Miles Apart - Sam Kiszka x OC fanfic

INTRODUCTION

I met the man I would spend the rest of my life with when I was 15 years old.

On the first day of grade 10, I took a seat in my English class only to realize I'd sat in front of one of the Kiszka boys. These brothers were notorious for being ridiculously smart pranksters. They were musical prodigies, earned the best grade average in the entire building, and were probably the most charming people you'd ever meet; hence why no teacher ever caught onto their pranks.

I was sitting in front of the oldest boy, Josh, the twin of Jake and brother to the youngest of the 3, Sam. Josh poked me on the shoulder, grinning a wide smile when I turned around. His head of curls plopped to the side, and I followed suit, asking him what he wanted without actually asking.

"Wanna see something funny?" He giggled.

"I dunno, do I?" I responded. He nodded, smirking at me with a weird dislike for my answer.

"You're an odd one, you know that, Ashford?" he joked. 

I rolled my eyes, plugging my headphones in.

"Yeah, says you, Kiszka. Heard you had to take this class 3 times, dummy," I quipped, playing back into the whole last name thing.

"Hey! That's not fair, I only failed it once so technically this is only my second time taking it. Besides, it's not my fault you're like, crazy smart and skipped a grade," he chuckled, standing up.

After that, I'm pretty sure he and Sam's best friend, Danny, ended up covering the chalkboard in black paint so it wouldn't work when our teacher tried to use it, but that's beside the point. He wasn't the most school smart, but he was definitely book-smart; he just didn't apply himself. Instead, he focused on pranks.

About halfway through the year, I ended up tutoring him, and in the long run, ended up dating him. It wasn't anything more than a grade-10 boyfriend. You know, the first boyfriend that kind of isn't a boyfriend, but rather a learning experience.

In the few months I dated him, I began to hang out with his brothers and their best friend, too. We all got really close and hung out all the time, even when Josh and I broke up. It was weird for a while, but by the time grade 11 rolled around, Josh and I were back to a fully normal friendship, ignoring all of the awkward sexual knowledge we had about each other. We hadn't had sex when we dated, but we had done other stuff. It's really uncomfortable when you first break up with someone to keep hanging around them because you're constantly reminded of what you've done together, but besides all of that, the boys and I were closer than ever.

We had all of our classes together in our first semester of grade 11, which means I learned absolutely nothing. It was fun, but I was grateful to learn that I only had one of them per class the next semester. In this short period of time, I ended up losing my virginity to Jake on one very boring day when we had snuck out to get high, and later on, did the same thing with Danny. It has been 10 years and we still have never brought it up. It was my slut phase, what can I say. My best friend, Lilli, had ended up dating Jake going into second semester, and to this day, not even she knows I had slept with him.

I had my very last class with Sam, and I learned that I liked him the most. He was the right mix of fun and goal-oriented, knowing when it's okay to joke around and when it's the right time to learn. He helped me through my parents' divorce and taught me so many things about the world. For a teenager, he was weirdly insightful. We became study buddies for our A.P music class, which was lucky because he was a keyboard genius, and we both passed with flying colors.

In our study sessions, whenever we got bored, he would teach me little songs on his muted green bass and Jake would often join us, playing his acoustic and Josh would sing. I discovered I was a bit of a lyricist, and we actually wrote a few songs. It was only out of procrastination for me, but the boys enjoyed it so much they went on to start a band. They called it Greta Van Fleet, based on a kind old lady in our hometown named Gretna, and they were incredible. They had a drummer named Kyle but quickly retired him for Sam's aforementioned best friend, Danny. He was a John Bonham clone when he played.

In the winter of grade 12, I started to realize my feelings for Sam. I had gone to one of their shows and I was absolutely captivated by him. I never told him, but I think he knew. We got plastered during our week-long after-prom trip and every time we did, we'd fool around. It had never gone further than over the clothes stuff, but we did intend to hook up. It never happened though, because the third day into the trip, I got wasted and stupidly made out with Josh. It meant nothing to Josh, but I became fully aware that Sam had felt the sparks between us as I had with him when our lips touched. 

Sam had seen the kiss between his brother and me and was obviously put off by it, but he didn't make a scene. Sam and I didn't talk much after that night, avoiding each other for the rest of the week. The second we got home and had wifi again, we realized Greta Van Fleet had become overnight sensations. They began touring about a month after that, and I never got to apologize to Sam. I kept in touch with all the boys after high school but him. I never really understood why I wouldn't let myself reach out, but it had been 5 years and I still felt the same for him. He showed me how much I loved music and writing, and taught me so much about myself. I'd never met anyone like him.

It's been 5 years since high school, and the boys are traveling worldwide. I facetime the twins every now and then, but recently I've been busy and haven't been keeping tabs. I graduated from Yale with a bachelor's in Journalism and became a Vogue columnist, which has always been my dream. I also work for NPR, which means I get to occasionally leave my small New York townhouse to interview and write articles on musicians and their concerts, which is incredible because I love concerts and NPR covers all costs for them, which means my job is basically free concerts.

I can't help but sit here and reminisce on the boys I used to love so much. The way we used to act like nothing mattered, speak freely, and never let our ambitions become bordered by anything is something I frequently miss. Now, I'm living my dream life and so are the guys I used to spend every passing hour with, but we're doing it separately; so I guess the dream life isn't much of what I thought it would be, as I always thought we would be together in the end.