The One I Loathe

Chapter 13

He picked me up right on time at 7:00. Just like he’d advised I dressed warmly, a pair of jeans and a chenille sweater. I wore my hair down and even straightened it for the occasion. He came in, met my parents and enchanted them. They even extended my curfew till 12:00!

As soon as we we’re out the door he stopped, looked down at me and said quietly, “You look beautiful tonight,” And surprisingly, from him, I believed it, and I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.


“Thanks,” I managed to squeak out.

With that, he grabbed my hand and walked me to his car. Well, actually it was Trent’s dad’s car. He must’ve left a spleen back at the house.

He drove to a little sandwich and coffee place downtown. Since it was mainly a lunch place, it wasn’t crowded at all. We sat down, ordered, and the waitress took our menus.

“So,” I began, “What have you got planned for the rest of the evening?”

“Sorry, still a secret!”

I complained, but the air of mystery thrilled me.

“Listen, Sophie, I’m really glad you said yes to tonight. I know I sounded like idiot on the phone that one time, but I really like you.”

“Well thanks, Sam! That’s really sweet,”

And as much as I wanted to tell him I liked him too, I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

“So,” he said, “First things first, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“You promise you won’t laugh,”

“I Promise! Scouts honor,” he said holding up two fingers.

“I’ve always wanted to be a children’s storybook writer,”

Despite his oath, he laughed.

“Hey! You promised you wouldn’t laugh,”

Here I was pouring out my deepest darkest secret and he was guffawing!

“No!...No!” He said between giggles. Finally gaining composure he continued, “It’s just different then what I thought you’d want to be,”

“Well, what did you think I wanted to be?” I prodded.
This would be interesting.

“I don’t know! Something edgy, something…exciting! Like a FBI agent, or a forensic scientist, or a detective,”

Now it was my turn to laugh.

“A detective, ME? I get squeamish near a paper cut!”

And I really did! Nasty little buggers…

“Really?” Her asked, stunned, “You seemed so confident and brave last summer!”

Well, that summer I wasn’t really myself.

“So, what about you? What’s your dream job?” I asked him, trying to get the topic off of me.

“Well, actually, I want to be a painter. You know, like a starving artist?”

Oh... He was the sensitive artist type! I had no idea!

After that, conversation came easy. We talked about our favorite food, color, music, anything that came to mind! I never thought Sam would be so easy to talk to. For once, a guy seemed genuinely interested in me, not my face! So it came as a surprise to me when he said it was time to go.

“Where are we going?” I asked again.

“Sorry! Still a surprise!”

We went back to the truck, and just as I sat down, and put on my seat belt, Sam suddenly tied a blindfold over my eyes.

“Sam! What are you doing?”

“Keeping the surprise,”

This guy was crazy! But I liked it.



We had decided to stay in and watch our favorite
movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I got us 2 sodas and popped some popcorn. We settled down on the living room sofa, put in the DVD and began to watch.

After over half way through, Audrey had repositioned herself so she was lying on the couch and had her head leaning on my shoulder. I put my arm around her.

“You know,” she said. “I really have missed you,” she said as she turned her head up to look at me.
I couldn’t hold back any longer. I bent my head down and pressed my lips to her. We continued until it become deeper. And then…well let’s just say we missed the last 30 minutes of the movie.

When the movie was over, we broke apart, and Audrey stood up and looked at me strangely.

“Trent?” She asked simply.

“Yeah?” This didn’t sound good.

“I want to tell you something, that’s very…not me.”

“Um…ok,” Again, not sounding good.

“I love you,” She said quickly.

There it was. I had waited to hear that from her for so long, so why wasn’t I happier?

“Well good! Took you long enough!” I didn’t know what else to say!

“I know and I’m sorry. I was just worried that I’d get too attached to you and we’d break up and I’d have to be sad and all that mess. So, I just wanted to spare myself. But, now I know that we’ve got something real. And, it’s nice”

“Yeah, nice” I said, pulling he towards me. But when I kissed her and closed my eyes, instead of seeing her face in my head, I saw…SOPHIE? At the thought of that I pulled away rather abruptly, breaking our kiss.

“Trent? What’s wrong?” Audrey asked, kind of annoyed.
Uh…think fast Trent!

“Cold sore! I just felt it!”

I really needed to work on thinking on my feet.

“Ugh…gross. Whatever, I have to get to bed anyway. I’m exhausted. I still haven’t adjusted to this time change!”

“Right! Well, see you tomorrow,”

Not daring to kiss her again, I gave her a hug.

After she went upstairs to her room, I sat back down on the couch and let out a big sigh.

This was getting complicated.



It took us about twenty minutes to get wherever we were going. Suddenly the car stopped.

“Ok, Can I take this blindfold off now?” I asked impatiently.

“Not yet! Just wait there a second and I’ll come get you when it’s ready,”

“When what’s ready?”

“You’ll see…”

Who knew Sam was a romantic? Finally about 10 minutes later I heard the car door open.

“Alright, It’s ready,” I heard Sam say.

He grabbed my hands and helped me get out of the truck. It was really chilly outside, then Colorado winters were known to be. He led me a few feet forward. Then he whispered in my ear, “Surprise,”

When he took off my blind fold, I was shocked. We were in a field, kind of. It was an old drive-in theatre! I glanced at the truck bed. It had a blanket in the bottom of it, two glasses filled with sparkling cider, and a plate with two pieces of strawberry cheesecake on it. I saw two pillows and two blankets stacked in the corner. There was even a little step ladder leading up to the truck bed.

“Oh my gosh!” Was all I could manage to say. Then I remembered the drive-in theatre screen.

“Wait, what are we watching?” I asked him.


“Roman Holiday,” he said with a smirk.

My favorite movie. I turned around and gave him a huge hug. When we pulled back, with my hand still around his neck, I looked up in to his ice blue eyes and said, “Sam, you’re amazing,” And I meant it.

He smiled and said, “Come on, the movie’s about to start!”

He went back to the truck’s backseat and pulled out a portable radio, while I climbed up into the truck bed. He hopped up there with me and turned on the radio to the station with the movie’s sound on it. While we were waiting for the movie to start, we put the pillows behind our backs for maximum cushiness, and put the blankets over our legs to keep warm.

Then the movie began. I leaned my head against his shoulder and he put his arm around me. It felt good, really good.

Over half way into the movie, the cheesecake had been eaten, the whole bottle of cider had been drunk, and I was having the best time I’d ever had. I couldn’t believe how perfect this night was! I mean, how did Sam know what my favorite type of food, favorite movie, and favorite dessert were? And I hadn’t been to a drive-in theatre since I was at least ten years old with the Bennets.

The Bennets! Trent! That was the first time I thought about him all night.

I turned to Sam, “This evening’s been perfect! How did you do it?”

“Well, truth be told, when I asked you out I had no idea what we were going to do, so I asked Trent for help!”

I knew it.

“…and he told be that your families went to a Drive-In theatre once and you really liked it.”

I still couldn’t believe he remembered that!

“…then he told me your favorite movie, food, dessert, beverage, that sort of thing.”

Well that explained it. I had told him all of that, months ago! He obviously had a good memory.

“Yeah, he even told me what to say to your parents to get them to like me!”

He would know.

He finally stopped. As if waiting for a response, or praise, or something more than the blank look I was giving him.

“So, this was all Trent’s idea?” I asked, finally.

“Yeah, he’s a great friend.” said Sam, still rather blind to the fact that I was really weirded out.

“Yeah, great,” I replied.

Had I really even had a date with Sam? Well, sure the actual person, but this whole date was Trent’s ideas, and even Trent’s words, spoken by Sam! It really bothered me. Did I even like Sam as much as I thought I had?

“Enough about Trent though,” Sam said finally. “Let’s talk about us,” He said as he leaned in uncomfortably close.

Gulp.

“Us? What about us?” I asked him, even though I already knew.

“I’ve liked you ever since I met you Sophie. You know that! And I know you don’t totally hate me judging by that hug you gave me earlier,” He said with a wink.

Except that wink didn’t make my stomach flop. Not like…Trent’s did. But I couldn’t like Trent! It made much more sense to like Sam. I mean, why did it bother me so much that Trent planned this date? I actually was beginning to like Sam before I found that out! I would just have to convince myself to like Sam, that’s all.

“Well,” I said hesitantly, “I like you too Sam”
I did! I liked Sam. I liked Sam. I liked Sam. I was hoping saying it to myself enough times would make me believe it.

“Then,” he said as he took his arm from around my shoulders, sat up, and put his hand on my chin tilting it toward his, “Will you go out with me?”

Here it was. Sam was a really great guy who liked me for me and that’s what I wanted, right? If that was true, then why was my head saying, ‘NO WAY’? If I said yes now, I’d grow to like him.

“Yes,”

Wouldn’t I?

Then it happened, my worst fear, he was leaning in to kiss me. And, seeing has how I’d just agreed to be his girlfriend, I couldn’t NOT kiss him.

I prayed for a distraction, a hurricane, tornado, blizzard, ANYTHING! This isn’t how I wanted my first kiss to be! Then, my prayer was answered.

Right as his lips were about to touch mine, I heard a crack of thunder, and a huge rain storm suddenly came from no where. It was like someone had dropped a bucket of water over the whole field.

It stopped him cold though! We quickly got up, hopped out of the truck bed, and covered up all the things in there, and made a mad dash to the car.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t finish the movie,” he said sadly as we sat, dripping, in the truck.

Oh, it’s alright! I know you can’t control the weather. It’s like this one time Hilary and I went out for a walk and it just randomly poured down rain! Crazy weather we have here, I’ll tell you! So, you about ready to head home, I’m exhausted!” I was rambling. He’d know something was wrong!

“Yep, you’re right!”

Or not.

When we got home, we ran to the front porch from the truck, as the sky was still pouring down the rain I’d ordered. We stopped when we got to my covered front porch. He looked at me with that ‘I want to kiss you’ look again. So, I said, rather abruptly, “Well, it’s been fun, got to go!” But just so I wouldn’t totally smash his ego, I gave a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. We said our goodbyes, and I went inside.

So, to recap, I was now dating the best friend of the guy who I should hate, but can’t help but have a crush on, who happened to have a girlfriend who hated me. But Sam was really sweet and he was everything I was looking for in a guy, and eventually I would grow to like him.

Oh, what was I thinking? I had a problem, a BIG one.