Miles Apart - Sam Kiszka x OC fanfic

CHAPTER 1: FEAR OF THE PAST

look at him in that pic 💍💍
tw: light substance use
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"Arabella Quinton Ashford!" 

Is what I woke up to on a gloomy New York Friday. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and ran to the door. I glanced through the peephole, seeing my short-statured best friend, Lilli, on the other side.

"Bella, I can see your feet under the door. Open up!" she yelled.

I opened the door and smiled, acting as though I hadn't been ignoring her all night.

"Good morning?" I question more than stated as she walked into my living room.

"Listen, I know it's hard and I know you don't want to, but we have no one else to write the piece on Greta Van Fleet tomorrow. You have to do it," she sighed. I shook my head, laughing out of nervousness.

"Lilli, you promised I'd never have to when you got me the job. That's one of the reasons I agreed to in the first place!" I whined.

"No, Bel, that was your agreement. There's no contract that says that anywhere," she sighed, taking a step towards me, "As your best friend since high school, I get it. It's shitty, and I'll be there with you the entire time, but as your manager, you have no choice, okay? No one else can do it!" 

"You're such a bitch," I joked while throwing myself onto the couch.

"Bel, I'm literally your manager. I could fire you right now, you idiot," she laughed, sitting next to me.

"Yeah, but you won't," I retaliated.

"No shit. You are the best interviewer and writer we have on the team. Our sales and video views have risen since you started working for us."

I groaned as I let my head fall against her shoulder, internally dying.

"Lilli, how am I supposed to do this? I'm not worried about the twins or Danny, I talked to them just a few weeks ago, but what the fuck do I do about Sam? I haven't talked to him since high school," I whined. She simply laughed at me, ruffling my hair.

"Kid, it was just a high-school fling, okay? I'm sure he's forgotten all about it and he'll be so excited to see you," she assured. I shoved my face into her arm, groaning louder. I pulled away and stood up, heading to the kitchen. Lilli followed close after.

"I'm sure I'm overthinking it, I just feel terrible that I haven't reached out in so long, you know? Like, what kind of friend am I?" I cried as I made myself some coffee.

"Okay, quit whining. You'll be fucking fine, Bel. I haven't talked to them since graduation, so really, I'm the shitty friend," She chuckled. Lilli was one of my only female friends back in high school, so she knew about most of my sexual endeavors with the Kiszka boys, and even had a few with Jake herself.

"Listen, you don't work today right?"

I shook my head.

"Exactly. So, take today and prepare. Have a spa day, do your research on them, and practice the questions we gave you. Treat this like any other interview you've ever done," she said, comforting me, "Bel, you've literally interviewed Billie Eilish. You're going to be fine!"

"Thank you, Lilli. You're right. I'm going to be fine. If anything, it'll be fun. I haven't seen them in forever," I sighed, mixing my coffee before I offered a mug to Lilli, "You want some?" 

"It's okay, Anthony and I are going out for breakfast," she blushed.

"Ooooo, Anthonyyyy," I mocked, "How's it been with him?"

"Oh my god, so good. The other night we were- you know- and he asked if he could tie me up, and I was like 'uh, yeah, duh,' and he did, and then-"

"For the love of God, Lilli, please stop," I announced, cutting her off, "That's a conversation for tonight, which I'm assuming we're still on for?" The both of us always had Fridays to Sundays off, so we had our weekly Thursday Night Smoke Sesh's with each other, which really just consisted of the intimate details of our sex lives. She walked around the island table and hugged me tight.

"You know I love you, right?" she asked, still holding on to me.

"You're ditching me for Anthony, aren't you?"

"Noo... Maybe... Yeah. Yeah, I am," she sheepishly said all whilst clinging onto my arm, "but I still love you!"

"I love you too, asshole. We can reschedule for after the interview tomorrow," I said, dramatically wiping her kiss off of my cheek.

"Mhm, for sure. But only if you don't ditch me for a super hot bassist by the name of Samuel Francis Kiszka," she smirked as he grabbed her coat, laughing at me as I blushed and pointed at the door.

"Get out right now, you're disgusting. You said it yourself; it was just a high school fling!"

She muttered an "mhm" as she slide on her boots and opened up the door.

"I love you, Bel. See you bright and early tomorrow!" she yelled, shutting the door behind her as she did so. I let my head fall against the counter, groaning once more as I propped my head up onto my elbows, my cat, Peppermint, staring me down from the other side of the room.

"Stop staring, Pepper. I'm stressed and you're being rude," I snapped, but her big green eyes stayed fixated on me.

"For fucks sake," I muttered, my head falling on the counter once more before glancing up at her and walking over to pick her up.

"Come here, baby girl," I whispered, placing her next to me on the sofa as I popped the newest Greta Van Fleet album onto my record player. It was embarrassing, but I always bought their records to show some sort of support. I let the tracks play through as I sat, scrolling through articles on the band as to I catch myself up on what I had missed of their rockstar lives. I sat there for about an hour before I mustered up the courage to go through their Instagrams. They all followed me on my Instagram and Snapchat, except for Sam, of course, so everything I was seeing I had, for the most part, seen before. I avoided any pictures of Sam out of habit, the little slice of teenage heartbreak still sat in my chest like an oath I couldn't break, but I quickly told myself I was being stupid and typed his name into the search bar. "Sammy_GVF" popped up, so I clicked on it, laughing to myself that he still called himself Sammy, much like I used to.

"Holy fuck," I whispered to myself, completely mesmerized by the beauty shining through my screen. He hadn't changed much in the face, but he was much taller than he used to be, and his hair hung long and silky, removed of his terrible bowl cut from high school. He was toned too, still skinny but much less scrawny, and any acne he had was entirely gone, his skin glowing in every picture I looked at.

After about 30 full minutes of scrolling through his pictures, I slammed my computer screen shut and sighed, debating on texting the twins to let them know that I'd be seeing them the day following, but eventually settled on keeping it a secret to surprise them. I spent the rest of the day as Lilli had told me to by ordering in for dinner and taking a bath after, shaving from head to toe, and ending with a face mask and a cooler in front of the TV afterward. I skimmed the questions NPR had given me to ask the band for what felt like the millionth time that day before calling it for the night.

As I drifted off to sleep that night, I couldn't help but hope that Sam and I could be friends once more. I missed him, his little philosophical outbreaks of knowledge, the way he knew how to calm me down in my times of need, and his overall goofy self. I thought of the twins too, hoping they hadn't shared any details of our intimate moments with Sam, and the same for Danny. I rubbed my face, silently telling my anxious brain to shut the fuck up, but it didn't work. I decided on taking an edible, hoping to ease my conscience, and it worked. Once I finally fell asleep, I dreamt of them. Fleeting images of our talks in their garage, their rehearsals in the early days of Greta Van Fleet, and long walks to school flooded my brain, leaving me calm for the morning that was to follow my nervous evening.

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Things are going to get crazy over the next few chapters, so buckle in baby. Sams introduction is coming soon <33