All I got was silence from Sam’s end.

I thought it was odd that I didn’t even get a measly reply from my bestfriend. Normally, she’d be gracious enough to grunt when she was too lazy to offer a coherent reply. Something was off here.

True enough, when I looked behind me, my suspicions were validated. Like a fool, I was talking to no one but myself. I didn’t realize that I had left Sam by the bench near the old oak tree, right where Al’s clumsy mishap took place. She was bending down, taking her sweet time helping the frazzled flamingo put her things back inside her bag. She was doing it with such care that I thought I could see gooey hearts flashing in the freshman’s eyes, but I knew without a doubt that Sam was just being “gentle” and all that jazz because she was too much of a sloth to move fast.

I was so annoyed, I couldn’t stop myself from raising my voice when my traitorous bestfriend re-joined us after a while. “Why’d you have to help that stupid girl?!” I bellowed, the sharpness in my tone magnified ten times by the rippling echoes that resonated in the courtyard.

“Dunno.” She gave a dull shrug, her facial expression frustratingly blank as usual. She wouldn’t admit it then, but I knew deep down that the only reason she helped that girl was because she was grateful that her bag was able to do the impossible and get Alice to shut her frickin’ mouth and stop poking fun at her celibate ass. Thinking about it that way, I guess I really shouldn’t hold Sam against it that much. Still, just to keep up appearances, I continued to wear a disapproving frown on my face. “Let’s go.” She tells me. I felt a slight nudge propelling me forward. I didn’t resist.

With one last hateful look at that freshman girl, I allowed Sam to lead me by the shoulders inside the heavy wooden doors of the cafeteria. I thought that was that. I had foolishly believed that we had seen the end of our run-in with the pigtailed runt and her gigantic backpack. Of course, I didn’t any know better – though I would never admit it at that time. You can’t blame me, after all, who would’ve known that that insignificant incident with the stupid freshman would start a chain of events that would change my life, and that of my friends, forever?