Unexpected (MxM)

Chapter Seven- Sam

Chapter Seven-

Moth

“He’s sneaking out to see us tonight?” Jonis asks as we jump on my bed.

He, Cas, and I are bouncing on my bed like it’s a trampoline. Gwen always thinks we’re dumb when we decide to have fun, but what’s the point of having a mattress with no frame if I can’t even jump on my bed with my friends?

“Yeah. His brother told him a secret exit. I’m going to pick him up down the road from his house and meet you guys there.” I jump higher, turning my head when my door opens and Frankie walks in.

Frankie is special. Not in a bad way, but in the sense that he’s very different from all of us. We’re wearing mostly black and he’s always in light colors. We act crazy and he’s always been so put together. He used to think this stuff was stupid too. He used to nag me all the time about little things, but I explained it to him.

Everything in this world is uncertain. I could die tonight or tomorrow. I don’t want to die before I get to live. I try to live every day. I do things I like to do with people I love. Broken beds and broken legs are fixable. An empty life is not.

“Come on!” I stick my hand out, watching his look go from wary to excited. He slips his shoes off and takes my hand, joining Jonis, Caspian, and me on the bed. We all jump next to each other, watching the smiles go up and down as everyone laughs.

“Look, I can touch the ceiling.” Frankie lifts his arms and jumps higher, touching the tips of his fingers to the ceiling in my room. I’d never try to change Frankie’s personality, but if there’s one thing I did right, it was showing him how to have fun.

Caspian sighs blissfully and looks at us, slowing his jumps. “I can’t wait to play tonight. I love how the city looks after dark.”

Frankie slows down too and frowns a little. “I’ve never been out past 9:30 before. Not in the city at least.”

“Really? Well, I’m glad you’re coming then. There’s so much to see.” I tell him, flopping down on the bed when I run out of breath. Frankie jumps on top of me, laughing softly as he kisses me.

“I want you to show me everything.” He takes my face in his hands, gently trailing his fingers over my ear piercings before kissing me deeper. I wrap one arm around his waist and use the other to brush his hair back and gently rub my thumb against his cheek.

“Ew! Get a room.”

I pull back from Frankie and look over his shoulder at Caspian, grabbing a pillow to throw at him. “This is my room.”

“Until I h****k it. All I have to do is find where you stashed the Nerf guns.” Jonis starts opening a few of my drawers making me laugh. I guess he doesn’t know that Gwen took them all away the last time Caspian hit her with one.

“I wouldn’t keep looking if I were you. You might see something you don’t want to.” I warn him, watching as Frankie looks over at him.

Jonis gets to the drawers on my desk, and before he can open one, Frankie swiftly gets up and wedges himself in front of it. “You can’t look in that one.”

Jonis looks at him curiously before smirking and reaching his hand up to curl a finger around a piece of Frankie’s hair. “C’mon. Just tell me what’s in it. The suspense will kill me.”

Frankie blushes and averts his eyes, looking down at his shoes now. “Just stuff.”

“Stuff like what?”

“Nothing. Personal things.”

Jonis laughs softly and leans in closer which makes Frankie suck in a little breath.

“Okay, I’ll leave it alone even though I’m sure it’s some wild s*x s**t. You should see what Moth’s brother gets up to. Anyway, there’s no reason to be embarrassed. If I weren’t straight…” He winks at Frankie and whistles softly, backing away. Frankie shuffles back to me, sitting down beside me while rolling his eyes at Jonis’ flirtatious comments.

“You know, the more you flirt with him, the less straight you sound. Don’t you have a girlfriend anyway?” I remind him before Caspian chips in too.

“And a kid.”

Jonis shrugs casually. “I only do it because it used to piss you off.”

“Well maybe I’ll just have to tell Gwen-”

“Tell me what?” She cuts me off, coming into my room with Laila and Cory with her as well.

“Nothing, baby. He’s being an idiot.” Jonis kisses her cheek and glares at us, prompting us to keep our mouths shut. “How about we get to practicing the set-list?”

We all agree and migrate from my room to the main area of the basement.

“Laila, she/her,” Laila announces to me before speaking again. “Do you care if I just leave my keyboard here? It’s a little heavy to lug around all the time.”

Laila always says her name and pronouns when she talks. She told us that she has some trauma disorder that makes her develop other personalities. They’re called alters, but, in every practice we’ve had and when we see her at school, it’s just been Laila. I’m guessing they don’t front very often.

“Yeah, that’s what everyone else does. You can just set it up somewhere and leave it here.” I sit on the couch and plug my guitar in as everyone else gets their instruments ready too, plucking chords and tapping drums to make sure everything sounds right. “I’m glad you’re learning to get along with everyone. I know being surrounded by boys is probably annoying.”

“It’s totally fine. Gwen is so sweet and Caspian has taken it upon himself to show me every room in the school and stalk me when I practice alone in the orchestra room.”

I laugh. He’s trying to get with her, but I know he won’t do anything to make her uncomfortable. “He’s just extra friendly.”

When I look next to me, I notice Frankie seems to be looking closely at Laila as she unpacks her keyboard.

“Are you sure we haven’t met? You look so familiar.”

She blushes and shakes her head. “I’m sure.”

He looks at her case and perks up. “Dupree Instruments? That’s how I know you.”

“Oh, that’s just where I get my things from.”

“No. No, you’re Laila Dupree. My older brother knows yours. He had flash cards with names and faces on them so he knew who people were. You were on one of them. Your parents own those stores.”

Laila glances around and sighs softly when she realizes that we’re all looking now.

“Wow. Geez, no wonder you’re so talented.” Jonis mumbles, wincing when Gwen elbows him.

Caspian puts his arm around her with a little smile. “So does that mean we get the friends and family discount?”

“Being good at playing music isn’t a gene. I’m talented because I’ve been working at this since I was old enough to move my fingers. No, you can’t have a discount. There’s a reason I didn’t want anyone to know. I don’t even talk to my parents anymore.”

She breathes quickly and sits on the floor. She’s getting overwhelmed, but all I can think to do is stay back and look at her. Her eyebrows furrow with a little frown as she stares down. Nobody says anything but I notice her chest rising and falling quicker as she nibbles on her bottom lip. She clutches her head for a moment before her face returns to a flat expression.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just have a pretty good memory and I couldn’t shake the thought that I knew you from somewhere.” Frankie mumbles, frowning when she doesn’t answer. She stares straight forward, not saying or doing anything anymore.

“Good job, Franks. You broke her.” Caspian snorts, poking her cheek. She still doesn’t respond, making his face go from playful to concerned. “Is she okay?”

“I think she’s switching which alter is fronting,” Corduroy tells us from the other end of the couch, opening the new book he and Frankie started in their club. “You probably made her nervous and triggered a switch.”

“Okay, genius. What are we supposed to do?”

Corduroy ignores Caspian’s tone and gives a simple answer. “Get your stuff ready while you wait I guess.”

We leave her sitting on the floor to finish setting up our instruments, getting together to figure out how to plug hers in as well. After a few minutes, she shifts slightly and stands up. She doesn’t look any different. Her face seems softer though. She looks more gentle and open. Laila usually looks so shy and secretive almost like she’s hiding something.

“Sam, she/her.” She looks around for a moment, her face twisting in confusion before taking a deep breath. “Laila has a pretty good journaling and note system, so I’m assuming this is the band? Do you mind introducing yourselves again? She doesn’t write physical descriptions.”

“That’s so cool. You’re not her at all?” Caspian asks.

“Well if someone scanned my fingerprints, I’d be Laila, but as far as my personality goes, no. I’m not her at all. I go by Sam.”

“Cute. Well, I’m Caspian. I’m sure she’s written lots about me.”

Sam smiles slightly, but ignores his comment, glancing at Gwen. “You’re Gwen, right?”

“Yes, and this is my boyfriend, Jonis.” She gestures to Jonis who waves slightly.

“I’m Moth. This is Frankie and that’s Corduroy.”

“Moth, Frankie, and Corduroy or Cory. I guess either is fine, right?” She asks.

“Yeah. Hey, if alters don’t share memories then how are you going to play with them tonight?” Cory asks, making it finally dawn on all of us.

My eyes widen as I start to stress out. Laila has been Laila at every rehearsal. How is Sam going to play our songs? She hasn’t practiced with us at all.

“Don’t worry, we play the same instruments and I have a lot of the same skills. I’ll just need the sheet music. Also, she might be back before tonight. We aren’t very good at switching on purpose.”

“So you just pushed to the front or something?” Caspian asks, getting nudged by Cory after. “What? I’m curious.”

“No, no. It’s more like Laila ran away. She didn’t want to deal with it, so now I’m here. Just be lucky Sam didn’t front instead of me.” She explains.

Jonis tilts his head and sighs while rubbing his temple. “Sam? Aren’t you Sam?”

“There’s two Sam’s. Our system is pretty simple actually. There’s Laila she/her. She’s the host. Sam she/her. That’s me and I usually front when she feels overwhelmed. Then, there’s Sam he/him. He’s more like a protector. He fronts when he wants to and he tends to be mean.” Sam explains.

“Well, I think you’re the hot one.” Caspian comments, making her laugh. Damn. He might get two girlfriends out of this if he keeps it up.

“Can we stop wasting time? If Laila doesn’t come back before tonight, that means we have to teach her all of the songs. Groupies, get out, and everyone get your sheet music, and let’s start. We’re not going to f**k this up.” Gwen insists, shooing Cory and Frankie out of the room.

I kiss Frankie on the cheek and breathe softly against his ear. I know what I want to say. I want to tell him I love him just so that he knows, but I hate the pressure that would put on him. I don’t care if he doesn’t love me back yet. I just wish I could tell him in a way that doesn’t make him feel any awkward obligation.

“Frankie…” I take a deep breath, but before I can continue, he turns and places a gentle kiss on my lips.

“I know.” He assures me, kissing me again before standing up and grabbing his things.

There’s something so relieving about not having to say ‘I love you’, but knowing that he can feel that I do. “Bye, Barbie.”

“Bye, Ken.” The way the words leave his lips makes me feel it too.