Took You so Long

A little bit inspired by Super Junior song: Coagulation (always in love with this song)
It's pretty angst-y, I tell you

Just to cover up for my extremely bad updates at other stories... 

I don't have much time to work on it

But good thing for this story, if you don't like sad ending, the happy ending is going to be posted in about a week

For those who prefer sad ending, just read this only ^^

Enjoy!

Took You so Long:

She told him about herself, about beauty, about her being beautiful, not beautiful enough. He just smiled and told her everything's fine, telling her that she was beautiful and one day, someday, she would find her prince charming that truly care, without her needing to be beautiful.

Samantha grinned a little, her eyes glints a bit. She always worried about her appearance, about her beauty, that she realised that her beauty, one day, will disappear. And once it did, she was afraid that no one in the world would care ever again.

Fortunate of her, she always have place to turn to when she was frightened. A friend, best friend, Jack, had always been there for her, holding her hand and lead her into better place.

As for Jack, his friendship with Sam was one thing that he cherished. It was surprising, even to Jack himself, cause Sam's a cute girl with lots of talk and him--as everyone else agreed on--a pain in the ass rapper that didn't get along with society. All they shared was their interest in singing and age. But among all people, Jack felt comfortable with Sam the most.

They had shared an apartment, both trusting each other of not doing anything wrong, each paying their own part of rent, with Jack sleeping on the couch and Sam on the small bed. Never once, any of them thought of moving out, cause both were enjoying their small parts of the apartment very well and took turn in making meals, taking note that they were a great cook. So naturally, they get accustomed to getting home earlier, preparing things for each other, from schedule to meals. 

There were some nights when Jack found Sam on the sofa in the living room, speaking in a hushed tone into her phone. Judging by the crack in her voice, Jack concluded that it might be another relative of her, and talks regarding her dead mother.

Jack rolled his eyes before taking the phone from her and put it on the highest shelves.

Sam's eyes widened, running toward the shelves and jumped, but her somehow lack of height prevent her from getting her phone back. She glared at Jack before continuing what she did, struggling to reach the phone.

Curse her shortness.

Wait, no, curse Jack, for being abnormally tall!

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She cried out.

"Taking your phone, duh. Are you dumb or something?" Jack scoffed, walking to the sofa and turning on the TV.

"Seriously, Jack!"

"I am serious."

"Get me back my phone! That's my aunt talking on the other line!"

"And it's me talking here. No protest. Now get your ass on the sofa and watch the TV."

Sam pouted, but she didn't continue further. She walked back to the sofa and sat beside him, hanging her head low and looking down, making sure that he got the message that she was upset.

Jack was not impressed.

She had been his roommate for over five years, and really, there was not a single thing about her habit that he didn't know. As usual, she would just sit there without her interestingly annoying speech and complains if she was down. And judging from the slight sigh of relief she tried to hide, Jack knew he had done right.

"Your mom, isn't it?" Jack began casually.

The girl looked quite surprised, but slowly she nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

Jack grinned softly and open his arms. "Need a hug? It's free, ya know."

Sam looked at Jack with her huge blue eyes before she burst to tears, running toward him to get his hug. 

It started like that, ended with Sam sleeping on the sofa of exhaustion and Jack carrying her all the way to her bed. It had never been a problem, him and her, together like that. 

He was passing the coffee shop when he caught a glance at a familiar figure, sitting on one of the chair heading to the window, daydreaming.

“Sam?” he asked.

The girl lifted her head and smiled at the boy standing in front of him—who by looks seemed exhausted, lifting a big groceries bag and his backpack. “Jack. Why are you here?”

Jack smirked. “I think I should be the one asking you that. What are you doing anyway? It’s about 5 already.”

“Really? I didn’t notice,” Sam said.

“You haven’t answer me, Sam.”

“I’m doing nothing. I’m just thinking.”

Being a friend that lived with her for a very long time, he could sense that something was wrong with her. 

“About what?”

“Lots of things.”

“What kind of things?”

“Just things.”

Jack pulled out a chair and sat down right in front of her, starring into her eyes. “You know me well. You could tell me. It’s not like I’m going to jump into your problem and mess up with it.”

She seemed unsure, but she nodded. “It’s just... I like someone. But he doesn’t like me.”

“Okay? So who’s this guy we’re talking about?”

“I’m not telling.”

“Why not?”

“Just no. I don’t like to trouble you too much.”

“No, seriously. You know me.”

Sam avoid his eyes, but keep on talking. “It’s not like I don’t trust you with this kind of thing. It’s just... I think I should clean this up myself. Thanks for the offer, though.”

Jack felt weird. Never once, in his whole life knowing Sam, the girl rejected his obvious positive intention of helping her. That fact that she was avoiding her shock him a bit.

“What if you’re that guy?”

The question startled him, getting him all the goosebumps and chill all over. 

“Sorry, what?”

“Just think this way, you have a friend, and you don’t know that she like you so much. You keep hanging out with her but you don’t look at her more than a friend. What do you feel?”

Jack tilted his head a bit and think. “You mean that he didn’t realize at all?”

“Yeah.”

“He’ll be sorry,” he said, a little bit careful since he knew that Sam was sensitive. “But if he don’t realize, that simply mean it didn’t mean to be, right? You’ll find other people beside him. He’s not worth it.”

“What if I confess?”

“That isn’t necessary. But if you do, I think he’ll be confuse. I don’t kknow for sure, but if that’s the condition, that just mean he didn’t love you.”

“But I love him.”

“Is there a reason to hold on to something like that?”

“I don’t know. Am I that bad?”

Jack was startled. He could hear the fears out of her words, her voice sounds so different, so familiar and he tried to comfort her. “It’s not that, Sam.”

“If I can’t be as beautiful, I want to just disappear.”

“You’re far from disappearing, Sam. You’re you. You’re always beautiful,” he smiled, taking her face between his hands and hold her in place so that she has to look at him. “So don’t sulk over this one, okay? Someday, someone will realize that, and even he would realize that. You’ll find someone worth it.”

She laugh, too fake to sound real, with a witty comment, dying halfway on her lips and a smile that he know too well she smile but didn’t feel. Something enough just too shrug it off, and move on. Too often he said it already, that she was beautiful, it may sound a bit faked by now.

He was worried, he really was. Sam that acted like this was never been any good, and even if it was, it only because she stopped being sucha crybaby and stay quiet. 

He know what she felt. What she thought, not always and not often enough, but he was sure that sometimes she feels beautiful. Not enough, not often enough and not beautiful enough, maybe, but she was indeed far from disappearing. For everyone that was there with her, he knew most of them thought the same.

She was beautiful.

Maybe not her looks, but her personality, her charm, her way of speaking, her everything. It was unfortunate for her that she was not be able to see that all.

And that was never a good thing for her own health, indeed.

Sam was not home. At least not in their shared apartment. A note was laying on top of the table, in her hand writing, saying that she need time to be alone. In fact, Jack haven’t seen Sam in weeks.

He’s been calling the other but she didn’t pick up. He’s not attending the class either. It was like she was gone in all of sudden.

He hate it that way. He become so unnatural. His smile didn’t appear in that period of time and people started to sucks again. He was forgotten what it feels like not to have worries in the world. He wondered what life would be like if he hadn’t decided to share room with Sam. 

But he decided, as two more days passed, that life couldn’t get better without her.

A phone call. From Sam. Enough to get Jack startled, lost balance and ended up on the hard surface of the floor of his bedroom.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Jack,” her tone seemed normal.

“Where have you been?”

“Home?”

“Seriously.”

“Yeah, home. I’ve been thinking. And oh, I want to meet you.”

“I want to meet you too, idiot. You don’t know how worry I am,” Jack replied. “So, where would you like us to meet?”

The other went silent. “Say, 7? The coffee shop would be nice.”

“I’ll be there. You better wait for me!”

“I always wait for you,” and with that she hung up.

Sneakers squeaked against the ground and a steel chair was pulled out, one of its leg scraping the surface of the tiles.

“What took you so long?”Jack frowned to the girl in front of her.

“I should be the one asking that,” she responded flatly as she sat, taking the menu and started picking. “You took so long. Years, even, Jack.”

Jack was completely dumbfounded. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve always been here, Jack. Waiting for you.”

Jack could not stop his mind gnawing at the words his best friend had just said. What did she mean, for real?

She giggled a bit. “You only took so long,” she said softly, “I never said you’re late.”

Jack was confused indeed, but seeing the smile in front of him, he could help but grin foolishly, ruffling her hair. “What now?”

“I want you to meet someone.”

His smile suddenly broke when someone arrived from behind her—a tall, well-built man, about their age, bowing toward him—and put his hand on her shoulder.

What if you're that guy? 

“This is Kevin...”

He knew he wouldn’t like it.

“My boyfriend.”

He just blinked. It was as if the whole world collapsed in an instant, his mind illogically refusing to believe it could and did, and Jack was flooded with an ineffable torrent of truths he had long denied Sam—he had long denied himself.

He looked at Sam, with the gleam that showed all the feelings that running through. 

But then he was her eyes, those beautiful black orbs, the mysterious ones he won’t ever discover said something clear, as clear as what she had said before.

You took so long.

No, as he regretted softly. I took too long.

And now, as he swallowed everything in, he mustered a smile. A smile, the best he could faked, through all the tears that he was fighting to not spill, completing his own stupidity. How it formed, either the smile or the tear, he didn’t know. 

All he know was that it really hurt.

“Nice to meet you, Kevin. I’m Jack Usher... Sam’s best friend.”

I want to smile and leave you so you’ll be happy. But when I look at you...

All the tears ultimately fall down.