Liminal Space | A Stardew Valley FanFiction

Chapter 16

"Good morning, sweetheart! What's up?" Jodi's warm smile cradled me.

"Hi, Jodi, is Sam in?"

"He's in his room," she said lightly. "Come in!"

She gestured towards his closed door and nodded subtly in permission. Three knocks later, his voice—muffled and coated in sleep—sounded through the hardwood. "Hello?"

"Sam," I whispered as I turned the door knob, letting myself in. "Are you awake?"

"Been up for hours," he replied with a yawn, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Seb and I had a fight," I said.

"And?"

"And, well—"

"Cal, Robin will have your place fixed up in a few days. I understand it's probably exhausting by now, but if you just stick it out—"

"We kissed," I blurted out, cutting his sentence short. "He kissed me."

"Huh?" Bewilderment twinkled in his eyes. "He kissed you?"

"That's what I said."

"Are you going to say anything else?"

"What do you want me to say?"

He stood up gingerly, gently nudging my back towards the bed and shutting his door behind me. I tried to stifle a giggle at his Wumbus printed boxers, but the attempt was fruitless; he gave me the finger while haphazardly tugging a pair of pajama pants over them. A heavy silence ensued.

"Oh," he exhaled with a laugh as he sat beside me, the quiet finally breaking. "You're talking about when we were in high school. You had me for a second there."

"We never kissed back then, Sam," I said, annoyance tainting my tone. "I'm talking about yesterday. Last night. Less than twelve hours ago."

"Oh, shit," he said, a pink flush creeping onto his cheeks. "See, that's what I thought you meant, but then I was like, no way, so then I'm thinking, oh, I must have mis—"

"Does it matter?" I snapped, sending his hands flying upwards in surrender. "Point is, we kissed, and it seemed like everything was on the up, and then..." I paused.

"Then...what?" he said. He sounded as uneasy as I felt.

I gulped. "This morning, I went to go see the farm, and saw that the tree my grandfather planted had fallen over. I go back to Seb's—you know, seeking support? I get down the basement stairs and there's him and Abby again, getting down to it on the bed I slept in last night. Talk about a punch in the face, right?"

He nodded along, his eyebrows seemingly glued to his hairline.

"So then, naturally, I leave, and he comes running after me, like, please, Callie, talk to me! So I do, but I'm all mad, and then he gets all mad, and instead of saying sorry, he says she came onto him and blames our kiss on us being drunk! Can you believe that? Next thing you know, he's trying to get me to tell him I love him, like I haven't said it a million times before. And you know Seb; he always has to end things on a classy note, so he hit me with the timeless fuck you, and then I came here."

I gasped for air once the words had finished spilling out. Sam looked as though I'd shot him.

"Jesus," he sighed, messing with a strand of hair that was sticking straight upwards. "That was...a lot."

"Imagine living it," I groaned, smothering my face with a pillow. "It's awful."

"Have you told him you love him?"