Chapter Four

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Johnson said releasing her. “Bye.”

“Bye.” Smith turned towards her room, a smile on her face and gently biting her lower lip. She sat back down on her bed and started talking to Johnson again. ‘We probably shouldn’t tell anyone in class, at least not for a while.’

‘Agreed.’

‘Which means we can’t put it on Facebook.’

“We should probably start calling each other by our first names,” Johnson said the next day in class.

“I agree, Michael.”

“So first date tomorrow?” He asked.

“Sounds good to me.”

***

The next day, Friday Michael and Sam met up to go to the chow hall to go to dinner for their first date. “So you’re going to get the best friend talk from Cassie, it’ll be something like ‘No means no and she’s my best friend you hurt her I hurt you.’”

“Oh, okay.”

There was hardly a line at the chow hall when they arrived, most people were already off base, getting ready to go off base, or had already eaten. Sam and Michael made their way through the line, Sam getting shrimp scampi because it was a Friday in lent, and Michael . They sat down at the table and started eating before Sam texted Cassie asking if she wanted to give the best friend talk. Moments later her phone rang and Sam handed the phone over the table to Michael.

The conversation went just as Sam had said it would; short, sweet, and to the point. Michael talked to Cassie for a little longer before hanging up and handing the cell phone back across the table. They finished eating the mediocre chow hall food before heading to the dayroom to sit down and watch a movie.

The couch against the back wall, where they had sat during The Notebook, is where they chose to sit. The movie of choice was Slap Shot, one of Sam’s favorites. Michael put the disc in before sitting down on the couch next to his girlfriend. Girlfriend. It sounded so right. ‘I can’t believe she’s mine,’ he thought and scooted closer. Sam rested her head on his shoulder and after a while slipped his arm around Sam, she snuggled closer and rested her head on his chest.

Sam smiled, she felt safe, really safe for the first time ever with a guy. Everyone always says that they feel safe in a relationship, but this time it was real. Sam felt as if nothing could happen to her as long as she was in Michael’s arms.

Michael was surprised that the night was going so well, he was sure that he would have screwed something up by this point. When the movie ended he got up to change the DVD, when he sat back down and tried to put his arm back around her his ‘hot streak” ended. The worst thing that could have happened, happened. He elbowed her in the head.

‘Fuck,’ he thought, ‘She’s going to smack me and walk out.’ “Oh my God I’m so sorry.”

Sam looked at Michael and laughed. “It’s fine, really.”

He put his arm around her before saying, “I really am sorry.”

“Seriously it’s fine,” Sam said and cuddled close again.

‘Holy shit I’m lucky, anyone else would have walked out after that, or at least not laugh about it and cuddle back up. I have to be careful though, one more dumbass move like that and she’ll dumb me.’

It was like being in middle school again. Sam wasn’t tired at all, she hadn’t felt that way since before high school. They watched movies cuddled up until five in the morning, it had definitely been a long day, almost twenty-four hours had passed since they had left for class. “You tired?” Michael asked when Sam yawned and buried her face in his chest.

“A little,” she smiled.

“Okay, let’s go.” He put the movie they had been watching away before putting his hoodie back on and walking Sam downstairs to the white line by her room. “I had a good time tonight,” he said when she was back in his arms again, her body pressed against his. ‘I want to kiss her, but I don’t want her to push me away because she think I’m moving too fast.’

“I had a good time too, thanks,” her head rested against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. ‘I really want to kiss him,’ she thought.

They stayed like that for at least five minutes, in each other’s arms, feeling right, feeling safe. ‘Maybe I’ll just kiss the top of her head and see what happens.’ So that’s what he did, he pressed his luck and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. Sam smiled on the inside and out. She looked up into his brown eyes before their lips met for a short yet spark filled kiss, it was like an electric current ran through them for those brief seconds.

‘Finally!’ Sam thought, she had wanted him to kiss her all night, just as Michael had wanted to kiss her.

When they looked back at each other they were both smiling. ‘That’s a good sign,’ Michael thought. “Well I’ll see you in the morning.”

“It is morning,” Sam being her usual smart-ass self said.

“Fine, I’ll see you later today.”

Sam smiled, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” And with that Michael turned to go upstairs to his room.

Sam turned towards her room with a smile on her face and pulled her phone from her pocket to text Jesse and Cassie saying, ‘I got a kiss!’ before changing and falling into bed. A perfect first date.

***

Sam and Michael met at the bottom of the steps to go to ‘breakfast’ later that day, it was more like lunch though because it was eleven o’clock. After getting their food and sitting down to eat they started talking. “I really did have a good time last night.” Sam said before taking a bite of her eggs.

“I did too.”

“I really like you and I don’t want to screw things up like in past relationships, so I want to take things slow.”

“Okay, we can take things slow.”