Breathe (GirlxGirl)

Chapter 31 - Home Sweet Home?

Sam gripped at the steering wheel as the sign read 15 miles to her home town. Dana, having noticed the whitening of Samantha's knuckles, put her hand on her lap. Samantha took in all the air she could fill into her lungs and let out a long, slow sigh. She turned her face to Dana and hesitantly smiled. "I'm glad you're here."

"Any time and always. It'll be OK Sam. I'm hoping you'll be more relieved once you tell 'em. Then, no matter what, they'll know, and you won't feel like you're hiding from them."

Sam gave a mischievous grin back to Dana. "I'd just not be sharing everything. Is that still considered hiding? Cause I think I'd be Ok with that." she finished with a nervous giggle.

"Why don't we pull over and you give Faith a call? I think you'd benefit from talking to her, don't you?" Dana asked as she patted Sam's lap.

Dana exited the gas station with a bag of snacks in one hand and her other hand slid into the top of a 12 pack of RC Cola. Once to the truck, she laid the soda and bag on the passenger's seat, walked around the back of the truck and hopped up on the tailgate where Sam sat dangling her legs as she finished a conversation with Faith.

"OK I will... OK baby... Uh Huh... Yeah, she's here. OK sweetheart. Bye." Handing Dana the phone, she said, "She wants to talk to you." Dana took the phone as her feet swung back and forth beneath the tailgate.

"Ello Puppet." She spoke in her best British accent. She then spent 30 seconds listening to the voice on the other side of the call. "Of course, I will Faith... I will, I promise. I know... I know. Just Breathe. She'll be OK." Dana continued as she watched Samantha walk into the gas station. "Yes... Tomorrow while everyone is still here. No. It's not a good idea to wait till Saturday night. They'll not have time to process everything before we come back. Yes, I promise." Dana listened more to the worried voice. Eventually, she interrupted. "You know, she is stronger now. She's not as fragile as some may think. I'm not sayin she doesn't have more work to do, but, look... she was ready for what happened last week with you... and she says she is ready for this too. Trust me. She has never backed out of something once she puts her mind to it. So, just try to relax and I got her on this end OK?"

..............................

Sam pressed in the emergency brake with her left foot after turning off the ignition. She gave the horn two honks and took a deep breath. Looking over to Dana with more conviction than she had shown the whole way home, she said, "Ready or not..."

As the two exited the truck, a tall muscular figure bolted out the front door, swept Samantha into his arms and spun in a circle.

"How ya doing 'Junior?' I've missed you." Stephen said as he set Sam back down. He looked at Dana and nodded his head upward. "Hey Champ..."

"Dork." Dana replied acknowledging Stephen.

"Is everyone here?" Samantha asked.

"Yep. Go on inside and say Hi. I'll get the bags."

"I'll help. Too many for even you to get 'em all 'Studly'." Dana offered. "Go ahead Sam. We got this."

Stephen grabbed the duffel bags and slung them over his shoulders and filled his hands with what else he could carry.

"Studly huh?"

"Yeah. You've been lifting. It shows. How's the first year of school going?"

"Too many distractions, but I'm managing. I love living on campus and the food is actually pretty good."

Dana raised her eyebrows. "What kind of distractions? You've been at least keeping up on classwork, right?"

"Please! I'm distracted, mostly by beautiful women, but I haven't forgotten how my mother is." Stephen turned and walked toward the house. "You Comin Champ?"