The Highest Summit © | ✅

Chapter 19: Anxiety

Bobbi

I wake early next morning and decide to go out for a run. I always found it relaxing, despite the physical exhaustion. And if I want to go to Argentina I need to start preparing. Aconcagua isn't nearly as demanding as Everest, but I still need to train.

While running I let my mind drift to yesterday. Sam was supportive, but I could tell even while he spoke that he would rather have asked me not to go. I know that he would never make me choose between him and what I love to do, but in the end I don't know what I would choose. I love him, but we are so young. Our friends say that we are cute together and whatnot, but those are assessments of teenagers.

I've overheard both my mother and Melinda, Sam's mother, talk one afternoon. Sam had soccer practice and I didn't feel well. He gave me his truck to drive home. I entered the house and heard mom and Melinda talk in the kitchen. They didn't notice me and at first I wanted to leave. But then they mentioned me and I got curious. While both women were happy that Sam and I are a couple they both voiced their concern that once the youthful infatuation wears off we will drift apart, especially since we are so different. I was too upset to remain there any longer and quietly made my way up to my room.

I guess somehow mom and Melinda are right. We are young and maybe this is just infatuation and will wear off eventually. Maybe we both are fooling ourselves thinking that we are in love. Yes, I love him. But am I truly in love? Every romantic novel I've read or movie I've seen depicts love as something so powerful, so unique. In every story the protagonists know they are in love and will forever be together. They know that they can't survive without the other, that life will be meaningless and empty. But is that really true? Do I love Sam that way? Could I really not live without him? I was fine for the first sixteen years of my life. Why wouldn't I be for the remainder of it?

All these questions are starting to give me a headache. I turn around and run back home, just in time to see Sam run toward me. He must have been out for a run too. I smile involuntarily.

"Morning, beautiful," he says smiling widely.

"Morning, handsome," I say as I stop in front of him. "Out for a run?"

"Yeah. Woke up early and thought I could use one," he says cheerful. "Nervous?"

"Why would I be nervous?" I ask.

"Tonight you're going to the school dance with the hottest guy in school," he says with a wide grin.

"Unfortunately, I'm not going with the hottest guy in school," I say and his face falls a little. "Abigail goes with Derek."

"What? That dimwit is not the hottest guy in school," he says wrapping his arms around me.

"Oh, yeah, he is. But that's okay. I might not go with the hottest guy in school, but at least I go with the sexiest man alive" I say smirking. At that his grin is wider than ever before and he crashes his mouth over mine. I soon part my lips and he thrusts his tongue inside my mouth, engaging my own in a passionate dance. We pull apart breathless but smiling.

"Just what the doctor ordered. A hot kiss in the morning from a hot girl will keep you healthy all day long," he says and I burst out laughing.

"You are so full of shit," I tell him.

"Hey, it's true," he defends.

"We should probably go home. I need to take a shower and by what I'm smelling a shower wouldn't hurt you either," I say chuckling.

"That's my man scent," he says smirking.

"Yeah, right. Come on. Let's make this interesting. Let's see who is ready first," I say and he raises an eyebrow.