The Strangest is Yet to Come

04.

When she woke the following day, her head hurt with how much she had cried and Samantha wasted no tine in calling both the pool and the arcade to tell them that she wouldn't be in, making up some bullshit story about being ill.

"Hey," Caroline frowns as she steps into the kitchen, "I thought you were working today."

"No," she puts some bread in the toaster, "They've given me the day off."

"Oh!" her mom stands, "Well I'm going to the mall today."

Samantha takes a sip of her orange juice, "Shopping for anything nice?"

"I'm hoping to find something to wear to the celebrations on Thursday."

"Right, the big fourth of July fair," she remembers and her mom nods.

"You want to come?"

"Sure."

She had been planning on drowning her sorrows in ice cream that afternoon but hey, she could do that at Scoops Ahoy. They'd have better flavours there anyway.

"I thought that you would want to hang out with Jonathan on your day off," David says without looking up from his newspaper.

"No," she says quickly, flinching when her toast pops up, "He's working."

With a sigh, she sits down at the table and glances at the phone on the wall. Had she overreacted? Should she call him and apologise?

No, she thinks. This was not her fault.

~~|~~

Samantha's only been to the mall a few times since it opened and as her mom pulls into the parking lot, she remembers why.

People.

At the large fountain in the centre of the foyer, Caroline tells her that she's going to go to some fancy boutique on the second floor, laughing when her face scrunches up.

"I'm gonna go get some ice cream."

"You and your sweet tooth," her mom tuts with another smile, "how about we meet back here in a couple of hours?"

The ice cream parlour isn't exactly busy and she throws herself into the closest booth, reaching for a menu. She was going to get the biggest sundae she could.

"Samantha?"

She forgets that Steve Harrington works here sometimes and she gives him a little wave, "Hi."

"Oof," he moves to stand by her table, "That is not a happy hi."

The corner of her mouth twitches as he slides in opposite her, ignoring the girl behind the counter, "What's up?"

"I had a fight with Jonathan," she pouts, messing with the corner of the laminated menu.

"You're kidding," he frowns when she shakes her head, "What happened?"

And so she explains when happened; how she waited for him for an hour, how she ended up getting a ride home from Eddie.

"And then," she takes a spoonfull of the Reese's Pieces ice cream that's in her sundae, "I get dropped off and he comes out of Nancy's. He was having dinner."

"What an asshole."

"Right?" she falls back against the seat, regretting the words as soon as they come out of her mouth, "He's not an asshole."