Chapter Eleven: "Pillow Talk."

THE NEXT MORNING I woke up with my head on Sam's chest. I moved my head up, looking at his face to see him still in deep sleep, not looking like he was going to move anytime soon. I looked over at the time to see that it was a little after 7 AM.

I shifted to look over at Maddy's bed to find Maddy and George sleeping with their backs against the side of her bed. They had a blanket over their legs and Maddy had her head on his shoulder while George's mouth was hung open.

I got off of Sam slowly and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. In mid-brushing I went over to grab my phone and when I was going to return to the bathroom, Maddy stirred and opened her eyes, blinking to focus from her glasses. She looked up at George beside her before glancing at me and mouthing 'Shut up'.

I gave her a knowing grin before going back to the bathroom and she joined me, grabbing her own toothbrush. By the time she had washed her own face and had her own toothbrush in her mouth, we were both belting out the wrong lyrics to some rap coming from my phone.

I went over to the sink to spit out the toothpaste, laughing so loudly I grabbed my phone to Snapchat Maddy dancing like a lunatic through the reflection of the mirror. By the time I had grabbed my hairbrush and we were singing really loudly and offkey, I heard shuffling and George stood under the threshold. "You guys really cannot sing." He said, his brown hair sticking up everywhere and he stretched, wincing and holding his back for a second.

"You okay?" Maddy asked him once spitting her toothpaste in the sink.

"Yeah. You guys want to grab breakfast at that place around..."

"Around?" Maddy and I asked at the same time, mimicking him but I held in my laughter.

"You know what I am talking about. It's too early to think." He laughed, reaching over to Maddy and flicking her hair so that it hit her in the face.

She swatted his hands away, rolling her eyes. "Stop it, you're so annoying." She found him a toothbrush and handed it to him.

Maddy walked out of the bathroom and George looked at me through the mirror. "She loves me."

"She does." I said and we fist bumped in agreement.

I walked out of the room and went back to bed, climbing on and straddling Sam as he slept peacefully.

Oh well. This was payback for the many times he has brought me out of sleep.

I leaned against his ear. "Sam." He didn't move. "Sam." He stirred a little then groaned. Then I smiled before leaning back so I wouldn't shatter his eardrum. "SAM!"

His eyes snapped open and he woke up startled, sitting up and resting on his forearms. "Holy shit, what happened?"

"We're going to get breakfast."

He was now awake enough to stare at me like I just told him I was about to jump in a volcano. "What? You woke me up to get some breakfast? Are you-wait this is payback isn't it?"

"For not bringing me food that one morning."

Sam closed his eyes for a brief moment. "I should've seen it coming. Morning beautiful." He murmured.

I flushed but pressed a finger to his lip when he tried to lean in to kiss me. "Brush your teeth."

He huffed before noticing that I was straddling him. He raised an eyebrow and just when I realized he was going to say something completely dirty, Maddy spoke. "Can you guys not do anything in this room without waiting for George and me to leave and for Macy to at least put a sock on the door, please and thank you!" she yelled, going back into the bathroom where George was brushing his teeth.

"You heard her." Sam said.

"I know." I agreed, about to get off of him when he stopped me.

"No, no, no, we just have to wait for them to leave and put a sock on the door, then we can do whatever we want."

I hit him lightly on the chest as George came out of the bathroom. "Come on, we're going to get breakfast."

"Where?" Sam asked. "That place you guys call a cafeteria on your meal plan?"

"That cafeteria has some really good food mate." George said and I agreed.

"Yeah and we're getting food from that place that's...around."

"We've agreed that it is too early to think in the morning." George groaned out, putting his jacket on. I got off of Sam and he slowly got out of bed just as Maddy got out of the bathroom, throwing on her own jacket.

"We'll meet you guys downstairs." She said as Sam went into the bathroom.

"Got it." I agreed with her as they left the room.

"You don't have practice this morning right?" I yelled, putting my hair up in a high ponytail.

"No but I was thinking of going to the gym later on after classes today."

"Okay."

"Wait, can I leave my clothes here from last night because I'm honestly really lazy to take them back to the flat with me."

"Sam, half of the clothes in my drawers is filled with your stuff. AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T GIVEN ME MY NIKE SWEATPANTS BACK."

"Which ones?" He yelled with the toothbrush probably in his mouth.

"The black ones." I told him as the bathroom door opened enough for him to poke his head through the with toothbrush in the side of his mouth.

"Ohh," He said weirdly, scratching the back of his neck. "Well s'not my fault that the sweats fit me, babe."

"But they're mine."

"Haven't you ever heard that sharing is caring?"

"Sharing can give you a disease." I retorted truthfully and he rolled his eyes, going back inside the bathroom.

We had met George and Maddy downstairs and we were all at this place down the street that George had referred to as 'around' and Sam wouldn't stop checking his phone every five minutes.

I nudged him as I bit into my blueberry muffin. "Is something wrong?"

He shook his head, giving me a one sided smile. I wasn't buying it. "Everything's good, why?"

"Because I've never seen someone look at their phone so much since Justin and Emma."

He let out a light laugh. "It's nothing. Trust me."

"If you say so." I didn't want to pressure him into telling me anything. Plus if he said it's nothing then it probably is nothing.

I watched Maddy and George split their own blueberry muffin in half and George complained when apparently Maddy's half was bigger than his. She slapped him on the arm and hid a smile behind her hand and closed her eyes for a second behind her glasses. George on the other hand was laughing when he snuck a piece from Maddy's half, taking a sip of his coffee.

"You're going to be okay without me for a couple of days?" Sam teased.

"Of course I am, it's not like we're attached by the hip."

"I know but c'mon Hazel, you're going to miss me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And he was right.

Oh god he was right.

In September when this happened I never really knew how accustomed I was to at least seeing Sam once a day. Face to face. Not over video chat or text but to actually see him, to feel his presence, to have him near me even if he was in the other side of the room or lying next to me.

I literally was lying in bed with a pillow over my face when I heard the door open. "Um...Mace?"

"Yeah." I said into the pillow.

"Why do you have a pillow on your face?"

"I can't talk to a pillow?"

Then the pillow was removed from my face and Maddy appeared by the side of my bed, whacking me with it. "Enough of your pillow talk, get up we're going out."

"No, it's Saturday."

"Yes it is Saturday. That means that it is perfect for you to get out of this damn building."

"No it is Saturday. This is the perfect day for me to crawl in bed or read a good book. That's what my Saturday nights are usually for."

"No. What the hell? Macy get up. We don't even have to go to a party. We could just walk the streets of Manchester, meet more people with the really cute accents. We could pretend that we actually are British and fake the accents and get people thinking we really are from here."

I stared at her, knowing that a dumbfounded look was on my face. "Fake British accents? You know that people speak in different dialects right?"

"Okay then we'll do an accent and they'll be like 'oh you really are from Manchester mate-"

I decided to whack her with the pillow this time and she almost fell to the ground laughing before she grabbed my hands. "Come on Mace. I know you miss Sam and everything but he'll be back by Monday. Come on please."

"Why do you want to go out that badly?" I whined, getting up and grabbing my jacket because it was honestly really cold outside.

"Because-I don't want to have a reason. I just want to leave. Let's go."

I huffed, putting my jacket on. "I should've taken an extra shift today."

"But you didn't so yay! We'll meet up with Anmol on the way. Her house isn't too far from here." Maddy said already typing on her phone.

I nodded, grabbing my phone, keys and camera as we walked out of the building and into the breezy evening. Not even two blocks away from campus, Maddy and I had heard conversation, "You're doing alright?" 

"I'm doing fine. You just caught me off guard the other night." Anmol. 

"I haven't seen you in forever." Derek.  

"Yeah." 

"You look great, by the way." 

Anmol didn't say anything more to that. She seemed, not uncomfortable, but shy around him. 

Derek tried to make conversation but he could tell Anmol wasn't that much in a talking mood before he said goodbye. When he saw Maddy and me, he gave us a small smile in greeting before passing by us. 

Maddy made it to Anmol first who was looking at Derek's retreating figure. "Are you alright?"

"I feel like I'm a kid again when I'm around him."

"We noticed." I told her.

"You know what?" Maddy said, throwing an arm around Anmol. "Next time, I think you could have a great chat with him. Just stand strong. You're usually strong." 

"Not around him!" She shrugged. "Thanks, but I'm done talking about Derek tonight. What's going on with you guys?"

"George asked Maddy out." I blurted out.

Maddy rolled her eyes and Anmol had a smile on her face, her mood flipping a 180 as we looked at Maddy. "Really?"

"Yeah, took him long enough to be honest."

"Shut up." Maddy mumbled, walking in front of me but I knew she had a smile on her face.

"Hey Macy I never really got to ask you but what's with the camera? Are you a photographer or something?"

I held in the camera in my hand as we passed by a bench with a statue beside it and Maddy took a seat. "Memories." I told her, tapping the side of it with my index finger.

Anmol nodded, taking a seat beside Maddy, the sun going down behind them. I stood at a distance to take a picture of the two as Maddy being herself decided to pose for the photos in different funny ways, Anmol soon joining her. By the time we were done, the sun was almost set and the sky above us was red, blue and purple.

By the time we were done, I couldn't stop laughing even when some random lady was giving the three of us looks. "Okay, okay, I can't handle this."

Anmol and Maddy clearly weren't finished laughing by the time I had calmed down when I felt it.

I felt the cold, wet substance fall on my nose like the tip of a feather, followed by another. I couldn't help but smile like a kid on Christmas day when more came down and I immediately went to my phone, dialing a number.

I held the phone up to my ear, rocking back and forth on my Jordans when he picked up. "Hey Hazel."

"Hey Jerk." I teased him by his original nickname.

"You sound like you're incredibly happy."

"I kind of am."

"May I ask why? Not that I mind."

"It's snowing." I said gleefully, looking up at the darkening sky.

"It is?"

"Yeah." I whispered, facing away from the direction of my friends.

I could hear him sigh on the other line. "You know this could've been the first snowfall we could've spent together and I could actually see that smile on your face?"

"Sam this is going to be our first Halloween together, winter together, and first Christmas and first New Year and...your birthday. The first time I'll get to be with you on your birthday."

He paused a second longer than he probably should have. "Yeah, my birthday." I know he didn't make his birthday a big deal anymore and I know it was probably one of the hardest days for him to face.

I heard the faint sound of voices in the background. "Sorry did I call you in the middle of a shoot?"

"No, no you didn't. Everyone's just telling me to sleep early because I have to get up before the sun rises."

"Why?"

"The next shoot is way too early in the morning and they need me by then. Something about the lighting being good and the mood for the pictures or some shit like that."

"Wow you're so descriptive." I laughed under my breath.

"Of course," He said under his breath. "I miss you."

I sucked in a sharp breath, struggling to keep the smile off of my face because moments like this with Sam even with him being miles away makes me feel some type of way. His words only managed to make me fall a little more in love with him.

"And before you deny that you miss me too, I already know you do."

"I wasn't even going to deny it you idiot. I do miss you." I admitted.

"You should join me on this one day."

"Me? Modelling? No, never going to happen."

"You'll consider it for at least one time."

"No. No I won't no matter how much your mom even suggests for me to."

"Mum knows what she's looking for."

"She clearly will be able to tell that if I ever walk down a runway I'll look like I have a stick shoved up my butt."

Sam stifled his laughter and I couldn't help but feel my smile grow bigger. Another voice was heard from the background and Sam groaned. "Hey Hazel?"

"Yeah?"

"I have to go but I'll call you tomorrow morning."

"Okay."

"Bye love."

"Bye." I ended the call and felt the snow come down softly around me. I twisted my phone in my hands, looking down at the grass that had a layer of frost on it. I looked up at the sky and shoved my hands and phone in my pockets, not bothering to wipe away the snow falling onto my hair.

I turned around to face my two friends when suddenly I was bumped into. "Oh, sorry."

"No, it was completely my-Macy?" Zach stood in front of me and beside him was a girl around our age with frizzy blonde brown hair that were locked in curls and her features showed of Hispanic.

"Oh hey Zach."

"How are you?"

"Pretty good. You?"

"Great."

"How's Sam?"

"He's good, he's in London at the moment."

"For what?"

"Modeling."

Zach raised his eyebrows but didn't question it, instead he turned to the girl beside him. "Oh Macy this is Rosalina my roommate, Rosie this is Macy."

Rosalina gave me a small smile. "Nice to meet you," Her accent was different from Zach but it was clear she grew up in England. "Say what? Zach and I are having a party on Halloween at our place, you and your friends should come." She said, referring to Anmol and Maddy who were walking towards us.

"Yeah invite Sam too. It'll be pretty great."

"Party?" Maddy asked.

"We're in." Anmol agreed.

Rosalina laughed. "I'll send you guys the address." They exchanged phone numbers and once Zach and Rosalina left, Maddy looked up at me as Anmol sat down on the bench.

"You alright?"

"Yeah," I ran my fingers through my hair, pushing the strands up and off my face. "I'm down for the party, it's just I don't know if Sam will want to go."

"I'm pretty sure if you will go to the Halloween party Macy, he'll go too."

"If it was any other party maybe but this one...I'm not so sure."

"Why?"

"Um, Sam has been having a little bit of trouble with some of his history finding its way to appear back into his life."

Maddy took in the look on my face when I say this and when she realizes that I am serious she frowned. "Shit well we don't have to go."

"No, no, no you guys can go, I just need to see if Sam's okay with going." Maddy nodded.

We joined Anmol on the bench, hands in our pockets as we were sat down. The snow fell around us, the sign of a new season coming soon even though it was early October. The sign of new things I will see and old things I will see again. But this wasn't just a sign for me. It was also for Sam.