Caving In | Titans

Chapter 7 - If It's Too Much To Carry

Over the next month Gar and Sam continue to get closer. After the night she spent in Gar's room, they both felt a bit closer. It was the best night's sleep Sam had gotten since her mom died. She didn't even have a nightmare. She just slept the whole night perfectly comfortable against Gar. And Gar woke up with a lopsided grin that makes her stomach swirl. Since then though, her sleeping in his room has only happened one other time because they fell asleep watching a movie. Neither of them really want to make it a routine too soon. They're just friends and going through the motions of everything together.

But they've gotten to know each other through just hanging out. Gar has shown her almost all his favorite video games and they've made a good dent in movies Gar dreams as classics that Sam hasn't seen. They talked more about their hobbies, Gar finding out Sam prefers to rollerblade places rather a bike or walking and she found out Gar prefers a skateboard. It made her smile because it does fit him.

They talked more about their past lives, focusing more on happy moments like when Sam attended her first concert with her best friend. She beamed so wide, voice booming from the walls as she told Gar about the whole night. A storm hitting and the entire city losing power besides that arena, her getting to stand third row, the energy of place she explained as the closest to home she could get without being home. And Gar talked about his dad teaching him to ride a skateboard, how he fell several times and had his trucks so tight he couldn't turn for over a month. He smiled and laughed the whole time, retelling the story of his mom being stressed cleaning his cut-up knees and hands. They spent hours just talking one night until Jason banged on Sam's wall telling them to shut up. It only made them laugh.

Sam and Jason also have been getting closer. Sam started training and the first week was pretty boring in comparison to what Jason had her do. But after a week and a half, Dick deemed Sam healed enough to train with the others. Sam still didn't think it was enough. Two training sessions a day against two people who have already been training for 2 months and Jason who's been training for over a year. She needs to catch up so, her and Jason do an extra session late at night. Sometimes Gar even joins them and those are Sam's favorites because it's just the three of them. The three of them together have gotten close. Jason even tags along for some movie nights with just them, along with the movie nights with Rachel. Rachel doesn't join them for the training though, she really does not like Jason.

Jason is still more closed off than Gar is but Sam tells him stuff and that gets him to talk a bit to her. Their conversations are either more banter-filled or a bit heavy. They can talk about their trauma with each other in forms of a joke until one of them cracks and asks something a bit more serious. It's one of the things they both kind of appreciate, the other knowing when the conversation should turn into something more productive without them having to get all dark and deep. And that's something nice with having someone who's gone through something similar with parental figures, it's easier to talk about. But, they do talk about their interests.

Sam finds out Jason hasn't seen too many movies, mostly horror and comedies because that's what he watched with his uncle. Jason is permanently invited to her and Gar's movie nights. And she finds out he did the graffiti on his wall. Jason offers to add some to her wall as a joke but she jumps at it. And she tells him she's tried before but could never grasp the whole spray paint thing. 

Now, it's Sam's turn to pick a movie for group movie night and she picks Zombieland, a movie she declares as a classic and a must-watch. Jason and Rachel haven't seen it but of course, Gar has and he backs her opinion of the movie. A classic horror comedy, a must.

"That's the one with Emma Stone, right?" Jason asks as he plops down on the couch beside Sam, Gar following right behind him with two bowls of popcorn for the group to share.