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

Not when... How?

Johnny's alarm went off at around 8am.
It felt more like 5am for Sammy as Children of Bodom's Needled 24/7 started playing.
Well started blasting would describe it better.
Completely ignoring Johnny who leaned over to give her a good morning kiss, she grabbed the blanket and pulled it over her head to demonstrate that she was not in the mood to cuddle now.
"You know I better go downstairs so Archie won't get suspicious."
Sammy groaned and freed her face from the blanket.
"He already is"
Johnny was already putting on his pants and nodded.
"I know, he asked me about our relationship yesterday. I told him to talk to you though."
He came back to the bed and sat down on the edge and watched Sammy frowning.
"Why me? When we tell him we will do it together."
"And when do you think is that going to happen?", Johnny leaned back against the wall and sighed.
When wasn't the actual question that's been floating through their minds lately.
The question was how.
Archie had promised to accept it but would he really?
He wasn't very happy about it earlier.
"We should tell him soon. He already knows that there's something going on behind his back."
Johnny agreed. "And Middy knows too. I hope Archie will never find out about the fact that Middy knew before he did."
Now Sammy jumped out of her bed too and grabbed some random hoodie out of her closet.
She didn't even mind changing in front of Johnny anymore but she got curious as she heard him giggle.
"What?", she snapped, assuming he giggled because of her being half naked.
"Not to be a dad but I don't think it's appropriate to wear this hoodie.", he said still smirking.
Confused she looked down, eyeing the plain white hoodie with the small black vans symbol.
It took her a while to realize whose hoodie it actually was.
Johnny gave it to her months ago in the studio, because she was freezing.
She slipped it off again and put it back into the closet.
"Yeah nevermind that it's my hoodie. Just keep it..", Jonny laughed ironically but he didn't mean it.
She gave him a little smirk and then gestured him to leave.
Not trying to throw him out but he was planning on going downstairs anyways.
"I'll see you later I guess..", he said as he walked through the door.
"Yeah come on don't act like you're going to another continent we're still in the same house."
Sammy rolled her eyes and was about to close the door when she noticed Johnny's frozen body.
She couldn't see what he was looking at or why he didn't walk.
Trying to get a better view of the scene in front of her she stood on her tiptoes and looked over his shoulder.
Now that she could see, she froze too.
There, on the floor, leaning against the wall and staring straight at them, was none other than Archie.
A mad look on his face and he just watched and seemed to wait for one of them to say something.
"Uhm.. Good morning...", Sammy stuttered and smiled tormented.
Archie didn't react.
Neither did Johnny.
"This is not what it looks like..", she tried to hush up but Archie's hand, whizzing upwards, made her shut up.
"Just stop the bullshit. Tell me the truth. Now. And don't think you can keep fooling me. Not you, Sammy. And neither you, Johnny. I'm tired of you lying to me."
He didn't raise his voice, he said it in a calm way, even tho all of them knew it was just acted.
Inside he was burning, Sammy could tell by the look in his eyes.
Johnny slowly turned, his eyes searching for hers to be sure what her next step was.
But neither did Sammy know.
Archie knew what was going on.
He just wanted to hear it from them.
"Can we talk about this downstairs?", she asked, not specifically Archie.
He just turned and walked away, down the stairway into the living room.
Johnny followed him but before he could reach the stairs he noticed that Sammy was still standing there like one minute ago.
"Hey, it's all fine. We'll tell him the truth and everything's gonna be okay. He said he'd be okay with it. Don't worry.", he stroke her cheek and took her hand to guide her downstairs.
"So?", Archie asked impatiently, a dangerous tone in his voice.
Once again Johnny and Sammy exchanged a look, before Sammy started talking.
"You already know what's really going on."
Archie lightly laughed disapprovingly.
"Do I? I want to hear you say it. I want to know the real truth. Your truth, not the truth I know because I can count one and one together."
Sammy nodded.
"Yes. You want to know the truth, here it is. We are together. We are a couple."
Searching for clarity he looked at Johnny, who nodded to confirm her statement.
"Now that was so hard to tell me that you just kept pretending that there is nothing going on towards me?"
Now Johnny shook his head.
"Not only towards you. We agreed to keep it a secret first.", he explained.
"Why?"
"Because this isn't as simple as it might seems to be."
Archie buried his head in his hands and rubbed his eyes.
"I just can't understand this. Why is not as simple? Just do it. What's the problem?"
"You. You were against this. All the time. But it's not only you. We wanted to try if it works. This is new to me and we didn't want the whole world to know about this."
Sammy waited for his reaction but he just sighed.
"And you haven't been any better anyways."
His head shot up and eyed her questioning.
"Yeah. When did you plan on telling me about Kira?"
He shook his head and leaned back against the rest of the couch.
"Kira and I... well.. I didn't tell you because I wasn't sure if we were really a thing you know. I liked her and I guess she did too but we just met a couple times."
"So you wanted to keep it a secret first.. because you weren't 100 percent sure about it."
Suddenly Johnny, who wasn't even part of this conversation anymore, started laughing.
Both, Sammy and Archie, looked at him confused.
"What's so funny about that?", Archie asked.
"You two..", he kept laughing in between, "you are hilarious. Do you realize that you are exactly the same? This whole problem.. it's the same situation on every side and you are blaming each other for it."
Archie kept looking serious, not getting what meant.
Sammy though soon started smiling too.
"You are avoiding the real problem by arguing about this stupid relationship problem. The real problem is that you two don't trust each other enough to be honest to the other one. But then there is the question, why? Why don't you trust each other?"
"What, are the psychologist now?", Archie asked him a bit angry.
"No, Archie, Don't be mad at him now. He is right. This is not a problem about Johnny. Or Kira. This is about us."
Still not wanting to give in he stood up and turned away.
"Johnny, maybe it's better when you go for now..", he mumbled.
Sammy agreed and hugged him quickly, before he left.
As she turned back towards she saw that there were tears in his eyes.
Barely noticeable, but they were slightly red.
Without saying anything she walked over to him and sat down right next to him.
He immediately took her hand in his and pulled her into a tight hug.
"I'm so sorry.", he whispered.
And he meant it.
A single tear slipped down Sammy's face too.
"I know. So am I."
All the time, since Archie came back, they had barely taken the time to appreciate that they have each other.
"Sams?"
"Hm?"
"How'd you even know about Kira?"
Sammy sat up straight to get out of his embrace but leaned back against his shoulder.
"I met her in the hospital."
Archie nodded and closed his eyes to calm down.
"What do you think about her?"
She didn't have to think long to answer this question.
"She seems nice. I mean I think you'd make a good couple."
Now he smiled, even though she couldn't see his smile.
"I'll bring her home so you can meet her.", he said proudly.
"Well you already know Johnny so I don't need to bring him here.", Sammy joked.
Archie smirked too and said something Sammy didn't expect him to say.
"You two might be a better couple than I'd like to admit. I mean he's a good guy and now you can also make sure he won't get too drunk."
She didn't even know what to respond first.
Archie wasn't one to support them being together actually.
"I know you think I'm lying just to make you feel better, but I mean it. Well it's kinda weird to see my best friend kiss my sis and all but I'd rather see him kiss you, than some bad boy I don't even know. I'm okay with it as long as he treats you like the queen of the world. I will kill him if he hurts you just to make this clear."
Suddenly a wave of happiness hit Sammy.
Archie was okay with it and he what he just said was so cute.
He truly wanted her to be happy.
"Just make sure you don't make out in front of me or else I'll.."
"Okay okay just stop."
They both laughed and enjoyed the moment of happiness together.
"I'm glad we're okay again. And that you're still alive."
"Ou really? Well me too, Smallie."
He kissed her forehead and got up.
"And now... I'll have a beer."