I Want You, Simon

Chapter 6

The brightening lights and the screaming crowd meant nothing to him at this moment. All he could do was stare at the woman on stage and wonder how he could have been so blind.
"Sami," he spoke again, this time in a more assured tone. Samira was Sami. He couldn't exactly wrap his head around it, maybe that was why it had taken him so long to be able to figure it out. Had he even figured it out? If this was true, she basically had to tell him through song. But how could Samira be Sami? They were so different. Or were they? Well Samira was into music while Sami was into books. Samira was cool singer and Sami was a cute nerd. Sami wore her hair up but Samira wore it down. It couldn't be, it was impossible. Simon continued to stand in place as Samira exited the stage. She walks over to a corner where there are some people waiting to speak with her. She is in deep conversation as he takes some unconscious steps toward her, and while she spoke, she took a glance over toward him. Simon turned to hide his face, suddenly a bit embarrassed to be there, but obviously he didn't turn fast enough, because within a few seconds he felt a tap on his arm.

"Hey!"
He turns back around to face her "Hey. You were amazing up there. These are for you," he hands her the flowers, she takes them.
"Thank you! No one has ever brought me flowers before," She looks a little confused but appreciative.
"No problem...Sami," he leans forward a bit, expectantly
She looks up without moving her face; smirking
"When did you figure it out?" she picks at the flowers
"Tonight," he blushes "Your song. It was beautiful. It was something Sami- well, you said to me a bit back."
"Oh, well now I know that you listen to me when I speak."
He looks a bit shocked "Of course. I always listen to you. I love to hear you." He may have spoken a bit too much, but Samira's eyes brightened as she looked up at him. But just as quick as it came, it turned into a disgusted look.
"What is that smell? Is that you?" She leans forward and sniffs him "Oh my glob, it IS you! Why do you smell like that?"
"Uh, new cologne. It's um Grape Honey Dandelion,"
"Oh my glob, where did you get that from, the clothing kingdom?"
"Um, yes actually"
"Dear glob, don't ever do that again" she laughs and covers her nose "Did you wear that for me?"
"Um no....? Yes."
"Well thank you, that's flattering, but stick to your usual scent. That one smells amazing"
"Really?"
She nods "That's how I know when you enter a room,"
He turns red at her attention to detail "But thank you for coming. It really means a lot to me."
"Of course, I'd come every week to see you."
"Well, you don't have to wait until Thursdays to see me," she winks at him, holding the flowers up to her face.
"You're right. Maybe we could spend some time together outside of here and the library?"
Samira widens her eyes with surprise "Are you asking me out?"
"Yeah...to hang out. As friends" He felt like slapping his own forehead the moment the words passed his lips.
Samira's face dropped a bit, but was instantly back up to normal
"Um, okay! We can definitely do that! Just tell me when. You can text me!"
She pats herself down, then turns to address a Candy Person, they give her a marker. She turns back to SImon "Roll up your sleeve,"
"I can't roll up my sleeve in this suit," he chuckles, knowing that he sounds ridiculous.
"Yeah you can. See?" She grabbed his arm and meticulously folding the sleeve back to reveal his forearm.
Simon is immediately made aware of the scar from the wound he got on his "adventure" with Finn, who was trying-in a very wrong way- to make him feel better. He's filled with self-consciousness and certainty that Samira would say something about it, but all she did was regard it by rubbing her thumb over the it, then write her phone number on top of it, as well as her name, as if she was signing her name on the dotted line of a document.
"Call it an autograph. Take a picture of it." she gives him a coy look "But yeah, use that to text me. Or call me or whatever"
He traces his finger over the scar "Yes, absolutely."
"Okay. Well..bye" Samira twirled the marker between her fingers before giving him a small wave before departing, taking the flowers-and the marker-with her.

Simon kept unconsciously rubbing his scar and staring off at nothing. He was unaware of what he was thinking about, but he did know that he wanted to get rid of this awful smell.

After getting home, Simon copied down Samira's phone number on a piece of paper. While preparing to shower off the cologne, he thought about what Samira had said about th writing on his arm being like an autograph. Once he removed his shirt, he took out his phone and decided to follow her advice and take a picture. He decided that this was something he wanted to remember.

After his shower, he sat down on his bed, glad to be free of the smell. Staring off into the distance had recently become a new hobby of his. When he snapped back into reality, he found himself once again rubbing the scar that he had not noticed once until tonight. He didn't know why, but he couldn't stop doing it. While grazing it, he thought back to Samira's touch on his scar. The care she took rolling up his sleeve, how she didn't make any comment upon seeing the scar, and how she didn't pretend like it wasn't there, but instead made him feel like it was some interesting part of him to be recognized. Her soft hands and fingers trailing over it.

No, this was him making a big deal over nothing, he was sure of it. Time to do something actually productive. He should start by getting dressed. Then proceed to do some late night reading to take his mind off of his complicated feelings. Laying in his bed, cracking open the first book that came to his mind, he bagan reading and very quickly realized that this was one of the books he had borrowed from the library almost a week prior. In fact, this was a book that he had sat and read with Sami,-well Samira. He wondered if he was still allowed to call her that.

Enough about that. He was reading. That is what he was doing, not daydreaming or thinking about other things. Reading.

But turning the pages, he was hit with a smell of strawberries, but not pure strawberries, more like processed ones. Kind of like something strawberry flavored. This was how Sami smelled to him. He laughed to himself thinking how silly it was that his brain had taken the time to identify the scent so specifically, and how quickly he was able to relate it back to her, but waved it off because he was certain that the scent would fade within a page or two.

But it did not.

In fact, her scent seemed to be all over this book, and before long he found himself turning the pages only to get another hit of the smell. And now he was outright sniffing the book. The smell filled his head with memories. Such as the first time he watched her perform, the way she was able to yield complete control over her body, hearing her sing, and hearing her speak, like the day they were both at Marceline's house, tonight when she smelled the flowers he gave her, and mostly all the days and afternoons they had spent reading to each other. In particular this one specific moment when he was reading and she sat next to him on the floor and leaned over so she would be able to read the texts as well. That was the moment he had caught on to her scent. It was also the moment he had first seen her face up close. She was beautiful from afar of course, but up close, it was like you could see her personality, right there on her face. It was as though she put it all out in the open, and she wasn't scared of anything. The more he thought of her smell, her body, and her face, the redder his face became, and the tighter his pants became. He couldn't stop himself from sniffing the one thing he had that she had touched. He wondered for a moment and then put his arm up for him to smell as well. He'd had a shower, but his arm smelled like her as well. Sooner or later he felt ridiculous. What was he doing? Smelling himself and his books like a crazy person!
"I am reading," he thought speaking to himself aloud would help ground his thoughts
But when he opened the book once more, the smell of candy strawberries hit him again and turned his face beet red and his pants ultra tight.
"Alright that's enough reading for tonight," Simon slams the book closed, removes his glasses and lies down under his cover, staring up at the ceiling, having nothing to distract him, he quickly felt a heavy underlying guilt.

He had asked Samira to 'hang out', not knowing where it might lead, or if he's even ready for what he's about to jump into. He couldn't do that to her, it wouldn't be right. It's not fair to her.

That's what he told himself laying in the bed that night, because he did not want to admit to himself that his guilt was moreso about the fact that he hadn't felt like this for anyone, since Betty. And by having these thoughts about another woman, he knew for certain, he was betraying her.