Dedicated to @hanifah_badmos for the cover at the top! Thank youu💗

I'm not sure why I'm starting to like Dua Lipa. Also, thank you all for 33K followers!

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Macy: mace_chase_

Sam: Harley_SSSC

Chapter Twenty-Eight: "Rat."

A SCOFF SOUNDED from my mouth. "Are you serious?"

"Why not?" Jasmine laughed, turning on her stomach. "Swimming with animals is amazing. I figured you would want to try it."

"Are you crazy? I'm not about to jump into water only to lead to my death. Give me a pool with no animals and we can talk then."

Stevie made a sound that sounded like a half laugh, half snort from where she was braiding Natasha's hair. "I'll go with you if she won't."

"I would too," Natasha grumbled and I could see the twinge of pain in her expression when Stevie pulled tightly on her hair. "If I didn't feel sick like every five minutes."

"God, now I'm certain that I would never want kids." Stevie muttered.

"Really?" I asked, pausing the movie that was playing on my laptop. "You wouldn't want kids in the future? Is this a now thing or you're certain for life?"

"I'm certain," Stevie confirmed. "I could never. I'm okay with taking care of them, I just don't want any in the future."

"Does Cedric know this?" Jasmine asked.

"He knows but we're not talking about it. It's not like we're planning on getting married or anything like that. We've only been dating for a couple months, anyway."

I shoved a handful of popcorn into my mouth when I heard Jasmine let out a cough. "Fatass." I rolled my eyes, shoving my foot in her face which she was quick to dodge.

"Where are you and Ivan moving again?" Jasmine asked Natasha.

"Um...New York but there was some talk about Ivan possibly taking over a branch in Thailand or something like that."

"You don't mind where little you is going to grow up?"

"Not really," Her hand went to her stomach and her eyes had that distant look in them like she was imagining the future. "I just want her to be happy."

"How do you guys even know it's going to be a girl?" I questioned, still shoving popcorn in my mouth.

"Ivan's certain. He bet five hundred dollars with one of his friends on what the sex of our child is going to be. There's something in his head saying that it's going to be a girl and for his sake I'm just going along with it."

"Wife of the year." I drawled out. Ivan and Natasha being married was still sometjing I wasn't used to. Natasha being pregnant was even stranger. I couldn't possibly imagine her being a mother in eight more months. 

Natasha's eyes sudden widened snd it was then I noticed that she looked slightly pale. Oh no. "I can't wait for the next trimester. I need to go to the bathroom." She got up quickly and left my bedroom, passing by Justin who did a double take.

"Is she okay?" He asked from the hallway.

"She's pregnant."

"Oh," He scratched his head. "Then she's fine."

I rolled my eyes as he walked away. "Anyway...what about you Jasmine? Any kids in the future that you'll name Macy?"

"Someone's begging. And maybe. We're still young. I'm not really thinking about it yet."

"What about you Mace? You and Sam having kids anytime soon?" Stevie joked.

"No." I almost gave her my are you kidding me look? Just weeks ago I was stressing about exams and work, the last thing I would want on my mind at the moment is a kid.

"Judging by the hickeys on your collarbone, I'd think twice."

"Think again because it's not happening anytime soon."  I confirmed for her. My phone buzzed on my bed and I took it out.

Matteo:

Another pun of the day?

Me:

Sure, why not?

Matteo:

I'd tell you a chemistry joke, but I don't think I'd get a reaction

I internally laughed, pushing my hair back and not believing that stupid joke he messaged me.

Me:

That was badd.

Matteo:

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

"Oh, my God." I mumbled just as Jasmine peered over my shoulder.

"Who's that?"

"Matteo."

"A uni friend?"

"Yeah, who has a ridiculous love for bubble tea."

"Bubble tea sounds so good right now." Stevie muttered, running a hand through her blonde hair as she made her way over to peer over my shoulder at my phone. "Wow, Matteo sounds very punny."

She laughed at her own joke and I blankly stared at her then Jasmine when she decided to start laughing at that horrible joke to. "That was so bad. You guys have the worst sense of humor."

"Macy, just get on our level."

"I don't think her elevator can reach that high."

They both started hollering from that lame excuse of a diss, making me roll my eyes. This is what my friendships have come to, showing affection by insulting each other.

Natasha came back staring at Jasmine and Stevie on the ground, looking a little better. "What's going on?"

"They're insulting me." I told her.

"We're not insulting you." Stevie said when they both got up.

Natasha started the movie again when suddenly Jasmine spoke when she started eating the popcorn. "You know what someone would call a bad popcorn joke? Corny."

No. Just no, I thought when my friends started laughing like crazy.

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

"This sounds good." Jacob nodded his head to the beat of the music coming from Jon Ming's iPad. "Who's the girl singing on it?"

"She's on the come up. They don't have a stage name for her so I can't really tell you anything yet." Jon Ming explained when Caleb came into the room and shook the bag of marshmallows in his hands.

"Time to act like we're kids in the woods!" He handed everyone their own stick before making a face. "You know what I never really understood?"

"What?" Brandon asked, shifting closer to the fireplace.

"When people have a bonfire and they roast marshmallows, you see how the stick they attach the marshmallow to is from the ground?"

"Yeah. What's your point?" Jacob answered, his face showing that he clearly didn't like how this conversation was going.

"Isn't that kind of atrocious? You're eating a melted marshmallow. That's great and everything but the stick has so much bacteria on it. Like it just spreads everywhere and goes into your body and into your system and-"

"Okay!" Andrew grabbed the bag of marshmallows out of Caleb's hand. "More for us. None for Caleb."

"What? Half of that bag is mine." Caleb demanded, snatching the bag back. "What's a good campfire song to sing?"

"You realize that we're not outside right?" Sam asked him.

"Yes, I realize this. God, Sam you're such a downer, use your imagination, will you?"

"Okay, I imagine that we're not outside. Instead, we're in the living room toasting marshmallows in the fireplace."

"Wow, your imagination sounds very realistic to me." Caleb muttered.

I turned myself upside down on the couch, taking a marshmallow from Caleb and putting it in my mouth. With my feet hung over the back of the couch, Andrew joined me in the same position.

"Mace?"

"Yeah."

'Remember when we were kids and we used to do handstands against a wall until one of us first got dizzy?"

A short laugh escaped my lips at the memories. "We used to turn everything into a competition. Remember how much we fought over food? Like who could eat the fastest? And remember who always won?"

"Yeah me."

I snorted. "You wish you won, turd. You lost five times in a row that one month back in like seventh grade."

"Shut up. You could never beat me whenever we played field hockey."

"Maybe because my legs were made for the sport called soccer not field hockey you twerp."

"Donkey."

"Horse."

"Rat."

"Snake."

"You're just mad because at everything else I beat you in it."

"Oh yeah?" Andrew grinned and I could see his face slowly turning re because of the position we were in. "What if we took a bag of marshmallows and every time we put one in our mouth we say-"

"Suck ass."

"NO." I yelled at Jacob who chortled obnoxiously.

"How about you say Austin's hair?" Austin said, sitting next to me with a bowl of chips in his hands.

"Done." Andrew agreed. "And you can't eat them. You have to keep them in your mouth and say the word until the first person can't say it anymore. Deal?"

"Fine. Just watch me beat you in something else again."

"Can you guys do that after? I really want to eat this. SAM, GET THE CHOCOLATE!" Caleb yelled.

"WAIT!" Sam yelled back before jogging out of the kitchen and tossing the chocolate towards Caleb. "Here."

"Okay." Caleb grinned like a madman and I wasn't sure if no one else but me would see that creepy smile on his face illuminate on the wall nearby, scaring the crap out of me.

"What if we ever went camping?" Stevie asked, pulling her feet up as she tried watching some on her large phone.

"Like real camping? Outdoors? Tents? Bugs?" Jon Ming asked, his tone clearly telling everyone who creeped out he is by Stevie's question.

"Okay, so Jon Ming is definitely the person that will not come." Brandon mumbled.

"It's not that. It's just what if there's bears in the woods? Don't you guys ever think about that?"

"We'll just give them Caleb as a sacrifice." Jacob answered.

Caleb whipped his head towards Jacob faster than I could imagine. "What? I mean- I'm sure I'll taste amazing because I'm Caleb but no. Give them Brandon, the nice ones probably die first."

"What? No. Jacob is the better candidate."

"No, definitely Caleb." Sam laughed, tossing a marshmallow at his best friend so it hit them right in the forehead.

"We went camping once though. When we were like fourteen, I swear." Caleb muttered. "One of the worst experiences of my life."

"Oh yeah," Sam started laughing. "You screamed one night because you thought a snake was in our tent."

"What was it really?" Stevie asked.

"It was just Ivan tickling his foot with a stick." Sam laughed even harder and Caleb shoved him.

"Shut up or I'm going to throw you into the fire." But the smile on his face made that threat have no significance.  

"What are you guys doing?" Jon Ming asked Andrew and me, pushing us so he could sit in between us.

I could now feel the blood flowing to my head when Andrew answered. "We're just, you know, hanging."

Jon Ming laughed at that and I groaned, bringing my legs down so I could sit on the couch properly. "Why is everyone making puns? Like first Matteo keeps giving me a pun every single day and then yesterday-"

"Matteo?" Andrew repeated, loud enough to unknowingly catching everyone's attention. I didn't miss the way Sam shifted, his expression stern. "Who's that?"

"He's a friend of mine. He's majoring in Chemistry like me." I mumbled, watching Caleb look over at Sam who was tapping his foot against the ground. They have talked about Matteo with one another.

Sam got up, everyone's attention on him as he quickly walked out of the room. "I'm guessing he doesn't like your newfound friendship with the Matteo guy." Andrew said, watching Sam disappear.

"He doesn't. We'll be right back." I muttered, standing up and walking after my boyfriend. I ended up following him into the music room.

I watched him grab his guitar from the corner where it was and sit down on the couch. He strummed a few chords with his finger before picking a guitar pick from the small bowl of them on the table in front of the couch where he rested his feet.

"Sam." I said, closing the door behind me but he didn't pay me any attention. Instead, he started strumming loud on that guitar, fading away any chance I basically had at talking to him. I said his name again but he ignored me, looking down at the strings as he played an old song I recognized from the 80s on the acoustic guitar.

By the time he had gotten to the bridge of the song I realized how idiotic this actually was. I took that guitar out of his hands and he let me do so with ease. "Sam. I'm not here to deal with this immaturity."

He sighed, looking up at me. "What Hazel?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing...I mean, Matthew-whatever his name is, is okay. Alright?" He must've seen the look on my face because I did not believe what he was saying one bit. "I just...I just don't trust him."

"What do you mean you don't trust him? You're not even-" I came to a stop, realizing what he meant. "Wait, you don't trust him with me? You think he's going to make a move on me or something?"

"I don't think he will. I know he will."

"That's not going to happen. Even if it did, do you honestly think I would reciprocate?"

Sam opened his mouth to speak but he bit his bottom lip to hold back on whatever he was going to say. After a second, he exhaled. "No, I know you wouldn't."

"Exactly. He's just a friend. That's all he'll ever be to me."

The exact same way you claim Alexis is your friend and that's all she'll ever be.

Sam sunk into the couch, looking annoyed. "You can know that but he probably doesn't."

Okay, but neither does Alexis.

"Then I'll let him know. Sam, between soccer and school, I don't have time to make many friends on campus. You know this and I know this. It's surprising I managed to make a friend like Matteo anyway."

"What about Maddy and Anmol? Aren't they enough?"

I take a moment to realize what this really was about. It wasn't truly about Matteo, he was just a small part of it. "Are you telling me that you don't want me to be friends with someone of the opposite gender?"

Sam didn't say anything and I got the hint that that was exactly the issue. "Sam, you know me better than anyone else, you realize this right?"

He didn't say anything again so I continued talking. "So you know that for majority of my life I was the definition of 'one of the guys'. In case you haven't noticed, most of my friends are boys. Not girls. Boys. And for some reason you don't have a problem with that when they're in this part of the world."

This time Sam opened his mouth to speak but I didn't let him have a chance because I realized that this was a subject we did need to talk about but have been holding off for a while. "Do you have a problem with me being friends with Jon Ming or Austin?"

"No." He managed to say.

"Brandon or Jacob?"

"No."

"Simon?" I asked, thinking of my old friend.

"At first I did but I don't."

"What about Caleb? Is there a problem with me being friends with your best friend?"

"Caleb wouldn't do that to me."

"I know but what about Andrew? He's my best friend and he's a guy. He's been a brother to me my entire life and even if you had a problem with that relationship I have with him just when we first met, I wouldn't have cared what you thought because you didn't matter that way like you do to me now. But what if Andrew suddenly told me he had feelings for me? What would you do then?"

Sam's fingers curled into fists and he took a deep breath, avoiding my eyes and glaring at the table.

"What would you do if you found out or if I told you that Andrew kissed me? What would you do?"

Sam didn't answer the question and I realized that wasn't really the question to ask as my voice raised. "Do you think I would kiss him back if he kissed me?"

Sam's eyes moved away from the table to lock on mine, the intensity of them clear as day. He stood up slowly and walked over to me, taking the guitar out of my hand to put on the table. I didn't know what was going through his mind right now and I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out.

So when his lips parted to answer my question, I put my finger on his mouth to stop him from talking. "I wouldn't." My voice dropped to a whisper and for some reason tears pricked from my eyes.

Sam closed his eyes, his forehead dropping against mine. His breathing was heavier and I felt my fingers shaking as I gripped his forearms. "I know you wouldn't." His breath fanned against my face and I shook my head.

"Of course I wouldn't. Because I'm not in love with anyone else, you idiot. I'm in love with you. And you could be friends with thousands of Alexis' not even knowing if they fell for you like I did but I wouldn't truly be bothered by what they think of you because I know you're in love with me too. Because I trust you."

I pulled his body closer to mine, my lips resting against his jaw as I hugged him to myself. "It's always going to be you no matter how much of a jealous idiot you could be."

I could feel Sam smile against the side of my head. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, it's just..."

"Would you feel better if I distanced myself from him a little bit more? If I didn't speak to him for a while?"

Sam ran a hand up his face, his fingers digging into his hair. "I don't want to come between you and a friend. The same way you don't come between my friendships with any other girl."

Only one other girl but whatever.

"Then relax. If something happens you will be the first to know. Besides Matteo is the first real friend I made in England that doesn't really have a connection to you."

"What does that mean?" Sam asked me, looking confused, his hands on my arms.

"Maddy is my roommate but she is also friends with you. Anmol is with Derek who is on the soccer team with you. Need I explain more?"

"What about that girl at the Halloween party we went to? What was her name? Roxanne?"

"It was Rosie. And she's the roommate to the guy you don't consider a friend named Zach. And I barely talk to her. She goes to a different uni and it's hard enough to meet up with the small circle I have in the university I go already go to. Matteo isn't connected to you in any way...unless you're going to tell me that he went to school with you."

"If he went to school with me I think I would've reacted worse than I did the day I met him."

"Like Zach?" I asked him. "What if I told you Zach is working with me?"

Sam stopped his movement on my arms. "What? He's working with you?"

"Seriously?" I asked him. "Are you actually jealous of Zach now?"

Sam scoffed. "Definitely not. It's Zach. I caught the guy doing so much shit back in secondary school you'd be disgusted. Although, I'm sure something is going on between him and his roommate anyway. I just wasn't aware."

"It never really came up."

"Are we okay now?" Sam asked tentatively.

"Depends. What if for your sake and my sanity we got you to actually hang out with Matteo?"

"No." He immediately said, his tone clarifying that he wasn't up to argue.

"Sam." I argued with the use of his name anyway.

"What if I got you to hang out with Alexis?"

"I have," I reminded him. "It has never worked out." That she devil hated me from the start. She wasn't ever going to like me now and I was completely fine with it at this point.

"Okay that's true," He looked at me for a long time, possibly thinking this over in his head a million times before we could agree on this. "Fine. We'll hang out with him. What would we even do?"

"Probably go to the pub. He thinks he's the best at pool."

Sam scoffed, starting to walk out of the room. "He clearly hasn't played you in it."

"That's what I said!" I exclaimed when we walked out of the room. Together, we moved back to living room where I could see Caleb putting his melting marshmallow in between crackers and a piece of chocolate, his eyes wide with child-like excitement.

"Mace, you ready to lose?" Andrew asked, shaking a bag of marshmallow in his hand.

I felt Sam squeeze my hip gently before sitting down next to Caleb. I grinned at my best friend, settling next to him on the couch. "Let's do this." 

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

"Happy new year! Come in, come in." Liz ushered me and Justin inside the house. Justin quickly said hi and ran up the stairs, probably going up to Christian's room to play one of the many games Christian got this Christmas.

I already got the feeling something was wrong. Maybe it was because of the hesitant smile on Liz's face or Caleb watching us from a distance, a frown on his appearance.

"What happened this morning?" I asked Liz.

"We went out for breakfast."

"And then?"

"He was trying to put up a face that everyone could clearly see through." Caleb answered when he walked towards Liz and me.

"He wasn't answering his phone." I mentioned, taking off my jacket and putting it on the hanger as along with my boots by the carpet.

"You should go talk to him. Try to get him out of that room." Liz gave me a soft smile, walking over in the direction of Phillip when I could hear him call for her. 

"How long has he been in there?" I questioned Caleb.

"Since we went out."

"How long ago was that?" 

"About four hours."

I sucked in a sharp breath, already making my way up the stairs to get him out of that room. I knew today would be a hard day for every single person in this house but even worse for him. I didn't even want to know what kind of thoughts were possibly going through his head but I figured as I stood at his door that it would be the only way to keep him talking. To at least get him out of the room.

I knocked on the door. "Sam?"

There was no response and I grew partially annoyed, opening the door just a bit so he could hear me. "Sam?"

Once again, no response. Great.

I figured I could either wait for him to tell me I could come in but I was Macy and didn't really care so I opened the door anyway, closing it behind me.

Sam was sitting up on the bed, his back against the headboard. There was a full bucket of ice cream in his hands and he was looking through his laptop, his eyes never wavering from the screen. And judging by the way his eyes were drooping, he probably didn't get an ounce of sleep.

I cleared my throat loudly and Sam's eyes snapped up to meet my gaze before looking down at the screen again, tapping a button. I made my way towards him as he dug the spoon into the chocolate ice cream and shoved it into his mouth.

"Is the ice cream any good?"

Sam didn't look away from the screen.

"I thought your favorite was strawberry." I kept talking and I got a shrug from Sam in response. The tag he usually kept under his shirt or jacket was full out in the open, dangling over his chest.

"You know ice cream for you isn't really ice cream unless you have the-"

Sam stopped me from talking, producing the can of whip cream to finish my statement. To answer my question even further, he shook the can and sprayed a bit of it into his mouth.

He put the ice cream and whip cream aside to stretch his arms outward towards me. I moved towards them, letting him grab me into a hug and settle next to him on his bed. My eyes focused on the screen where I could see a picture of a younger Sam and Bethany with party hats in their heads and a cake in front of them.

"When was this?"

"Seventh birthday. I got my first guitar that day." His voice came out a little bit rough like he hasn't spoken for hours. He probably hasn't.

He clicked the screen again and another picture showed up, one of him in a tuxedo and his sister on his back, her arms around his neck. "Ninth birthday. We went rollerblading and everyone thought Mum was bound to go into labor that day but Phillip came along about a month later."

And he kept showing me the different pictures. From the professional ones when they were babies, to every age up until they turned sixteen.

Sam lingered on the last photo. His hand tapped against his knee like he wanted to reach out and grab the photo himself and go back to that day. And I wish he could. I wish he could just so he could smile once today. "I think this was one of the best days in my life."

Sam took a pillow and tucked his chin over it, holding it to his chest. "I got my motorcycle this day. I didn't even expect it and it's funny because I think I had only mentioned wanting one someday once but she heard me. Beth always heard me."

"What did you get her?"

"A whole bunch of shit," Sam slouched on his bed, an arm around me. "First, she kept trying to force me and Caleb to have a spa day with her so we did that. My nails never looked shiner I can tell you that."

I laughed. "Continue please. I want to hear all about this. Do you have pictures?"

Sam moved the screen to show the multiple photos on one file. He clicked on one and I could clearly see the annoyance on his younger self as his hands were stretched forward as the focus of the picture.

And he continued speaking. I knew he loved talking about his sister when he was given the chance to be open for once. If there was another I loved a lot, it was when Sam spoke about something he loved about with passion and this nostalgic feeling because whenever he spoke to me about a memory he once had, it made me want to be there with him too.

For the next hour, I laid down next to him, listening to him talk about the past. I didn't even say a word. I loved listening to him talk about anything.

"Are you going to come out of your room anytime soon?" I asked him a while later.

He groaned lowly, throwing his forearm over his eyes with strain. "Do I have to?"

"Sam..." I took his hand, making sure he was looking at me. "This might be a hard day for you but it's also a hard day for your family as well. At least let them know you can see their faces. I think they'd at least want to be with you on this day."

He bit his lip, leaning his head back on the headboard and closing his eyes. I heard him take a sharp breath, the gears possibly turning in his head. He turned his head towards me, squinting one eye open. "Can we at least finish the ice cream? It's melting."

"Alright." I sat up, grabbing the bowl. "If your coach saw you right now, he would kill you."

Sam dug his spoon into the ice cream, instantly putting the the spoon in his mouth. "It's okay to have a cheat day occasionally."

He hummed in a sort of delight when there was knocking on his door. The person opened it without even waiting. Vince Cahill walked into the room, a tiny wrapped present in his hand.

Sam looked up from his laptop. "Hey dad."

"I know you aren't one for presents but I got you this." Vince handed Sam the present, making me itch to take my camera out and record this moment.

Sam reached for it slowly unwrapped the present while conversing with his dad. "Explain to me again why every single birthday any of us have mom has to take the entire family out for breakfast?"

"Traditions. Plus, you missed doing it at Phillip's eighth birthday," Vince's face glanced over to me and I realize that that day Sam was over at my house and missed the entire breakfast. "You'll be involved in the tradition until you're thirty at the most."

Sam chuckled, looking down at the box in his hand. He opened it to reveal a sliver watch, his name engraved on the back of it. Sam quickly put it on without hesitation. "Thanks dad."

Vince kept his eyes down on his son, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Try to have a good birthday Samuel. You deserve to."

Sam looked up at his dad. "Trust me. I'm trying. Every single day I'm trying."

When Vince left the room, Sam lied down next to me sighing heavily. I put my hand on his chest, looking up at his face. "I know you're trying."

That half smile appeared on his face and he closed his eyes, a hand going over my hair in a comforting way to let me know he was okay.  

That night after I made Sam sleep for a while, Caleb forced Sam to sit down at the dining table. Caleb had a party hat in his hand and kept gesturing for Sam to take it. "Wear it please."

"No." He looked a little less solemn and I was at a point where it didn't even bother me that Alexis had given him the longest hug in the entire world. He was genuinely smiling a bit more and that's all I really wanted him to do today. To at least be happy. It seemed to be Caleb's mission as well.

"C'mon Sam. You need to do this."

"I'm nineteen. I don't think I have to do anything you say," Sam settled in the chair, rolling the sleeves up of his button up shirt. "Then again, I never really bothered listening to you." 

"Is it just me or does everyone think turning nineteen has to be one of the ugliest birthdays ever?"

"What could honestly possess you to say that on my birthday, you idiot?" Sam mumbled.

"I think I would want to go from turning nineteen to turning twenty in an instant."

"That can't happen in case you haven't noticed." Andrew said from behind me, making a face at the camera when I turned it towards him.

"Thanks, I didn't realize," Caleb snapped back before getting into that thoughtful look of his. "Like nineteen is such an ugly number. You aren't truly legal until your twenty-one in most countries. You're not into the double decade. You're still the same category as a thirteen year old. Like, what idiot decided that turning nineteen was a good thing? It's so-"

"Caleb. I want you to shut up for five minutes. Just five. Only five minutes. That's all I ask for today, okay?" Sam clasped his hands together, looking a little stressed.

Caleb got the hint, zipping the imaginary zipper on his lips and tossing the imaginary key away.

I handed my camera to Brandon, looking at Sam. "Caleb and I while also making you that dumb coupon book-"

"It wasn't dumb."

"I know it wasn't. I mean, you took it. I just wanted to call it dumb. Anyway, we decided to make you something else. Boys, can you bring it out?"

I turned my eyes to where all the Cahill boys, omit Sam were carrying a huge frame towards Sam, laying it down on the dining table in front of him. I glanced at Caleb before looking back to my boyfriend. "I hope you like it."

Placed in random places, were different pictures of Sam during his nineteen years of life. I've managed to get a hold of his laptop months ago, and took all the pictures I could find along with the ones I had gotten from everyone else especially Liz. Even though the pictures were all over the place and laminated on the frame, they were organized so that the middle part would only be of him and Bethany.

I watched him get up and run a hand over the frame as he reached the middle. There was a look in his eyes that let me know that he knew we had put those certain pictures where he could probably see it on purpose. That small smile lit his face when he looked at a certain photograph, looming over the college.

"When was this picture taken?" I heard him whisper to himself. I looked behind him to see the picture his finger was hovering over. A picture of him and Bethany in mid laugh a huge fake silver Christmas tree.

"When we all met up in Aruba a couple years ago," Toby answered, his hands on Sam's shoulder. "You both didn't notice when I took the photo."  

That look on Sam's face appeared again, the one that showed nostalgia but remained phlegmatic even though I had a feeling that this was possibly killing him on the inside, just looking at the images.

He blinked several times when Andrew handed the camera to me, letting me record his reaction for myself. He turned to me, pulling me close enough to briefly kiss me on the lips. "Thank you." He whispered, looking at Caleb too. "Both of you."

"Anytime." I responded while Caleb gave him an uplifting smile.

Sam glanced at one photograph, starting to laugh. "Oh my God, Ivan dropped to the ground right after this picture taken." Majority of the boys laughed and a scowl was prominent on Ivan's face.

That was probably the mood for the rest of the night as Sam went through most of the pictures, the memories, frequently commenting on them and making everyone laugh.

When the cake was brought out and Sam finally wore that funny party hat that Caleb was pleading for him to wear, his eyes lit from the reflection of the candles on the cake.

He held a sparkler in his hand as everyone badly sang Happy Birthday to him. When he blew out all the candles, he still held that sparkler in his hand, staring at it for a couple of seconds.

"Happy birthday Beth." He whispered lowly. Then he blew it out.