The Songs in Our Hearts: A Young Adult Romance(25)

I hadn’t been to Samantha’s house in years. I didn’t know how it would feel to be there again. The Grand Am pulled into my driveway and I got up. As I slipped inside, Micah looked at me.

“You look awful,” he greeted me. “You sure you’re okay?”

My eyes scanned over his appearance. He wore a brown leather jacket, white T-shirt, and a pair of jeans. His dark locks were combed back, out of his face.

“I think I ate something bad,” I lied.

“Are you sure you’re up for this? I mean, we could just work together here, if you’re not feeling well.”

Micah Jacobs in my bedroom? One wrong word to the wrong person, and I’d be known as the sleaze of Grand Lakes. No, thank you.

“It’s really okay,” I said. “I should be fine.”

Micah turned up the sound dial and the soft melody of “Open Arms” by Journey filled the car. I grinned to myself as I looked out the window. In seeing this side of Micah, a side he didn’t seem to show to anyone at school, I had been given a secret gift. I gave him directions, weaving us through the outskirts of town, to the large home where Samantha lived.

Samantha’s parents worked for a small, private law firm and made a lot of money, thanks to divorces and child custody cases. As Micah pulled up into her driveway, he lifted his eyebrows.

“This is where Sam lives?” He turned the car off and let out a deep sigh.

“Are you actually nervous?” Micah Jacobs was fretting over going inside a big fancy house?

“Yeah, I mean…what if I break something?” We both laughed. “It would take me my whole life to pay for it.”

“You’ll be fine. Come on.” I tugged on the sleeve of his brown leather jacket and opened my door. Micah followed behind me as we walked up to the front of the house. We were instantly greeted by Samantha and a few familiar faces from class. Jennifer lingered just over her shoulder.

“So glad you guys came!” Samantha squealed, beckoning us inside.

I could feel the knots in my stomach as I stepped in, locking glances with Jennifer. She instantly began with a string of demanding questions as she approached the two of us. “You CAME with Micah Jacobs? He DROVE you? Are you two DATING?”

She left no room for me to ask why she was there. Unlike the majority of our classmates at Samantha’s house, she wasn’t in our English class.

“We’re all working on our projects down in the basement. I have snacks and stuff, and my daddy just called for pizza,” Samantha cut in with a soft giggle.

Daddy. Of course, Daddy bought everything.

“Sounds great,” Micah replied with a smile. We followed the faint sound of the Top 40 countdown music down to the basement where I recognized a few other faces from English class. Surprisingly, I found Daan in the corner of the room, with a pile of printer paper around him. I assumed Samantha dragged him into helping out on her project. He gave a nod in my direction and I lifted a hand in acknowledgement. Everyone else was either busy writing down ideas in their open notebooks, or tapping away on their laptop keys. Samantha came up behind me, leaned in close to my ear, and whispered, “I’m surprised you actually came with Micah.”

“He’s my partner,” I explained.

Samantha smirked. “Oh? Is that all he is?” She moved to one of the side tables, which held an arrangement of cheddar potato chips, pretzels, nachos, salsa and sodas.

Micah trailed in, following me. “Where do we set up?” he asked.

I chose a seat apart from the others and got straight to business.

“So, we need to finish writing the screenplay. Once we do that, we can worry about the logistics of filming.” I jotted our names at the top of a sheet of notebook paper. Micah agreed with a nod. He pulled a pen from his pocket and clicked it between his thumb and forefinger. Together, we began to write the last few scenes, concluding the story of Victor Frankenstein, his sweetheart Elizabeth, and his monster. Micah suggested character dialogue, and I jotted the lines down in the notebook. When we reached Elizabeth’s death scene, Micah stole the notebook from me with a devilish grin.

“Let me see what you’re going to write,” I insisted, and tried to snatch the paper from his hands.

“Nope,” he laughed and held the handwritten screenplay over his head. “Trust is a beautiful thing, Charlie.”

Before I could reply, Samantha cleared her throat loudly, addressing the roomful of classmates.

“The pizza is here! Come eat up!”

Micah winked at me as he closed the notebook and shoved it into the corner with his jacket.

“We’ll talk about that part later,” he promised and stood up. “Let’s get some grub.”

The coy smile on Samantha’s face as she ogled Micah from the table was enough to make me lose my appetite. Trying my best to appear unbothered by her flirtations, I grabbed two pieces of the cheesy pizza.

“We should all play a game,” Samantha said through a mouthful of pizza as she sat down on the floor with everyone. “Maybe it’ll help us focus on our work.”

“How is that gonna help?” Daan asked, reaching for his cup of soda. “Focusing on work and playing a game are two different things.”

“Don’t be a spoil sport,” Samantha whined with a smile.

I lifted my slice of pizza, entranced by the aroma of cheese and pepperoni. Screw games. I was the stepsister in Ever After. I was there for the food—clearly.