even more as he listened to you beg.

"I've got you," he whispered into your chest. "Just let it happen, baby. Give up another one for me, you know you want to..."

You were nodding along with his words as he spoke, convincing yourself to just let go. You felt the orgasm blooming inside you but held yourself back from the edge.

"It's too much, Sammy," you cried, tears rolling out the corners of your eyes. "It's too strong. It feels too good. I - I -..."

He lifted his head from your chest, moving one of his hands up from your waist to wipe away the tears on your face. Still, his length pounded into you with no reprieve.

"I told you, baby, I've got you," he consoled you. "Just let go, it's gonna be so good... soak me, baby, come on," he was mumbling against your cheek, practically begging you to make a mess of him.

A few more strokes of him inside you had the feeling bursting out of you like you'd never felt before. You felt the evidence of your orgasm raining down over Sam's length and pooling on the blanket under your ass. You opened your eyes to find Sam already looking at you, a smile on his face as he admired your flushed skin.

"That was fucking hot, baby," he grunted, the efforts of his powerful thrusts wearing on him. "We're gonna have some fun with that in the future," he grinned, winking at you. You smiled back at him, reaching up to trace your hands over the smooth skin on his chest.

"That's never happened to me before," you admitted sheepishly. "You just make me feel so fucking good, Sammy. So good..."

You felt his cock swell again as he thrusted into you more sloppily, and you could tell he was close.

"Where do you want me to cum, baby?" he breathed out over your cheek.

You didn't hesitate. "Inside. Please Sammy, inside," you begged, desperately wanting him to fill you up.

Sam traced a hand over your hair, smoothing an unruly strand out of your face. "Gladly," he whispered, using one hand to grip your chin so that he could guide your face towards his.

He pulled you into a deep kiss, grunting as he faltered in his thrusts and spilled into you. He slowed his hips significantly to avoid the overstimulation, but you were caught up in the feeling of fullness that his orgasm had provided. You moaned against his lips, and he eventually broke the kiss to lean his forehead against yours. You were both panting, trying to catch your breath and trying to hold onto the magic of the moment.

Sam gave you a lopsided smile, his kiss-swollen lips pulling back to expose his perfectly white teeth. He once again reached up to move a stray strand of hair away from your face.

"That was incredible," he whispered, the smile spreading even wider across his face.

"As good as you imagined it would be?" you questioned, raising an eyebrow at him with a grin.

"Better. So much better," he replied without hesitation. "Fuck, it's like you're made for me," he continued, kissing over both your cheeks and the tip of your nose. You giggled, clenching your pussy around his softening cock and reminding both of you that he was still resting inside you.

"I'm gonna pull out now, baby," he whispered as a warning.

You brought a hand up to the side of his face, rubbing over the stubble on his cheek. "I hate this part," you admitted quietly.

"Me too, sweetheart," he replied softly, turning his face slightly so that he could lay a kiss into your palm. He rocked his hips slowly, drawing his length further out of you on each backwards movement until he pulled it out completely.

You hissed at the sudden feeling of emptiness, but your discomfort was short lived as you registered Sam's hands gliding down your body to the tops of your bent knees. He held your legs open, eyes glued to your cunt where he watched in awe as his release trickled out of you.

He reached down, running a finger through the mess he made and bringing that same finger up to your lips. He watched expectantly as you wrapped your lips around his finger, lapping up his cum and swirling your tongue around the digit to ensure it was clean.

"Fuck," he whispered, watching every miniscule movement of your lips. "I think we just unlocked a new kink of mine," he admitted.

You smiled as he removed his finger from your lips. "I'm into it," you grinned, wrapping a hand around Sam's arm and pulling him down to kiss you. "We've got time to explore all the kinks you can think of..."

"Fuck, I can't wait baby," he replied against your lips, pausing to kiss you again. "You're staying here with me tonight," he whispered. "We'll get some dinner, drink some more wine, maybe do this again..." he trailed off, painting the picture of a perfect evening.

You froze as you remembered the boyfriend waiting for you at home. Sam seemed to read your mind, reaching up to stroke your hair as if he could physically remove the thought from your mind. "Don't think about him. Don't think about anything. We'll stay in this bubble for tonight, and we'll deal with the rest tomorrow."

You nodded slowly, eyes tracing over Sam's beautiful face. "I guess if I don't go home tonight, that kind of ends things." You both let out a chuckle at that.

"It would," Sam agreed. "Is that what you want?"

You hummed in contemplation. "Yeah, I think it's time. Is that what you want?"

"I want you. All the time, forever. I always have, since the day I met you. So yes, I think you should stay here with me and leave him for good."

You smiled at Sam's admission, nodding in agreement.

"Does that sound like a plan?" he asked, smiling down at you.

"Sounds like a great plan," you agreed.

The two of you moved to get up from the bed, Sam tossing you a spare set of clothes from his dresser that were more comfortable than the clothes you had worn to his house. You pulled on the too-long sweatpants and the long sleeved Paul McCartney tour shirt that hung far past your wrists while Sam pulled on black linen pants and a grey cashmere sweater. You shared a goofy smile before you followed him out to the living room, where you cracked open a new bottle of wine and Sam placed an order from the local Chinese food place.

With a belly full of Chinese food and wine, and a heart full of promises of the future, you fell asleep tangled in Sam's arms on the couch while The Force Awakens played in the background.

You felt his lips in your hair as he pressed a kiss to the crown of your head. "Goodnight, my love," he whispered.

[strngehorizons]

Talk

Sam x reader

Summary: You and Sam have been friends for years, but something has always lingered beneath the surface. It takes one Hozier song and a lot of pent-up tension to realize that you both feel the same way.

Heavily inspired by both this photo of Sammy and the song Talk by Hozier, but very lightly edited. Mostly just pure self-indulgent filth, I'm sorry

Warnings: cheating (oopsie), unprotected sex (I'm terrible at this so if it needs other warnings, someone pls tell me)

Your phone started vibrating in the cup holder as you pulled onto Sam's new street. You reached your thumb across the steering wheel to press the Bluetooth button before slowing down to read the address numbers neatly printed across the mailboxes out your tinted windows.

"Helloooooooooo?" You drew the word out, eyes still scanning for the house number that Sam had texted you hours earlier.

"Hey kid," Sam's raspy voice rang out through your car speakers, making you smile. "How far away are ya?"

"Hmmmm, about 10 houses," you answered, unexplained anticipation building like a lump in the back of your throat.

"Perrrrrrfect," he drawled. "I'm in the backyard, so just come through the gate at the side when you get here. Rose, get away from that!"

You heard a clatter in the background, before you heard Sam's quiet "fuck" come across the phone line. You giggled to yourself, surmising that the bouncy puppy had knocked something over.

"Gotta go. See you in a minute, kid." Sam hung up on the call before you could get another word out. It didn't matter, you were pulling into his lengthy driveway anyways. As tall pines surrounded the car on both sides, you thought about the situation you were heading into.

You and Sam had been friends for a few years. What started as acquaintances quickly blossomed into friendship when you realized how much you had in common - you had started cutting your teeth in Nashville as the administrative assistant to the head of Sam's record label, so you were often around the offices during meetings and the studio during recording sessions. As the months passed, and you memorized the guys' coffee orders, you had begun to build favour with the four of them. Sam had taken a particular liking to you during one of the label's industry dinners, picking your brain about music and movies and everything in between. The two of you had a friendship that couldn't be explained to anyone but you, and you had learned to ignore teasing comments from the other guys long ago. Your boyfriend, and Sam's girlfriend, were far less immune to the sensitivity of the other boys' teasing - your boyfriend didn't particularly care for Sam, and Sam's girlfriend didn't really care for you. You had tried to hang out as a foursome multiple times, but it usually ended with you and Sam in a conversation that the other two just couldn't relate or contribute to.

So, much to their dismay, you and Sam had resorted to hanging out every once in a while without the two of them. It made for awkward nights when you returned home to your boyfriend, but you knew that you had nothing to feel guilty about. Nothing had ever happened with Sam, and you were certain that nothing ever would. Your miniscule crush on Sam was suppressed into the deepest depths of your soul, because you were certain that he would never feel the same way. And there was no point in ruining your friendship, or your current relationship, for something that would never happen.

All of this is what brought you to the top of Sam's new driveway, bottle of wine and housewarming gift on the backseat, ready for a night to just hang out and exist together.

You gathered all of your items from the car before stepping out and grabbing your packages from the backseat. The car door slamming shut alerted Rose to your presence, and she started barking from the backyard.

You wandered towards the sound at the side gate that Sam had mentioned, taking in the beauty of his new house as you walked. The house had a rustic quality to it, and it definitely looked like it belonged in the woodland neighborhood. Sam had moved out of the hectic rush of Nashville's east side, and had chosen to settle about 30 minutes out of the city in a spot closer to the Tennessee mountains. The new property definitely seemed to be more his style, laid back and surrounded by nature just as you always pictured him to be.

You reached the gate, shuffling the items in your arms until you freed one of your hands to unlatch it. You were greeted by a bouncy puppy, smiling as you reached down to pat the top of Rose's head. She pranced next to you excitedly while you walked further into the yard, spotting Sam across from the inground swimming pool. He was kneeling on the stone patio, leaning back so that he was almost sitting on his bare feet. Spread out in front of him was an array of soils, plant pots, and orchids. He looked up when you approached, giving you a coy smile and making the effort to stand to his feet.

"Well, well, look who it is..." His smile spread across his face even bigger when you slid your sunglasses up into your hair like a headband. Sam walked closer to you, reaching out to take the items from your arms. You were suddenly glad that you had so many things to carry - it meant that there was a buffer in between you and Sam for the time being. You always felt awkward meeting up with him or saying goodbye when you had nothing in your hands... the two of you made a subconscious effort never to let physical touch linger too long, and you had never once hugged Sam in the years that you had been close friends. It was part of the reason why you felt your crush was not reciprocated - the man in front of you now clearly wanted nothing to do with touching you in any capacity.

Your mind brought you back to the present before you could spiral too far, and you turned to follow Sam as he walked towards the back door of the house. You spotted a broken terra cotta pot on the table next to the door.

"Is that what Rose broke?" You asked, pointing to the table.

Sam just laughed. "You heard that, huh?" You nodded, catching Sam's eye while he opened the door. "Yeah, she's a menace..."

Sam trailed off as you both entered his new space. Spread out in front of you was a sizeable kitchen, complete with a tiled island in the centre and a double oven on the far wall.

"Holy shit, Sammy," you lamented as you took in the room. He was smiling while he placed the items you had brought on the counter, turning around to put the bottle of wine in the fridge. "This is incredible!"

"You think so?" He asked, suddenly appearing self conscious. "I mean, it's been such a big change and I'm so happy, but.... sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision by moving out here."

"I think it's amazing," you answered honestly. "It's so peaceful, and just so... you."

He smiled so big at your statement that it showed off all his teeth, his plump lips pulling back in the most beautiful way. You cleared your throat and gestured towards the doorway that led to the rest of the house.

"But I want the full tour," you prompted, feeling butterflies erupt in your stomach from the way that Sam's eyes were studying you. He did this sometimes when the two of you would hang out - studying your every movement, down to the twitch of your nose or the slight crinkle between your eyebrows when you realized what he was doing. It felt like he was trying to decipher your deepest secrets, and there were definitely thoughts within your brain that you didn't want him to clue into. You had reached a careful balance of thoughts and actions over the years of being his friend, and the only time you felt the facade crack a little bit were times when he studied you like this.

You blushed under his intense gaze, reaching out to tuck a stray piece of hair behind your ear at the same time. This movement seemed to break his trance, and he suddenly remembered who he was and what you were doing.

"A tour, right! Follow me, I'll give you the grand tour..." Sam trailed off as he started walking out the kitchen doorway, reaching up to touch his fingertips to the door frame on his way out.

He gestured wildly as he toured you through the rest of the raised bungalow, taking you through the hallway that separated the bathroom and three bedrooms from the main space. One of the bedrooms was being used for art supplies and paintings, and another was being used for music equipment and instruments. He passed by the third bedroom door casually, raising a hand as you walked by.

"This is the master bedroom, where the magic happens, yada yada yada..." he trailed off, trying to remain nonchalant while he watched you peek your head through the doorframe. The room held the glow of the late afternoon sun, and the king bed that rested in the center was covered in dark green bedding and orange pillows. A mid century modern dresser stood against the far wall, with a framed picture of Rose on top next to an intense looking speaker system.

You ducked your head back out of the doorframe and turned your attention back to Sam in the hallway. "Wow, your room is very zen," you remarked, carrying on down the hall.

"Thanks... that means a lot, coming from the 'zen queen'," he joked. "The only thing I'm really missing from the old place is my plants," he continued, "but that's what I was starting to work on when you showed up."

"Well don't let me keep you from your important planting," you jested. "I'm sure I could find something else to do with my night if you want to continue..."

The hurt look that flashed across Sam's face at your comment caught you off guard briefly, but he quickly recovered.

"Actually, I was waiting for someone to show up cause I need some help. So I'm going to put you to work," he smiled. "Consider it repayment for the big fancy dinner I'm going to cook you later."

"It doesn't count as repayment if you haven't cooked the dinner yet, Sammy."

"Fine, prepayment, whatever..." he rolled his eyes as the two of you bickered your way back to the kitchen. He continued walking back to the door that led to the backyard, while you stopped next to the island.

"Want to get some wine poured while I run outside and grab something?" He asked, pointing to the cupboard next to the fridge. "Glasses are in there, and the opener is in the drawer above the dishwasher. I'll be right back." He gave a mock salute before slipping out the door.

You got to work on pulling wine glasses out of the cupboard Sam had pointed out, retrieving the bottle of wine you had brought from the fridge and twisting the top off. You poured two generous glasses, taking a sip from one while you watched Sam open the back door again. He was carrying a mess of rope and plant pots, placing everything on the tiled counter of the island before reaching for his wine glass. He hummed to himself, glancing over to where the bottle rested on the counter.

"You didn't need the opener?" He asked, swishing the wine around before taking a small sip.

"Sam." You leveled him with a look. "I learned my lesson with bottle corks years ago, remember? I've been using twist-offs ever since."

"Right, right, how could I ever forget?" He chuckled to himself, no doubt lost in the memory of you trying and failing to get the cork out of a wine bottle and smashing the whole thing on the middle of your kitchen floor. It had been a party at your apartment, and that spill had led to a days long argument with your boyfriend. He thought you had done it on purpose for attention. Sam had been the one to run to your pantry for extra paper towels, carefully bagging the broken glass and walking it out to the apartment building's dumpster before returning to the party. His girlfriend had watched the interaction with shifty eyes, but you were just thankful that he had taken over the cleaning. Your hands had been shaking too badly to risk having anywhere near the broken glass.

Sam took a longer sip of his wine, trying to clear the mildly unpleasant memory, and gestured to the materials he had brought in from outside.

"So I have these macrame plant holders," he started, "and I want to hang them in front of the kitchen windows. But I think it's a two person job, cause someone needs to hold them up while the other person drills the hooks into the ceiling."

You nodded as he spoke, following along with his plans. "Whatever you need, Sammy boy," you hummed, grabbing a macrame rope from the counter. He went to fetch the drill while you dragged a kitchen chair over to the first window frame.

"I think if you stand on the chair and hold up the hook, I can reach it with the drill since, ya know, I'm taller." He gave you a smirk.

"Congratutions on being tall," you rolled your eyes. "Can't relate," you added.

"I know you can't," he smiled down at you smugly, pressing the drill's button and whirring the machine in his hand while stepping closer to you.

You took steps backwards as he took slow steps forwards, until the backs of your legs hit the kitchen chair you had placed by the window pane. Sam held eye contact with you as you swallowed the nervous lump in your throat. Suddenly, he reached his free hand out to hold in front of you. You took it slowly, stepping up so that you were standing on the kitchen chair. You reluctantly let go of his hand once you were steady, wishing that you could have lingered longer with his touch on yours.

In your new positions, Sam's face rested at the height of your sternum. He reached up easily with the drill, to the place where he wanted the plant holder to hang from, and started making a preliminary hole. You watched his careful hands as they smoothed away the excess drywall dust, moving out of the way for you to reach up with the hook. You attached it into the ceiling, twisting the screwed end in to secure it and actively trying to ignore the way that you could feel Sam's exhaling breath landing on your slightly exposed chest. The closeness of his breathing made you wobble on the chair, losing your balance only slightly before Sam's free hand reached out to your hip in an effort to steady you.

"Careful," he rasped, watching you turn the screw the last couple of times before removing your hands from the ceiling. His eyes met yours when you brought your hands down to your sides, snatching his own hand away from your body as if it had touched an open flame.

"You good?" He asked, reaching out a hand for you to hop down from the chair. You just nodded, letting your feet hit the floor again and dragging the chair over to the next window opening in order to repeat the process.

The two of you worked in silent tandem, repeating the movements twice more to cover off all of the windows in Sam's new kitchen. When the last macrame holder was screwed in, you dragged the chair back to the table in the breakfast nook while Sam retrieved the potted plants from where he had left them on the island. You watched silently as he maneuvered the pots into the holders, adjusting the plants so that their leaves hung down between the ropes.

When he reached up to do the second plant pot, you realized that his black button up shirt had ridden up towards his belly button. A light dusting of hair trailed over his tanned skin and led into the confines of his pants, making you blush and turn away to your wineglass. You gave your head a slight shake to ward away the thoughts you were having about your friend - you tried to turn your mind to your boyfriend, wondering what he was doing at home right now. The problem was, you didn't really care.

"There," Sam proclaimed as he finished fluffing the leaves on the last plant. "That feels a little more like home to me." He smiled at your handiwork, and then turned to smile at you.

"Looks great," you agreed, nodding into your wine glass as you pushed it to your lips once again. Your cheeks were starting to feel flushed - you'd downed a fair bit of the alcohol while waiting for Sam to finish adjusting the plants.

"You know what would make it feel even more like home, I bet?" You asked, raising your eyebrows in Sam's direction.

"This will be good," he deadpanned in return.

"A record! You do have your player hooked up already, don't you?" Your eyes betrayed your excitement - Sam had the best record collection of anyone you'd ever met.

"Uhhh, duh!" came Sam's response, grabbing his wine off of the counter and waving a hand behind him for you to follow into the living room.

You settled onto Sam's pink velvet couch, the numerous throw pillows instantly engulfing you and making you sink into the cushions. You placed your wine glass on the coffee table in front of you while you took in the room in more detail than you'd been able to on your brief tour earlier.

The room was large, easily accounting for Sam's piano that stood in the corner. Across from the couch was a fireplace, a large screen TV hanging above it. The left side of the room is where Sam stood in front of a vintage looking sideboard. The cupboard of the unit stood open, and Sam was shuffling through the extensive record collection hidden inside. His record player stood proudly on the top of the walnut coloured piece of furniture.

While he searched for the perfect album, you took another sweeping look across the room. You noticed that the only photos in frames were of Rose and Sam's family. The only knick knacks around the space were the ones that Sam had brought home from touring the world. Your breath caught as you made the realization - you had yet to see anything belonging to Sam's girlfriend in his new house. On the one hand, it was his house... so it made sense that all the items would be his. On the other hand, they had been together for years at this point... you thought for sure that there would be some items of hers laying around, or at least some photos of them in the frames around the room.

"Uhhh, Sammy?" You started, stomach turning over as you anticipated asking a dumb question.

"Whats up?" He responded casually, finally choosing a record and flipping the cover over between his long fingers. He dumped the record out of the sleeve into his hand, placing it deftly on the turntable and dropping the needle onto the edge. You watched in a quiet trance as the beginning notes of Hozier's Wasteland Baby album began to play.

Sam turned around to you with his eyebrows raised, silently wondering if you were going to continue.

"It's just..." you didn't know how to phrase the question you wanted to ask. "I don't see any of Kayley's stuff around here. Or any pictures of you guys. Did I miss something?"

Sam huffed a small breath through his nostrils, settling into the couch beside you.

"I mean, we broke up if that's what you're asking."

You felt a jolt of electric energy shoot through you as you processed his words.

"What? When? We were with you guys like a month ago and everything seemed fine!" You blurted out, trying to process the new information.

"Okay, that was over a month ago, thank you very much," Sam mumbled. You threw him a look in response. "We just... we were on different pages. She assumed that me moving here meant that she was moving in, and I just... I wanted space. When I set her straight on the fact that she wasn't moving in here with me, she suggested that we see other people." He cleared his throat and glanced over at you. "Actually, she suggested that I see you instead."

Your mouth popped open in shock as you struggled to regulate your breathing. "Why on earth would she suggest that?" You mumbled, already knowing the answer. People had teased you and Sam about your natural chemistry for years. But it didn't matter, you had a boyfriend that you lived with and had loved for years. You loved him, right? Yes, you reminded yourself. Yes you did. At one point. But did you still? It didn't matter. Just because Sam suddenly found himself single didn't mean that he wanted to be with you. He hadn't ended his relationship. He would have still been with her, willingly, if she hadn't broken up with him.

All of these thoughts tumbled through your head as you and Sam maintained eye contact across the couch. He was studying you closely again, trying to peer into the depths of your thoughts and monitoring any twitch of movement on your face. The weight of his gaze was intense, and you were the first to look away.

You leaned forward to pick up your wine, taking a big gulp before setting the glass back down on the table. "Well I'm sorry to hear that, Sammy. I know how much you cared about her."

"That's true," he hummed. "I did care about her. But did I love her? I'm not sure."

You stared down at your hands, wracking your brain for something to say in return.

"Oh well, it's probably for the best," Sam continued with a sigh. "She was never really supportive of our friendship anyways. And she couldn't accept the fact that you aren't going anywhere. You're in my life for good, kid. I hope you realize that."

You glanced up, meeting the intensity of Sam's brown eyes while he took a big sip from his own wine glass.

"Trevor doesn't like it when we hang out either," you responded. "I'm pretty sure he thinks something is going on between us." You rolled your eyes at the absurdity of the assumption.

Sam let out a chuckle beside you. "I kind of gathered that," he laughed. "That dude looks like he wants to beat the shit out of me every chance that he gets."

You smiled too at that, knowing that Sam was only partially joking, and leaned back further into the plush pillows of the couch. The soft sounds of Hozier floated over you as you let your eyes close for a second.

"Sammy, these speakers are amazing," you mumbled out, eyes still closed.

"They're nice, huh? Want to see something cool?" You felt the couch shift beside you as Sam stood up, and when you opened your eyes he was standing in front of you holding an outstretched hand in your direction.

"I always want to see something cool," you replied with a smile, taking his hand and letting him pull you up from the comfort of the couch.

Sam kept a hold of your hand as he pulled you down the hallway that led to the bedrooms and the bathroom. He took a sharp turn into his bedroom, dropping your hand once you made it through the doorway and walking over to flick the power switch on the speakers that sat atop his dresser. The same Hozier song that was playing from the record in the living room boomed through the bedroom speakers.

"Holy shit, they're all connected?!" You asked excitedly. Sam just nodded at you, smiling at your reaction.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

"The coolest, Sammy. You're pretty much the coolest person I know," you smiled.

You sat down on the end of his bed as the final notes of Shrike played out through the speakers. Sam had been hovering near the dresser, but he slowly made his way over towards you while the first chords of Talk played out through the house.

You had spread your arms out behind you, propping yourself up on your hands while leaning back slightly to watch Sam as he approached. He stopped in front of you, stepping in between your slightly parted legs. His presence loomed over you in a way that made you short of breath. You held each other's stare as he took another small step forward, now crowding you slightly. You held your breath as the chorus of the song started.

I won't deny

I've got in my mind now

All the things i would do

So I'll try to talk refined

For fear that you'll find out

How I'm imagining you

As Hozier's words hung softly in the air around the two of you, Sam slowly brought his hand up to your face. He ran the pad of his thumb over your closed lips, catching slightly on the plumpness of your bottom one while he dragged his finger over it.

You swallowed thickly, leaning back even further and craning your neck up to maintain eye contact. The position allowed for your neck to be completely exposed, and the slow drag of Sam's hand followed the curve of it until his fingers lightly wrapped around your throat.

He leaned forward even more, making you almost horizontal on the bed, and whispered against your lips. "This song has always made me think of you."

It felt like fireworks were going off in your brain. What did he mean? Did he think of you in the way that you thought of him sometimes? Was he willing to risk your friendship for this? Were you willing to risk your relationship for this?

The alarm bells in your head were silenced by one simple thought that overrode all the others - you would go anywhere and do anything for this man in front of you, consequences be damned.

He brought your attention back to the present by lightly squeezing his fingers around your throat.

"Just say the word and I'll stop," he whispered, his breath fanning across your parted lips. "God, I need to know how you taste. You've been driving me insane for years..."

His voice trailed off as he leaned in impossibly closer to you, watching closely for the slight nod you gave before he finally covered your lips with his. He pressed himself further into you, letting go of your throat in favour of holding himself up with an arm extended next to your head. His lips parted slowly, inviting your tongue into his mouth and pushing back with his own to deepen the kiss.

Your moan was stifled against Sam's lips, but he seemed to take it as encouragement to kiss you even harder. You leaned back onto your elbows, eventually falling to your back as Sam drove you even further into the bed. Your hands skated their way up Sam's torso, pausing to undo the few buttons that had been done up on his shirt, and eventually they found their home in the hair at the base of Sam's neck. You gave a light tug to the strands, earning a deep groan from the man above you that vibrated against your lips. You couldn't help but smile against his kiss, making him pause and pull away from you for a moment.

"You have no idea how many times I've had to hold myself back from doing that," Sam admitted quietly, ducking down to brush his nose back and forth against yours a few times.

You smiled, adjusting yourself on the bed underneath him and lightly thrusting your hips into his. You could feel how hard he was already, even throught the layers of clothing separating you two.

He groaned again at your movements, reaching up to grasp your wrists before bringing them back down to pin against the bed above your head. He held you there for a moment, running his thumbs over the delicate skin on your wrists.

"Show me," you whispered. His eyebrows knitted together in silent question, not understanding what you meant. "Show me what else you've wanted to do to me," you clarified, daring him to make another move.

A devilish smirk appeared on his lips before he leaned down to nuzzle his lips into the skin between your neck and your ear. "As you wish," he mumbled.

Sam's lips began tracing a pathway from the side of your neck down to your sternum, pausing briefly to have you lift your shirt over your head. He began working back down, hovering his lips low on your hip bones while he shimmied your shorts down and off your legs. Lying beneath him in just your bra and panties for the first time, you didn't have time to be self conscious. He let out a shaky breath as he ran his hands delicately up your sides, taking his time feeling the smooth skin and admiring you in a way that he had never had the privilege of seeing.

His eyes traced up to your face while his hands made their way to your bra, keeping eye contact as he pulled the cups down to expose your nipples. They immediately pebbled in the cool air of the room, and Sam's glance down to them made him release a quiet whimper. He immediately leaned in, taking one into his mouth and suckling harshly. You let out a cry at the feeling, arching your back and tossing your head back into the mattress. Your hands reached down to hold the sides of Sam's head, holding him in place as he continued running his mouth around your chest.

He released the first nipple with a pop, and made his way over to the other side to repeat the process. His movements were quickly reducing you to a whimpering mess beneath him.

You arched your back again, bringing one hand down from the side of Sam's head to reach between you. You were desperate to feel him, desperate to make him feel as good as he was making you feel.

You slid your hand into the waistband of his linen pants, gliding over his smooth hips before wrapping a hand around his hard cock. As soon as you made contact, Sam's lips left your nipple and he rested his forehead on your sternum, breathing heavily.

"Fuck," he breathed out, trying to control himself.

"Is this what you always thought it would feel like?" You whispered into his hair, sliding your hand back and forth lightly. You collected a bead of precum from the tip, running your thumb along the underside and silently marveling at how big he was.

"Fuck no," he shook his head, lifting slightly to look down in between you at where your hand disappeared into his pants. "This is so much better." He looked up into your eyes, leaning forward to kiss you before continuing. "The amount of times I've jerked off and wished it was your touch..."

He trailed off as you smiled, somewhat proud that you weren't the only one pining in your friendship over the years.

"I've thought about you too," you admitted, continuing the slow movements of your hand.

Sam reached up to pinch your nipple lightly. "Hmmm," he mumbled, stumbling over his thoughts while your thumb ran around his tip again. "What did you think about?"

"Mostly how badly I wanted to feel you inside me," you blushed. "And I had a feeling you had a big cock."

"Oh my god," Sam sighed, dropping his forehead to rest on yours. "Are you gonna take it all?" He rasped, making you gasp and arch your back again as you nodded.

"Can I suck it first?" You whispered, biting your lip while you guaged his reaction. Sam squeezed his eyes shut, bringing a hand up to hold onto your throat again.

His thumb migrated over your chin and into your mouth, where you rolled your tongue over it and sucked softly. Sam drew in a shuddered breath, keeping his eyes locked to where his thumb disappeared into your mouth. You felt him throb in your hand, becoming impossibly harder.

"Fuck, as much as I would love that..." he spoke slowly and quietly, "I don't think I'll last very long. Next time," he whispered into the thick air between you. Butterflies erupted in your stomach at the mention of doing this again.

You smiled around his thumb in your mouth before he withdrew it, drawing away from you completely and moving to stand above you at the end of the bed. The elastic of his waistband snapped against his tan skin as he stood, your hand slipping out of his pants in the process. He slowly stripped while he stared you down from his position at your feet, throwing his shirt, pants, and boxers off to the side of his room.

You brought your hand up to your mouth as you watched him, licking away the salty precum from your fingers. Your eyes closed briefly as you savored the taste of him and you let out a satisfied hum. From the end of the bed, you heard a groan that made you open your eyes.

You had a perfect view of Sam standing between your bent legs, his own hand working slowly over his cock.

"Holy fuck, kid," he whispered. "You like the way I taste?"

You nodded at him with heavily lidded eyes, grinning at the effect you were clearly having on him. Your hands trailed down your own body, enjoying the way that Sam's eyes were following every move, until they reached the elastic band at the top of your panties. You made a point to slide them down slowly over your legs, bending your knees at a ninety degree angle so that you could slide them off completely. You tossed them to the side of the room where they landed with the pile of clothing Sam had already created, and planted your feet flat on the bed. You let your legs fall open slightly, intentionally giving Sam a sneak peek of your pussy.

He let out another strained groan above you, shaking his head as he moved to wrap one hand around each of your ankles.

"I think you're trying to kill me," he said softly. Your giggle turned into a yelping sound as he yanked you closer towards the edge of the bed, using his grip on your ankles to fold your legs back. He leaned over your lower half, eyes stuck on the way that your pussy was spread out just for him.

"Keep your legs just like this," he ordered, trailing his hands up to your calves and then to your knees as he spread your legs even wider. He kept his hands over your knees as he leaned down closer to your center, letting a trail of spit dangle from his mouth to land on your pussy.

You clenched around nothing as his saliva landed on you, and Sam was studying your body closely enough that he caught the subtle movement.

"You like that?" he questioned, eyes briefly flickering up to meet yours. You nodded in response, swallowing audibly while your gaze followed Sam's right index finger moving towards your core.

You gasped and tossed your head back into the duvet as his finger rubbed a slow circle over your aching clit. Again, you clenched around nothing while your head lifted slightly to look at Sam.

"Please," you whimpered, trying to maintain your composure.

"Please what, baby?" Sam teased, keeping his touch light. "You want me to fill you up? What do you want, my fingers or my cock? Use your words, sweetheart."

You groaned at his words, lightly thrusting your hips up into his hand in an effort to gain more friction from his finger that was still slowly circling you.

"I don't care, Sammy," you whispered. "Please, just do something. You're driving me crazy..." The last part of your sentence left your lips on a whine, desperate for Sam to touch you.

"Shhhhh, baby, it's okay," he soothed, dragging his finger down towards your entrance. "You can have my fingers for now, baby. Got to make sure you're nice and stretched out for me..."

His voice trailed off into a groan when his index finger slipped into you. You cried out at the sensation, thrusting your hips upwards once again to draw him in further.

He slowly drew his finger out of you before plunging it back in, repeating the pattern until you were writhing underneath him and begging for more.

"You want another?" Sam questioned softly, eyes glued to the spot where his hand connected to your body.

"Please, Sammy," you whispered desperately.

"You sound so pretty like this," he mused, removing his finger and rubbing it over your clit before bringing two back down to your entrance. "Deep breath, baby girl. You're so tight, I don't want to hurt you..."

You followed his instructions and inhaled deeply, accepting the added intrusion with ease. His fingers curled into you as you clawed at the duvet, desperate for something to hold onto.

"Sammy," you moaned out on a whisper. "That's so good. So good..." You trailed off, closing your eyes and turning to bury your face into the bedding underneath you.

Your eyes were ripped open again as you felt another string of saliva land on your clit. You watched as Sam's free hand left its resting place on your knee and began rubbing over your core. The combined sensation of both of his hands working over you drove you closer to the edge, and you clenched down hard around his fingers.

"Think you can cum like this, baby?"

"Mhmm," you nodded, hands reaching to pinch your own nipples. "Keep talking to me, Sammy. I love it when you talk to me..."

"God, you're so fucking good," Sam rasped, leaning over you more closely and letting his eyes trail over every inch of your body. "You're so fucking tight, and wet, I just know you're gonna feel so good wrapped around my cock..."

You clenched around his fingers again, making him moan out on his next breath as he started pumping them faster into you.

"Come on, baby, give it up," he coaxed. "I can feel it, you want to let go so badly. Make a mess of me, sweetheart, come on..."

His left hand moved faster in circles over your clit while his right hand drove his two fingers into you faster and harder. The edges of your vision started to blacken as you felt your hips lifting off the bed, pausing there while your eyes pinched shut and you cried out. You rode the waves of pleasure until you stopped seeing stars, Sam's eyes glued to your face the whole time.

"I could watch you do that every day for the rest of my life," he whispered, slowly withdrawing his hands from your core. He smoothed his hands around to your hips, working his way up over the soft skin at your sides and working his thumbs over the peaks of your nipples.

Your eyes slowly opened as you melted into the soft movements of his hands, humming to yourself and taking in the sight of him above you.

One of his hands left your body, and you watched him wrap a fist around his own cock that had been left to obscenely bob between you. You licked your lips when you spied a drop of precum glistening at the tip.

"Sam," you whispered, reaching out to grasp his torso. You pulled him closer to you in the process, your hands gripping the smooth skin of his abdomen.

"Are you ready for me, baby?" he questioned, leaning in to rest his forehead against yours while his hand continued its subtle movements between you.

You nodded, moving his face with yours in the process. You angled your face up slightly, tilting your lips towards his. He took the hint, capturing your mouth in a heated kiss as he moaned against you.

When you broke apart for a breath, you whispered against his lips. "Fuck me like you do in your dreams, Sammy..."

He let out a whimper, threading his free hand into your hair and taking a step even closer to you at the foot of the bed. His sudden closeness caused the tip of his cock to grind against your clit, and you cried out.

"There it is, baby," he rasped, continuing to rub himself against you. "That's how you sound in my dreams..."

With one more slant of his hips, he lined up his cock at your entrance. He slid in inch by inch, watching your face intently as your mouth dropped open and your eyes rolled back. He smiled, knowing that the intensity of the feeling was mutual, before pulling back slightly and slamming his hips back into yours.

Sam straightened his posture slightly, leaning back to watch where he disappeared into you. His hands wandered down your sides, coming to rest at your hips just above the crease where your legs start. Once he had a grip on you, he started moving with more intent. He pounded into you relentlessly, watching your tits bounce with every snap of his hips. The grunts escaping his parted lips matched the whines escaping yours, and the two of you were completely lost in one another.

"That's it, baby," Sam panted, nuzzling his face into your neck. His lips left a trail from your collarbone down to your nipple, where he latched on like his life depended on it. After sucking it harshly for a few seconds, his lips let it go and he licked softly over the peak. He let his tongue trace across the center of your sternum as he repeated the process with your other nipple.

"Sammy, please," you cried, fingers threading into his hair and keeping his face pressed into your chest. He was still moving his hips at a bruising pace, his cock swelling inside you even more as he listened to you beg.

"I've got you," he whispered into your chest. "Just let it happen, baby. Give up another one for me, you know you want to..."

You were nodding along with his words as he spoke, convincing yourself to just let go. You felt the orgasm blooming inside you but held yourself back from the edge.

"It's too much, Sammy," you cried, tears rolling out the corners of your eyes. "It's too strong. It feels too good. I - I -..."

He lifted his head from your chest, moving one of his hands up from your waist to wipe away the tears on your face. Still, his length pounded into you with no reprieve.

"I told you, baby, I've got you," he consoled you. "Just let go, it's gonna be so good... soak me, baby, come on," he was mumbling against your cheek, practically begging you to make a mess of him.

A few more strokes of him inside you had the feeling bursting out of you like you'd never felt before. You felt the evidence of your orgasm raining down over Sam's length and pooling on the blanket under your ass. You opened your eyes to find Sam already looking at you, a smile on his face as he admired your flushed skin.

"That was fucking hot, baby," he grunted, the efforts of his powerful thrusts wearing on him. "We're gonna have some fun with that in the future," he grinned, winking at you. You smiled back at him, reaching up to trace your hands over the smooth skin on his chest.

"That's never happened to me before," you admitted sheepishly. "You just make me feel so fucking good, Sammy. So good..."

You felt his cock swell again as he thrusted into you more sloppily, and you could tell he was close.

"Where do you want me to cum, baby?" he breathed out over your cheek.

You didn't hesitate. "Inside. Please Sammy, inside," you begged, desperately wanting him to fill you up.

Sam traced a hand over your hair, smoothing an unruly strand out of your face. "Gladly," he whispered, using one hand to grip your chin so that he could guide your face towards his.

He pulled you into a deep kiss, grunting as he faltered in his thrusts and spilled into you. He slowed his hips significantly to avoid the overstimulation, but you were caught up in the feeling of fullness that his orgasm had provided. You moaned against his lips, and he eventually broke the kiss to lean his forehead against yours. You were both panting, trying to catch your breath and trying to hold onto the magic of the moment.

Sam gave you a lopsided smile, his kiss-swollen lips pulling back to expose his perfectly white teeth. He once again reached up to move a stray strand of hair away from your face.

"That was incredible," he whispered, the smile spreading even wider across his face.

"As good as you imagined it would be?" you questioned, raising an eyebrow at him with a grin.

"Better. So much better," he replied without hesitation. "Fuck, it's like you're made for me," he continued, kissing over both your cheeks and the tip of your nose. You giggled, clenching your pussy around his softening cock and reminding both of you that he was still resting inside you.

"I'm gonna pull out now, baby," he whispered as a warning.

You brought a hand up to the side of his face, rubbing over the stubble on his cheek. "I hate this part," you admitted quietly.

"Me too, sweetheart," he replied softly, turning his face slightly so that he could lay a kiss into your palm. He rocked his hips slowly, drawing his length further out of you on each backwards movement until he pulled it out completely.

You hissed at the sudden feeling of emptiness, but your discomfort was short lived as you registered Sam's hands gliding down your body to the tops of your bent knees. He held your legs open, eyes glued to your cunt where he watched in awe as his release trickled out of you.

He reached down, running a finger through the mess he made and bringing that same finger up to your lips. He watched expectantly as you wrapped your lips around his finger, lapping up his cum and swirling your tongue around the digit to ensure it was clean.

"Fuck," he whispered, watching every miniscule movement of your lips. "I think we just unlocked a new kink of mine," he admitted.

You smiled as he removed his finger from your lips. "I'm into it," you grinned, wrapping a hand around Sam's arm and pulling him down to kiss you. "We've got time to explore all the kinks you can think of..."

"Fuck, I can't wait baby," he replied against your lips, pausing to kiss you again. "You're staying here with me tonight," he whispered. "We'll get some dinner, drink some more wine, maybe do this again..." he trailed off, painting the picture of a perfect evening.

You froze as you remembered the boyfriend waiting for you at home. Sam seemed to read your mind, reaching up to stroke your hair as if he could physically remove the thought from your mind. "Don't think about him. Don't think about anything. We'll stay in this bubble for tonight, and we'll deal with the rest tomorrow."

You nodded slowly, eyes tracing over Sam's beautiful face. "I guess if I don't go home tonight, that kind of ends things." You both let out a chuckle at that.

"It would," Sam agreed. "Is that what you want?"

You hummed in contemplation. "Yeah, I think it's time. Is that what you want?"

"I want you. All the time, forever. I always have, since the day I met you. So yes, I think you should stay here with me and leave him for good."

You smiled at Sam's admission, nodding in agreement.

"Does that sound like a plan?" he asked, smiling down at you.

"Sounds like a great plan," you agreed.

The two of you moved to get up from the bed, Sam tossing you a spare set of clothes from his dresser that were more comfortable than the clothes you had worn to his house. You pulled on the too-long sweatpants and the long sleeved Paul McCartney tour shirt that hung far past your wrists while Sam pulled on black linen pants and a grey cashmere sweater. You shared a goofy smile before you followed him out to the living room, where you cracked open a new bottle of wine and Sam placed an order from the local Chinese food place.

With a belly full of Chinese food and wine, and a heart full of promises of the future, you fell asleep tangled in Sam's arms on the couch while The Force Awakens played in the background.

You felt his lips in your hair as he pressed a kiss to the crown of your head. "Goodnight, my love," he whispered.

[strngehorizons]

i'm confident that a current version of this would be the end of me

Remembering this

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🤭🤭🤭

12/30/24

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he is the archer

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my pic from st louis ☺️

jesus christ...

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more fall sweater sammy spam just because

Goodbye Hoochie Daddy Shorts Sam Summer hello Sweater Danny Autumn

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agreed, we take sammy sweater fall very seriously in sammy nation

Goodbye Hoochie Daddy Shorts Sam Summer hello Sweater Danny Autumn

[strngehorizons]

Lover, Leaver (Masterlist)

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

[strngehorizons]

Lover, Leaver (4)

Chapter Four: 7k words

Chapter Warnings: None

At certain points, this story will contain 18+ content. Minors DNI!

FOUR

__________________________________________________________

I was woken up by the shift of the mattress beside me as Violet eased herself down into my bed. I grumbled in protest and took my time rolling over to face her, keeping my face buried in the pillow as long as possible, only opening one eye when I was finally coherent. 

“Good morning, sunshine!” she exclaimed with a bright smile. “What a wild night, huh?”

“You have no idea…” I mumbled. I covered my face with my hands, rubbing my eyelids in the process. “I didn’t get to sleep until about 6:00 this morning,” I said quietly. 

Violet’s jaw dropped open. “Uhhh, excuse me? What exactly were you doing until 6:00 o’clock this morning?”

I glared in her direction. “It’s a story for the ride home,” I said. I didn’t want to get into the details of my hookup with Jake, or my surprising yet pleasant connection with Sam, while we were still under the Kiszka’s roof. “What time is it now?” I asked. 

“About 9:00,” Violet proclaimed. “You got a solid three hours of sleep.”

“Yikes,” I replied, rolling over and grunting into the pillow. I turned my face towards Violet once again. “What do we do now? I feel weird just packing up and leaving if no one else is around…” 

As if in answer to my question, there was a knock at the bedroom door. Violet jumped up and pulled the door open as I sat up against the pillows. Ronnie stood in the doorway, smile beaming despite the early hour. 

“Hey!” she exclaimed. “I was hoping you guys were awake. We’ve got breakfast just about ready downstairs if you’re hungry!” 

Violet and I couldn’t hide our smiles. “Thanks Ronnie, we’ll be down there in a minute,” Violet replied for us as Ronnie flashed a thumbs up and retreated back down the hallway. Violet closed the door again so that I could get up and get changed. I put my pants and sweater on from the previous night, brushing my fingers through my hair before asking Violet to braid it. When she had fixed it into two french braids, we made our way downstairs. 

My stomach was doing flips as I reached the bottom of the stairs, anxious about who I would be running into in the kitchen. I let Violet lead the way around the corner, but was relieved to find only Karen, Kelly, and Ronnie in the room. Violet and I were immediately greeted with a chorus of ‘good mornings’ as we were ushered to the table at the side of the room. There was an array of breakfast foods in the centre and plates set out in front of each chair. The five of us sat down as Karen passed around a jug of iced tea, inviting us to dig into the food. 

We ate hungrily, chatting with each other and enjoying the slow pace of the morning. I had been so focused on the food in front of me that I didn’t hear a new pair of feet enter the kitchen, making their way to the table and pulling out the chair directly in front of my own. I finally glanced up when I noticed the new pair of hands reaching for the basket of bagels. I paused in my chewing as I met Sam’s eyes across the table, not expecting him to be awake so early. 

“Morning,” he greeted me with a smile. His hair was pulled into the same bun as the night before, but more flyaways were present after a few hours of sleep, and he had changed into a pair of blue jeans with a white knit sweater. 

“Morning,” I greeted him back quietly. I could feel Violet’s eyes burning a hole through the side of my face from her position to my right, as if she could sense some palpable tension between Sam and I. I cast my eyes back down towards my plate, choosing to focus on my eggs instead. 

Karen cleared her throat. “Since you’re gracing us with your presence this early Sammy, I can assume that you made it to bed at a reasonable hour?” She popped a piece of breakfast sausage into her mouth, raising her eyebrows in Sam’s direction. 

“Not really,” Sam smiled softly to himself. “I did feel better by the time I went to bed though,” he continued as he glanced over towards me. 

“Well good,” Karen chirped happily. “I don’t need to know the details. But are you still going to L.A. next week?” 

“No,” Sam replied, shaking his head. “Definitely not. I was thinking that I would stick around here for a while,” he continued. 

Karen hummed in approval, clearly happy with Sam’s answer. The rest of the breakfast conversation progressed normally, but occasionally I would look up to find Sam’s eyes already on my own. I felt as though a swarm of butterflies had taken up residence in my chest, and they fluttered their wings with each soft smile that Sam sent my way. 

When we had finished picking apart the plates of food and the conversation had reached a natural lull, Karen sighed. She placed her hands on the table in a motion to stand up, beginning to clear our plates off the table. The rest of us quickly followed suit, carrying the dishes towards the sink. 

“Josh and Jake don’t usually get up before noon, especially after a show,” Karen explained as she walked to the sink. “They’ll have to fend for themselves when they get up, because that was the only meal I’m cooking until dinner!”

Sam walked by and hugged his mom around the shoulders from behind, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Well then I’m extra glad that I got up in time,” he said. 

We finished clearing off the table, and Ronnie motioned for Violet and I to sit at the kitchen island while Kelly and Karen did the dishes. Sam stood at the end of the island, leaning his forearms on the granite and observing the scene in front of him. 

“So, what’s your plan for the day?” Ronnie asked, looking towards Violet and I. The two of us looked at each other and shrugged. 

“We’ll probably head back to the motel to change our clothes, and then maybe do a little more shopping in town,” Violet answered. “The plan was always to drive home overnight tonight, so we’ll do our best to stick to that.” 

My fingers traced along the patterns in the countertop as Violet spoke. I had temporarily forgotten about our driving overnight plan - this was going to be another long day. My mindless trance was broken when I heard Violet invite Ronnie to come shopping with us, which she immediately accepted. The two of them stood up to get ready for the day, pausing at the kitchen doorway to wait for me to follow. I told them I would catch up, waving them ahead as I slowly unfolded myself from the kitchen island chair. I noticed Sam stand up straighter as I tucked in my chair, thanking Karen and Kelly for breakfast as I made my way to the entrance of the kitchen. 

I dragged my feet towards the stairs, pausing in surprise when I heard a gravelly voice behind me. 

“Hey,” Sam said lowly, bowing his head down but keeping his eyes on me as he spoke. His hands were planted firmly in his pockets. 

“Hey,” I answered as I turned around to face him. “I was a little surprised to see you so early this morning,” I continued. 

“I know, I was surprised that I made it out of bed,” he replied. “I just… I just wanted to see you again before you left.” His voice went quieter at the end of his admission, and he peeked up at me through his long eyelashes.  

My eyebrows shot up in surprise, and a blush made its way onto my cheeks. “Oh, um… Well I’m glad to see you too,” I returned. 

“I don’t know if you’re super into the idea of shopping today,” he began, “but I was going to go hiking today. If you want to come with me, I can show you one of my favourite spots around here.” 

I instantly smiled at the idea. “That sounds really nice,” I said. “I do need to get a change of clothes though. I’ve been in these for almost a whole day and I feel pretty disgusting.” 

“I’ll talk to Ronnie,” he said. “One of us can take you and Violet to the motel and wait while you both get ready.” The two of us had moved closer together as we spoke, like two magnets that couldn’t control their pull to one another. 

“Deal,” I agreed. “I’ll talk to Violet and make sure she’s okay with it. I don’t just want to ditch her, this was meant to be our trip together,” I explained. 

Sam nodded in understanding. “Sounds like a plan,” he smiled. His left hand found the small of my back as he ushered me towards the staircase, and the butterflies in my chest did somersaults. It seemed as though my adventure with the Kiszkas was far from over.          

***

Getting Violet on board with Sam’s plan was surprisingly easy - and that is one of the things that I loved most about her. She was willing to go along with almost anything, provided that she got an explanation at some point. Therefore, she was not at all shocked when I burst through her guest room door and closed it tightly behind me. 

“So ummm…..” I started to say as I leaned my head back against the door. I felt a slight blush creeping up onto my cheeks, and I struggled to make eye contact with Violet across the room. 

“What the heck is going on?!” she exclaimed. “Something happened between you and Sam last night, didn’t it? Did you sleep with him?” She continued to question me as she made her way around the side of the bed, wiggling her pointer finger towards me in an attempt to seem more intimidating. 

I smiled and looked at the floor. “Actually, Sammy and I just hung out for a while last night. We went to his favourite out-building and listened to a couple of records…. He’s really sweet,” I said. “He also just asked me if I wanted to go hiking with him today, and I really want to, but I also don’t want to ditch you because this was supposed to be our trip, and I feel horrible for even considering it -”

“Oh my God, please,” Violet cut off my rambling with a smile. “Do NOT worry about me! You absolutely have to go. I’ll be fine shopping with Ronnie!”

“Are you sure? Like, sure-sure?” I asked. “I feel awful about leaving you, this was supposed to be a trip for the two of us…”

“Okay but like, we do everything together at home anyways,” she reasoned. “You go with Sam, I’ll go with Ronnie, we’ll meet back up later today and talk the whole drive home.” She had walked over to me while she was talking, and now placed one hand on my shoulder while holding her other hand out towards me with the pinky finger extended. “I pinky promise that I’m okay with this,” she continued. 

I raised my hand to hook my pinky finger with hers, and I knew that she meant what she was saying. “Have I told you lately how much I love you?” I asked. 

“Uh yeah, because I’m amazing,” Violet replied with a wink. She stepped back and began to gather up her things from around the room. “How should we do this though? We don’t have a car here, but we both need to get to the motel.” 

“We’ll figure it out,” I said as I opened the door. “Let’s just get our things and meet Ronnie and Sam downstairs.” Violet nodded at me as I slipped out the door towards my own guest room. I quickly gathered my personal items (not that there were many) and met Violet in the hallway. As we ventured back down the stairs, Ronnie greeted us in the front foyer with a devious grin on her face. 

“I hear you’re not joining us for shopping,” she said in a low voice, wiggling her eyebrows at me. 

“Oh, uh, yeah,” I began, blushing to an embarrassing shade of pink. “Well I just really like hiking, and Sam seems cool so…” I trailed off at the end of the thought, unsure of what else to say. 

“I mean…he’s alright,” Ronnie replied with a laugh. “He’s my favourite brother actually. Just don’t tell Josh or Jake,” she continued as Violet and I laughed. “He did say that he had to grab a couple of things though, so he’s going to meet us at the motel in like an hour,” she finished. 

“Okay, perfect!” I replied. The three of us said goodbye to Kelly and Karen, who were still in the kitchen after tidying up from breakfast. Violet and I both thanked them profusely for their hospitality, genuinely wishing that we would see them again soon. 

We made our way out the front door, and Ronnie led us to her Jeep that was parked in front of the garage. On our way out to the main road, Ronnie pointed out the other out-buildings and a fairly large field beside the house that we couldn’t have seen in the dark. She drove us through the winding streets back into town, pulling over to stop behind my car that was still parked on the street in front of Prost. 

“I figured we should probably get your car now,” she said. “It’s easier to leave it in the motel parking lot than on the street here.” I appreciated her forward thinking as I hopped out of the backseat and moved to close the door. 

“Want me to come with you?” Violet asked from the front seat.

“It’s alright,” I replied. “The motel is only a couple of minutes away. It will be quick!” I closed the door of Ronnie’s Jeep and unlocked my car, climbing into the driver’s seat as Ronnie and Violet pulled away from the curb. I took a moment to rest my head against the steering wheel as I gathered my thoughts, resisting the urge to pinch myself to ensure I hadn’t dreamed the last eighteen hours. 

I pressed the ignition button and the car rattled to life, warming up only slightly as I pulled away from the curb and followed in the direction that Ronnie had gone a few moments before. 

After a quick shower at the motel, I felt slightly less like a zombie and more like an actual human being. I had kept my hair in the two french braids from earlier in the morning, and had finally changed into fresh clothing - leggings and a dark green crew-neck sweater. I leaned down to pull my wool socks over the legs of my pants before slipping my feet into my Blundstone boots. I finished off the look with a quick application of concealer and mascara before there was a knock at the motel room door. 

Violet was still in the shower so I glanced over at Ronnie, who was leisurely reclining on the bed as she flicked through the TV channels. 

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind that I texted Sam the room number,” she said. “I just thought that was the easiest way for him to meet up with us.” Her eyes flickered to me for a second, and then went back to the TV as she smiled. “You look great,” she whispered. “Now answer the door before he thinks he has the wrong room!” 

I rolled my eyes at her and walked towards the door, twisting the handle and opening it to find Sammy standing on the other side. 

“Hi,” he said softly, raising his right hand in greeting before placing it in his pocket. He was still wearing the blue jeans and white sweater from breakfast, but he had added a windbreaker on top as well.

“Hi,” I replied, smiling. I stepped aside to let him into the room, gesturing for him to come in. 

“I see my sister has made herself right at home,” he said. Ronnie didn’t even flinch before raising her middle finger in Sam’s direction, her eyes briefly leaving the screen in order to stick her tongue out at her brother. “I don’t want to interrupt her important programs,” he continued as he rolled his eyes. He looked towards me, his expression caught between excitement and nervousness - I recognized it because I was feeling the exact same way. “Do you want to get going? I want to use as much daylight as we can.” 

“Sure,” I answered. “Just let me say goodbye to Violet quickly.” I poked my head into the bathroom, letting a puff of steam into the main room. “Bye, Vi! Have fun shopping!” I closed the bathroom door before she could reply with anything that would embarrass me in front of Sam, and grabbed my jacket and bag from the chair in the corner of the room. 

“Have fun, kids,” Ronnie said, wiggling her eyebrows at the two of us. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” She waved as we exited the room. 

Sam blushed as he gestured towards his car in the parking lot. “That means nothing, by the way,” he said softly. “Ronnie will literally do anything once, mostly for the story.” 

I laughed as we walked through the parking lot, stopping in front of a Tesla crossover. 

“I’m sorry…” I said. “You drive a fucking Tesla?” I looked up at Sam as his hand paused on the door handle. 

“Uh, yeah…” he started. His cheeks blushed pink as he explained, “We started making some decent money with the band in the last year or so, I needed a car, and I wanted to be good to the environment, so…I landed on a Tesla. God that sounds so dumb. I should have gone with a Prius or some shit like that.”

I smiled at his response. “I’m not saying I don’t like it, cause honestly…it’s cool as shit. But I just never would have thought you’d be a Tesla kind of guy.”

“Hmm… what kind of guy did you think I would be?” he asked as he held the passenger door open for me, closing it once I was situated. He walked around to the driver’s side door, climbing in and starting the ignition as I pondered a response. 

“Honestly? I kind of thought you might be one of those VW bus kind of guys. You just radiate an appreciation for all things vintage,” I answered. 

“I mean, I do appreciate all of that stuff,” he said, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the main road. “There are a lot of things about the world today that I’m not a fan of. Social media being one, if I’m honest. But I also need to do my part to help the planet, and a VW bus or any other vintage car is not gonna live up to the standard that I’ve set for myself.”  

“Hmm. Interesting,” I said. I had turned in my seat to look at him while he was talking, and I found that I couldn’t take my eyes off of him even though he had now fallen silent. Something about his features made him so enchanting to watch. “What’s your problem with social media?” I asked, mainly just so I could watch him talk more. 

“I just feel like it makes everyone too accessible. Nothing is private anymore. Everyone posts all their good shit on Instagram or whatever, but no one sees the reality of the day-to-day when people are struggling. And if you do post the day-to-day shit, everyone just calls you a whiner. Literally no one can win. Everyone is always so worried about what they’re going to post next, that no one is living in the moment anymore. It’s upsetting,” he finished. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “That turned into more of a rant than I thought it would be. It’s a machine that we have to feed into though, because apparently we’re trying to ‘build an image’ as a band or whatever. So it takes up more residence in my mind than I’d care to admit.” 

“That makes…total sense, actually,” I replied. “I know I’m guilty of that - always focusing on what is going to be posted next on my feed or on my story so that people know I’m doing well. Sometimes I wish that cell phones were never a thing. I just want to disappear into the world and connect with people on my own terms, and not get mediocre life updates from someone I met at camp like ten years ago.”

“Right? Like imagine how good our lives would be if we could unplug and unwind like people used to. You know, like get home when the streetlights come on? People are so busy nowadays that no one takes the time to appreciate the moments when they’re actually in them.” 

“Like right now,” I whispered to myself. 

“Yeah, like right now,” Sam agreed. We looked at each other across the centre console and smiled. “Again, sorry for the rant. But we’re here.”

I looked out the windshield of the car and saw that we were in a parking lot at the start of a trail. I left my bag on the floor of the passenger side as I made my way out the door. Grabbing my phone felt wrong after the conversation we had just had, but I knew it was better to have it in case of emergencies. Sam had walked around to the trunk, lifting a backpack out of the space before closing the door. He slung the backpack over his shoulders and looked towards me. 

“Ready?” he asked. 

“Let’s go,” I said, smiling as he led me towards the entrance of the trail.     

***

Sam and I had been hiking for a while before we stopped at a lookout. On our way up to the point, the trees had been mostly bare and the forest floor was covered in a thick layer of fallen leaves. The scent of late autumn showers hung low in the air, and the gray clouds overhead provided a dull monotony to the day that I found very comforting. 

When we paused our walking and wandered out of the brush to the lookout, we took a minute to survey the land below us. I guessed that by the looks of it, we were standing at the top of a drumlin feature. It wasn’t incredibly high up (I didn’t think anything really could be in Michigan), but it did span quite a few kilometers along. I took in the mixture of foliage below while Sam turned around to drop his backpack on the rock ledge behind us. I turned around when I heard him undo the zipper on the bag, and watched as he pulled out a Thermos and a blanket. 

“I hope you like hot chocolate,” Sam said, laying the blanket down on the rock as he spoke. He caught my eye and held his left hand out for me to hold as he helped me up to the ledge. I settled in on top of the blanket as he hopped up next to me, still holding onto the Thermos and two cups. He poured some hot chocolate into a cup and passed it over to me, repeating the same actions for his own cup before closing the Thermos and placing it beside him. Our legs dangled over the edge of the rock as we looked out onto the land below us. 

“This is amazing,” I said, my eyes working overtime to take in the dull, but beautiful, November landscape around me. “I love the hot chocolate too, it’s a nice touch.” I looked over at Sam and raised my eyebrows as I smiled. 

He blushed a little bit and smiled back at me. “I was hoping you would like it,” he said. “This is my favourite hiking spot. I used to come to this lookout all the time when I was in high school, just to get away from it all for a little while. Our house was always so loud, with Josh and Jake usually fighting, and the constant music playing  - which, don’t get me wrong, I love, but it just got a little overwhelming sometimes.” 

I nodded in understanding. “I can imagine,” I replied. “I mean, I only spent a little bit of time with your family but I can see it getting to be a little much sometimes. Do Josh and Jake still fight often?” My curiosity was getting the better of me.

“Sometimes… except now it’s usually solved with words, and without our mother’s interventions. I remember one time - I think it was during one of Daniel’s first rehearsals with us - when Jake got so pissed off with something Josh said that he threw a microphone stand at him across the room. That one was a little more intense than normal. It’s honestly a wonder that Daniel was still interested in joining the band after that one.” Sam was smiling to himself as he told the story. 

“Wow. That does sound intense,” I said, nodding. “When my students fight, I usually send them to separate corners until they cool down, then make them apologize to each other,” I offered, sipping at my hot chocolate. 

“That’s pretty much what my mom always did,” Sam replied. “Now Daniel acts as the mediator most of the time. Us Kiszkas can be pretty stubborn, so he solves a lot of issues within the band. Did you say ‘your students’?” he asked. 

I nodded as I brought my legs up from the ledge in order to sit cross-legged on the rock, still holding my cup with both hands. 

“What grade do you teach? My mom is a teacher too,” Sam said. 

“I teach kindergarten,” I replied. “It’s a challenge some days. I do love my students, but I’m just so burnt out by the education system. Which is really unfortunate, because I’m still in the beginning stages of my career.” Thinking about my career gave me plenty of anxiety, because I hadn’t been able to land a permanent position yet. “Some of the kids I have this year are wild. Like, who knew that four year olds could have such an attitude?”

Sam threw his head back as he laughed, and I watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down his throat with the sounds. “Wow, I never really considered that,” he answered. “I mean, my mom always told me stories of teenagers being jerks to her, which is kind of to be expected with teaching high school, but I never thought about four year olds giving attitude.” 

“Oh, they give such bad attitude,” I replied, laughing with him. “I love them, but they can be real assholes sometimes.” 

“Oh my god, you can’t just call kids assholes!” Sam exclaimed, playfully shoving my shoulder. 

“Well if they’re being assholes, I’m gonna call them assholes!” I replied. “Obviously not to their faces, but to my friends yeah.” 

“So, are we officially friends then?” Sam asked.

“I mean… yeah, I think so,” I answered, smiling. “To my new friend Sammy,” I said, holding my cup out to him in a motion of ‘cheers’. 

He connected his cup with mine, and we both finished the last sips of our hot chocolate. When our cups were empty, Sam collected them both in his hands and placed them back in the backpack. 

“Hmmm,” he mused as he zipped the backpack up again. “My mom is usually the only one that calls me Sammy,” he said. 

“Oh,” I said, feeling my stomach drop like I'd done something wrong. “Sorry, is that okay? I don’t have to call you that, it just sort of came out...” I trailed off quietly, looking down at my hands.

“Hey, hey,” he replied. He hopped down from the ledge, standing on the ground in front of me. He reached over to grab my hands, holding them in his own as he searched for my eye line. “I only said something because I like it when you call me Sammy. It makes me feel at home,” he continued softly. 

I looked into his deep brown eyes and could see that he meant it. “Okay,” I said quietly. 

“Alright. Good,” he said, still looking into my eyes. He smiled, keeping a hold on one of my hands in order to help me off of the rock. Once my feet were on the ground, I helped him to fold the blanket which he then placed back in the backpack. We both looked around, making sure we had everything, before beginning our descent back down the drumlin. 

About halfway through our walk back to the car, the trail widened enough for the two of us to walk side by side. We took our time, pointing out the beauty of the landscape and laughing at the stories we were telling one another. Sam reached over and took my hand, intertwining his fingers with mine as we continued walking. He held onto me securely until we reached the parking lot again, only letting go in order to open the passenger door for me to climb in. 

I watched as he crossed in front of the car, tossing the backpack into the back seat before opening the driver’s door and climbing in. He brought the engine to life as I checked my phone for the first time in hours, seeing a few missed texts from Violet about meeting up again. I quickly answered her and put my phone away, not wanting to miss out on any time with Sam. 

As we drove towards the motel in the fading twilight sky, I felt my eyes swell with the threat of tears. I watched Sam’s face as the light reflected off his striking features, lighting my world on fire one by one in the golden hour. 

He glanced over at me, smiling when he caught me already watching him. “Penny for your thoughts, Penny?” he joked. 

“Oh, um,” I cleared my throat slightly, willing away the tears from my waterline. “I just wish I didn’t have to leave so soon. I really like hanging out with you, Sammy.” 

He smiled softly and reached for my hand across the console. “I wish you were here for longer too,” he said. “But…there are some four year old assholes who need your assistance,” he continued with a laugh. “Plus, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing each other again sooner than you might think.” 

My eyebrows pinched together at his last sentence, but I didn’t pry. I wanted to live in this moment for as long as I could, and resolved to watching the golden hour paint him in its radiance as we continued on down the road. 

***      

We met up with Ronnie and Violet once again in the parking lot of the motel. It was already six o’clock so the winter sun had sunk below the horizon for another day, leaving us to say our goodbyes under the soft glow of the motel’s street lamps and Christmas light display. Violet and I loaded our bags into the backseat of my car, ensuring that we had our passports and wallets up front with us for the drive. 

When I turned around after closing my car door, Ronnie pounced on me for a hug. “Thanks for such a fun weekend!” she exclaimed. “And please, don’t be a stranger! I exchanged numbers with Violet, so she can give mine to you. I’m thinking a group chat will be the way to go, I can add Kenzi in too!” I was beginning to gather that Ronnie was exactly like her mother in the way that she could talk forever if time allowed. 

I squeezed her back as I said, “That sounds great! I hope we get to see you guys again soon.” Ronnie winked as she drew away from me with a quiet “mhmm” sound. I blushed and looked away from her, towards where Violet and Sam were engaged in a hug as well. Sam looked like he was whispering something to Violet, but they broke away from each other too quickly for me to eavesdrop. 

Ronnie shuffled over, switching places with Sam so that she could say goodbye to Violet. The two of them quickly found themselves deep in conversation, leaving Sam and I to have a quiet conversation of our own. 

“Don’t look so sad,” he said, looking me over. I was never any good at hiding my emotions. “Come here.” He wrapped his lanky arms around my shoulders, squeezing my head into his collarbone as I wrapped my arms around his waist. I felt him rest his chin on the top of my head as I took in a deep breath, trying my best to memorize the moment before it was over. He smelled like a mixture of pine, soap, and cigarette smoke - I wanted to drown in it forever. 

I tilted my head up slightly so that I was staring at his neck. “Thanks for a great day, Sammy,” I said quietly. “I really had fun. Don’t be a stranger, okay? Next time you’re up in Toronto, I’d love to see you.” I felt bold adding the last part, but I also knew that I would regret it if I said nothing. 

“Oh, that reminds me,” he said. I could feel the vibrations of his throat as he spoke before he stepped back from me to pull his phone from the pocket of his jeans. He pressed the screen a few times and held it out to me. “Add your number so I can text you later.”

I smiled shyly and did as he asked, handing the phone back to him. “Well, I guess we should hit the road,” I said, looking over at Violet. She nodded and began to walk around to the passenger side. “Thanks for everything this weekend guys, really. It was so fun!” 

I raised my hand in a gesture of goodbye and turned around to open my car door. Before I could reach the handle, Sam was turning me around and pulling me in for another hug. I let out a muffled giggle against his chest, throwing my arms around him again and squeezing him back. He kissed me lightly on the cheek as he whispered, “Drive safe.” And just like that, he pulled his arms away from me again and started to follow Ronnie across the parking lot towards their vehicles. I opened the car door and looked towards Sam again. He didn’t turn around, but I could have sworn that I heard him humming the melody of ‘Penny Lane’ by the Beatles as he walked away.                                         

Violet and I had made a pit-stop at a McDonald’s before getting on the highway back home. We hadn’t eaten since Karen’s breakfast feast that morning, and we knew that we had a long drive ahead of us - so obviously, chicken nuggets were the answer. We got ourselves situated in the car once again, and Violet plugged in her phone to both navigate us and play music. 

“I did you a favor,” she said. I must have looked at her funny, because she continued, “I combined our playlists. It’s half Christmas music and half Greta Van Fleet songs!” 

“I fucking love you,” I replied, taking a sip from my Coke as I drove. “Although….is it weird for me to listen to their music now? I mean…it feels a little weird to be honest.”

“I don’t think it’s weird at all,” Violet replied. “If anything, this should give you reason to listen to it more, now that you’re “allowed” to know who their band is.” She used air quotes as she spoke, rolling her eyes at the same time. “I still can’t believe you didn’t own up to knowing who they were already. Even in all your time with Sam today, it didn’t come up?” 

“Honestly, no,” I said, shrugging. “We didn’t really talk about their band at all. Just in the context of like, them growing up around tons of music and fighting with each other or whatever, but nothing current.”  

“Hmmm, interesting.” She sounded as though she didn’t quite believe me, although I was telling the truth.

Fuck. The truth. I cringed as I prepared for what I was about to say. 

“I um…” I didn’t quite know where to start. Violet was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue but I focused my eyes on the dark road ahead. “I fucked Jake. Last night. And then he invited me to sleep in his bed, but I couldn’t sleep so I went to the backyard and that’s where I met up with Sammy. And then Sam and I just connected, so I kind of put Jake out of my mind. Until right now.”  

“Um, WHAT?” Violet exclaimed. Her jaw was still hanging open after my admission, and she took a moment to gather her thoughts while my cheeks blushed red. “Are you…are you going to tell Sam?” 

“I don’t even know if I’ll see Sam again,” I said. “Unless they’re playing a show and I see him up on stage. I mean, he has my number but I don’t have his. He literally just broke up with someone, I was probably just a distraction.” I was trying to convince myself of these things as well. The less emotionally attached I got, the better. 

“For what it’s worth, I think you’ll see him again. Like, to hang out. Not just on stage,” Violet clarified. “You two had some serious chemistry, anyone could have seen it. It was sickening, honestly.” 

I laughed. “Yeah, well, now there’s two things he can never know. I knew who their band was before coming here, and I fucked his brother. It might work in my favor to not see him again,” I concluded. 

Violet exhaled loudly. “Damn. I knew there was tension between you and Jake at the show but… then I saw you with Sam and I figured that was who you had been with last night. Please answer an important question though…”

I rolled my eyes for the question that I saw coming from a mile away. 

“How was Jake?” 

“I am not answering that.”

“Uh, why not? I am your best friend, I deserve to know every last detail. Especially when it’s someone hot and famous.” 

“Talking about it just cements the fact that it happened. And right now, I want to pretend that it didn’t.” My stomach was churning, full of regrets. On one hand, part of me wished that I had connected with Sam first, but on the other hand…if I hadn’t wandered outside again after being with Jake, would I have even officially met Sammy? I just had to remind myself that everything happens for a reason.

“Fine, suit yourself,” Violet sighed. “I would just like it to be noted that I want to be the first to hear about it.”

“Noted,” I replied. I turned up the stereo and tried to focus on the road. We were still about five hours out from Toronto, and I had to get up for school in only eleven hours. I tried not to focus on how much tomorrow was going to suck. 

***

I took another sip of tea from my tumbler and popped another cube of cheese into my mouth, trying my best to eat lunch on the break in between classes. It had already been such a hectic day - not to mention the fact that I was running on about four hours of sleep with an ache in my heart for Sam. I felt like I was going insane, because the weekend didn’t feel real. There was no way that I was hiking with Sam Kiszka yesterday, and now I was trying to dodge punches from four year olds with anger issues. 

It was frustrating to return home and to come to work without telling anyone about this crazy thing that had happened on the weekend. As much as I wanted to keep an emotional guard up about Sam, I couldn’t deny the feeling that something major had shifted in my life. I tried, for what felt like the millionth time that morning, to banish thoughts of Sam from my mind. Instead, I focused on opening an applesauce container for one of my students as I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. 

Ronnie had kept true to her word, creating a group chat for herself, Violet, Kenzi and I. The other girls had flexible jobs where they could easily message each other any time, but I was having to play catch-up on my few breaks throughout the day. I pulled my phone out and glanced at the screen, catching the gist of the conversation about the latest Adam Driver film that had just hit theaters. I locked the screen again and placed it back in my pocket, sighing as the end-of-day bell felt farther away than ever. 

***

I sighed to myself as I packed up my laptop and cleared off my desk for the day, looking forward to returning home and putting my feet up in front of some Netflix. I planned to order takeout and not move from my couch until it was time to go to bed - the last 72 hours had definitely taken their toll on me. I was zipping up my jacket when my phone vibrated on the desk, so I leaned over to peek at who it was. 

Unknown number

I hope the little jerks behaved for you today. 

Another message came in, just after the first.

Unknown number

And if they didn’t, I hope you gave them attitude right back.

Sammy. The butterflies in my chest took off again in full flight, and I smiled to myself. I was in deep, deep trouble.       

[strngehorizons]

Lover, Leaver (3)

Chapter Three: 3.8k words

Chapter Warnings: mentions of infidelity, Sam being a sweetheart (deserves a warning imo)

At certain points, this story will contain 18+ content. Minors DNI!

THREE

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I entered the kitchen slowly, working hard to be consciously quiet because I knew my high was distorting my sense of reality. My eyes had already adjusted to the darkness, so thankfully I didn’t need to worry about where I was going - I made a beeline for the fridge, opening it to find that there were no more water bottles neatly filed on the door. I paused and shrugged to myself as I eyed the cabinet next to the fridge, opening it to find glasses neatly stacked upside down. I grabbed one and made my way over to the tap, filling the glass and chugging it down as I stood in the middle of the kitchen. I refilled the cup and sipped from it slowly, my thirst temporarily quenched. 

I carried the glass with me towards the window, where I was able to look out onto the deck and across the yard. Everything looked so peaceful and inviting in the moonlight. I looked towards the pile of shoes at the back door and spotted a pair of white Converse that looked like they might have been Ronnie’s - I figured she wouldn’t mind if I borrowed them, so I laced them up and took my glass of water outside to the deck. 

I leaned against the railing once more, taking in the sounds of the night as a cool breeze ruffled the remaining leaves on the trees. My t-shirt and shorts combination was not November-friendly - I was beginning to shiver. 

“Aren’t you freezing?” asked a voice from my right. I jumped slightly and let out a small gasp at the sound of the words, not realizing that someone had been outside with me. I whipped my head to the right, only to find Sam reclining in the hammock with a cigarette burning between his fingers and a smirk on his face. 

“Uh, sorry,” I started. “I didn’t see you there. You and your brother have a real talent for late-night jump scares…” I trailed off, unsure of what else to say. 

Sam smiled, flashing a set of perfect white teeth in my direction. “You mean Jake? Yeah, he has a tendency to sneak under the radar sometimes. I didn’t mean to scare you, my bad,” he finished softly, taking a drag on his cigarette. 

“It’s all good,” I replied. “I was going to head back in soon anyways.”

Sam cocked his head to the side, studying me, and I took a moment to do the same. God, his deep brown eyes were perfect, framed under striking eyebrows and nestled above his chiseled cheekbones. His nose was perfectly proportioned to the rest of his face, becoming button-like at the tip. His lips looked soft and plush, not unlike Jake’s, and his long hair was pulled back into a bun. Some fly-aways were framing his face as they caught the late-night breeze. He slowly raised the cigarette to his lips once more, causing my eyes to jump to the hand that was holding it - he had long fingers, predominant knuckles, and veins that were protruding from the back of his hand. In summary - he looked absolutely beautiful under the silver moonlight. 

I watched as he lifted the corner of the blanket that covered his lap, opening a space for me to sit beside him. 

“Here,” he said. “If you’re going to stay outside, you might as well be warm.” He must have seen my hesitation, as he continued, “It’s okay, I don’t bite.” 

I walked over to the hammock, setting my glass of water on a nearby table, and slowly sank down onto the strings. Sam tossed the blanket over my legs, and I immediately felt better. 

“I’m Sam, by the way,” he continued. “I don’t think we got a chance to properly meet earlier.”

“Penny,” I said as we shook hands at an awkward angle. “It’s all good,” I continued. “We heard that you were dealing with some shit tonight so I get it.” My eyes widened as I processed what I had just said - these damn drugs had inhibited the filter between my brain and my mouth. 

Sam just chuckled lightly, looking out into the distance of the yard as he took another drag from his cigarette. “You could say that,” he said. 

“Do you want to talk about it? I promise I won’t judge,” I said, boldly. 

“Oh, uhhh..” he hesitated. He ran a hand over his hair nervously as he looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “It’s my girlfriend. Well, ex-girlfriend now I suppose. She lives in L.A., we met there when our band recorded our first album.” 

He looked at me to gauge whether he should keep going, and I gave him a small smile in encouragement. 

“She’s an artist, and she had a big exhibit opening the other night… Anyway, long story short is that I got a photo sent to me by one of our mutual friends,” he was talking with his hands, getting worked up as he spoke. “And she was hooking up with someone that wasn’t me, obviously, since I'm across the country,” Sam looked over at me as he reached the pinnacle of the story. 

“Sam…” I started. “I’m so sorry. What a dumb thing for her to do,” I said. 

He nodded in agreement. “So naturally, I’m done with the relationship. The trust is gone, you know? There’s no coming back from broken trust. But she won’t leave me alone to process the end of the relationship. She keeps trying to explain away her actions, saying, you know, there were drugs and alcohol at the after party and she got carried away with the excitement of the night… Oh and then, she has the audacity to try and blame me for not being there at her art opening. As if I don’t have a million things going on for my own career.” 

I nodded as he continued. 

“And like, I know I should have been there. But it was one night, you know? Like I was supposed to go back out there next week to see the exhibit. One night that I’m not there shouldn’t change her behavior. So, anyways, I’m done with it. But she keeps calling and texting. I just blocked her number about twenty minutes ago and I feel so much more at peace,” he finished. 

“Wow,” I said, unsure of where to start. I began to pick at the frayed strings of the blanket while I tried to gather my thoughts. “First of all… I’m really high right now, so I apologize in advance if nothing I say even makes sense. Secondly… I’m just really sorry that this happened to you.” I glanced over to see him picking at the blanket strings as well, quietly chuckling to himself at my disclaimer.

“You know, my ex cheated on me,” I continued. “Last year. With one of my close friends…the two of them thought they were being so stealthy about it, but Violet, my friend with me this weekend, was the only one who cared enough to tell me about it the second that she found out. I think the worst part was that he didn’t care that he had been caught - he just ditched me and started dating the other girl.”

“Brutal,” Sam said, shaking his head as he took another pull from his cigarette. “I’m sorry.” 

“And I had to find some new friends,” I said under my breath.

Sam turned to study my face, sensing the shakiness in my voice at my last statement. He reached out his hand to me above the blanket, waiting for me to take it. When I did, he intertwined his fingers in mine. “It takes courage to love someone. You put your heart on the line over and over again, just searching for someone who won’t smash it to pieces,” he said softly, looking down at our connected hands on top of the blanket. 

I sniffled lightly as I tried to hold back the tears that were welling up in my eyes. Instead, I closed my eyes and leaned my head back onto the strings of the hammock, focusing on the way that Sam’s fingers were intertwined with my own. He slowly began rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb as he spoke. “Anyway, enough with the sad shit tonight,” he said. “The people we’re with shouldn’t hold us back, they should lift us up. Everything happens for a reason,” he finished. 

“The power of the universe is a mighty thing,” I whispered with my eyes still closed, grateful that Sam understood the way that I was feeling. 

Sam leaned over to an empty beer can and put out his cigarette, reclining back into the hammock when he was finished. The two of us sat in silence for a few moments, breathing in the cool night air as he continued to rub circles on the back of my hand with his thumb. 

“Are you tired?” Sam asked in a whisper. 

“Yes, extremely,” I answered. “But I honestly don’t think I could go to sleep right now. There’s too much going on in my head.” 

“Do you want to go somewhere with me? It will be warmer, I promise,” he said softly. 

My eyes flickered open and I looked over at him. “Are you propositioning me, Sam?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. As relaxed as I was with Sammy, my hookup with Jake was still fresh in my mind.

“What? No!” he exclaimed, blushing slightly in embarrassment. “I meant to my favourite out-building. I feel like we could both use a little company right now. I know I won’t be able to sleep yet either.” 

I laughed softly at his reaction to my teasing. “I mean, sure,” I agreed. “Let’s go.” 

We stood up from the hammock, letting go of each other’s hands, and Sam carefully threw the blanket over his shoulder. Standing next to him so closely, I was able to take in the full effect of his moonlit beauty. He stood a few inches taller than Jake, much taller than me, and he was wearing the same black skinny jeans and blue button-up shirt that he had been wearing for the show at Jan’s. In true Sam form, he was barefoot. He smiled down at me and started walking towards the stairs at the corner of the deck, looking behind him to make sure I was following. 

Once we made it down to the grass, we began trekking across the property. “It’s not too much farther out here,” Sam said. 

“How do I know you’re not taking me all the way out here to kill me?” I asked.

“You don’t,” Sam replied with a shrug. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me.” He slowed his pace to match mine as he draped the blanket over my shoulders, allowing me to wrap myself in it to keep from shivering in the cold night air. We continued walking for another couple of minutes before we came to a building that looked like a small barn. “Here it is,” he said, sliding the door open. 

I squinted to try and see into the room, but my efforts were short-lived as Sam stepped into the darkness and pulled on a string. A single yellow bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling cast a warm glow over the space as I took in my new surroundings. 

The center of the room, underneath the lightbulb, appeared to be a sitting area. There was a patterned couch and two matching chairs centered around a coffee table, and a shallow counter ran the length of the wall behind the couch. On the counter stood a makeshift bar, complete with various types of alcohol, and a coffee maker was perched cleanly in the corner. A record player, along with an impressive collection of vinyls, took up the space on the right hand wall while a keyboard sat propped against the left hand wall. Sam walked over to the corner beside the coffee maker and plugged in a strand of twinkling lights that ran around the whole perimeter of the room. The walls were unfinished barn board, adding to the rustic-yet-cozy vibe of the space.

“Wow,” I said as I glanced around the room. I discarded the blanket onto the couch and made my way over to the record collection. “Are all the out-buildings like this?” 

“Not quite,” Sam said. I looked over my shoulder to see him folding the blanket and smiling to himself. “This one is pretty cozy, I hang out in here quite a bit. Especially when we’re in the writing phase of our music. There’s two other out-buildings, one is more of a storage spot and the other is a makeshift studio and practice space. Josh and Jake hang out in that one quite a bit. We used to practice in the garage at the front of the house, but it got a little too loud for my mom…plus, we needed a bigger space to rehearse for touring,” he continued, slowly rounding the couch and making his way over to me. 

I had knelt down in front of the record collection as he was speaking, running my hand over the spine of some albums. “Well I really love the coziness of this one,” I said, as Sam sank down to the floor beside me. “Also, your band is really good. Like, I mean really good.” 

“Thanks,” he replied sheepishly. I watched as a hint of blush tinged his perfectly sculpted cheekbones. “Are you going to pick a record, or do you want me to?” he asked, changing the subject. 

“Hmmm…” I considered as I glanced at the collection once more. “I can’t choose. You pick,” I replied. 

Sam ran a hand over his hair once again as he reached for an album between the two of us, holding it up for my approval. I smiled when I saw the cover - it was Loaded by The Velvet Underground. I nodded in support as Sam chuckled and tipped the cover so that the record fell out into his hand. He carefully placed it on the turntable and brought the arm over to drop on the surface about halfway through the pressing. The opening melodies of I Found a Reason began to softly fill the room as I stood up and made my way over to the couch, sinking into the worn cushions as I sighed contently to myself.     

Before I knew it, Sam had unfolded himself from the floor and was standing in front of me with an outstretched hand. “Here,” he said. “Come dance with me.”

Butterflies formed in my stomach at his sweet request, and I quickly placed my hand in his. He helped to pull me up from the couch, walking us over to a clear spot in the room before placing his other hand around my waist. The distance between us closed as I wrapped my free arm around him and rested my head on his chest. The two of us stood there swaying lightly for a few moments, taking in the lyrics of the song as we moved. 

Oh, I do believe,

you are what you perceive,

What comes is better than what

came before 

Sam adjusted his position, letting go of my hand and wrapping both arms around my shoulders in order to hug me closer. He sighed lightly and rested his chin on the top of my head. I wrapped both arms around his waist, the space between us practically non-existent. At some point in the song, we stopped swaying - we stood, hugging each other tightly and breathing in sync, while the end of the song played out. 

I felt a little bit delirious - here I was, going on 21 hours of being awake, standing in a building on the Kiszka’s property, hugging Sam after sleeping with Jake. I felt an urge to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. As the needle bounced to signal the end of the record side, Sam gave my torso a light squeeze and took a step backwards. 

“Sorry,” he whispered, keeping his eyes on the floor and bringing a hand up to rub the back of his neck. He glanced up sheepishly from underneath his long eyelashes. “Sometimes a hug just feels nice, you know? I hope that didn’t freak you out,” he spoke while hardly moving his lips. 

I was a little taken aback by how shy he was acting. “It’s totally fine,” I said. “I really needed that too.” I brushed it off with a flick of my hand and made my way over to the couch, plopping down into the plush cushions and leaning my head back. “You do need to pick another record, though,” I pointed out. 

Sam gave me a soft smile and turned his attention back to the record collection, carefully replacing the one on the turntable. As he made his way over to the couch beside me, the sounds of Van Morrison began playing through the speakers. 

“Moondance? Are you kidding me right now?” I asked, raising my eyebrows and lifting my head to get a good look at Sam. 

“What’s wrong with Van Morrison?” he asked, getting slightly offended. 

“Absolutely nothing is wrong with Van Morrison. This is one of my favourite albums ever made,” I clarified as It Stoned Me played in the background. 

Sam narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at me. “This is one of my all time favourite albums too,” he said. His eyes stayed on mine for a few beats before he closed them and leaned back into the couch, a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth. 

The two of us sat in tired silence as we listened to a few more songs. My eyelids were growing heavier by the second, and I knew I had to get to bed soon. 

“Sam,” I whispered as the needle reached the end of side A. He had one leg folded underneath his body, leaning slightly on the armrest with his head tipped back against the couch cushions. His eyes were still closed and his breathing was even - I was fairly certain that he was asleep. As much as I wanted to leave him in slumber, I had no idea which direction the house was from here. I tapped his knee, trying to be the least invasive I could be. 

“Psssst, Sam,” I whispered again, a little louder this time, not even earning a slight reaction from the man in front of me. I moved closer to him on the couch as I tapped his knee again, a little more aggressively. 

“Sam!” I exclaimed at a normal volume. This earned a groan from him, followed by a hand waving in my face as if to tell me to get lost. I smiled to myself as I prepared for one final effort to wake him - I had no idea this guy was such a heavy sleeper. “Yoohoo, Sammyyyyyy,” I said at regular volume, leaning in closer to his face and resorting to a pinch on his knee at the same time.

His eyes whipped open at the pinch and he frantically took in his surroundings. He took a deep breath as his eyes settled on me. “I’m awake,” he said. “What happened?” 

I took a step backwards and smiled to myself, taking in an exhausted looking Sam through my own half-lidded eyes. His clothes and hair had become slightly disheveled, and I found myself wondering if he had always been so adorable. I shook those thoughts out of my head, blaming my exhaustion for putting them there in the first place. 

“We dozed off,” I said, stretching my arms above my head. “I would have let you keep sleeping, but I’m not sure how to get back to the house.”

“Oh, of course,” Sam replied, rising from the couch and repeating the stretch I had just done. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pass out on you. It’s been a long couple of days,” he continued. His voice was the perfect blend of soft and raspy, and I found myself wanting to bottle the sound. 

After turning off the record player and the lights, we made our way back outside and Sam shut the door behind us. There was a hint of dawn beginning to form on the horizon, the sky barely registering the change in hue. The stars were still visible in the darkness, and I found myself staring up at them as we walked back towards the house. 

Sam must have noticed me looking up, because he began to do the same. “What do you think is up there?” he asked. 

I smiled as I looked over at him. “I don’t know if I can get into that right now, Sammy,” I said. “Although, I’ve always called it a land of infinite wonders. There are so many possibilities of what’s up there, a billion lightyears away.”

He smiled back at me. “I feel the same way,” he replied. “I could talk about space for hours. I think, if music doesn’t work out, I might get into the astrophysics field or something. It’s all so fascinating…” His voice trailed off as he looked back up at the sky, his Adam's apple bulging as he leaned back. 

We continued the rest of the walk in silence, appreciating the peace that arrives just before the dawn. We slipped quietly into the kitchen through the back door, pausing briefly to drop my shoes on the mat and then moving towards the stairs in unspoken agreement. We moved through the hallway towards the bedrooms, and Sam stopped just outside his door. I turned back to raise a hand in a gesture of silent ‘goodnight’, but Sam surprised me by grabbing my wrist. He pulled me closer towards him, wrapping his free hand around my waist once again. He leaned in towards my ear. “Thanks for hanging out with me tonight,” he mumbled. “I really enjoyed your company.” 

My mouth hung slightly open in surprise from his movements. As quickly as he had taken me into his arms, he let me go. He bit his bottom lip and the corners of his mouth twitched up into a smirk as he opened his bedroom door, slipping silently into the darkness. 

I continued down the hall to my own room for the night, finally crashing into bed. I pulled my phone from the pocket of my pants that had been discarded in the corner, reading the time that said 5:58am. I pulled the covers over my shoulders and buried my head into the pillow, finally allowing myself to fall into a deep sleep. 

[strngehorizons]

Lover, Leaver (2)

Chapter Two: 4.2k words

Warnings: mild drug use, kissing, oral (M receiving, F receiving), fingering, penetrative (safe) sex.

This chapter contains 18+ content, minors DNI!

This story is Sam x OC, but... things happen hehe

TWO

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A motion sensored light flickered on as our car pulled up the driveway, bathing the front porch of the house in a pool of soft yellow. The three of us swiftly exited the car, saying our “thank you’s” and “goodbye’s” to the driver on our way out. We made our way up the porch steps to the front door where Ronnie promptly produced a key from her purse. 

“I can’t wait for you guys to see this place in the daylight,” she said. “It’s truly so amazing. There are 5 acres of property and a couple of out-buildings,” she continued as she walked into the house, flicking on a couple of light switches as she moved. “We’ve literally lived here for my entire life, but there have been a few additions over the years. I’ll show you both around tomorrow!” 

Violet and I were slightly overwhelmed, eyes working overtime to process our surroundings. We had followed Ronnie into the kitchen, a spacious area that was decorated in a mixture of white and natural wood tones. A large white marble island, complete with six stools, separated the kitchen from the living room area. The living room consisted of a large white L-shaped couch and some arm chairs - this was clearly the main hub of the home. There was a wall of windows along the back of the living room that piqued my interest, as I was eager to see what their view held in the daylight. 

Violet and I sat down on the island stools as Ronnie poured three glasses of water from the refrigerator. “You two must be exhausted,” she said. As we nodded in agreement, we heard the front door open and close, followed by the shuffle of many pairs of feet. 

“We’re hooooooooooome!” Josh yodeled at the top of his lungs. 

“Joshua!” Karen snapped. “Inside voice please.”

“Sorry, mama,” he replied as he rounded the corner into the kitchen. “Woah, pretty ladies!” He whistled a tune to himself as he grabbed bottles of water from the fridge, handing them to Jake, Sam, Kelly, and Karen as they each rounded the corner behind him. Sammy nodded towards Violet and I in a gesture of hello as he continued walking through the kitchen to the back door. 

“Sam, not too late tonight, please,” Karen pleaded, her eyes following him through the room. He glanced back and nodded at his mother, flashing a glimpse of his million-dollar smile as he slipped out the door. 

The rest of us sipped our waters in the kitchen, Violet and I quietly observing as the family broke down the events of their evening. After about a half hour of talking, and me trying to get over the shock of sitting in the Kizska’s kitchen so casually, Ronnie let out a gigantic yawn and stated that she was heading to bed.

“Penny, Violet, let me show you to your rooms,” Karen said, turning towards us. Jake and Josh had walked around the opposite end of the island in order to sit down, and Kelly had slumped against the kitchen counter to relax. Ronnie yawned loudly again and began to follow her mother out of the kitchen as Violet and I waved goodbye to the three men. 

“Thank you again for your generosity,” I said as we followed Karen through the hallway towards the stairs. “You've all been so lovely to us today!” 

“Don’t mention it, sweetheart!” Karen replied. We began to climb the stairs, pausing at the top while Karen gestured to the right. “That’s the master suite,” she said, “purposely removed from the rest of the bedrooms because, somehow, our children became night owls.” We turned to the left and continued walking. “All the kids’ rooms are down here,” she explained. We had arrived in a new hallway, removed from the noise of the rest of the house. She pointed at the doors as we walked past - “this is Sammy’s room, Josh’s room, Jake’s room, Ronnie’s room, and the two doors at the end here are both guest rooms. I hope it’s okay that you’ll be staying amongst the kids!” 

“It’s perfect,” I said genuinely. I couldn’t wait to collapse into a horizontal position after the long day that we had lived. Ronnie disappeared to her room, gathering lounge clothes for us to sleep in before giving each of us a hug and promising to show us around the rest of the

property in the morning. Karen explained that there would be fresh towels in the bathroom adjoining the two guest rooms before she hugged us goodnight as well. The two Kiszka women retreated down the hall, Ronnie to her bedroom, as Violet and I said our goodnights as well. We each disappeared into our own guest room. 

As I closed the door behind me, I leaned against the wood and took a deep breath. I resisted the urge to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming… The whole day felt so surreal. I looked around the room, taking it in for the first time. It was a moderate size, considering there were five other bedrooms in this hallway alone. The double bed was situated in the middle of the far wall, decorated in white linens that contrasted the hunter green colour on the walls. Small night tables framed either side of the bed, and a TV rested on a dresser in the corner of the room. A sliding barn door stood on the left hand wall, presumably leading to the bathroom shared with Violet’s guest room. 

I walked across the room, tossing the clothes from Ronnie onto the corner of the bed and beginning to pull off my own clothes. I tossed them in the corner beside the dresser and pulled Ronnie’s clothes on - the black shorts were tight but flattering, and the blue t-shirt was just oversized enough to be comfortable. I noticed a few tears in the shirt and a rip along the hemline, but I really didn’t care. I turned out the overhead light before peeling the covers back and climbing into the bed - my head hit the pillow and I instinctively curled onto my left side, preparing for sleep. My eyes whipped open again as I remembered that I had left my glass of water on the kitchen counter.  

I debated for a good five minutes whether it was worth it to retrieve my glass of water, ultimately deciding that it would make me more comfortable to have it. I slowly snuck out of bed, despising the fact that I was vertical again, and made my way to the door of the room. Turning the knob slowly, quietly, I peered into the hallway. The light was off in the room next to mine, as well as in Ronnie’s, Sam’s, and Jake’s rooms down the hall. Josh’s door was closed, but there was a sliver of light shining through the crack at the bottom of the frame. I snuck down the hallway, being careful to tip-toe on the hardwood floors. I made it to the bottom of the stairs, rounding the corner into the kitchen and grasping for the handle of the refrigerator in the darkness. My eyes found a bottle of water on the shelf - good enough - so I pulled it out and closed the fridge door. As I gazed around the room to let my eyes adjust from the light, I caught sight of a silhouette sitting at the kitchen island. 

“Jesus!” I grasped my free hand to my chest as I exclaimed in surprise. I squinted in the dark to see more clearly. “Sorry, Jake, I didn’t know anyone was still down here.” My heart was doing backflips and my stomach was in knots. 

“No it’s my bad, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, gently. “I didn’t think you would notice me if I just sat here quietly,” he continued with a slight chuckle. 

“I just saw an outline of a person and nearly jumped out of my skin,” I replied, laughing slightly. “What are you still doing down here anyway?”

“I was waiting for Sam, but he’s dealing with some shit right now. I’ll probably just head upstairs to bed,” he said, standing up and rounding the island towards me. “Hey,” he mused as he got closer, “is that my shirt?”  

“Oh, um…” I stuttered, unsure of what to say. “Sorry, Ronnie just gave us some extra clothes so it must have been in her laundry by mistake…” I started to pick at the hem of the shirt while avoiding eye contact - that is, until I felt Jake’s hand grip my arm.

“Hey, it’s okay! I was only joking,” he continued. “I mean, it is mine, but you can keep it. It looks good on you,” he said with a wink. My mouth popped open as I processed his words, actions, and sultry tone of voice. 

He straightened his posture and took a step backwards, leaving a more appropriate amount of space between us as he placed his hands in his pockets. His eyes subtly scanned up and down my body, his head tilting slightly to the right when his eyes landed back onto mine. 

“I was going to smoke this joint before bed,” he said, producing a small brown roll from his pocket. “Care to join me?” He flashed his bright white smile - god, those teeth were perfect - and I knew then that I would follow him anywhere he asked. 

“Sure,” I replied with a smirk. 

He motioned for me to follow behind him as he quietly made his way to the back door of the kitchen. As we snuck out onto the back porch, Jake reached for my hand to guide me around the furniture while my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Once I had my surroundings mostly figured out, I settled with my forearms leaning on the railing and looked around a bit more. The deck was spacious, spanning the entire back of the house, and was adorned with a matching set of patio furniture on one side and a stand-alone hammock on the other. Squinting in the darkness, I tried to see beyond the railing I was leaning on. There seemed to be a fire pit in the grass beyond the deck, complete with a circle of chairs, and I thought I could see a flickering light on in one of the outbuildings that Ronnie had mentioned when we arrived. 

I let out a content sigh as I turned around to face the house, leaning my back against the railing instead. I watched from the corner of my eye as Jake produced a lighter and sparked up the joint, admiring his side profile as he inhaled deeply, holding the smoke in his lungs for a brief moment before releasing it towards the night sky. His long, agile fingers held the burning joint towards me. I took it and repeated his motions, the two of us standing in comfortable silence to admire the beauty of the darkness as we passed the drugs back and forth. 

“So, you’re visiting?” Jake asked as the joint burned towards its end, locking his deep brown eyes onto mine. 

“Yeah, just for the weekend actually,” I replied. His stare was so intense, it was intimidating. This time though, I held my ground and didn’t look down. 

“Hmmm. That’s interesting,” he said. He moved a few inches closer to me, and I could see that his eyes were becoming slightly glazed over from the drugs - I’m certain that my eyes looked the same. “You know,” he continued as his hand grazed over mine on the railing, “I’m sure we can find a way to have some fun tonight, to make this trip even more memorable for you…” His voice had trailed off slightly as he brought his free hand up to my cheek - he seemed to be moving in slow motion, and I couldn’t determine if that was his intention or if my high was kicking in. 

With his hand on my cheek sliding down towards my neck, I moved to close the final gap in between us. “Someone thinks highly of their skills in the bedroom,” I whispered against his lips. 

“Hmph,” he mused, chuckling lightly to himself. “Let me prove it to you.” 

Thank goodness I’m high for this, I thought. I don’t think I would have had the courage to get this far without a little bit of intoxication.

Again, in what felt like slow motion, Jake’s other hand settled on my hip. My eyes fluttered closed as gravity slowly pulled our lips together, causing butterflies to erupt in my stomach. The initial shock of contact made us both pull back and smile lazily at each other before diving into a more intense kiss. His lips were soft and full, his movements gentle but dominant as he eased my mouth open with his tongue. We continued like this for a few minutes, hands flying over each other’s bodies as our lips devoured one another, until Jake pulled back to look into my eyes. 

“Fuck,” he said softly. “I need to have you. Let’s go inside. Please?” He rolled his tongue over his bottom lip while he waited for my reply. Once his words had processed through the haze in my mind, I nodded feverishly. Jake grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the back door, quietly sliding it open to let us inside. 

***

Our feet padded softly up the stairs, Jake leading the way while holding my hand. He opened the door to his bedroom, pulling me inside and locking the door behind us. He spun me around so my back was flat against the closed door, landing one hand over my mouth to keep me from exclaiming in surprise at his sudden movements. He leaned in close to my ear.

“We’ll have to be fairly quiet,” he spoke in a gravelly whisper. “This is the downside to staying with my family.” I nodded in understanding and he pulled his hand away from my lips, crashing his mouth onto mine once more. I reached my hands up into his hair and pulled lightly, eliciting a muffled moan that sent vibrations against my mouth. 

Jake’s lips moved down to the crook of my neck, nibbling, licking, and sucking enough to send a shiver down my spine as I leaned my head back to settle against the door. He moved his lips back up to my mouth, entangling a hand into my hair as he did so. His hand found its way to my neck, not squeezing but rather holding it in place as he broke away from my lips to look into my eyes. One of his thighs had found its way between my legs, pinning me to the door panel and allowing me to feel his hardness against my hip. 

"Damn," he growled lowly. I looked up at him with puppy dog eyes, anticipating his next move. "Come here," he whispered as he pulled me lightly by the neck, turning me around and backing me up across the room until the back of my knees made contact with the mattress. I sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up at Jake - he was breathing heavily and gazing down at me like I was the last drop of rain in the desert. 

My hands didn't feel connected to my brain as I reached out in front of me and grabbed the belt on Jake's pants, slowly undoing it as we maintained eye contact. I bit my lower lip in nervousness as I undid the button on his jeans, sliding the zipper down next. Jake got the hint as he began to remove his button down shirt, tossing it to the side when he was finished. I slowly slid his pants down over his thighs, pausing for him to step out of them when they hit the ground at his feet. My eyes widened as I gripped his hips at the waistband of his boxers. Holy shit. Jake Kiszka was standing in front of me in just his boxers. This was happening. 

Before I could make another move, Jake pinched my chin between his thumb and pointer finger to tilt my face up to meet his. He leaned down to kiss my lips softly, his nose brushing against mine.

"You're such a good girl," he whispered in a gravelly tone. His words caused a warmth to rush between my thighs and I smiled, using my hands to push his boxers down towards his ankles. I licked my lips as his hard length sprung free. 

I looked up at his face, smiling at the devilish grin he was sporting. I moved forward until my knees hit the ground in front of the bed, and reached up to wrap a hand around Jake's cock. I pumped up and down a few times before leaning forward and taking the head into my mouth, earning a gasp from Jake as he tossed his head back and closed his eyes.

I kept my hand wrapped around the base of him, moving my wrist in time with the suction of my mouth. Jake's hands intertwined with my hair as he began to lose himself in the sensations. I dropped my hands to wrap around his thighs as he held my head in place - he began to thrust lightly into my mouth. 

"Holy shit," he said under his breath. "That's so fucking good. Take it just like that," he continued, barely able to keep his voice steady. 

He gave a few more hard thrusts, eliciting a gag from me as my eyes began to water, and pulled out of my mouth with a soft popping sound. He helped me to my feet again, hands finding the hem of my borrowed shirt to lift it over my head. He bent down to my exposed breasts, running his tongue over one nipple and lightly brushing the other with his thumb. I shivered slightly as I tossed my head back, squeezing my thighs together to find some relief. Jake's lips found mine again as he backed me up towards the bed, this time climbing on top of me to ensure that I lay down. As his frame disappeared from over top of me, I propped myself up on my elbows. He flashed me a picture perfect grin as he sank to his knees at the end of the bed, reaching up to pull off my pajama shorts before tossing them into the growing pile of discarded clothing. 

I gasped as he immediately licked a stripe up my core, pausing over my clit where he sucked and nibbled until I was writhing underneath him. I felt a long finger slide inside me, moving in perfect harmony with the actions of his tongue. I moaned, trying to stay quiet, as he added a second finger. He twisted both of them upwards so that he was hitting my softest inner walls, all the while continuing the movements of his tongue. My body began to tense up in anticipation of my impending orgasm. 

"Hmmm, you want to cum? I can feel you getting tighter," Jake said from between my thighs, continuing his movements with his fingers. 

I nodded feverishly in response. 

"No, answer me," he said. His dominating tone sent a shiver down my spine in the best way possible. 

"Please, please Jake, I need to cum," I whimpered helplessly. My body was teetering on the edge of explosion. 

"Fucking cum then, you needy little thing," he said, slightly more aggressively as he buried his face back between my thighs. I clenched around his fingers as I came on his face, throwing my own hand over my mouth to keep from making too much noise. 

As I came back down to earth, Jake stood up from between my thighs and made his way over to a night stand beside the bed. He pulled a condom out of the drawer and flopped onto the bed beside me, holding the package into the air for us both to see. 

"Do you want to do this?" he asked. 

I rolled onto my side so that I could trace a finger down the smooth skin of his chest. "More than anything," I replied. 

He peeled the wrapper instantly, smiling to himself at my response. "Good," he mused as he wrapped the condom over his cock. "Because I need to be inside you." He sat up, moving to his knees in front of my open thighs. He lifted one of my legs onto his shoulder, hooking the other underneath his elbow to spread me open as the head of his cock made contact with my entrance. I reached behind me to brace myself, gripping onto the pillow underneath my head. 

Jake kept his eyes on me as he slowly sank into my center, his mouth hanging open as a low groan escaped his lips. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me, feeling his long hair trail against the skin on my chest. He began to thrust more rhythmically as he leaned down to kiss my lips. He continued to thrust, leaning back onto his knees and hitting places inside me that I didn’t realize could feel so good. 

“Holy shit,” I whined, not able to keep my pleasured sounds inside any longer. “Jake, you feel so good…” I felt tears stinging my eyes from the deep way that he was thrusting, my body beginning the climb to another orgasm. I closed my eyes and threw my head back against the pillow as Jake began to breathe heavily, a sheen of sweat forming on his forehead that made his skin glow in the soft moonlight peeking through the window frame. 

He reached down to place a hand between my thighs, rubbing small circles over my clit with his fingers until I began to clench around his cock. “Fucking look at me when you cum,” he panted as he continued his motions. "I want to see that pretty little fucked out face."

My eyes flew open and I tilted my head forward to look at him - he looked like a God as he sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and gazed down at me expectantly, smirking slightly as he watched me fall apart beneath him. That look on his beautiful face was all it took for me to lose my last little bit of grip on reality - I lifted my hips off of the bed slightly as I felt my orgasm come crashing down around me.

“Oh my god,” Jake whispered as he removed his hand from my center, knowing that it would become too stimulating as I came down from my peak. “That was so fucking hot. I can’t hold on much longer,” he said quietly as the pace of his thrusts picked up slightly, his hips smacking into mine as he drove deeper and deeper into my core. 

He leaned down to grip my hips, allowing an animalistic groan to escape from his chest, and gave one final thrust to hold himself inside me while he rode the waves of his orgasm. His body stilled as he caught his breath, reaching up to brush a few sweaty strands of hair off of his face before leaning back to pull out of me. As I lay on the bed catching my own breath, I watched Jake get rid of the condom and grab his boxers from the floor. He picked up my borrowed clothing in the same motion and handed the items to me. I slid the shorts and t-shirt back on in a horizontal position, not having the energy to move any further than I absolutely had to. Jake seemed to be in the same mental state - he crashed onto the bed as soon as his boxers were back on and tossed his left arm behind his head, turning to look over at me. 

“I’d been wanting to do that since I saw you earlier tonight,” he smiled. “I know your room is down the hall,” he said sleepily, “but you can sleep here if you want. It’s been a while since I’ve actually slept next to someone. It would be nice to wake up next to you.” As he was speaking, his eyes drifted closed and his voice became quieter. 

I shifted onto my side so that I could take a good look at him, having a hard time believing that he had just fucked me. “Goodnight, Jake,” I whispered, reaching over to squeeze his hand. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to overtake me. I could hear Jake breathing more deeply than before, and knew he was asleep when the occasional light snore escaped his lips. I tried to slow my own breathing to match his, but, despite how exhausted I was from the events of the day, I could not join him in slumber. 

I squinted around the room in the darkness, my eyes landing on the only source of light from the corner - a digital clock that read 3:47am. I sighed quietly to myself, sneaking one more glance at Jake as I stood up from the bed and made my way towards the door. I closed it softly behind me as I made my way back down the bedroom hallway towards the stairs. Between the joint and the sex, I definitely needed that glass of water now. 

[strngehorizons]

Lover, Leaver

Soooo I've had this story in my drafts folder since before DIG started... it's taken me an embarrassingly long time to finish/get the courage to post, so please be kind!

I'm planning to post it in chunks, probably 3-4 chapters at a time. The whole thing is about 80k words, so bear with me!

This story is Sam x OC, but some things happen at the beginning... There will be NSFW content in this story, so minors please DNI!

Chapter 1: 4.3k words

Warnings: None

ONE

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I reached out to the car stereo, turning the volume knob down as if it would help me to see better. I’d been driving for about five hours straight at this point, only just passing underneath the town gates that read “Welcome to Frankenmuth” while I breathed a sigh of relief that we had finally made it. 

“Do you want to go to the hotel first?” I shook out of my thoughts as I looked at my best friend, Violet, who was asking the question from the passenger seat.

“That’s probably a good idea,” I answered. After sitting in a car for so many hours, I was in desperate need of a shower to freshen up. I put my blinker on to turn right, heeding the GPS directions, and followed the small residential street to the next turn. 

“Ugh, I could use about five margaritas right now,” Violet blurted. She pulled her legs down from the dashboard and placed both feet on the floor, turning to look at me. “Okay so after the hotel….what’s the plan?”

I pondered for a moment, collecting my thoughts and trying to keep my excitement in check. This whole weekend trip had been my idea, so naturally Violet was asking me for a plan. I knew that she wanted to go to Bronner’s, the giant Christmas store in town, and she knew that I wanted to visit some of the sights that the guys were fond of in their hometown. 

‘The guys’, as I so affectionately called them in my head, were the members of the band Greta Van Fleet. Three brothers - Josh, Jake, and Sam Kiszka - and their childhood friend Danny Wagner formed the band, and I had been a fan for about a year. So far, they had released an EP and one studio album - not a ton of material to listen to, but I played those songs on repeat pretty consistently. Consistently enough for Violet to complain on the trip to Frankenmuth, that was for sure. 

“Hmm… Well, we could hit up Bronner’s first or just do some shopping in town,” I suggested. “There’s a restaurant I want to try for dinner that the guys have mentioned a few times in interviews, but that’s about it for today.” I knew we were both pretty wiped out from the drive and could probably use an early night of drinking together in the hotel room. 

“Sounds good to me! You know I’m down to go to Bronner’s right away,” Violet said with a devious smile. This girl loved Christmas more than anyone else I had ever met, so it was no surprise that she was eager to accompany me on this trip. 

We finally pulled into the parking lot of the Frankenmuth Motel, sighing in unison as I turned off the car and peeled myself out of the driver’s seat. Sitting for so long had left my legs incredibly stiff, so I relished in the feeling of stretching in the parking lot. We gathered our bags from the backseat of the car and trudged towards the blinking sign on the side of the building that read ‘Office’. 

After checking in, freshening up, and a glass of wine, we headed out to Bronner’s where we wandered in a Christmas wonderland for about two hours. Violet was completely in her element, frolicking through the fake snow (as if we didn’t get enough real snow at home in Canada) and purchasing ornaments for everyone that she had ever known. By the time we left the store, it was closing in on 6 o’clock and I was more than ready to sit down with some food. 

Back in the car, I plugged in the directions for a restaurant called ‘Prost’ - Sam had talked about it in multiple interviews, so I figured that it must be pretty good. We pulled up out front as I graciously slid into a spot normally reserved for parallel parking, thankful that I didn’t have to put my parking skills to the test. As I stepped out and locked the car, I took in a deep breath of fresh November air. The breeze that caught my long hair was quite cold, making me reach up to fold my arms into myself. I pointed my nose to the sky as I took another deep breath, closing my eyes temporarily. When I opened them again, I peered down the other end of the street, taking in the sight of trees wrapped in twinkling lights and shoppers bustling down the sidewalk. I had to admit, it really was a beautiful little town. 

I heard a whistle to my right, and was snapped out of my observations by a shivering Violet. “Oh please, take your time… I would love to freeze out here all night!” she said with a sassy smile. “Let’s fucking go!” she exclaimed as she jumped up and down to warm up. 

I walked around the back of the car and joined her on the sidewalk as we made our way towards the door.

The atmosphere inside the restaurant was warm and inviting, with dim lights and plenty of small tables that created an intimate experience. We were greeted by the hostess, who explained that we were welcome to have a drink at the bar while we waited for a table to become available. We happily meandered to the bar straight across the large room, taking a seat on two velvet covered stools at the end of the hightop. True to our typical form, I ordered a vodka cranberry with a lime wedge while Violet ordered a margarita. I rolled my eyes - this girl just couldn’t stay away from tequila, no matter how many times it came back to bite her in the ass. 

The two of us sat sipping our drinks and chatting about the adventures of the day, barely paying any mind to the two girls that had dropped onto the stools next to us until one of them reached over to touch my arm. 

“Sorry to interrupt you ladies, but I just HAVE to know where you got your bracelet from!” the girl closest to me exclaimed. 

“Oh, no worries!” I replied as I turned in my seat to face her. I looked down at her hand connected to my arm, and began to explain, “It’s actually a moonstone, I picked it up as a raw stone and made it into this bracelet myself. I love moonstones, they signify - “

"New beginnings, right?” The girl finished for me.

“Yeah, exactly,” I said. My eyes finally flickered up to the girl’s face, and my mouth dropped open when I was met with familiar eyes and cheekbones. I had stared at those same features in countless photos over the past year, although the sharp angles seen in the photos were softer on this girl’s face. I quickly snapped my mouth shut to mask my surprise. 

“Well, it’s really beautiful,” the girl continued. “I’m Veronica by the way. My friends call me Ronnie!” 

“Penelope,” I said as I shook her hand. “But my friends call me Penny. Speaking of friends, this is my best friend Violet. We’re visiting from out of town,” I explained. 

Violet reached across me to shake Ronnie’s hand. Ronnie gestured to the girl sitting quietly beside her before explaining, “This is Kenzi!”

After the four of us exchanged pleasantries, the hostess approached Ronnie in a whisper that I could hear from my position beside her. “Ms. Kiszka, your table is ready. Sorry about the wait.” 

Ronnie and Kenzi stood up, about to make their way across the restaurant on the heels of the hostess. Ronnie turned towards Violet and I, extending her hand for me to take. “Please, join us! I’m getting such a good feeling and I believe this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

As she turned and led us away from the bar, my stomach did a somersault. We were about to have dinner with Veronica Kiszka… the distance between the band and myself was unintentionally shrinking with every step I took towards the table, but who was I to argue with the twisted hands of fate? Violet cluelessly followed behind me, not recognizing anything alarming about the situation - including the panic that was plastered on my face. 

We sat down at the secluded table, Kenzi and Ronnie on one side with Violet and I on the other. The hostess handed out four menus and promised to return with fresh refills of our drinks, for which I was immensely grateful. I wiped my sweaty palms on the legs of my pants, trying to will myself to act somewhat normal.

“So you’re here from out of town, right? Where are you from?” Ronnie asked while we sipped the remnants of our first cocktails.

“Yeah, we just wanted a little getaway before the holidays. We’re from a city just outside of Toronto,” Violet answered. 

“Oh my gosh, no way! Canada? My family loves Canada!” Ronnie exclaimed as Kenzi nodded with a smile. 

“It’s pretty great,” Violet agreed, “But we don’t have any huge Christmas stores up there…” 

“Ah, so you’ve been to Bronner’s? A classic,” Ronnie replied as she took a sip of her gin and tonic. “What else are you planning to do while you’re here?”

“Well,” Violet started. My stomach flipped once again as I realized what she was going to say. “Penny really loves this - ow!” Violet exclaimed. I had kicked her leg under the table, admittedly pretty violently, to keep her from continuing her sentence. She frowned at me, taking in my wide eyes, and somehow understood what I was getting at. “Penny really loves this part of the state.” A lame recovery, but it was the best she could do with short notice and no context. 

“Really? Middle of nowhere, Michigan? Whatever does it for you, I guess!” Ronnie said as she and Kenzi laughed. I blushed and looked down at my drink, shooting a sideways glance to Violet to let her know that I would explain everything later. 

Before the conversation could take a more awkward turn, a waiter showed up with our drink refills. After distributing the drinks, he stood with his notepad ready to take our orders. 

“Do you guys mind if I order for the table?” Ronnie asked. “I come here all the time, and they have this amazing thing where you can build your own charcuterie board…”

“Please, go right ahead,” I answered. 

“We’ll trust your judgment,” Violet nodded in agreement as Ronnie began rhyming off a multitude of things to include in a massive charcuterie board. 

Once our order was taken, the conversation progressed quite naturally. The four of us discussed things that we love about the holiday season, told some stories about exes, and even had a spirited debate about the merits of hockey versus football. As Ronnie had said when we were heading to the table, there was a good feeling between all of us. It felt as though we had known each other for years. 

As we sat digesting our food, there was a lull in the conversation. 

“So, how did you guys meet? Tell us your friendship story!” Kenzi said. 

I looked at Violet to see if she would answer, but she simply gestured towards me. “Well, we actually went to the same high school and the same university but we didn’t actually cross paths until we started working the same crappy summer job a couple of years ago,” I explained. “We like to say that the universe knew we didn’t need each other back then, but we need each other now.”

“Guys… That’s fucking beautiful,” Ronnie replied. “The power of the universe is incredibly strong. Nothing is coincidental,” she continued. 

“I completely agree,” I said as I sipped my drink. “How about you guys? What’s your friendship story?” I already had an idea of the answer, but I was working to keep up appearances of being clueless. 

“Well, Kenzi is dating my brother’s best friend. We’re all super close, so she and I became really good friends over the past year,” Ronnie explained. “We’re the only girls that consistently hang around those dorks - it’s exhausting,” she continued. 

I tried to keep my expression even as I processed the information that she was casually spouting. 

“That’s so nice,” said Violet, cluelessly. “I can hardly stand my brothers, so good for you for being so close with yours!” 

Kenzi and Ronnie shared a smile, and Ronnie raised her eyebrows as if to ask Kenzi a question. Kenzi bowed her head in a small nod, and they both turned to look excitedly at us. 

“So, we have an idea,” Ronnie started. “My brothers, and her boyfriend,” she jerked her thumb towards Kenzi, “are in a band. They’ve been touring lately, but they’re playing a local show tonight at a bar called Jan’s - they used to play there all the time before they signed to a label. Do you guys want to come with us?” 

I could see the lightbulb flick on in Violet’s mind as she finally understood who Ronnie was. Before she could say a word, I replied, “That sounds so fun! Of course we’ll come along.”

“Great! We have a car service coming to pick us up to take us there, why don’t you just ride with us? Our driver can take you where you need to go after the show, and then you can Uber back here to pick up your car in the morning!” Ronnie said excitedly, seeming to have already worked out a whole plan.  

I looked at Violet, who was trying to hide a smirk as she stood up from the table to put her jacket on. “Sounds like a perfect plan,” I reasoned. “I’m just going to use the bathroom first. Violet, want to come?”

Violet rolled her eyes as she followed me towards the back of the restaurant to the bathrooms. Once we were shielded by the privacy of the room, I stood with my back pressed against the door and pulled Violet in close to me so that we could whisper. 

“Why are you keeping it a secret that you know what band her brothers are in?” Violet asked in a hushed voice. 

“Because,” I whispered back, “I don’t want to seem like a crazy stalker fan. And, if I want to have a chance of meeting the boys, then I have to play dumb and act like this is the first time I’m hearing about them. Obsessed fan-girl is not a good look in a situation like this,” I reasoned. 

“You know this is not going to end well, right?” she whispered back. 

“Look, all I want is one night of fun with these guys. It will just become a story I can tell at dinner parties when I’m older, or when they make it really big,” I replied. 

“Fine, I’ll go along with it. But you owe me!” Violet whisper-shouted. 

“I promise, Christmas tunes all the way home,” I said, holding out my pinky for a pinky swear. Violet took it in her pinky, and the bond was set. “Now let’s fucking go!” 

We turned and left the bathroom, making our way to the table where Kenzi and Ronnie were waiting with their jackets on. 

“Let’s bounce!” said Ronnie while checking the time on her phone. “We might be slightly late for this gig… oh well, you guys can meet everyone after the show instead.”

“Can’t wait!” I replied enthusiastically. Inside, my nerves were on high alert and I felt extremely nauseous. As Ronnie had said earlier, the power of the universe is incredibly strong, and nothing is coincidental… I just hoped that I was a good enough actress to cover my tracks for the evening. 

The drive over to the bar hadn’t taken long at all, especially since the four of us were hitting it off so well. The more we chatted, the more horrible I felt for essentially using Ronnie and Kenzi to get close to the band. I tried my best to shove those thoughts out of my mind, reminding myself that nothing in this world happens by accident and that they were the ones that had invited us to tag along. 

The driver pulled up out front of Jan’s bar to let us out. He and Ronnie confirmed details for the ride home, and the four of us quickly ventured inside to escape the cold November air. As I ducked through the open door, my eyes scanned the intimate space. We had seemingly entered from the side of the room, so the bar was on my right against a back wall and the stage - if you could even call it that - was on my left side. There were hightop tables scattered throughout the room with stools pulled up at awkward angles in order to fit the vast number of people that had packed into the space. My eyes fell to Ronnie who was standing just in front of me, and I watched her raise her arm up to wave across the room. She turned around and motioned for us to follow, which we did. 

Music was thumping through the speakers that were hung around the room, which made it difficult to hear when Ronnie stopped at a hightop table right in front of the stage and began gesturing at the people sitting there. 

“Guys,” she leaned towards Violet and I, “these are my parents, Karen and Kelly, and these are the Wagners, Danny’s parents. Danny is the drummer and Kenzi’s boyfriend!” She leaned down to have a close conversation with her mother, who presumably wanted to know about the two strangers Ronnie had brought to an intimate performance. 

Violet and I each reached forward to greet both sets of parents as Ronnie and Kenzi scouted for available stools. They eventually found four empty ones, and they were brought to our table as the boys were taking the makeshift stage. It took everything in me not to freak out as I watched them file in, taking their spots at their instruments. The people watching the show tonight had relationships with the boys that went way back, and the feelings of love, respect, and admiration in the room were almost palpable. 

I watched in awe, my eyes wide, as Jake took the portion of the stage right in front of our table. He had his dark eyes down, focusing on something to do with his guitar, and his long wavy hair was falling in front of his face. I knew that underneath the hair, he had the same high cheekbones and chiseled features as Ronnie. Those Kiszka genes were certainly strong. 

Jake lifted his head slightly and shook some of the hair out of his eyes, hitting a pedal on the floor with his foot. When his eyes finally flickered upwards, they landed squarely on my own. In that moment, it seemed as if time had slowed down. The people around us were moving in slow motion - the sounds of the bar had faded, replaced by the thumping of my own heart. After what felt like five minutes, which was probably more like five seconds, I lost my nerve and looked down at the floor while I tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear. I kept my eyes down for a few seconds longer, picking at some lint on my pants, until I heard the opening chords of Safari Song playing and I knew that Jake would be too preoccupied with the show to bother looking at me. Instead, I focused my energy on following Josh’s movements around the space as he belted song after song. 

In the middle of the sixth song in the set, I felt Violet’s hand graze my arm as she leaned in to whisper in my ear.

“The one in front of us keeps looking at you, you know that right?” she asked. “Which one is he again?” 

I leaned towards her, hiding behind a curtain of my hair. “That’s Jake,” I explained. “And no, I didn’t know he was still looking at me. I’m avoiding his eye contact. I’m too intimidated!” 

Violet sat back up in her stool and rolled her eyes at me as the guys continued to play. 

***

“Okay, that was amazing!” Violet squealed, turning in her seat to face the rest of the table. She slapped her hands down on the surface. “Those guys can rock!” 

Everyone laughed, nodding their heads in agreement as they pulled their stools in slightly closer in order to make a closed circle. Karen and I made eye contact across the table, her welcoming smile beaming towards me as brightly as an afternoon sun catching the ripples on a lake. I smiled back sheepishly, blushing even deeper when I watched Josh march up behind his mother and place a hand on her shoulder. 

“Hey mama, thanks for coming,” he said as he planted a kiss on her cheek. Karen pulled his arm around her and turned to reply. 

“Joshua, we drove you here. We had no choice,” she replied, her laughter beginning to bloom before she had finished her sentence. 

I watched with wide eyes as Danny appeared from behind Josh, walking over to wrap his arms around Kenzi while placing a gentle kiss on the top of her head. He rested his chin there while he looked around the room, smiling with satisfaction at the people who had shown up. 

“Hey sis,” Josh waved to Ronnie from across the table, catching sight of Violet and I next to her. “Well, well...now who are these lovely young ladies?” 

Josh let go of his mother and began to move around the table, getting closer to where we were sitting. He casually draped one arm over Ronnie and one arm over me, placing his head down in between our ears. Before he could speak, Kelly’s booming voice carried across the table. 

“Fantastic job, son!” Kelly exclaimed. I looked down to where Kelly had extended his hand, and the one that took it in greeting was capped with a white sailor’s knot bracelet on the wrist. I knew that bracelet, and therefore that hand, belonged to Jake. I took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in my throat as my eyes traced up the hand, catching onto a stare that was already holding my own. I couldn’t hear what Jake said back to his father, as Ronnie began to introduce Violet and I to Josh, Jake, and Danny. 

I held Jake’s gaze from across the table as Ronnie and Josh continued to talk. Jake’s eyes shifted to where Josh’s arm was placed around my shoulder, transitioning to a slightly darker shade of brown as they narrowed at the contact. I pulled my eyes away from Jake to return to the conversations happening around me.

“Where’s my baby? Did you leave him backstage again?” Karen was asking the boys, most likely referring to Sam. He was the youngest Kiszka sibling and she knew that he could sometimes get lost in his own little world. 

“He ran into one of his old teachers,” Danny spoke up. “I think they went out to have a smoke together.”

“I really wish he would kick that habit,” Karen said. “You too, mister. I know it’s not just Sammy out there in the early morning hours…” She jabbed her pointer finger into Jake’s side, looking at him sideways and raising her eyebrows. 

As Jake smiled sheepishly at his mother, I blushed and looked down at my feet. The fact that Jake smoked was new information for me - I tried to imagine how he would look in the middle of the night, face lit up by moonlight and a cloud of smoke circling his face on its way up to the sky. My stomach flipped at the beautiful image. 

“Speaking of…” Jake said quietly, backing away from the group slowly. “I’m going to head outside for a minute. See where Sammy is…” 

He turned on the heel of his chelsea boot, weaving through the crowd and walking out of a door on the opposite side of the room. I couldn’t help the sinking feeling in my chest as I watched him exit the bar. 

 “Well, shall we rock and roll? I’m exhausted,” Josh said, still standing next to me. 

Karen nodded her head as the Wagners began to put on their jackets. “Where are you ladies staying?” she asked. 

“The Frankenmuth Motel,” I replied after looking over at Violet. 

“Oh, honey, no,” Karen shook her head. “I love the town with all my heart, but that motel is a dump! You’re more than welcome to come to our place. We have plenty of space, and I’m sure Ronnie’s clothes will fit you no problem,” she continued to ramble as she stood to put her jacket on. 

Violet and I shot each other a nervous look. She puffed out her bottom lip and shrugged, leaving the decision up to me. 

“Uh, sure, that would be great,” I replied. I looked over at Ronnie. “Is that okay with you?”        

“Uh, of course!” she exclaimed. “Any time we can balance the masculine energy in our house is a good time for me.”

The plan was settled. Kelly and Karen had driven the boys to the bar in their SUV, and we had Ronnie’s car service returning to pick us up. Our group made its way to the front door of the bar where we said goodnight to Kenzi and the Wagners, then went our separate ways to our respective vehicles. As I made my way towards the car, I caught sight of a few silhouettes outlined on the corner of the building with puffs of smoke rising into the air around them. I took a deep breath of the chilly night air and ducked down into my seat to begin the journey to the Kiszka compound.