She looked over at Sam who was sitting with her fingertips to her
teeth absently chewing on her skin. It was a habit that Brooke had
noticed her indulge in a lot. The brunette tended to chew on things
when her mind was elsewhere. She was sort of slouched back in the
car seat with the elbow of her right arm being supported by her left
hand. She wondered what Sam was thinking as she looked out the
window and continued to chew.

There were all these little details that she was beginning to notice
about Sam that she would have never noticed a year ago. There was a
way that the girl went about every day things that impressed Brooke.
It was with certainty. She took whatever she wanted to do and went
for it then took names later. Brooke almost always deferred to
others before she accomplished anything. Sam had great hair. Brooke
even liked a lot of Sam’s choices in fashion, though she would
never
admit it. They were things that looked good on Sam, but probably
wouldn’t on other people. Silence settled between them weighted
down
by the deep thoughts of both girls.

Sam was trying not to think. Thinking only made things worse. There
was a point of concentration that would take her away if she just
focused on it long enough. She had slightly cut the skin of her
pointer finger with a pair of scissors on accident earlier and she
was chewing on the little piece of skin that was standing up. Her
goal was to focus on that tiny slip of skin until she could find
something else to occupy her. This was going to be a long car ride.
What was up with Brooke saying those things earlier? She was cute?
She quickly caught herself before she pondered the question
suggested by her non-cooperative mind. Focus on the skin! She
demanded. She began to chant, "the skin", over and over in
her mind.
The problem was that she tended to voice her thoughts out loud when
she was concentrating.

"The skin."

Brooke looked at Sam out of the corner of her eye.

"Did you say something?"

Sam snapped back into reality.

"Nope"

"I could have sworn you said something."

"Nope, not a word. Promise."

"Ok, I’ll believe you this time."

Sam reached out and turned on the radio. She flipped through until
she found a station that she liked and sat back again. Brooke
reached out and changed the station. If there was one thing that she
and Sam didn’t have in common it was music. She watched as Sam
changed the station back. Pretty soon they were in an all out war.
Then both of their hands landed on the dial at the same time. They
stayed there frozen to the plastic dash of the car. A tiny bit of
saliva from where Sam had been chewing on her fingers made its way
onto Brooke’s hand. She felt the warm liquid smear over her
knuckle.
Usually she would have been grossed out, but it was oddly nice.

She quickly pulled her hand back and placed it on the steering
wheel. She could deal with Alanis, she decided. They pulled into the
parking garage and found a space. The mall was pretty quiet, which
suited Sam. Brooke walked quickly along the row of shops with Sam
trudging behind her. They reached the nail salon and stopped at the
entrance.

"Come on," Brooke encouraged.

Sam blew her hair out of her face and followed. Once she was fully
manicured they decided to go get something to eat. Brooke felt like
eating today. It wasn’t a feeling that came to her often so she
took
full advantage of it and ordered a six inch sub from the sub shop.
She watched in amazement as Sam ate a whole foot long by herself.

"Wow," Brooke breathed.

"What?"

"You… ate the whole thing."

Sam wiped her mouth and settled back to look Brooke full in the
face.

"Yeah. I was hungry."

She was a little annoyed with Brooke’s close scrutiny of her. It
wasn’t like she was fat or anything. Many self image probing
thoughts popped up in her mind. Does she think I’m fat? Did I eat
too much? Why am I so worried about what she thinks? The evidence of
her thoughts was spelled out on her face. Brooke noticed and leaned
forward.

"Sam…. Sam"

When she had gotten the other girls attention she continued.

"I’ve just never been able to eat that much. I wasn’t
saying
anything… bad."

"Ahh," Sam said as she chased an errant piece of lettuce
around her
mouth with her tongue.

Brooke looked up and caught the action of Sam’s tongue. She was a
spell bound.

"I’m serio….serious," she stumbled.

"You, okay?" Sam asked noticing the blank look on
Brooke’s face.

"Hmm… yeah"

"You want to get out of here?"