Cruel Summer | Ricky Bowen

BONUS: SAMMY'S SORT OF FINALLY FREE

Samantha Wilson was used to moving from one place to another, it had always been that way since the moment she was born, and she can't complain about it at all, she got to visit new places, see different faces, learn various cultures, and so much more. They stopped moving when she was 12, and they lived in Salt Lake City for a long time.

Until she and her family left almost a year after Sunset Curve was formed for St. Petersburg, Russia.

And Sammy has never felt more frozen in her life until she saw someone being harassed for being gay, and his boyfriend was knocked out already. She wanted to help him, she really did. But she couldn't move to save him, only run away in fear, terrified of being next and hid away. After the man left, she heard the man crying out for help and that was when she felt sick for what she had just done.

He was dead.

She could've done something. Anything.

He might've been alive when she came across them.

Sammy was still in the closet, that she'll admit, and the only person who knew she was gay was Taylor, who came out to her a week after they joined the band. She didn't know what her family would think of her if she came out, but she almost had hope that they'll still know that it doesn't change who she was.

Then her father said something about the boy who was beaten up the other day, one that she witnessed, and she was horrified to hear him say that he deserved it, it grew worse when her mother agreed, especially after they discovered that the other boy died.

Sammy Wilson didn't feel safe anymore.

Her safe place was a million miles away from her and that was the shed turned studio of the Caswells.

All of her friends were asleep, on the other side of the globe.

She couldn't take it anymore.

She was alone now.

All alone in the world.

As Sammy took her older sister's sleeping pills, chugging them down while tears fell from her eyes, all she could think of were Taylor, Raya, Robin, Gwen, Riri, and Julius, her real family, apologizing to them inher mind as she collapsed on the floor. She soon realized that she failed when she heard her sister, screaming her name, calling for help, calling an ambulance, then begging her to wake up, stay with her, that she needs her in her life.

She had never felt so bad about hurting her sister.

She woke up in the hospital a few days later, surprised to see Raya and Taylor both sitting at her side with her parents and her older sister.

"Sammy, you're okay!" Raya whispered before pulling her into a hug. "I was so worried- we were so worried!"

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry."

"Why did you do it?" Taylor gently asked, tears brimming in his eyes. "You could have died, Sammy. Died."

Sammy sniffled, confessing to him, "I wanted to, Taylor. I really wanted to."

Her father had his face in his hands, the relied of his daughter waking up being washed over be his horror while he mother let out a sob. Her older sister went to the other side of the bed, hands shaking as she asked, "Why did you want to die, Sam? Please, tell me why."

"I didn't want to be next."

They all looked confused, prompting her to shakily say, "I... The night that boy died? I... I was there. I could've helped them, I should've, but I was so scared, Taylor. So scared."

The father took a deep breath. "What do you mean, Sam?"

"I'm gay," Sammy quietly cried, Taylor taling her hand in his. "I'm sorry I'm gay. I'm sorry..."