A Couple is Three: The Beginning (book 1 & 2 Completed)

Chapter 11 - The Compromise

She knew that whatever their story was that it was going to be difficult for them to tell her. She could feel the claminess starting in Josh's palm as he continued to hold her hand. She watched as Jake tapped the fingers of his free hand against his thigh. Their nervousness was starting to make her nervous. She could understand that it might be difficult to tell, but now she was starting to worry how bad it could be. What kind of story could they tell that would help her to think that being both their girlfriend was a good idea; that it wouldn't cause them problems. She tried not to show her feelings as she sat there patiently waiting for one of them to start talking. Not that it mattered since neither of the boys were focussed on her.

As the silence continued to stretch before them Josh knew that he needed to speak, after all, he was to blame, in a sense. Taking a deep breath and centering himself he opened his mouth and starting talking. "It all started about two years ago when Jake and I started high school. Up until that point, we had gone to a smaller elementary school, but high school was different. It was much larger and it had students from 6 different elementary schools attending. Jake and I were starting to get known locally for our rodeo skills and then we made the football team."

This was all nice to know, but Samantha couldn't figure out what this had to do with anything. She decided to sit back quietly and let them continue at their own pace for now.

As Josh took a moment to collect himself, Jake decided that he should continue the story. Looking at Samantha's eyes, he said, "Up until that point girls were not really on our radar. We were too busy with other things and work on the farms to worry about having a girlfriend. Besides we were too young to drive and what guy wants his mom or dad to chauffer him around on a date? But high school was a whole new ball game. Suddenly there were lots of girls who we didn't know that were talking to us. Add to that the football, the rodeo, and then the reputation of our manwhore brothers and we were prime targets."

Samantha nodded in understanding. She figured that high school was high school whether it was in the country or the city and teenage girls were the same everywhere. She knew that if they were to walk into her high school, girls would be throwing themselves at them. She had seen the same thing happen to hockey players at her school. Guys who were drafted to play at the junior level had girls hanging off them continuously. You couldn't even walk down a hallway if they were in it unless you were travelling in the same direction because the girls blocked the entire width of it.

"It was my fault," Josh started causing Samantha to shift her gaze from Jake to him, "I decided to have a girlfriend first. Jake, who tends to be more impulsive when it comes to girls, told me that he wasn't going to get tied to one girl and that I shouldn't do the same, but I like things to be orderly. Trying to date multiple girls at once like our brothers just wasn't my thing. —"

"It wasn't that I wanted to date like my brothers, it was just that I didn't want a girlfriend," interrupted Jake, "I just wasn't ready to have one. I don't like getting close to people where I can get hurt."

Samantha was surprised at this admission. She certainly wouldn't have expected it from Jake since he had been quite open with her this weekend and they were virtual strangers although it didn't feel like it. She wondered if he kept himself closed off from people as a result of his mother leaving him when he was young, but she knew that now was not the time to ask.

"It didn't surprise me that Jake didn't want a girlfriend initially, but neither of us were prepared for what happened next. Within a week or two of school starting one of the cheerleaders asked to be my girlfriend so I said yes. I was still a month away from getting my licence and we were so busy between the farm, practicing, football, school, etc. that I figured she just wanted me to hold her hands in the hall," he explained while shrugging his shoulders. "It didn't turn out that way though. Instead she wanted me to come over to her house, to talk for hours on the phone, and to spend weekends together. She couldn't understand why I wasn't doing all those things with her. Most importantly she couldn't understand why I was spending so much time with Jake. Some school nights when she called late and Jake was there sleeping over, she would get really upset. Finally after a few weeks she broke up with me telling me that I had to choose between her and Jake." Josh stopped to take a drink from his pop. Finding it empty, he got up to go get everyone a refill. He knew that there was lots more to tell and he was going to need to drink lots to keep his throat moist.