Remi-niscent

Chapter 13:

Noticing how uncomfortable I've become, Ty quickly jumps to his feet and offers me a hand to pull me up. Luckily now that we're dry, it's relatively easy to brush the sand off our bodies before slipping back into our clothes that are still strewn across the little patch of 'beach'.

We wordlessly come to a mutual agreement that Ty will stay down by the river and I will head up to the camp to check on Sam. While Ty is not particularly happy with this arrangement, he doesn't dare to voice it as I silence him with a deadly glare when he opens his mouth, already knowing what he is going to say having gotten an earful of it yesterday. 'I don't want you around him when the two of you are alone.' 'I just don't know how much we can trust him yet.' Yada, yada, ya. So leaving Ty stewing by the water, I push through the rushes to find Sam sitting on the side of the canoe staring down at the ground.

He doesn't even seem to notice that I'm there until I clear my throat, making him jump slightly before looking up with a glum expression on his face, "Hey I'm sorry you had to see that," I apologise quietly.

Shrugging nonchalantly he mutters, "It's fine I don't care." But I can tell that it's forced by the way his posture is tense and uncomfortable, his voice monotone. Society's critical standard of upholding men to never letting anyone see their weakness, still so ingrained that it affects the two of us even out here in the middle of nowhere.

Sitting down cross legged on the ground in front of his slumped figure, I peer up at him and try to figure out what the matter is. "Have I done something to upset you?"

He shakes his head and his voice is eerily calm when he answers me saying, "Now why would you think you've done something?"

While I can tell that he's frustrated that I won't quit pestering him, sensing the underlying current of a foul mood broiling just below the surface, I don't want to leave him in a state like this and instead try to push my luck. "Sam." I coax gently, "Tell me what's wrong."

My words seem to be the final straw that breaks down the last scrap of his self control as he snaps, "Oh so you want me to tell you what's wrong. Are you actually that oblivious or are you just like every other girl?"

Taken aback at his outburst I stare at him incredulously, "Sam what on earth are you talking about? Tell me please, why are you so angry with me? What is it that I've done to offend you so much?"

I'm beginning to think that I would have been better off if I had just kept my mouth shut and let him be, as he is absolutely livid now with bitterness and resentment seeping out of his every pore, "Do you, or do you not, remember what I said to you yesterday before we found your half drowned lover boy?" As he spits out the last words with an undisguisable note of contempt, his voice cold and icy.

Frantically racking my brain I try to remember what is was that he had said, "I-I don't...Oh."

The flashback hits me as clear as day, "So this is Ty huh?" Sam says quietly looking down at the two us. When I nod unable to form any coherent sentences I'm still so choked up, he smiles almost wistfully, "You know sugar, you're the first person I've talked to in half a year and a pretty girl at that, so it's a shame you're already taken."

"But I thought you said that-" I begin to say in my defence. 

When harshly he interrupts, snapping at me out of aggravation, "I know what I said sweetheart and I'm still not going to break my word, but that doesn't mean that I'm an emotionless robot who doesn't feel anything!"

To my own embarrassment, tears well up in my eyes, a frustrating predisposition of mine whenever someone yells at me. "I'm so sorry." I whisper, "But I-"

Again he interrupts me, though this time it's in a far more gentle manner, "No I'm the one who should be sorry. I was out of line, not only in the fact that I shouldn't have said what I did, but also I should have never raised my voice at you. My mother would hand my ass to me on a platter if she ever found out." He looks at me sorrowfully and when he sees the still hesitant look on my face he continues. "Honestly Remi, it's not your fault. After all it's not like you can help being beautiful both inside and out."