Chapter Five
They decided to watch movies all day long, and as more of the day passed and she spent more time with him Sam was realizing more and more that she was falling for Michael. She had told him earlier in the day though that she wanted to take things slow so telling him that she loved him would have been the exact opposite of taking things slow. She also didn't want to scare him away, after all she did love him. Michael felt the same way, he was falling for her, hard. He wanted so badly to tell her how he felt, that he l-loved her.
They went bed at around five am again, woke up at eleven, and met for breakfast. After eating they hung out in the day room until they absolutely needed to clean their rooms before the GI party. A quick clean, a formation, and fake room inspections took place before they were back in the day room watching something. One of the times they kissed Sam almost slipped up and told Michael that she loved him but she forced herself to hold the words back.
As curfew approached Michael walked Sam downstairs, giving them ample time for one last hug. After a kiss and saying goodnight they went to their rooms and immediately began texting each other. 'I don't want to scare you, but I have to tell you. I think I love you, am I moving too fast?'
'No, because I'm pretty sure that I love you too. It almost slipped today but I reminded myself that I wanted to take things slow. Damn you asked me out in person but the first I love you is in a text.'
'I'm sorry.'
***
For wanting to take thing slow, that’s not how things seemed to be going. However Monday at lunch, everyone in their blues Michael and Sam were sitting with some ‘friends’ joking around when Michael went a little too far. Starla, a girl a few classes ahead of them was eating strawberries and Michael made a comment about how she was eating them. Sam would have been fine with it if another guy would have made the comment or if she hadn’t been dating Michael, hell she would have laughed. But because it was her boyfriend who had made the comment about another girl while sitting right next to her Sam was upset. She stopped contributing to the conversation and stopped talking to Michael all together. It didn’t take long for him to catch on that he was in trouble. ‘Fuck she’s going to end it.’
After lunch and marching back to the school house Sam and Michael’s class had a progress check, the last thing they had to do before block two was over. Michael sat next to each other in the back of the classroom which made the PC even more difficult. Both Sam and Michael passed the PC, Sam however barely slipped by even though before lunch she had known the material perfectly. After their PC’s had been checked Sam and Michael waited for everyone else to be done, Michael typed a message on his screen and poked Sam to get her to look. ‘Can we talk?’
‘Later.’
After marching back from school and getting changed into civilian clothes Sam met up with Michael and they talked things through. “I forgive you, but don’t do it again.”
“So we’re good?”
“Yes we’re good,” Sam said smiling.
“Good,” with that he pulled her close and kissed her. ‘Thank God.’
***
When the weekend finally came again as always Sam and Michael grabbed dinner before going to the day room to watch whatever other people were watching. Sam curled up in Michael’s arms on the couch as always and after a while she started to yawn. “Tired baby?”
“A little, but I don’t want to go to bed.”
“Okay.”
She snuggled closer and turned back towards the TV, but after that Sam didn’t remember anything else. The next thing she knew the credits were rolling for the movie that she had started watching. She took a deep breathe, Michael’s scent, had she fallen asleep in his arms? As she stretched she smiled, she had fallen asleep in the arms of the man she loved.
“Feel better?”
“Mhm, how long was I asleep?”
“Maybe half an hour, I’m not sure exactly.”
“Well you’re the first guy whose arms I’ve fallen asleep in,” she said with a smile.
“Really?” He smiled. “Never one of your other boyfriends?”
“Nope, I tried but I never actually feel asleep. I just feel safe with you.”
“I’m glad; you’re the first girl who’s fallen asleep in my arms.”
“I’m glad.”
***
The next weekend didn’t start as well as previous weekends, there was a squadron formation Saturday afternoon in ABUS, and everyone was going to get yelled at by the commander. Sam was on a waiver for standing in formation because of her ankle but the commander didn’t care, she and all the other ‘waivers’ had to stand at attention behind their flights.
Half way through the formation it started to snow, the second time it had snowed while Sam was at Goodfellow. When everyone was finally released Sam practically ran to her room to catch the last ten seconds of the Penguins-Carolina Hurricanes game, the Canes won with only seconds remaining in the five minute overtime period. Sam being the huge hockey and Penguins fan that she was, was upset, but she had a date with Michael in about an hour so she needed to be happy.
Sam changed into civilian clothes, met up with Michael and they went to wait for the Redball to take them off base. “This will be the first time I’ve been off base since I’ve been here, thanks.”
“For?”
“When I got here I didn’t think I would make any really good friends and I would just spend my six months on base and move on.”
“You’re welcome.”
When the van finally arrived the driver asked where everyone was going and after everyone else was dropped off Sam and Michael arrived at the mall. Michael was in short supply of civilian shirts and normally wore sand shirts or pt shirts, so Sam made him promise that when they went off base he would get a new shirt. Michelle and Cassie were called for help in choosing but when it was all said and done Michael looked good.
“Applebees?”
“Sounds good to me,” Sam smiled.
After a nice dinner they walked across the parking lot to the movie theater. “Two for She’s Out of My League.” Sam had wanted to see this movie since she had heard it was being filmed in Pittsburgh.
“This is going to be the first rated R movie I’m going to see in a movie theater since I turned seventeen, there was just never anything I wanted to see,” Sam said making Michael laugh.
The movie started and when they showed the first shot that you could actually tell was Pittsburgh Sam squeezed Michael’s hand, she missed home. The movie was filled with laughs, Sam and Michael were still laughing when they walked out of the theater.
“Thank you for taking me off base.”
“Anything for you,” he walked Sam back to her room. “Goodnight.”
‘Goodnight,” they hugged and kissed. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
