It's been a while (Johnny Cruz/Joonas Parkkonen) - Santa Cruz -

Wine?

"Sams?"
She heard hear name being called but it sounded like somebody called her from underwater.
"Sammy?"
Where is this coming from?
Ding.
"Ouch!!"
Something hit her and made her jump out of her bed.
"Jordan what the hell?"
She looked at him in disbelieve.
Did he just hit her?
"Dude I've been trying to wake you up for at least 10 minutes.", he defended himself.
"Well then just let me sleep if I'm not ready to wake up. I'll wake up myself when the time is right man."
She shot him a glare and turned around to sleep again.
"Sams you're not going to sleep now your brother is going to kill me. He wanted me to wake you up since 9am!"
"How late is it?", she asked as she buried her head into the pillow.
"It's almost 2pm."
Speaking of the devil Archie just entered the room without knocking.
"What the... have you guys ever learned to say good morning in a nice way?"
"Well I was nice when I first tried to wake you up but you didn't seem to mind that.", Jordan just shrugged and walked towards the bathroom.
"Can we talk?", Archie asked out of the blue.
"Ehm.. good morning to you too."
Sammy got up too and put on some Hoodie that probably belonged to Jordan or Archie.
"It's not even morning anymore but if you insist. Good morning. Now, can we talk, please?"
With a groan and a shrug she gave him the sign to start talking.
"Well, Johnny just came outside yesterday. He didn't tell me that you just went home. I've been searching for you everywhere. I thought something happened to you. Sam, what do you think just leaving without telling me?"
"Oh that. Yeah well. I would have told you. But you seemed like you had better things in mind instead of caring about what your sister does. Half of the time you didn't care where I was and what I did and the other half you just left me with your stupid friends even though you know exactly that I hate them. And besides I don't want to know how many girls you fucked while I was waiting for you to come and talk to me because I was the one who was alone. And I told you before that I don't want to be there because I knew it is going to be like this but you were only like oh no come on this is gonna be fun. Yeah maybe it was funny. Maybe for you but definitely not for me. And don't you ever think I'll be friends with Johnny or Middy or whatever their names are!"
With that she stormed out of the room and disappeared into the second bathroom.
This guy is unbelievable.
As long as he's enjoying himself everything is fine but as soon as his baby sister wants to go because it's not fun for her the monster escaped hell.

3 hours later Jordan was still sitting in Sammy's room while she was still locked in the bathroom.
"Sammy do you want to come out now? I'll have to go home later. Archie's gone and I'm not gonna judge you."
He leaned against the bathroom door to hear if she's alright in there.
"You know I really love you for always being there for me, Jord, but I think it's better you just go now and I'll call you later when I'm feeling better."
He can hear that she's been crying but he knew that she wasn't going to change her mind anytime soon.
"Are you sure that you'll be fine if I leave now?"
"Yes, Jordan, thank you."
"Okay I'll see you on Monday then. Please call me okay?"
"Hmhmm"
"Bye, Sams."
When she heard the door closing she stepped out of the bathroom and went straight into her bed again.
She wasn't able to face anyone right now.
Not even Jordan who is always there when she needs somebody.
Archie is finally home again but she imagined it to be so much better.
Not that they fight all the time.
On Monday she'd go back to college again.
That would distract her a bit.
Finally something else than all the fights and talks about how his bandmates changed.
She was so tired of hearing that.
Even though he was right.
But she's not going to admit it.
Never.

Monday came sooner than she thought.
She'd sleep all weekend and she didn't talk to Archie much.
When she arrived at College Jordan was already waiting for outside.
He greeted her with a hug and immediately asked her why she didn't call.
"Oh man I completely forgot about that. I'm so sorry. I was just so done. I couldn't do anything that wasn't sleeping or eating."
He sighed and weakly smiled at her.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"Yes. I got up this morning and told myself that today is going to be a good day."
She smiled and sat down on her seat.
"If you say so. Then we better stop talking about the thing we are not going to talk about now."
He laughed and turned his attention to the teacher who just entered the classroom.
She was right.
It was a good day.
She didn't think about Archie.
Or his bandmates.
Or anything that bothers her outside of college.
It was just her, her friends and college today.
"So who's in for a ice-bar party after school?"
She asked her friends.
All of them immediately agreed to join and so they went to the ice-bar right after school.
"It's been such a long time since we've been here together."
They used to come here all the time when they were younger.
Back then their parents gave them the money for the ice-cream.
When their parents stopped they also stopped coming because nobody wanted to spend their money on ice-cream every day.
"I really missed this.", said Anne, one of her closest friends next to Jordan.
Sam always thought that there's something going on between her and Jordan.
But apparently she was wrong.
Today all of them got a big cup of ice-cream.
They had a great time and Sammy was very grateful because she forgot about all her problems at home.
Sadly they couldn't stay there forever and sooner or later she had to go home again.
Jordan suggested to stay at his place but Sammy had to talk to Archie sooner or later and sooner would definitely be the better choice.
They said their goodbyes and everybody went into their own direction.
When Sam arrived at home she heard voices coming from inside.
Not very loud but still hearable.
As soon as she entered she knew where the voices belong to.
It was Johnny's.
And probably Middy's as well.
Trying to avoid them she went up the stairs on her tiptoes.
She didn't succeed though.
At the top of the stairs was Archie.
He stood there, arms crossed and he didn't look very happy.
"Where have you been?"
"I, my dear brother, was at school because I want to end up in a real job."
She kept walking but Archie let her no chance to get past him.
"Real job huh? Maybe you should learn what a real job is first. Who said that being in a band isn't?"
"I don't know. I didn't."
"No you didn't say it. But you made pretty clear what you meant."
"If you think so."
She tried to get past him again but he pulled her back in front of him.
"You and I are going to talk. Now. And this time you are not going to just leave the conversation."
"Don't you have friends waiting for you downstairs?"
She was certainly annoyed by him and she made it very clear.
"Yes. As you said. They are waiting. And they have a lot of time. So..."
"Archie you know what. I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry for just leaving your conversation. I'm sorry for leaving the party without telling you and I'm sorry that I imagined it much different to see you again after three years. I can't change it though so can we just leave it here?"
"No we can't. Because I should be the one who's sorry. And I am. You were right. I acted like a fuckin asshole all the time since I arrived and I'm so sorry. I just didn't realize how you felt in this situation. You know I've known these guys all my life and they are like brothers to me so I expected you to think the same about them. I didn't realize that you can't know all of this. You just know the guys from back then. All I want from you is to give them a chance to proof you otherwise.
I can totally understand if you don't want to but I'm asking you to give them one single chance. Please. I won't disappoint you this time, I promise. I'm so sorry for everything. I'll think about everything I do from now on. I love you and you know that. I'm sorry."
The both of them had tears in their eyes.
Both fighting to hold them back but it was too hard.
They just started crying and laughing at the same time.
Laughing because they acted like little children.
"You are an asshole, Archie. And I love you too."
They hugged each other, forgetting about time completely.
When they separated they had no idea how long they've been standing there like this.
"So?"
Archie looked at her and smiled.
"Well apparently they are not that bad."
"So you give them a chance?"
She nodded.
He hugged her again.
More than everything he wanted her to be friends with his bandmates.
Everything would be so much easier.
And they are great guys.

They walked downstairs and entered the living room.
All 3 of his bandmates sat there.
Joy and excitement in their eyes.
So they knew about Archie's plan to make them friends.
"Well maybe you should just start again. Like... you didn't know each other before.", Archie suggested.
"Well, hi, I'm Johnny."
He was the first one to get up and shake her hand.
He smile at her just the way he did when she played the piano.
She smiled back.
Actually she knew that he changed.
They did come along well so far.
"I'm Middy."
"And I'm Tazzy."
They greeted her too and then the awkward silence came back.
"We should have a drink."
Middy went to the kitchen and got a bottle of wine.
"Wine? Are you girls? I thought men drink beer?", Sammy laughed when he filled the glasses.
"No, we just know what's good. We drink beer too but... apparently there's no beer in this house" explained Tazzy.
Sammy wasn't really a fan of wine or alcohol in general but she didn't want to ruin what started in a good way.
This wine is the prize for whatever kind of relationship this is going to be between her and them.
This night turned out better than she expected it to.