A Different kind of love Story

A story about a girl who falls in love... with a girl.

   Candlelight flickered through the blinds of a rather small apartment, set above a busy New York street. Inside, a hopeless romantic lay crying on her bed… a girl of seventeen years; Jamie Travis has lived alone since she was sixteen, with the exception of her cat, Trixie.  Her parents were always arguing and she hated being at home, so she moved as far away as her broken heart would allow. All Jamie ever wanted was to fall in love and have a family, so she could make up for not having much of one when she was younger. This is often how Jamie spent her nights; she comes home from work, eats dinner and cries herself to sleep.
    “You know what Trixie? I reckon your lucky being a cat,” Trixie had just jumped onto the bed and began rubbing her ginger head against Jamie’s hand in an attempt to be petted, “ you can just sit around all day, be petted and have someone take care of you.  You can do what ever you want. I have to work to live and no one cares about me, well, except for you, you care don’t you? But, you know, it’s hard being a teenager with a job and groceries to buy and "and bills to pay.  You on the other hand, you don’t have a worry in the world,” Jamie was silent for a moment, Trixie sat staring at her as if generally interested in what she was saying, “I don’t have any fun at all, I just want to be a teenager again!” she finished just as the phone began to ring.  
    “Hello? Oh hi Mrs. Sears…What?.. Oh, well… tomorrow is my day off…oh, okay; I’ll be there. Yea I’ll be there…” she hung up the phone and looked around at Trixie.
    The cat wasn’t on her bed anymore, instead she at her feet brushing up against her legs.  She picked up the soft ball of fur and walked over to her bed. “Goodnight Trixie.” And with a heavy sigh she climbed into bed and went to sleep without another word.
                
         *                      *                     *

    The next morning Jamie awoke to the sound of car horns and screeching brakes. She got up and dressed in her usual knee-length black skirt and button up shirt. Jamie worked at a run-down coffee shop down the street, and though she was not fond of wearing a skirt, she was forced to wear one for this job, and she needed this job. She was already two months behind on her rent.  If she were evicted, she’d have no place else to go.
    Jamie glanced in a small mirror that hung over her bathroom sink as she pulled her long blonde hair back into a ponytail. She noticed that her baby blue eyes looked rather tired and dark. Jamie was a very small girl. She was at the most five feet tall, and she’d been losing weight steadily since she’d moved out on her own. She said good bye to Trixie and left for work.
    Nearly the same people came into the coffee shop everyday, Jamie knew exactly what everybody wanted and just how they liked it. So, she was startled when someone new walked through the door around lunchtime. It was a young girl, not much older than herself. She had short brown hair and at a closer look, beautiful dark brown eyes.  She was wearing big baggy black pants and a black hooded sweatshirt. She walked over and sat down at a nearby table. Jamie walked over to take her order.
    “What can I get for you today?” she asked.
    “A cup of the hottest coffee you can find,” replied the stranger with a glance outside.  It was raining so hard that you could barley see out of the windows and every once in a while it would thunder so loudly that it shook the whole building. The girl looked up at Jamie with a smile and Jamie walked away without a word to get the girls coffee.
    The girl came back everyday for the next week and Jamie never talked to her more than she had to.  Something about this girl intimidated Jamie. A week after the girl’s first appearance, she came back to the coffee shop.  Once again it was raining buckets and Jamie wasn’t looking forward to walking back to her apartment in that weather. She didn’t have much to do, not very many people are going to get out in the middle of all that to drink a cup of coffee and eat a morning muffin.  The girl walked in and ordered.  When Jamie had given her coffee to her, she turned to walk away and the strange girl stopped her.
    “Umm, excuse me,” she called after Jamie, “do you want to sit with me? You know keep me company while I drink my coffee.”
    “No that okay, I’m busy,” replied Jamie.
    “You don’t look busy.”
    “I have customers.”
    “Umm, in case you haven’t noticed,” the girls voice then dropped down to a whisper as to not be over heard by all of the non-existent customer, “we’re the only ones here.”
    So, having no choice, Jamie sat down across the table from the girl, feeling defeated and waited for something to happen.
    “So, what’s your name?” the girl asked.
    “Jamie. You?”
    “Samantha, but you can call me Sammi.”
    “So, Sammi, are you from around here?” Jamie asked.
    “No, not really, I just moved here. It’s a big city I still don’t know my way around,” Sammi answered.
    “How old are you?  Did you move here with your family?”  If this girl was going to insist upon talking to Jamie, she wanted to know as much about here as possible.
    “Well, I'm eighteen, and no I didn’t move here with my family, I got away from them as soon as I could,”  she answered smiling, “What about you?”
    “I’m seventeen and I live alone. I moved out when I was sixteen.”
    “I bet it’s hard, taking care of yourself…”
    “No, not really,” Jamie lied, crossing her fingers under the table.
    The two girls talked for a while, Jamie got up only every once  in a while to wait on a customer.  Outside the rain showed no sign of stopping anytime in the near future.
    “Wow! Look what time it is. I get off work in about five minutes,” exclaimed Jamie, “I didn’t realize it was so late.”
    “Yea I’d better go too, It was nice talking to you Jamie.” replied Sammi, and she got up to leave as Jamie went to the back to get her things.
    When Jamie walked out the door she saw that Sammi hadn’t left yet.  She was parked in front of the coffee shop in a black S.U.V.  seeing Jamie come out, she rolled down her window.
    “Do you need a ride?” she asked.
    “No my apartment is just down the street here,” Jamie answered.
    “But it’s raining,”
    “I’ll be okay, really”
    “Come on, I insist,”  
    “Well, okay,” Jamie got into the vehicle, glad to be out of the rain again, as she pointed Sammi in the direction of her apartment.
    When Jamie was little she’d been taught not to talk to strangers. She was almost certain that getting in a car with one wasn’t a good idea either. Then again, Sammi was hardly a stranger, they’d spent the last part of the day talking  and Jamie had learned a lot about her new friend. They had a lot in common.  They both came from not so good families, they both had moved out at an early age to start their lives without their families holding them back and they both had a love for art and drawing. Another thing the two girls had in common was , they had both, not long ago, gotten out of very bad relationships, both of them had gotten their heart broken. So, Jamie thought, Sammi couldn’t possibly qualify as a stranger anymore.
    The girls made “small talk” on the way to Jamie’s apartment.  When they got there, Jamie didn’t want to be rude, and thought that asking Sammi to come up for coffee just wouldn’t work, so she settled on asking her to stay a while or until the rain slacked down so she wouldn’t have to drive in it.  The two girls walked up to the apartment, located on the fifth floor.  When Jamie had finally found her key and had opened the door, she immediately wished she hadn’t.  Her bed was unmade, dirty dishes were piling up in the sink, dirty clothes were scattered across the floor, and the whole place smelled of cat litter and old pizza, and the garbage cans were over flowing onto the floor.  She had rather got used to not having any company and wasn’t usually worried about cleaning up after herself.
    “Sorry about the mess,”  Jamie said, hastily kicking a pile of dirty laundry under her unmade bed.
    “Umm, it’s okay,” replied Sammi, obviously lying. She had a look of disgust on her face, but attempted a smile, when Jamie looked up at her.
    “I’m not used to having company over, you know it’s just me and Trixie here.” added Jamie gesturing towards Trixie, who had trotted up to the pair of them upon their entering the apartment.
    “Excuse me for a minute,” Jamie said as she walked toward her very miniscule bathroom, ”I’m just going to go change out of my work uniform, make your self at home okay,” she gestured towards her surprisingly clean couch.  
    Jamie went into the bathroom and pulled on a pair of old, faded out, torn blue jeans and an old hooded sweat shirt. She let down her hair and quickly brushed through it with her fingers. She didn’t know why, but she wanted to impress this girl. When Jamie went back out to meet Sammi, she found her tidying up her apartment.  All of her cloths were now in an old forgotten basket that had been sitting in a corner and her trash cans had been emptied and the trash bags were now sitting by the door waiting to be taken to the garbage bin out back. By the looks of it Sammi was on her way to the sink to wash the dirty dishes that had been setting there for almost three weeks now.
    “What do you think your doing?” asked Jamie smiling.
    “Sorry,” replied Sammi turning a light shade of red, “I couldn’t help it. I hate for things to be messy and out of place.”
    “It’s quite alright.” laughed Jamie,” I might have to invite you over more often if your going to clean my apartment. By the way, your not doing those dishes, so you might as well go sit back down.”
    Sammi walked back over to the navy blue couch and sat down, staring at Jamie with a look of awe on her face.  Jamie was absolutely beautiful! She seemed to glow with radiance as she stood there with her hands on her hips, looking down at Sammi with those beautiful blue eyes, and her long blonde hair hanging beautifully down her back, still slightly laughing at Sammi’s obsession with cleanliness.  She was gorgeous! Sammi had told Jamie a lot about her past, but she had “forgotten” to tell her one small detail. Sammi was a lesbian, and she knew that people can be racist or prejudice or whatever you want to call it, so she liked to approach people slowly. She was afraid of how Jamie would  react if she found out, Sammi preferred to let people get to know the real her, before she told them. She’s lost a few of what she thought were good friends that way and she didn’t want to lose her only friend now that way too.
    “What?” asked Jamie.
    “Nothing.” Sammi replied coolly as she looked around Jamie apartment.
    “Okay then, do you want something to drink? Something to eat, I could cook something for you.”
    “No I don’t want you  to go to all that trouble for me. It’s okay really.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yes, I’m sure.”
    “Well, suit yourself, I’m a bit hungry, so I think I’ll cook something if not for you, then myself.”
    “Well… if your cooking anyway, I guess I’ll eat, after all it is very rude not to accept something when someone offers it to you.”
    Jamie laughed, ”That’s what I thought. What would you like. It looks like your going to be here for a while,” Jamie glanced out of the window and the rain was still attempting to cover most of New York with big wet tears, ”that rains not letting up any time soon.”
    “That’s up to you,” replied Sammi, “you make it, I’ll eat it.”
    “Okay then,” Jamie said as she got into the refrigerator, and pulled out eggs, sausage and biscuits, ”Id let you watch television, but they shut off my cable, it’s not like had any time to watch it anyway, I’m always at work as you well know.”
    “It’s okay, I don’t have cable either, I prefer not to watch TV, all that’s on now a days is reality shows,” Sammie smiled at Jamie as she started to cook them breakfast at eight o’clock at night, ”do you mind if we talk some more while you cook? I was in enjoying our conversation earlier.”
    “Yes, that’s okay I like to talk but I don’t really have very many friends any more and so I have no one to talk to. Except for Trixie, who I see you grown attached to,” Jamie looked over at Sammi who was sitting on her couch scratching Trixie behind her ears.
    “ I know what you mean, I don’t talk to any body too much either, but I don’t work, I go to school. I’m learning to be an art teacher. And I love animals by the way,” she gestured to Trixie, “I have two dogs and a cat at home.”
    “Really? You can’t possibly live in an apartment then, cause they don’t allow dogs.”
    “Oh no I live in a house outside of  town.”
    “If you don’t mind me asking, if you don’t work, how can you afford to live in a house?
    “It’s okay, when I left my parents gave me some money, see we weren’t exactly poor, my parents had money to spend, they inherited it from my grandpa when he died.”
     “Oh I see,”
    “And my parents wanted rid of me as much as I did them, so they gave me money to live on, they knew that if they didn’t I’d have to stay around there. They gave me a very generous amount, you see they don’t want me to come back anytime soon.  So I’m going to school to be a teacher, I bought a house about half an hour outside of town.”
    “Wow, I wish my parents had given me money, but money was something we didn’t have much of, they were always arguing about money, and they actually got into fights sometimes too. I had saved up enough to move out and get an apartment. I got a job and now I live from pay check to pay check.” replied Jamie as she pulled her golden brown biscuits out of the oven, and sat them on the table. “The food is just about done.”
    “It smells great.” Sammi got up and walked over to the very small table which only sat about two people.
    The two girls ate and had another long conversation about anything they could think of, And before long it had quit raining.
    “Well, I guess I’d better go,” said Sammi as she got up and carried her plate over to the sink.
    “Yea it’s getting late, and I have to work tomorrow,” replied Jamie.
    “You have to work on a Sunday?”
    “Yea, I only have Saturdays off, and then Mrs. Sears usually calls me in to work any way,”
    “That’s crazy!”
    “Yea I know but I can’t complain, I need the money,”
    “Yea well, I guess I’ll talk to you later, Bye.” said Sammi as she walked out the door.
    “See ya,” replied Jamie as she shut the door behind her.
    That night, for the first time since Jamie had moved out on her own, she didn’t cry her self to sleep.
    
            *        *        *

    The next day, Jamie woke up to the sound of something being hammered outside her door.  She got out of bed to find an eviction notice nailed to the center of her door.  She couldn’t believe it. What was she going to do? She had no place else to go, she had no money to pay the rent off and according to this notice, she only had thirty days to leave.  She shut her door rather harder than she would have normally, scaring Trixie, who run off in to the bathroom with a quick hiss. Jamie leaned against the door, sunk down to the floor and began to cry. After a few minutes, Trixie poked her head around the bathroom door curiously, to see what was going on.  She trotted over to Jamie and began rubbing up against one of her hands, in spite of herself , Jamie smiled. Trixie always did have a way of cheering her up. Jamie didn’t have to be at work until nine o’clock, but she went in early in attempts to get on Mrs. Sears’ good side.  
        Outside, the sun was shining for the first time in about three weeks and it gave Jamie a kind of hope that things would be okay.  It was Sunday morning, so on her way to work, she passed a number of families dressed in their Sunday best on their way to church, clearly taking advantage of this beautiful weather they were having.
    When she got to work she found Mrs. Sears sitting at a table in the break room apparently she had just gotten there.  She was eating her breakfast that she’d picked up on the way, when Jamie smelled the aroma of the delicious looking food, her stomach started to rumble. In her hurry to get to work, she had forgotten to eat breakfast.
    Mrs. Sears was an elderly woman, with curly gray hair. She didn’t smile too often, but when she did, you knew she meant it. She had inherited the coffee shop from her husband who died a few years back, apparently of a heart attack.
    “Jamie? Your earlier, you don’t have to be here until nine or so.” said Mrs. Sears in surprise, “go back home, you got about an hour and a half left.”
    “Mrs. Sears, I came early so I could talk to you,” replied Jamie apprehensively.
    “Well don’t take all day child spit it out!”
    “Well…I was wondering could I?.. Is there any way… that I could have an …an advance on my pay check? -please?”
    “An advance on your pay check, that’s all you teenagers worry about money, money, money! You want to work a few hours and make millions of dollars. No, Jamie you may not have an advance on your pay check.”
    “But Mrs. Sears, I don’t want more money, I just wanted you to give me money earlier, you know instead of waiting till the end of the week, and you can take it out of my real pay check.”
    “No Jamie I’m sorry I can’t do that.”
    “But Mrs. Sears I’ve been evicted I have no where else to go I need the money to pay my rent off.”
    “Jamie, I’m sorry, I can’t give you an advance on your pay check, maybe you should look into a second job.”
    “How can I get a second job, when I spent all my time here at this place working for you for little of nothing, and you won’t even think about giving me an advance?”
    “I’m sorry Jamie, now don’t ask me again.”  Mrs. Sears said warningly.
    “What are you going to do fire me? No one else will come into work everyday, including their days off and work until close without complaining about it. You can’t fire me, I’m the best worker you have.”  Jamie was definitely scared now, she’d said the wrong thing and she knew, she was in real trouble.
    “Ms. Travis your right you were my best worker, until now, your fired Ms. Travis, you can pick up your last pay check on Friday, now go home.”
    “But Mrs. Sears,” Jamie began.
    “I don’t want to hear it Jamie, GO HOME!”
    That was it Jamie had no where else to live and no job.  She began to cry again on her way back to her apartment. my life is ruined, she thought as she walked down the street back to her apartment with her head hung in shame and silent tears flowing freely down her rosy cheeks. I have no place else to go.
    
        *        *        *

    A week past and all Jamie did was sit around in her apartment crying and trying to figure out exactly how it is she got herself into this mess. She was becoming more miserable then she’d ever been. She hadn’t left her apartment once since Mrs. Sears fired her, she didn’t even go pick up her check on Friday, she just sat at home feeling sorry for herself. Which is exactly what she was doing when she heard a knock at her apartment door.
    Jamie got up and opened the door and can face to face with Sammi. In everything that’s been going on they haven’t spoken in about a week. Jamie’s faced turned red as she looked down at her devilish appearance, she was wearing the same dirty blue jeans she’d been wearing on the night they last saw each other, and a dirty tee shirt with stains all down the front.  Her beautiful blonde hair was now dark and greasy looking, and she hadn’t had a shower for days. Her eyes were very red and puffy and her nose was running from all the crying. Despite Jamie’s appearance Sammi thought that she looked as beautiful as the first day she laid eyes on her.
    “Hi Sammi-,” said Jamie quietly.
    But before she could get all the words out Sammi interrupted her, ”Are you okay? What happened? You haven’t been at work, I got worried about you. No one at your work knew anything and I been so worried so, what happened?”
    Jamie stood back out of the way to let Sammi into her apartment, which over the past week had quadrupled in it’s nastiness.  Finally, Jamie thought, someone to talk to! Before Sammi could say another word Jamie had launched into the story of how she’d been evicted and stupidly lost her job.  She was talking so fast that it was all Sammi could do to understand her and keep up.  Finally, after about half an hour of Jamie half crying, half talking, she finished the story of her horrific week.
    “Well, did you try talking to your land lord? Maybe asking him to get you a couple more weeks?” asked Sammie.
    “No, I hadn’t thought about that. Oh I’m so stupid sometimes!” yelled Jamie.
    “No, you’re not stupid, you just weren’t thinking straight and I probably wouldn’t have been either if that had happened to me.” said Sammi, “come on, it’s almost lunch time you can go talk to him.”
    “Okay, wait here and I’ll be back in a little while. Okay?”
    “Okay.”

        *        *        *
      
    Jamie walked down the stairs of her apartment building past rows and rows of doors, her landlord, Mr. Taylor was pretty nice about things he’d probably give her a couple weeks extension on her rent if she asked him. She finally got to his room, and knocked on the door.
    Mrs. Taylor answered. “Hello Jamie, is something wrong?” Mrs. Taylor was a very nice woman who Jamie really liked, she had a very round face and friendly smile, which she offered to everyone she met.
    “No Mrs. Taylor, everything’s fine, I hope, I just wanted to talk to Mr. Taylor for a second.” replied Jamie.
    Mrs. Taylor turned to yell for Mr. Taylor then turned back to Jamie with a smile,” He’ll be just a second, dear, come on in and have a seat.”  
    Jamie had been in the Taylor’s apartment only once before and it reminded her of her grandmothers house from when she was little. It was by far the homiest apartment she’d ever been in and it always smelled of freshly baked bread. Jamie was sitting on the couch when Mr. Taylor walked in the room, she stood up to greet him.
    “Hello Mr. Taylor. How are you?” she asked politely.
    “I’m good Jamie and yourself?”
    “I’m good, except for I wanted to ask you a favor.”
    “Yes, what is it?”
    “Well, I was wondering, is there any way you could give me a few weeks to get you my rent payment?”
    “Jamie I’m sorry I wish you’d asked me sooner, I’ve already promised your apartment to someone else, a young couple, they’ve already paid the first tree months rent, there is nothing I can do. I’m so sorry Jamie if you had come to me sooner then maybe I could have but, I’m afraid your too late.”
    “Oh that’s okay then I just thought I’d try,” Jamie could feel the tears filling up her again, and wanted to leave quickly, ”Well bye then Mr. Taylor, thanks anyway.”
    “Jamie! are you leaving already?” Mrs. Taylor Called From the other room I’ve just made some cookies would you like some?”
    “No that’s okay Mrs. Taylor,” Jamie could hear the tears in her voice now.
    “Oh I insist,” said Mrs. Taylor, forcing a plate of fresh cookies into Jamie’s hand.
    Jamie smiled weakly, “Thanks Mrs. Taylor Bye.”
    Jamie walked back up stairs to her apartment number fifty tree on the fifth floor. When she walked into her room it looked completely different. Sammi had obviously been cleaning again, and she cleans fast because the apartment was near spotless; she was sure she’d only been gone a few minutes, hour an hour at the most.
    “So what happened? Is he going to give you a couple of weeks?” Sammi asked eagerly.
    “He’s already rented out the apartment to someone else he says there is nothing he can do.” she replied gloomily.
    “So, you’re still evicted, but he sent you back up here with a parting gift of cookies?” said Sammi obviously trying to make Jamie laugh; she had to admit it worked, well, she smiled at least.  
    “Yea, well actually those are from Mrs. Taylor,” Jamie said as she sat down on her now clean couch. “I’m back to having no place to go and I still have no job!”  Jamie started to cry again.
    “Jamie, you are more than welcome to come stay with me until you get back up on your feet again.”
    “I couldn’t ask you to do a thing like that.”
    “Really. I’d enjoy the company and I’m sure you’d like it there. You can stay with me until you get a job and get ready to move back out. Stay as long as you’d like. I’d be more than happy to have you as company.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Positive.”
    “Okay, but only until I get a job and can pay my rent someplace else.”
    “Okay.” Sammi was smiling bigger than Jamie had ever seen her smile before.

        *        *        *

    The two girls spent the remainder of the day packing up Jamie’s belongings and made plans to meet the following Wednesday to take her things to Sammi’s house, they had to wait so long to fit around Sammi’s class schedule. She had class every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.  The weathered was still fairly good, it hadn’t rained in over a week, but the sun wasn’t blessing them with it’s warmth anymore either as the warm summer, turned into autumn. That Wednesday, a cool breeze was blowing and the first leaves were starting to change their colors from bright greens to a beautiful array of yellow, orange, and red.    The girls loaded up all of Jamie’s possessions into the back of Sammi’s S.U.V. and went back upstairs, one last time, so that Jamie could check if everything was out and ready to go.
    Standing in the doorway of the nearly empty apartment, Jamie, now showered and clean, looked around with a sad look on her beautiful, angelic, face, “you know, I’m going to miss it here. Are you sure this is a good idea?”
    “I’m absolutely sure,” replied Sammie, “you can stay with me for as long as you like.”
    “Well, the lets go, I just have to stop at Mr. Taylor’s and return the key.”
    Within the next ten minutes, the girls were situated in the car, Trixie in her pet taxi, and speeding down the road as Jamie tried not to think about the past two weeks of her life. If she could just block them out forever then she’d be okay she thought. The girls drove for about an hour before they reached Sammi’s house. They turned a corner and came face to face  with a beautiful three story house, with a big yard, and a small pond.  Sammi glanced over at Jamie and the look on her face was enough to assure Sammi that Jamie loved it.  Jamie was now smiling for the first time in a couple of weeks and her blue eyes were sparkling with happiness. Jamie was going to love it here she could tell.
    “So what do you think?” Sammi asked needlessly.
    “It’s gorgeous, this, is this really where you live?” Jamie asked, awestruck.
    “Yea this is home. It’s really not that great you know.” replied Sammi, turning her head as if to see the house through Jamie’s eyes.
    “It’s beautiful.” said Jamie simply.
    Sammi went and got the pet taxi out of her back seat and let Trixie out. The fluffy ginger cat immediately scurried off towards the house. Sammi then lead the way inside for Jamie.  The look of joy on Jamie’s face only continued to grow as Sammi lead her through room by room of the house.
    “This is more magnificent then anything I’ve ever see.” said Jamie staring up at the chandelier over the dinning room table.
    “Well, come on you still haven’t seen where you’ll be staying.” replied Sammi as she lead Jamie up stairs.
    She opened a door at the end of the third floor hall way and motioned for Jamie to go in ahead of her. Jamie walked in and found herself in a beautiful room with high ceilings and lavender colored walls. A big bay window was taking up most of the space on the farthest wall, Jamie walked over to it and looked out at the whole of the back yard.  She could see two dogs chasing each other around the rather large swimming pool that was just below her window, and the beautiful landscape of flowers and trees that graced the yard.  In the distance Jamie could see the skyline of the town they had just left, Jamie had almost forgotten she was still in New York,  being out here away from the traffic and noise almost reminded her of a country home, like the one she had used to live in, with one exception, the house Jamie had  lived in, only had five rooms, (two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen) in the whole thing and hardly no yard at all.
    Jamie was absolutely speechless.
    “So what do you think?” Sammi asked hopefully.
    “Wow!”, Jamie was trying to find the right words, she supposed it really wasn’t much, it’s what most people are used too, she was poor so she never saw this kind of thing. “I love it!”
    “Really? You do? I’m glad,” Sammi said looking extremely satisfied with her self, “I want you to make yourself at home okay? We’ll go bring up your luggage in a little while, feel free to look around. Remember you live here too now!” and with that Sammi walked out the door. Jamie could hear her foot steps growing faint as she walked off down the hall.
        Jamie looked around the beautiful room in awe once more before turning and falling face first into the bed. She hadn’t realized how sleepy she was, she’d spent most of her week crying instead of sleeping, it was catching up on her.  The bed was so comfortable, it was like sleeping on a cloud. Jamie was used to sleeping on an old bed with the springs poking up out of the mattress, and the stuff coming out of the side. She could definitely get used to this. I’ll just lay here for a minute, she thought to herself, not intending on sleeping, I’ll just rest my eyes then I’ll go down stairs and bring up my things.
    Jamie “rested her eyes” until about noon the next day, when she awoke from a great dream she was having. She had found her prince charming, but his identity was a mystery, she never saw him, yet, she knew he was there and he treated her like a princess. You know, it was the kind of dream that left you waiting for more, you couldn’t wait to go back to sleep and finish it. Sammi had obviously covered her up because there was big white lacey quilt over her that she was sure she hadn’t put there the night before. The light in the room had been turned out and all her things had been brought up and were sitting under the window which was glowing from the midday sun. Jamie wasn’t sleepy anymore. She felt better than she’d felt in days, yet she also felt very annoyed with herself for actually going to sleep. It was really nice of Sammi to bring up all her things. She was a good friend who had already (in their month of knowing each other) helped her through so much. Jamie heard something scratching at the door, and got up to open it, she had barley turned the knob when a lively and obviously friendly Saint Bernard came pounding trough the door. The giant dog jumped up onto the bed and lay looking at Jamie with a look of curiosity on his face.
    “Well good morning to you too!” Jamie said looking at the dog in surprised, the dog barked happily in return and continued to stare at Jamie. She walked over to the bed and let the dog sniff of her hand. His cold wet nose touched Jamie’s hand, which he began to lick all over, sliding his tongue in and out between her fingers. She patted the large dog on the head and then proceeded down stairs.
    The kitchen was located at the bottom of the stairs. And when Jamie got there, she found it to be empty. This was by far the biggest kitchen she had ever been in. There was a large stove, a dishwasher, and a sink, a big table, and an island in the middle. The floor all through the house was hard wood. On the island, Jamie saw a note.
    
    Jamie,
        I went to class, I’ll be back some where around four o’clock. Be sure to make yourself at home! If you want to, you can take the car out to town; the key is hanging in the garage. There is food in the fridge, but the pizza guy doesn’t deliver out here so.. Oh by the way, I let Zeus, and Jupiter in the house.
                            See ya later,
                                Sammi

    Zeus and Jupiter? thought Jamie, before she came to the conclusion that Sammie must have talking about the dogs. Sammie was being very kind, she’d have to thank her for her hospitality, and for bring her things up for her. Jamie walked over to the stainless steel refrigerator, and opened the door, it wasn’t until then that she realized just how hungry she was. She  fixed herself some pancakes, and a big glass of orange juice. After she was done eating, she washed her dishes and then went outside.  It was a beautiful day, it was very warm, and a gentle breeze was blowing. The air was filled with the smell of fresh flowers, something you very rarely found any where near the city. She walked around to the side of the house, where she found Trixie and a rather large gray barn cat sleeping in the afternoon sun.  Trixie raised her head up when she heard Jamie walking over to them. The beautiful cat seemed to love  being out here, she had room to run and play and she had a friend now too! She yawned widely and stretched her legs as she got up greet Jamie.   
    “Well, I see you’ve made a friend.” she Jamie as she petted the gray cat on the head. His name tag read: Tobias.  “You’re a pretty cat.”
    Jamie walked back in side the house and decided to have a look around. Everything was very tidy.  In the living room, there was a big soft, comfortable looking  couch, with a love seat and recliner to match. There was a big screen TV in the corner and a fireplace on one wall, and on the opposite wall, was big book shelf. Jamie walked over to the shelf and looked at the books, some of them looked as if they hadn’t been touched in forever. She pulled a thick hard cover book off the shelf and  blew dust off of the spine so she could read the name, but there wasn’t one.  The book appeared to be dark blue, but with all the dust she really couldn’t tell. It was strange, everything in the house was clean and in place, but this book was filthy. She sat down on the couch, and opened the book. It squeaked slightly as she opened it, it must not have been opened for a long time. A smile spread across Jamie’s face as she found her self looking at a very old picture of a family,  they seemed to be happy. They were outside in front of a big old house, with green shutter and a big yard. She guessed that this was Sammi’s family, but they looked a lot happier than  Sammi had described them; also there was an extra person in the picture. Sammi hadn’t mentioned having any brothers or sisters, but in this picture, there was a young boy, not much older than seven, standing beside of a young girl, unmistakably Sammi, who looked to be about ten. You could tell it was Sammi, because she had the same face, but instead of short hair, her beautiful face was framed with long dark, brown hair, and she was wearing a dress. Her mother and father had smiles across there faces as they stood behind the two children. As Jamie looked through the book, she found more and more pictures of the happy family. There was a picture of the two children playing in the yard and a picture of the mom and dad sitting on a big high backed couch.  There was a picture of a boy on a brand new bicycle and a picture of a younger Sammie, riding on a horse. Jamie looked at the pictures for a long time, before she realized it, it was nearly four o’clock and they present day Sammi was walking through the front door. Jamie closed the scrap book and laid it on the oak end table by the couch and got up to greet Sammi. Sammi’s face was glowing, as it always did whenever she saw Jamie.
    “Hello!” exclaimed Jamie.
    “ Hi,” replied Sammi, ”Did you sleep okay?”
    “Yea, thanks for bringing my things up for me. You didn’t have to, I wasn’t going to sleep, I was going to go down stairs and bring it up myself. You shouldn’t have done it for me,” Jamie smiled, “you’ll teach me to be lazy.”
    Sammi laughed, “So what did you do today?”
    “Nothing much, I didn’t get up until about twelve. I made breakfast, and walked around outside for a little while. I met one of your dogs by the way, but I’m not sure which one. He was scratching on my door this morning.”
    “That would be Zeus. He likes to wake me up like that too. Jupiter is around here somewhere, he’s the Lab.”
    “Oh I see…so how was school?”
    “Well, it was school… so is that all you did today?”
    “Well, actually I’ve been looking at this scrap book that I found…” Jamie was cut off in the middle of her sentence as Sammi ran forward and seized the scrape book off the table. “Is something wrong?”
    “You, you looked at this?”
    “Yea, I hope it was okay…”
    “Yea, yea it’s fine, it’s just I’ve never, well no one’s ever…looked at this before, I’ve never told any one.”
    “Never told any one what?”
    “About… how far into this did you look?”
    “Not far, About half way or so why? I’m sorry I shouldn’t have looked at it.”
    “It’s okay, its just that this is part of my past that I’ve tried to forget about. That’s all. It’s really okay.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Positive. Well, come here, sit down with me.” replied Sammi. Jamie walked over to the couch and sat down where she had been sitting when Sammi came home and Sammi took the seat next to her. “So, what did you think of my scrapbook?” she said opening the book to the first page. Jamie could tell that it hurt Sammi to look at it and she immediately felt guilty about bring up the whole thing. Sammi was hurting because of her.
    “You looked happy, what happened?”
    “We were happy. We were really close.”
    “Who’s this?” Jamie asked pointing to the small boy.
    “That was my brother Eddy.” Sammi answered simply.
    “You didn’t tell me you had a brother. How come?”
    “He died, a few years after this picture was taken. He was only ten when it happened, he was hit by a car one day, while he was playing in the road. He was in the hospital for weeks, but he finally just seemed to give up.” Sammi finished with tears in her eyes.
    “I’m so sorry,” replied Jamie nearly in tears herself, “That’s terrible. I feel so awful because if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be talking about it right now.”
    “No, don’t feel bad. I need to talk about it. It’s just there hasn’t really been anybody to talk to, you know?”
    “You guys looked so happy…”
    “We were happy until my brother died, then my parents started to fight, not so much at first then it got worse. They started to blame me, they said it was my fault, they said I should have been watching him. But there was nothing I could do…” Sammi was fighting back tears now, ”I was thirteen when Eddy died and I moved out when I was fifteen. My parents told me to leave, they wrote me a blank check and told me never to come back because I took their son away from them.”
    “That must have been awful,” replied Jamie, “There wasn’t anything you could’ve done about it. It wasn’t your fault.”
    “I know, he was my best friend. It nearly killed me when he died. I didn’t know what to do and I was so young” said Sammi as she flipped nearly to the back of the book, to a page with newspaper clippings on it., “It was in the paper for weeks, my parents wanted the guy who was driving the car to go to jail. They tried there hardest to get him in jail, but the judge said it wasn’t his fault, though the guy wanted to accept full responsibility, he was found not guilt. Then my brother died, after weeks and weeks of fighting to stay alive. The guy who hit him killed him self that day, I went to his funeral, it was hard too, my parents were furious with me for going, but I didn’t care.”
    “I’m so sorry,” said Jamie throwing her arms around Sammi’s neck. “I’m so sorry.” The two girls held each other for a few minutes crying into each others shoulder, then they look a every page of the scrapbook. Starting at the beginning, they looked at every page, and it seemed to make Sammi feel better, she even laughed at times as she told Jamie about the adventures she and Eddy had as children. It was dark before they finally decided to go to bed.  Jamie knew almost everything about Sammi now, except for how Sammi felt about her; and Sammi wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep that from her.

               *         *        *

    Over the next couple of weeks, Jamie went out everyday to look for a job she filled out what seemed to her like thousands of applications and she didn’t get a reply from any of them.
    “I really am about to just give up,” she said to Sammi one day out of frustration, no one will hire me!”
    “So, don’t get a job. Stay here with me. I can take care of the both of us. God knows I can afford it, and I’d look to have the company,” Sammi replied.
    “No, you’ve done too much already. I’ll just have to try harder. Maybe I just haven’t been looking in the right places.”
    “You have tried, and I think that maybe you should just take a break for a while. Take a couple of weeks off and then see what happens.”
    “Maybe your right, but two weeks and I’m looking again!” Jamie replied sternly as she patted Jupiter on the head; Perhaps harder than she would have normally, causing the big black Labrador to get up walk away.  The two girls were sitting outside, taking advantage of the last warm days.  Winter was catching up o them, it was already November.
    “Okay, so, after Thanks Giving you’ll go out and look again?” Sammi asked.
    “Yea, that’s the plan.”
    So, over the weeks leading up to Thanks Giving, the two spent a lot of time together.  Sammi was out of school and wasn’t due to go back until January. So, the girls were always at home together or out together.  They’d become inseparable.
    Meanwhile, Jamie was still having dreams about finding her prince. He was growing clearer and clearer and in her dream. She hoped that any time now he would reveal himself to her.
    After Thanksgiving, Jamie got back to job hunting.  About a week and a half into it, she got a reply from a restaurant saying that one of their waitresses had quit and they needed a replacement.
    To celebrate Jamie’s new job, the girls decided to go see a movie.
    “Jamie, are you almost ready?”  Called Sammi from down the stairs “The movie starts in an hour, we’ll be late.”
    “I’m coming!”  replied Jamie, hurrying down the stairs.  She stopped at the bottom of the stairs to catch her breath, and looked up at Sammi.
    “What are you dressed up for?”  Sammi asked, looking at Jamie in amazement.  Jamie seemed to get more beautiful every day. “Are you trying to impress someone?”
    Come to think of it, Jamie didn’t know why she was so dressed up.  Standing there in her jewel-encrusted blue jeans and a blue tank top that accented her eyes perfectly, she was wearing makeup and her hair was hanging down around her face in soft curls.  “Should I change?” asked Jamie.
    “No, you look great.”  Sammi’s face turned slightly red “Are you ready to go?”
    “Yeah” Answered Jamie and they were on their way.
    They were about ten minutes late for the movie, but Jamie’s mind wasn’t on the movie anyway.  She was wondering why she got all dressed up; she hadn’t realized she’d done it.  The movie only lasted about an hour and a half and before long, Jamie found herself back in Sammi’s SUV.
    “So, that was a good movie.  Did you like it?” Sammi asked.
    “Huh? What?” replied Jamie who was still deep in thought.
    “Are you okay?” Sammi sounded worried “You’ve been kinda…distant…all night.”
    “I’m okay, I’m just nervous about tomorrow, that’s all” Jamie replied.
    “Well, are you hungry? We could get something to eat while we’re out.”
    “Okay, yeah, I’m kinda hungry.”
    Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting at a table in a small pizza place, waiting for their food to arrive.
    “Jamie, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Sammi said quietly.
    “Okay, what is it?” Jamie asked wondering what it is that could possibly have Sammi looking so worried.
    “Well, you know almost everything about me, you’re my best friend.”
    “Okay… am I really you’re best friend?”
    “Jamie you’re my only friend.” Sammi smiled.
    “Good point,” Jamie laughed, “so what do you want to tell me?”
    “Well, umm,” replied Sammi as the waitress sat a hot cheesy pizza in front of them, ”Maybe we should talk about this after we eat, I’m starving.”
    “Me too! It smells so good!” Jamie was quiet right, they aroma drifting up from the pizza was enough to make your mouth water, ”I haven’t had pizza since I moved out of the apartment.”
    The girls ate their pizza in silence, and as Jamie had other things on her mind she forgot all about Sammi wanting to tell her something. So Sammi decided she wouldn’t bring it back up. She didn’t want to scare Jamie away.

            *        *        *

Jamie walked through the double doors of Café Coffee at nine o’clock the next morning, scared to death. She didn’t want to mess up this job. She went back to the office and her boss, Mr. Cornett, was a friendly looking man in his late forties, gave her a uniform. Once Jamie had changed, she was now wearing black dress pants and a white button up shirt, Mr. Cornett introduced her to a girl called Vicky. Vicky was a short friendly looking girl about seventeen. She had long straight black hair, and the tips were dyed purple. She had bright green eyes and a pretty smile. Jamie noticed that she had her eyebrow pierced and also her tongue.  She too was wearing black dress pants and a white button up shirt, though Jamie was sure that if given the chose, she wouldn’t be wearing anything resembling this.
    “Jamie, this is Vicky,” Mr. Cornett said, “She’ll be showing you what to do, if you have any questions, she’ll help you.”
    “Thanks," replied Jamie quietly.
    Mr. Cornett walked away into his office, leaving Jamie and Vicky alone in the hall.  The café was still empty. According to Mr. Cornett, it was never busy until around lunch.
    "Hi," Jamie smiled at Vicky.
    "Hey you look like you're going to be sick," replied Vicky laughing.
    "No, I'm okay," replied Jamie holding her stomach, "It's just nerves."
    "Don't be nervous, come on I'll show you where to start," Vicky grabbed Jamie by the wrist and lead her into the kitchen.

            *        *        *

    "So how was it?" Sammi asked eagerly as she picked Jamie up at five o'clock that afternoon outside the front doors of Café  Coffee.  The two girls had come in one vehicle, owing to the fact that they both needed to be in town at the same time. Sammi had school and Jamie had work.
    “It was okay,” Jamie replied, ”it was good actually.”
    “Really? That’s great,” Sammi sounded slightly disappointed. She didn’t want Jamie to move out, “I’m happy for you.”
    Jamie told Sammi all about her day, and about her new friend Vicky.
    “You should invite her over sometime, you’ll enjoy having friends other than me,” Sammi said.
    “So, I’ll see if she wants to come over this weekend?” Jamie asked.
    “This weekend is fine.”

        *        *        *

    After making arrangements for Vicky to come over on Friday, the girls decided that she could just spend the night as well. The two girls had the same work schedule. They both worked nine to five Monday thru Friday. Both girls were seventeen Vicky however, lived with her mom in an apartment.  When Friday afternoon arrived Jamie drove Vicky to Sammi’s house. Sammi didn’t have school today and had chosen to stay home, instead of driving Jamie to work.  When they arrived they found Sammi grilling burgers in the back yard.
    “Sammi this is Vicky,” Jamie smiled, obviously proud of making a new friend. “Vicky this is Sammi.”
    “Hi,” replied Sammi.
    “Hey,” said Vicky.
    Jamie showed Vicky upstairs to her room, and they sat down on her bed to talk.
    “So, do you like it here?” Jamie asked.
    “It’s beautiful,” Vicky replied.
    “Yea, its really nice of Sammi to let me stay here, I was evicted from my apartment.”
    “Isn’t Sammi your girlfriend, why wouldn’t she let you stay here?”
    “Excuse me? What?”
    “Sammi, she’s you girlfriend isn’t she?”
    “What?!” No, she’s not…”
    “Oh I just thought well, she’s a lesbian?”
    That was when Jamie realized. It all made since now, she dressed like a boy, and she never talks about liking boys…
    “You really think so?” Jamie asked, “Is that bad? She’s really really nice. She’s my best friend.” Jamie didn’t know what to think.
    “Oh it’s perfectly alright,” Vicky smiled, “did you really not know?”
    “No,”
    “It’s kind of obvious.”
    “I guess I just never paid attention, she’s never mentioned it, maybe she just forgot to tell me,”
    “Something like that doesn’t just slip your mind,”
    Yea, your right,” Jamie just remembered that sammi tried to tell her something while they were out to eat,” I’ll talk to her about it.”
    “Okay, well, you’re okay with it though?”
    “Yea I’m okay with it. I’ve never really been friends with any one like that before…but they’re just regular people right?”
    “Yea,”
    “Okay,”
    “So, I’m going to go change,”
    “Okay, I’ll meet you down stairs, well; actually I’ll meet you in the back yard.”
    “You going to talk to her now?”
    “No, I will later…”
    Jamie walked down stairs and got a coke out of the refrigerator, then went outside. Sammi was getting the burgers off of the grill. Jamie walked over to her.
    “So, what do you think of about Vicky?” Jamie asked.
    “She seems nice. I’m glad you made a new friend.” Sammi replied.
    Jamie laughed, ”what are you my mother?”
    “She’s quiet,”
    “Wait till you get to know her. She is very opinionated.” At that precise moment, Vicky came out of the back door dressed in black baggy pants and a tight black tee shirt almost exactly how Jamie imagined her to dress. She had on a number of mismatched bracelets, and a black choker.     
    “Hey,” she said as she walked over to the pair.
    “Hey,” they replied in unison.
    “The food is done, lets eat,” Sammi carried the plate of burgers to the picnic table and the girls sat down to eat. In no time, Sammi and Vicky were in a discussion about hate crimes and racism in today’s society; this was something that Jamie knew very little about. Jamie, being bored, took the dishes into the kitchen to be washed. When she came back out, the two girls were still in deep conversation.
    “Are you two ever going to shut up?” Jamie asked laughing, “at least talk about something I can understand.”
    “Sorry,” replied Sammi
    “It’s okay; you’re forgiven… this time.”
    Vicky laughed and looked at Jamie with a questioning look on her pretty pale face. Jamie knew that she wanted to know when Jamie was going to talk to Sammi, so she shook her head and changed the subject.
    "So, what should we do now?" She asked she was very bored, "it's just about eight o'clock.”
    Sammi suggested they go horseback riding.  the girls agreed. Vicky only agreed after some begging, she had never been on a horse before and  was close to terrified of them. When Sammi had bought the house, the owner gave her three horses, no charge, they were moving to a city and had no place for them.
    Jamie liked horses a lot, but she hadn't even seen one in person since she was a little girl. They're not very common in the city, just in the park. Jamie was very excited. Sammi led the three horses out of the barn and got on the largest, black and white one. Jamie got on a brown horse and Vicky, after some persuading, got on the last one, a beautiful jet black horse. There was plenty of room to ride out here, so the girls rode for hours. It was well past midnight when they came in for bed.
    The next morning, Jamie got up before everyone else, she had woke up , rather disappointed, in the middle of her dream. She was sure she was about to find out the identity of her prince. deciding, that she  could take a nap later and maybe she'd  find her prince she went down stairs to make breakfast.
    Before long, the aroma of eggs and bacon were wafting through the house and she was going to go wake Sammi and Vicky. first, she came to Sammi's room. She'd never been in Sammi's room before, and it was wasn't unlike she had expected. The walls were a deep crimson and the carpet and ceiling were black. As a matter of fact, Jamie was surprised She hadn't decorated the entire house in that manor.
    Sammi was still sleeping on her big comfortable looking bed.  She looked so peaceful that Jamie seriously thought about not waking her. Deciding against it, she tip-toed over to the bed as quietly as she could and gently nudged Sammi to wake her.
    "Wake up, breakfast is ready," Jamie whispered.
    "You cooked breakfast?" Sammi asked, still half asleep.
    "Yea, come eat," Jamie  replied as she as she went out the door to wake Vicky.
    She was on her way to her room, were Vicky was sleeping on her bed, when she met her coming out of the bathroom.
    "Good morning," Jamie said cheerfully, "I was on my way to wake you, breakfast is ready."
    "Good morning and I’ll be down in a minute," she answered.
    Five minutes later the girls were seated around the kitchen table eating breakfast. This morning, there wasn't much talk as Sammi was still half asleep, oblivious to the fact that her food kept missing her mouth. After breakfast, Vicky's mom called saying she needed to come home.  once they had dropped Vicky off, it was just Jamie and Sammi n the car and a perfect opportunity for them to talk.
"So, you said you wanted to talk to me about something the other night," Jamie began, "what was it?"
"Well, i just wanted to tell you, well umm, your my best friend and you know nearly everything about me," Sammi started obviously trying to find the right words to say whatever it was she was trying to say.
"Yes, we established that part Sunday night,"
"Yea, umm I’m not sure how to tell you,"
"Just say it, I promise it'll be okay"
"Your sure? 'cause I don't know if your ready for it or not,"
"Well, I don't know if I’m ready for it or not cause I don’t' know what it is, besides I want to talk to you too."
"What about?"
"You first."
"Okay here goes," said Sammi taking a deep breath, she was really scared. she didn't want to lose Jamie as a friend. "I didn't tell you everything about me. there something you don't know and it's a big something. please don't hate me after I tell you this. and I want you to promise me that you won't look at me any differently."
"Okay i won't don't worry just tell me it'll be okay. it can't be that awful, it's not like you killed somebody or something... you didn't kill somebody did you?" Jamie asked jokingly.
"Well, I’m glad to see that your taking this lightly."
Jamie smiled in response.
Sammi took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "Jamie, i want you to know that I’m... that I’m .. well, I’m a lesbian."
"Is that all? you acted like it was something drastic."
“What?!?” Sammi was completely and utterly shocked,” your okay with it?”
“Yea, why wouldn’t I be?” Jamie smiled, “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,”
“Really?” Sammi asked apprehensively.
“Yea, Apparently it was really obvious to everyone but me,” then seeing the confused look on Sammi’s face, she added,” Vicky asked me if I was your girlfriend.”
“Oh,”
“Yea, I told her that I didn’t know if you were a lesbian or not and that I would talk to you about it.”
“And your okay with it?”
“yea,”
“Good,”
“That’s really all you wanted to tell me?”
“yea,”
“And you were worried about it?”
“Yea,”
“Sammi you’re my best friend that doesn’t matter to me,”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
After that day Jamie and Sammi became, if at all possible, even closer than before. Jamie went to work on Monday and told Vicky what Sammi had said.
“I knew it,” she said simply, “so you guys are still cool?”
“Yea why wouldn’t we be?” Jamie asked as she wiped off the tables in the café.
“It was just a question.”
“Yea, but all questions have reason behind them.”
“Are you questioning my question?”
“Yes as a matter of fact I am.”
“And what is your reason behind it?”
“To find out why you asked your question in the first place?”
“Which question would that be?”
“I want to know why you think we wouldn’t still be ‘cool’,”
“Did I ask you that? I don’t remember.”
“Okay your obviously not going to tell me what I want to know, so I’ll get back to work now,”
It seemed to Jamie that time was catching up on her. It was the beginning of February and she’d been working at Café Coffee for nearly three months now and she’d saved up enough to get her own place. Her and Sammi have been spending all of their free time together and Jamie had become attached to her.  She wasn’t looking forward to moving, but she didn’t want Sammi to have to take care of her any longer than she needed her too. Jamie had stopped having her dream, it seemed to stop right around the time she started working at Café Coffee.
Jamie’s feelings toward Sammi grew stronger and stronger everyday. Jamie was afraid that she was starting to actually like Sammi  in a way that she couldn’t picture liking another girl. It didn’t help at all that Sammi looked, and often acted like a boy. She didn’t know what to do, so she chose to confide in Vicky, though she thought she knew what Vicky would say…
“I just don’t understand it,” Jamie said sounding hysterical, ”I’m not gay I can’t be this all happening too fast.”
“Your just going to have to face the facts, you’re a lesbian and you’re falling in love with Sammi. There is nothing you can do about it. Your feelings won’t change just because you ignore them.”
“I just don’t understand it!”
“I know that you don’t understand it but its perfectly normal. If you want to know the truth, nearly everyone I know is at least bisexual, including myself. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Trust me !”
“You’re so…difficult!”
“Me? Difficult? You’re the one who was okay with lesbians until you realized you were one! You’re the one who is difficult.”
“I’m not, it’s not, I just don’t know”
“Tell you what, I’ll talk to Sammi about it and,”
“WHAT?!?! NO!”
“Why not?”
“Because…”
“How are you going to stop me? She’ll be here in a few minutes to pick you up.”
“Vicky you can’t. she can’t find out.”
“Okay, fine I just won’t tell her when you’re expecting it.”
“Vicky!”
“So tell her your self it looks like she here.”
“I’m not going to tell her “
“Then I will.”
Jamie , giving up, clocked out and went outside. As she was going out the door Vicky called after her “Remember I’m only doing this because I love you”
“I’m sure,” Jamie replied sarcastically.

        *        *        *

No sooner than Sammi and Jamie had walked through the door that afternoon, did the phone start to ring. Afraid of who it was, Jamie made a dive for the phone, but Sammi got to it first.
“Hello?.. Oh hey Vicky Jamie’s right here,”
“Wait I don’t want to talk to Jamie, I wanted to talk to you,” came Vicky’s voice out of the receiver.
“Me? What about.”
“Well, Jamie is going to be really mad at me for this, you’re not suppose to know, but Jamie likes you like s lot if you know what I mean.”
“Umm, “ Sammi turned to look at Jamie, she was gone! “I think I have to go.” with that, she hung up the phone.
“Jamie?… that was Vicky… Where did you go? Jamie?”
But Jamie wasn’t any where around. She wasn’t in her room and she wasn’t any where else in the house either. Finally, giving up her hunt she cooked supper and went to bed after putting Jamie’s plate in the microwave.
While Sammi was asleep, Jamie snuck into the house and got her food, a blanket and pillow, and her laptop computer. She snuck back outside and climbed up into the loft in the barn. Surely she won’t look in here for me, she thought. She didn’t want to face Jamie right now and she didn’t know if she’d ever be ready to face her again.
The next morning, Sammi got up and looked all over the house for Jamie but couldn’t find her any where. Her bed had not been slept in and the food was gone out of the microwave. Sammi was suppost to be in class today but she stayed home to look for Jamie instead. She called Vicky at work and asked her if she’d seen Jamie. She hadn’t. she said Jamie had sent an e-mail into their boss saying that she was going to take an early vacation. She didn’t have to be back to work for a week.
Vicky came over everyday after work for a week to help look for Jamie. They couldn’t find her any where.  Jamie spent the week in the loft, coming down every night to get food and water. She spent her days typing, that’s what she does to give herself time to think and to escape form her world. She was a good writer. She had real talent. But she never thought about making a career of it, though she could easily write a great book if she wanted to.
On the Saturday before Jamie was due back at work, Vicky had come over yet again, to help look for her. They had just sat down to rest when the dogs began to bark at something in the barn. Sammi got up to see what it was.  When she walked into the barn , she heard rustling from up in the loft and a corner of a blanket that was hanging over the edge was quickly snatched up again. “What are you guys barking at there is nothing in here.” Sammi said patting the dogs on their heads, pretending she hadn’t seen anything. She told Vicky where Jamie was, Vicky wanted to bust her then and there. But Sammi said to let her wait and come down on her own.
The next morning, Jamie woke up and looked down over the loft to find a single red rose, a note, and a trial of rose petals leading out of the barn. Sammi, was sitting in a chair behind the barn, where she could conveniently hear Jamie getting down. Jamie read the note which basically just said to follow the rose petals into the house and she’d find a surprise. So Jamie did just that, she followed the rose petals into that house and into the kitchen where she found breakfast waiting for her. A plate of heart-shaped pancakes and yet another rose. This was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for Jamie. She had come to a decision about Sammi and decided that she didn’t care if she was girl or a boy, she loved her and she wanted to be with her. After she finished her breakfast, she continued following the trail of rose petals up stairs and in to her room, where she found a giant teddy bear holding another rose and a card. She opened it and saw that it was hand-made. It had a picture of a heart and a rose on the front. Sammi was a very good artist so it was very good. On the inside, the card read:
Jamie,
    I wanted to tell you sooner, but I was afraid I’d push you away. I love you and I want to be with you. I have since the first time I saw you in the coffee shop.  I thought you were beautiful . I’ve been trying to win you over since that day, and hopefully it worked.
                            Love,
                            Sammi
P.S. it’s my turn to hide.
Jamie had never had any one actually care about her before and she was nearly in tears when she got up to go find  Sammi.  She looked all over the house and outside. Finally, she looked behind the barn and found Sammi sitting in the sun reading a book.  Jamie coughed slightly to announce her presence and Sammi looked up. Jamie looked so beautiful standing in the sunlight, almost like she was glowing. “So,” Sammi began as she stood up to face Jamie, “long time no see, huh?” A smile spread across Jamie’s face and she ran to Sammi. Wrapping her arms around her neck, Sammi lifted her up off the ground held her close for a moment before Jamie pulled away long enough to kiss her. Now Sammi was smiling from ear to ear. Jamie had finally found some one to love her, she didn’t want to let go of them even for a second, but Sammi insisted that they talk.
“So, what have you been doing for the past week, while we worried our butts off over you?”
“I’ve been… thinking.”
“That’s it? You have just been sitting and thinking?”
“Well, yea and I was typing,”
“Typing?” Sammi looked confused.
“You see I took my lap top with me. I was typing a story. that’s what I do when I want to… escape…”
“Can I see this story?”
“It’s not very good, it’s just something I do…” Jamie had never let anyone read her stories before. “my lap top is still in the loft, which is quite comfortable by the way.”
“Oh really?” Sammi asked as they walked around the barn and climbed into the loft.
“Yea,” Jamie looked around the loft. It showed obvious sings of being lived in. There were dirty plates and cups from the past week piled up in one corner, a bed in the straw with a pillow and blanket in another corner, and her lap top computer sitting on a crate by the window that overlooked the yard.
“Looks homey,” Sammi laughed,  looking around at the place.
Jamie picked up her lap top and carried it over to her make-shift bed and motioned for Sammi to sit with her. Sammie walked over and sat down putting her arm around Jamie as she did so.
“Like I said, it’s not very good, but you can read it anyways. I guess.” she scrolled down the page as Sammi read her story.
“That’s really good Jamie,” Sammie said after she’d finished reading, Jamie’s story was quite finished yet. “Have you ever thought about becoming a writer?”
“No, that’s never really appealed to me, I didn’t think I was good enough”
“You are, this is really good.”
“Thanks,”
“When are you going to finish it?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it.”
“Well, you should finish it and try to get it published in a magazine or something like that. You have a real talent here.”
Jamie beamed and leaned in to Sammi. She felt safe in her arms, like nothing could touch her. She’d never felt that way before. For the first time in her life, she knew what it felt like to be loved.


Epilogue

    Obviously, Jamie decided not to move out. She and Sammi decided they didn’t want to be apart from each other anymore than they had to. Sammi finished college and became an art teacher at a local private school, while Jamie continued to work at Café Coffee. Jamie took Sammi’s advice, while she wasn’t at work, she was working on her stories.  Her first book, “A Different Kind of Love Story,” was published earlier this year. To celebrate, Sammi took her out to dinner, where she proposed in front of the entire restaurant. Jamie was getting rather used to publicity though, since she published her book all she’s had time for is press conferences and book signings. The two girls were married six months after Jamie’s book was published. Both of their lives had turned out better than they had ever expected and their love for each other grew stronger everyday. 

Author's Note

I wrote this story a long time ago, when I was probably about 16 or 17, so it has a lot of mistakes I'm sure. I'm looking to re-write it though, so any reviews are more than welcome!!

Reviews

[D1218]

I loved the story and wished that it had been longer and more detailed near the end.