Playing with Forever

Chapter 12: Pizza Party

The fire alarm screamed at me as I sprayed the oven with the kitchen fire extinguisher. When the flames were gone, Nate approached and we stared at what was supposed to be a chicken and broccoli casserole.

"Well," Nate said. "I'm up for takeout."

Feeling dizzy with relief that the fire hadn't gotten out of control, I laughed, then laughed some more. Slightly hysterical, I couldn't stop. Nate laughed nervously with me, a little wary of the frantic note in my laugh. 

Shut up, Abby, I thought. You're scaring the kid.

I poured myself a glass of water and slowly recovered my composure. "Sorry," I said, gulping in air. "Let's go out for dinner tonight, how about that?"

We threw the ruined dinner away in the trash, then hopped into my car. I tried not to think about the things I would no longer be able to buy this month because of our night out, namely orange juice and shampoo. I could always thin out what I did have with water to make them last.

Nate demanded pizza, and I decided to have a good night and not focus on my monetary loss.

While I blew on a piece of cheese pizza to cool it down and listened to Nate tell me a story about his day at school, a familiar shadow appeared over me.

"Hey," the masculine voice said.

I glance up in surprise, smiling. "Hi, Sam."

He grinned in response, looking at Nate, wanting an introduction. "Is this your, um...?"

"Yes! Yeah, this is Nate," I replied, gesturing to the boy. "Nate, this is my friend Sam from my school."

Nate scrutinized Sam as if deciding whether or not he liked the idea of me having a friend that was a guy. "Hi," he finally said warily.

"It is nice to meet you, Nate," he said sounding genuine, and he held out his hand. Nate shook it firmly. "Oh, strong hand shake!" Sam said with a wide smile. 

I felt touched that Sam was being so nice to the kid who meant so much to me.

"Are you here with Emile?" I asked, a little confused. I'd never bumped into Sam around town.

He offered no explanation other than, "No."

"Oh. Well, would you like to join us?"

He nodded. "I would." He sat down across from me, next to Nate, who still seemed wary. I guess that was expected. Sam was probably intimidating to a younger kid, especially an eight-year-old. He was tall and strong, wearing jeans and a black shirt. His brown eyes, however, were warm and welcoming.

While I was contemplating this, however, I noticed that the guy in question was giving me a weird look. "What?" I demanded, suddenly self-conscious.

"You have some sort of foam in your hair."

Sure enough, when I patted my hair, there was a clump of fire extinguishing foam in the red strands. Nate and I looked at each other, then completely dissolved into a round of giggle.

Sam waited patiently, an easygoing smile on his face while Nate and I went red with laughter. "I made this casserole," I giggled.

"It caught on fire!" Nate shouted excitedly. "You should have seen it! Abby had to use the fire extinguisher!"

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Wow! That sounds scary."

"Yeah, but I wasn't super scared," Nate said with a shrug of his shoulder. "I knew Abby would get it."

"She is pretty good under pressure, isn't she?" Sam said, looking at me. I couldn't help my replying grin.

"She's good," Nate agreed.