Naivete

Chapter 10
Things Happen


“Why have you been avoiding me?”

Mike’s voice was stern on the other side of her door.

“Dammit, Mike, leave me alone!” she yelled. “I haven’t been avoiding you, I’ve just…”

“Then why won’t you open the damn door?”

“Because, I…” she faltered again, unable to put the words together. “I just don’t want to see anyone right now. Please leave me alone.”

There was a silence, then his voice came, softer than before.

“Did he hit you, Sam?”

“What? No! Where the fuck did that come from?” she cried, horrified that he’d even suggest such an act.

“I can’t think of any other reason why you wouldn’t want me to even see you, just for a second! I can’t think of anything that I did to you to make you go from being my best friend to being a complete stranger.”

“He didn’t hit me, okay?” she said, exasperated. “I just can’t see you.”

“What the hell happened the other day?” he asked. “We were having a great time, then you saw Brent, scampered off like a scared little chipmunk, and now you won’t talk to me. What did he tell you?”

“Nothing!” Sam yelled quickly. She sighed. Even after meeting Tom, Aaron, and Trevor, Sam still had her doubts, but the mounting evidence was hard to ignore. Her major problem now was telling him why she had suddenly started avoiding his phone calls and refusing to see him.

“Look, I managed to keep him from dumping my ass and kicking yours, isn’t that enough?”

“No, it’s not enough! Sam, I’m not going to leave until you come out here and tell me what the fuck is going on.”

Something inside her snapped, and she marched toward the door. Flinging it open, she was a little surprised to see Mike sitting on the floor against the wall, staring directly at her. He stood when she stepped out into the hall and grabbed his jacket, yanking him into the room roughly.

“You want to know what the fuck is going on? You want to know what he told me?” she asked angrily. Mike nodded expectantly. “He told me all about your sick little game,” she said.

“What sick little game?” he asked, confusion and fury passing across his face. She felt a moment of weakness as he looked at her earnestly. It was really hard to believe that this was all an act. She shook her head quickly and regained her composure.

“Making all these girls fall in love with you, getting them to leave their boyfriends, then ditching them at the last minute? Yeah, that’s really classy,” she spat out, her fury almost bubbling over. “Did you think that was going to work on me? Did you think that I was going to fall in love with you?”

Mike’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. The shock registering on his face seemed real, and Sam had a hard time convincing herself that he was making it all up.

“I…Sam, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, taking a step toward her. She took a step back, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Oh? What about Tom’s girlfriend Rachel? Or Aaron’s girlfriend Destiny? Or Trevor’s fiancée Emily? Or Brent’s ex-girlfriend Sherry?”

Mike shook his head a little more with each name she mentioned.

“No, no no no, Sam, you have it all wrong....\"

“Oh? And what about sleeping with all of them first?” she interrupted.

“What?!” Mike was beginning to sound angry now as Sam flung accusations at him left and right. “I told you I was a virgin! I haven’t slept with anyone, let alone any of those girls! Shit, do you think I’d lie to you about that?”

“I don’t know, Mike, would you?” Sam asked coldly.

“Fuck! No, Sam! I wouldn’t! I have no idea who Rachel and Destiny are! As for Emily, I think maybe I’ve met her once or twice, but certainly never enough to get her to break up with her boyfriend and come after me. Sherry…Sherry’s situation was different than that. Sherry’s a crazy, obsessive bitch who I practically had to file a restraining order against. But because I’m pretty sure she was trying to kill me, not because she loved me. Brent is filling your head full of lies because of some bullshit that he and I had in the past. He’s dragging you into it something I’ve been trying to keep you away from.”

“What bullshit?” Sam asked quickly, hoping that now, finally, she’d learn what had happened between Mike and Brent to make them such enemies. No such luck, however.

“It’s – “ he faltered. “It’s complicated, and I really don’t think you want to hear about it right now.”

“Well, that sounds awfully convenient,” she snapped, heading for the door again to show him the way out. But he rushed her, grabbed her arm and wheeled her around until their faces were inches apart. His hands had her firmly by the upper arms, and he bent his head down to look her in the eye.

“Look at me, Sam.” She looked away angrily. “Look at me!” Reluctantly, her eyes found their way back to his, and she felt a fresh wave of tears beginning. “Would I do that to you? Even if it was true about all the other girls, that for whatever reason I like seeing girls suffer so much that I would do that to them, do you really think that I would hurt you like that?”

His gaze was intense, his lips mere inches from hers, and it took all her self-control to push back those burning feelings she’d been experiencing for him over the past few weeks. She fought to regain her resolve, but the longer she took in his earnest expression, the faster that resolve was slipping away.

“Sam,” he muttered, sending shivers up and down her spine. “If anything, I’ve been trying not to get you to feel that way about me. If anything, I’ve been trying so hard to stay in the friend zone with you, because I don’t know what would happen if I had any excuse to feel the way I think I feel about you.”

She shivered again as his grip tightened on her arms, still firmly, but not causing any pain.

“Sam, you’re my best friend, one of the best friends I’ve ever had. I like doing anything with you, whether it’s rehearsing, or drinking coffee, or watching bad television, and it scares the shit out of me that I feel like that. I’ve never felt like that with anyone before, and I’m afraid of what would happen if things got any further between us than they are now. I’d be so fucking scared if you fell in love with me, Sam, because I think I’m falling in love with you.”

His voice had become a strained whisper, and Sam was shivering almost constantly in his grasp. She shook her head and started to speak, to protest, but he cut her off by pressing his lips suddenly and firmly against hers. He kissed her hard, almost painfully so, with the passion of a man who had been locked away for years. Sam responded immediately, slipping her arms from his grasp and throwing them around his neck, bringing him closer to her. His tongue darted at her lips, which she gladly opened for him, and she almost gasped at the impatience with which he explored the inside of her mouth. He grabbed her around the small of her back and pulled her even closer, until their hips were flush against each other, then he slowly backed her against the wall by the door. She could feel him pressing hard against her stomach, and the feeling turned her on even more. She thrust her fingers into his hair, and he almost immediately broke the kiss, moving his lips down along her jaw line and the sensitive area beneath her ear. She moaned a little as his hand trailed over the curve of her ass and grasped the back of her thigh. He lifted it, letting her leg wrap around his waist, and began to grind against her in a way that almost made her cry out. His hand moved back up her stomach, finding its way eagerly to her breast. He quickly located her nipple through the flimsy tank top she was wearing and he teased it relentlessly, his lips now working over her collarbone, nipping hard, then soothing with wet kisses.

She very quickly approached the moment when she had to make a choice. If she let him continue to ravage her like this, she would not be able to say no. If she put a stop to it now, she could save some face – even if it was just a little – and give herself some time to reconsider everything she’d been told in the past few days, compared to everything she knew about Mike in her heart.

“Mike,” she moaned as his hand slipped beneath her shirt. He growled in response, a low, throaty growl that made her shudder. “Mike,” she said more firmly, placing her two hands on his shoulders. He backed off of her quickly, more quickly than she expected him to.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I…” He shook his head, breathing hard and looking at the ground. Sam leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath.

“I just…I can’t do this right now.”

“I know,” he said. “I don’t know what…what happened. You were just there, and so…fuck. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mike,” Sam said, suddenly feeling that she needed to be authoritative now. “Just…just go back home. I’m not going to study group Saturday, but I will be at the Talent Show tomorrow night. I’ll see you there, right?”

When she looked back up at Mike, he was looking at her lustfully. Her heartbeat refused to slow down as she looked at him. Finally, after a moment, he nodded. “Yeah, you’ll see me there. Sam…”

“Hm?”

“I wasn’t lying. I can’t lie to you.”

“I know,” she answered, although in her heart she wondered if that was true.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“He did what?!” Sarah practically shrieked as Sam recounted the events of the afternoon.

“Calm down,” Sam said with a short laugh. “It wasn’t that big a deal.”

Sarah gave her a look that clearly indicated that she thought Sam was full of shit.

“Okay, it was a huge deal,” she said with a grin. “It was…it was the sexiest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“But didn’t you tell me that he’s…” Sarah trailed off, one eyebrow raised.

“A virgin? Yeah. At least, that’s what he says. He says he hasn’t found the right girl yet. Even though there are at least two other girls out there who say that they’ve slept with him.”

“Sounds like he was pretty ready to throw you to the floor and have his way with you today,” Sarah pointed out. “Does that make you the ‘right girl?’”

Sam smiled a little. “I don’t know. I don’t know what it means.”

There was a pause as Sarah looked at her through narrowed lids. “So where does this put you and Brent?”

“I don’t know,” Sam said with a groan. “I have no idea who to believe. I’d like to believe the better kisser, but that’s hardly practical. I mean, I met all of Brent’s friends who had been fucked over by Mike, but…something really makes me want to believe that Mike wouldn’t lie to me about something like this.”

Sarah nodded sympathetically. “Well, I have an idea. I think Sherry is working at the bar tonight. Will Brent be there?”

Sam shook her head. “No, he’s got his first paying guitar gig tonight.”

“Okay, so I say we go over to the bar, get shit-faced, and try to get some information out of Sherry.”

Sam grinned. Sarah was always good for at least one thing – figuring out how to take a crisis situation and turn it into a good time.

“Lemme get my purse,” she said.

Once they had reached the bar, they had their attack planned out. They took their seats at the bar and ordered their drinks, and waited for a lull in business. After about an hour of drinking and chatting, things slowed down a little bit, and Sarah quickly called over the bartender.

“Hey, Kelley! Is Sherry working tonight?”

The robust blonde nodded and grinned. “She’s over there.” Sam followed the pointed finger and quickly spotted her. She was beautiful, to be sure. Long, chestnut brown hair which was coiled into a messy French twist, high cheekbones, piercing blue eyes. Sam suddenly felt nervous and ordered another drink as Kelley called Sherry over.

“What’s up?” Sherry asked, flashing a brief smile at the two girls.

“Hi, I’m Sarah,” Sarah introduced herself. “And this is Sam. We’re friends of Brent’s. Do you have a break coming up soon? We thought we might ask you a few things.”

Sam almost groaned at Sarah’s forwardness, but realized that it was probably about the best way to get any answers out of the waitress. To her happy surprise, Sherry nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah, actually, I’m almost done for the night. Let me just get my last table out the door, and I’ll come join you guys.” She started to walk away, then stopped and turned. “I hope you don’t get the wrong idea…I just love gossiping about old boyfriends.”

Sam ventured a weak smile, and was suddenly overcome with a feeling of distinct nausea. She wasn’t really sure she wanted to know anything about Brent…if he had any secrets in his past, she wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with them. In fact, the whole idea was beginning to sound pretty stupid.

“Sam, stop it. You look like you’re about to hurl. We’re not going anywhere,” Sarah said matter-of-factly, as if reading her mind. Sam gave her a desperate look, but she just laughed and turned her attention back to her drink. After a few moments, Sherry returned and plopped down on the seat next to Sam.

“So, which one of you poor little ladies is dating Brent?”

Sarah’s voice tinkled with laughter and she pointed at Sam.

Sherry rolled her eyes and looked directly at Sam. “Tell me, do you like having your life controlled?”

Sam was a bit taken aback. She had no idea Sherry would match Sarah’s forwardness to such extremes. “N-no,” she stammered.

“Then ditch him,” Sherry said, reaching into the pocket of her apron for a pack of cigarettes. She offered one to each of the girls, both of whom accepted one gladly. Sam rarely smoked, but she thought that maybe she might need the relaxation at this moment. She lit the cigarette and pulled slowly, letting her throat and lungs get accustomed to the feeling of it.

“Well,” she began. “I appreciate the advice, but actually…I wanted to ask you about Mike.”

Sherry visibly tensed, and Sam immediately regretted bringing it up at all. There was no way she’d get any straight answers now. However, Sherry surprised her again and immediately launched into the whole story. It sounded relatively similar to the stories she’d heard from Tom, Trevor, Aaron, and Brent, with a few astounding differences.

“He really was being a friend,” Sherry said. “He really was pointing out all the things that were really wrong with this relationship. But I never really got the impression that he was trying to lure me away. I know that’s what Brent thinks – it’s the reason he broke up with me.”

“Woah, what?” Sam interrupted, thoroughly confused by now. “What the hell are you talking about? He said you broke up with him.”

Sherry’s eyes widened and she let out a short laugh. “I wish I had gotten the chance. No, he got all paranoid because of how much time I was spending with Mike. He dumped me first. He really told you that I broke up with him?”

Sam nodded hesitantly.

“Well, shit, what else did he tell you?”

Sam took a deep, shaky breath. “He said that you and Mike were sleeping together, and that after you broke up with Brent, Mike broke up with you, and you were devastated. He also said that the two of you weren’t having any problems before you started hanging out with Mike.”

Sherry shook her head vehemently. “No, no. Mike and I weren’t sleeping together. I don’t know where he would have gotten that idea. Mike is a virgin. At least, he was when he and I were friends. True, Mike did have to ditch me in a sense…but I deserved it.” The girl suddenly looked regretful. “After Brent broke up with me, I confronted Mike about everything. He denied it all, of course, but I didn’t believe him. I was...I was pretty harsh. That’s why he and I aren’t friends anymore. And Brent and I were having horrible problems. He even tried to convince me that Mike was a bullshit artist, that he was playing me like a violin.”

Sam’s jaw dropped.

“Lemme guess,” Sherry said with a laugh. “He brought over Tom, Trevor, and Aaron to tell you all about how Mike screwed them over by stealing their girlfriends away, right?”

She nodded at Sherry in disbelief.

Sherry laughed heartily.

“He did the same thing to me. The truth is, Mike and those guys all used to hang out together. It’s how I met him, through Brent. I’m not really sure what happened – I couldn’t get a straight answer out of any of them – but Mike did or said something that really pissed everyone off. All of a sudden, he just stopped hanging around. I continued seeing him, even though Brent told me I had to stop. Mike wouldn’t tell me why Brent hated him all of a sudden, but all the guys could talk about for a couple of weeks was getting back at Mike. It was kind of creepy, actually.”

Sam gaped openly at her story. This was all getting so confusing.

“So…Mike and Brent used to be friends. Mike did something to piss Brent off, and now, what, Tom and Aaron and Trevor are making up stories about him to keep me away?” she summarized.

“Pretty much,” Sherry said, exhaling a cloud of smoke over the bar. “I wish I could tell you more, but that’s about all I got. For whatever reason, they just want to make Mike’s life miserable.”

After several more minutes of light conversation, Sam and Sarah bid Sherry goodnight and headed back to the dorms.

“So, what are you going to do, hon?” Sarah asked as they slipped under the covers and turned off the lights.

“I don’t know,” Sam answered honestly. “I have to find out what happened between Mike and Brent. I have to know who I can trust. Otherwise, I can’t trust either of them.”

Sarah nodded in the dark and rolled over, falling asleep quickly.

Sam stayed awake for a long time, rolling the new information over and over in her head. Tomorrow, the day of the Talent Show, she would find out for sure, regardless of what it took.


A/N: I apologize if things seem confusing. Everything will come together in the next chapter or two, but don’t worry! That’s not the end of the action yet! Read and review, please!