Sam Wilson

Homeless

"You don't do it like this." She instructed him in the Math Horror of Calculus. They were in the library, it had been a week, and this was there third outing in the library. Jonathan had been absent from a week, because he had been to Washington in the debate team represented by the seniors.

Sam pinched the bridge of his nose in disgust and angrily said, "Okay, that is enough for today."

She looked at him with bewildered eyes, "No, it isn't because it has been two hours and all you could do was three sums, while I finished the whole analysis of the First Act of Arms and The Man!"

"Don't go that hard on me Eleanor, I will take my revenge when Jonathan comes back."

He had got her tongue and she was quite.

The people of Water Bridge were shocked when they saw the two hanging out together in the library after school. And since it would become six in the evening. And it would start to darken out in the sky, Sam would always accompany Eleanor to her house which was just three blocked away from his own.

She seemed to him like a responsibility. She was so vulnerable at times, that he felt the need to protect her.

As they were walking their way to Eleanor's house around 5:46 today, they saw Jonathan's bike on the ice cream stall.

"Wait, you recognize whose bike is that?" Sam asked Eleanor as he held her by her elbow.

She looked at it, unaware of whose bike it was, "No..."

He looked at her angrily, "How can you score a prefect score in every test you are attacked with in school academics but suck in social life?"

She looked at him innocently.

He gave up and muttered, "That is Jonathan's Bike."

"What?" Eleanor made an attempt to move forward as fast as she could, but the grasp of the magnificent Sam Wilson, made her look only stupid.

At that moment, Jonathan Sameuls, came in front of them with a half finished ice cream in his hand.

The two of them freezed.

To make things appear as normal as they could, Sam said, "Hey Jonathan! You are back!" The both gave a bro hug to each other while Eleanor stood red faced looking at them timidly.

Jonathan and Sam knew each other. This was a no big deal as they both were on the Water Bridge Soccer team.

"We won the last round!"

"Good to know. In your absence, the team was not at all motivated."

"Yeah, I talked with coach. He said he wants me back tomorrow. I had a jet lag so I just stayed at home today. Who is this lady here?" Jonathan asked with a charismatic grin.

It was working, thought Sam, "She is Eleanor. She has taken the burden to help me in academics. Math..."

Jonathan held out his hand to have a hand shake with Eleanor. She meekly held it and shook it.

"Jonathan!" A voice called out for him, across the street, where the ice cream stall was.

"I have to go guys! Bye. Nice to meet you Eleanor."

After Jonathan was gone, Sam looked at Eleanor who stood like a marble carving, still as a statue.

"Eleanor?"

She shrieked, "He touched me for the first time." She tucked at his arm once again and burst into fit of girly laughter.

"God! Only a touch to make you feel this happy. I have slept with hundred of girls, if you were one of them, I don't know how happy you would be."

The comment was supposed to be something that is considered to be a usual thing in the bad boy's life, but to Eleanor it was nothing less than an insult. She quickly drew away and looked at him in horror. A frown had appeared involuntarily on her face.

He realized the situation and tried to make up for the stupid thing he had done. "I umm, I just... I was just joking."

"You sure don't mean that?" She asked innocently and quite suspiciously.

"No, I swear." He said. Never in his conversations with any of the girls of the Water Bridge he had been so serious with.

The rest of the walk to the house was silent and awkward.

Sam thought that why such a thing would come out of his mouth. Did he really want to sleep with her? Did he really mean it? He wasn't thinking what he was saying. Everything that came out of his mouth was something involving subconsciousness. Was he really liking her in that way? However, he has slept with many girls before and he never ever thought more about it. Why was he overthinking when he just made a comment on sleeping with Elenaor, let alone actually sleeping with her? Over all of this, would Eleanor ever be the same girl she was with him after what he said. She surely seemed to be distorted.

They reached the house whose lights were off.

"Bye." She said.

Sam was in his own thoughts. After a moment, he replied with a forced smile, "Bye."

When Eleanor got home, she came to know that her maternal grandmother who was the only person in the house who loved her after her deceased parents was in the Intensive Care Unit after she was knocked down by a speeding car on the Main Street. The uncle and the aunt were ruthless and had given Eleanor mainly a place to live as she was only fifteen the time the parents had died. They were the forced guardians and just waited till the time Eleanor would turn eighteen so as to have a good share of her left out fortune.

The Aunt said such cruel things to her about she being a burden and an omen for people, Eleanor fled away with her books (yes that is the top on the list), a few pair of clothes and a pair of shoes.

Now she was out of the house in the middle of the night but she didn't know where to go. Hotel would be an expensive affair. The doctors would let her sleep the whole night in the hospital. What about Sam's place. In the past week, she had known a little bit of his family. A mother who had been out of rehab, and abusive father who had divorced Mrs. Wilson, and the bad boy.

She sobbed and cried and walked to his house.

She knocked weakly on the wooden door.

Mrs. Wilson, a tall, thin, curly read head women in fifties opened the door with a bright smile. She was so surprised to see this little short girl, with her red flushed face, red teary eyes and her black hair tied in a neat ponytail standing on the porch, that her first instinct was to take the girl, who she assumed to be the so-called Eleanor that his son used to talk about.

Eleanor resumed to her crying sessions and when Sam came downstairs to see who was the visitor that had been let in, he was perplexed. They all sat in the lounge and the Wilsons were told the sat tale by Eleanor.

"It is okay, sweetie. You can stay in the spare room that we have." Mrs. Wilson endearingly said.