A Certain Romance (Reimagined)

206-402-4293

"Sam, can you take me home?" I took a deep breath and held it. That was my awesome solution to keep myself from crying whenever I felt my bottom lip tremble and a lump form in my throat. I was overwhelmed with emotions rooting from my issues with Sienna and Ashton and watching Ashton go back to Veronica like our conversation never happened.

"I had an Uber drop me off...sorry." Sam's eyes were still glued to the Football game on TV. He sat pretty emotionless towards it. From the sounds of the commentators and cheers from fans the game sounded intense enough to make the average person jump out of their seat and scream at the TV like the players would actually hear them. Sam's face showed a great detachment from the moment, something that I had never seen before.

"That's fine. I'll walk or something..." I sat down next to him, pulling my phone from clutch to get an estimate on how long it would take me to walk from here back to the side of town that I belonged on. A small white crumbled up paper fell out of my clutch, normally I'd think nothing of it because I had a habit of tossing gum wrappers or straw covers into my bag, but the paper was neither of the two. 

206-402-4293

Answers

I read the number until finally settling with the fact that it didn't look familiar to me whatsoever. 

"Are you kidding me?" Sam's voice brought me back to reality. I crumbled the paper back up and put it back where it came from. Something told me it would be useful in the future. "That'll take you at least two hours to get back." Okay, I definitely didn't need to walk from here. I was still so out of shape, believe it or not. "Arrie!" Sam shouted and dug out his wallet.

Arrie was amongst the group that was sitting outside. A glass sliding door separated the inside from the outside and Arrie was one of two people that I knew would forget the door existed and run into it. Luke was the second person. Arrie rubbed his forehead as he came back inside.

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna get an Uber for Sage, here's some money for you guys to get back home." For a change it was nice to see Sam hand over a decent amount of money instead of giving a duffel bag of money or a wad of cash. "Make sure to keep her safe. If she has a minor scratch I'm going to cut each of your toes off." Sam gave two quick slaps to Arrie's cheek before booking the Uber.

"I know, I know. Don't worry." Arrie already knew the drill, but Sam still reminded him of his purpose for being around every chance he got. I felt bad for the guy having to basically babysit a seventeen year old instead of doing what people his age did. Sometimes I felt like he wanted an escape.

Sienna saw Sam pull out money, or I guess she sniffed it out from outside, and brought herself inside. Her eyes wide and full of money signs. Sam shooed her off to get him a glass of water in the kitchen.

"I need one last favor." I said to Sam, nodding to Arrie as he said he'd be right back.

I watched Sienna tip toe to reach the cupboard of cups, her blouse riding up her torso. Exposed were the tropical flowers and solo butterfly on her lower back, being colored in various shades of green blue, and purple.

"I'm listening." I couldn't really tell if he was or not because he sounded as detached as he appeared. 

I took another look at Sienna, who was still having a difficult time reaching the right cup. Liz had specific cups for water, no one knew why. 

The correct cup for water didn't concern me, it was the tattoo that had most of my attention. It was the tattoo from the drawing that Sammy thought belonged to me. Where did the drawing come from? Why was I barely learning about my mother having a tattoo? Yet alone, a tramp stamp. The S.S. on the drawing were her initials. Who was trying to lead me to the truth about her?