Part Five

“Honey, I’m home!” Jett yelled as he opened the front door. “Oh shit sorry, is she still asleep?”

“She’s in the kitchen douchebag,” Mac yelled back as Jett laughed.

I heard some muttering and low curses and fifteen minutes later Jett joined us in the kitchen just as we started dishing up. Samantha hadn’t said anything else but she was sitting at the small table just looking at us.

“We’re making you some soup as well,” I said as I handed her a plate which she took with shaky hands.

“Why?” she asked me.

“Again with the questions?” I asked her as she looked down.

“What he meant to say was we’re here to look after you, you’re Griff’s girl now and that means you’re part of the gang and we look after our own,” Jett said.

“He didn’t mean ‘gang’ as in mobster gang,” Mac said as I closed my eyes briefly.

“Are you in a gang?” she asked him.

“No,” we all said in unison.

“Oh,” she said.

“Eat.” I looked at her until she took the first bite before continuing to eat my own food.

The table fell into silence as we all ate and went in for seconds while Samantha hadn’t even eaten a third of the food on her plate. She looked like a deer trapped in a hunter’s headlights as she looked at us. Jett had opened the fridge earlier to get the orange juice out and her eyes had bulged when she saw it stocked.

“Can we talk?” she asked me after I’d finished my second helping of breakfast.

“Sure,” I said and leaned back in the chair.

“Alone,” she said and Jett and Mac started making kissing faces at each other.

“Clean up in here,” I said as I stood up.

“Wait! We want to hear as well, we’re all in the gang now,” Jett said as I threw a dishcloth at him and followed Samantha out of the kitchen.

I followed her upstairs to her room and closed the door behind me as she sat down on her bed. I leaned back against the door watching her as she bit her lip and kept looking down.

“I know who you are Griffin. I know who all of you are. We’re not rich like you and I don’t understand what you’re doing here, why you’re doing all this,” she said as she finally looked up at me.

“No, let me finish,” she said as she held her hand up. “I can’t pay you back. My parents left two years ago and Serena tries, she lives with a friend so it’s closer to college for her, she sends me money when she can. I’m not someone’s good deed for the day, I don’t want to be. I don’t want your pity.”

“Can I talk now?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said and looked down again.

“I like you Samantha,” I said as her head snapped up. “I didn’t ask you to pay me back. I don’t care what you think and I didn’t do this because I pity you, I did this because like Jett said, you’re my girl now and this is how we do things.”

“You don’t even know me,” she said.

“This is me getting to know you,” I said to her as tears formed in her eyes.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said.

“You don’t need to say anything, go freshen up and come back downstairs when you’re ready because we’re not going anywhere,” I said.

I left her room and closed the door behind me and went downstairs quickly as I heard her start to cry. I wasn’t good with emotional breakdowns and I didn’t know her well enough to know how to comfort her.

“Is she mad?” Jett asked.

“No, she seems confused about my intentions,” I said to him.

“So I reckoned since it’s Friday we’ll be staying the weekend right,” Jett said.

“Might as well,” Mac said.

“I got a television, I’m not sitting here the whole weekend looking at you two love birds and no N*****x,” he said.

Samantha came downstairs in sweats an hour later as we sat in the living room watching television. Jett had already opened a bag of chips and he held it up to Samantha as she walked past him and sat down on the only available seat which was next to me.

“You guys brought a television?” she asked.

“Yeah, sorry, I can’t survive a whole weekend without one,” Jett said as he held the bag out to her again but she shook her head.

“The weekend?” she asked.

“Yeah, did you think we were leaving?” Mac asked her.

“Uhm…”

“Don’t answer that, we already ditched school for you, so now you have to offer us asylum,” Jett said.

“Asylum?” she asked.

“Yeah we’re wanted now,” Mac said as I started to laugh.

“You’re both insane,” she said.

“Aren’t you lucky for finding us?” Jett asked her.

“I’m not sure anymore,” she said and we all laughed as a small smile started on her lips.

“That’s the spirit,” Mac said as he grabbed the remote from Jett and handed it to Sam, “your turn to choose.”

“I really don’t mind,” she said as she handed me the remote and both of them tackled me for the remote.

“Get off me!” I yelled as I felt a punch to the ribs.

“Griff is that your hand on my ass?” Jett asked.

“Aww man I thought that was Griff’s ass,” Mac said and I started laughing and let go of the remote.

At one point Samantha curled up on the other end of the couch and soon she was asleep. I got a pillow and blanket from her bedroom and she curled into the blanket as I covered her. Mac and Jett were napping on the other two couches and I let myself out of the house to call Damon.

“Woods,” he answered and I smiled.

“Dad, you do realize that my name shows on your caller ID,” I said to him.

“So?”

“Anyway, I wanted to let you know that we’re not going to be home for the weekend,” I said to him.

“Okay, where are you guys?” he asked me, “because you weren’t in school.”

“Damn, I really thought they’d call Mom,” I said as he started to laugh.

“She was covering for you?” he asked me and I chuckled.

“We’re at Samantha’s house and those two are already napping on the couches, Jett even brought his tv,” I said.

“I figured you’d be there. Your mom already told me the whole story, just check in okay,” he said.

“Thanks Dad,” I replied.

“And Griff?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t do anything stupid like getting her pre…”

“Bye Dad,” I said and ended the phone call before he could finish that sentence.

I saw Jennifer as she stood on the pavement looking at me with her mouth open and then looked at the house behind me. She blinked her eyes a few times and swallowed as I walked towards her.

“Are you looking for Samantha?” I asked her.

“Uhm, yes,” she said looking worried.

“She wasn’t feeling well, she’s napping on the couch. You can come in if you want,” I said to her.

“Yeah I brought her some medicine, it’s been a few days,” she said as I opened the front door.

“That’s good,” I said as she stopped short.

“Is that Mac and Jett?” she asked as she looked at them sleeping on the couch.

“We’re sort of camping out here to look after her,” I said.

“Oh, that’s uhm nice,” she said looking unsure as I started chuckling.

“Take a seat and make yourself comfortable, do you want something to drink?” I asked her.

“Sure, water’s fine too,” she said and I knew in that moment that she was well aware of Samantha’s situation.

“Why don’t you follow me to the kitchen,” I said to her as she turned around and started following me.

“I’m sorry,” she said as her eyes widened slightly.

“Are the rumours about us really that bad?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said without thinking.

“First off, not everything you hear is true and secondly, how long has Sam lived like this?” I asked her.

“Like what?” she asked me.

“I understand you’re her friend and you want to protect her but we’re her friends now too and you know exactly what I’m talking about,” I said to her.

“She’s going to kill me, but since you already know, her sister almost never comes here, I try and bring her food when I can, her sister sends her money, but it’s a joke really. She doesn’t pay the heating sometimes so that she can eat instead. Their parents bailed a few years ago and she’s very sensitive about it. Most days she doesn’t eat at school either but I always share my lunch with her,” Jennifer said as she kept looking down.

“How long?” I asked her.

“The last two years at least, it took a while before I realized what was going on, she never told me outright until six months ago,” she said.

“Doesn’t she have any other family?” I asked her.

“No and she’s not really a talker. I worry about her all alone here sometimes especially after what happened with Rosco,” she said.

“What happened with Rosco?” I asked her. I knew the name, he was one of Travis Scott’s best friends.

“Uhm, no I can’t, she’d really kill me,” she said.

“I’ll find out another way,” I said to her.

“Do it,” she said to me almost pleadingly.