Sam and Colby: The Penitentiary

5

"God da—Sam? Sam, is that you?" I called out. I dropped my cup and sprinted out toward the person, passing Hunter on the way. I shined my flashlight down to see Sam, standing up to brush off his jeans.

                "Nessa! Hey!" Sam said. He stepped toward me and wrapped me in a giant hug, rocking me back and forth until Hunter appeared behind us.

                "Who's this?" asked Hunter.

                "Hunter, this is Sam. Sam, Hunter," I said.

                "Hey, brother. Nice to meet you," Sam said, extending his hand for a shake.

                "Yeah. Who are you, exactly?" Hunter asked, not shaking Sam's hand. He dropped his arm back down.

                "I'm Sam Golbach. One of Nessa's friends from LA. We used to, or... I don't know, we lived together," Sam said.

                "Oh. What are you calling her? Nessa?" asked Hunter.

                "Yeah, I decided to switch things up when I moved to LA," I said to Hunter. "People here call me V," I explained to Sam.

                "Oh, okay. Nice," Sam said.

                "So what exactly is it that you're doing here?" asked Hunter.

                "I just came to talk to Nessa... were you guys in, uh... in the middle of something?" Sam asked, pointing down to my overall straps hanging down.

                "Sort of, act—,"

                "Oh, no. No, nothing at all. I was just showing him my scar from the house," I said, interrupting Hunter.

                "Oh, yikes. Pretty brutal, huh?" Sam asked Hunter.

                "Uh, yeah. Look, I'm going to go. Y'all clearly have some stuff you need to work through. I'll see you around, V," said Hunter, kissing my cheek before walking away. Yeesh, I was going to have to cut that off. Well, was I?

                "Okay, see ya!" I called out as he turned to walk back to the fire. "Want to go somewhere to talk? We can go to my house or hang out on a plot of land or something," I said.

                "Sure, wherever," Sam said. I led him out of the woods and we ducked through the shitty wire fence guarding the outside edge of our property, texting Vance that I was safe before he freaked out about not being able to find me later.

                I led Sam down to the shooting range, where there was a small cement pad we could sit on. We both sat down onto it and looked at each other for a moment.

                "How'd you find me?" I asked.

                "I went to your house, actually. Your parents said you were out there, so I followed the cars and the noise," he explained.

                "Oh, nice," I said. I was a little confused as to why he was here. It was honestly sort of unsettling, seeing my two different lives clash together like this. "Look, if you're here about Colby, then I don't have any answers abo—,"

                "No, no. I'm not here about Colby. I'm here for you. A certain someone wouldn't answer any of my calls," Sam said. I'd blocked all of their numbers when I left, hoping to cut ties with all of them until I sorted myself out. "First off, how's your dad doing?"

                "Good. He's fully recovered. Surgery went well, the tumor and cancer are completely gone," I said.

                "That's great to hear, Nessa. So, if his health is all good, why are you still here? I mean, it's obviously your choice on where you want to live, but you sort of left us in the dark with everything. It's also pretty confusing since you're still paying rent when you don't even live with us anymore," said Sam.