Full Circle

“Samantha, you have a customer waiting at table six,” said Claire.

Samantha nodded and put on her required smile as she headed to table six. Her smile faltered a bit as she saw who was waiting.

“Hi, Sammy. I was hoping I’d get you as a waitress,” said Matt with a smirk.

Samantha playfully rolled her eyes, “What are you doing here?”

Matt laughed out loud.

“To eat, duh. Plus I heard they hired a beautiful new waitress,” he said, winking.

Samantha blushed slightly while she got out her pen and note pad.

“What can I get you?”

Matt looked over the menu for another minute before answering, “I’ll have an omelet with a large glass of orange-“

“Orange juice, no pulp and American shredded cheese on top of the omelet,” said Sam, finishing his order.

“You remember?” asked Matt with a smile.

Samantha laughed, “Yep.”

Matt stared off into space for a moment, thinking about the times him and Sam would eat breakfast together.

“Ok, I’ll be back with your food.”

Matt came out of his thoughts and nodded. 15 minutes later, Samantha walked back to his table with a tray of food in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other.

“Here’s an omelet with sausage, hash browns and tomato’s, topped with shredded American cheese,” said Samantha.

Re-reading the order to the customer was required.

“Thanks, Sammy. You’re pretty damn good at his,” Matt complemented.

“Thanks,” Samantha said as she put down his glass of OJ and pulled a straw from her shirt
pocket.

“Anything else?” she asked.

Matt pondered for a bit before flashing a joker like smile.

“Yeah, hang out with me at the beach later.”

He sipped his OJ while waiting for Samantha to respond. Sam thought about his request. She didn’t see the harm in hanging out with him.

“Sure, what time?”

Matt choked on his OJ. He didn’t expect her to say yes so easily.

“What time do you get off?”

She looked at the clock on the wall. It was a quarter to 3pm.

“I get off in 15 minutes. I’ll go home, change, and then meet you at the beach around 4. Sound good?”

Matt swallowed his bite of omelet before answering, “Yep. Sounds great.”

Samantha was about to walk away to get his receipt before Matt spoke again.

“Hey, don’t forget your tip.”

Samantha walked back over to his table to see a 50-dollar bill sitting there. Matt chuckled at her shocked expression.

“Matt, I can’t take this.”

“I don’t see why not. You’ve serviced me pretty well,” he replied.

Samantha sighed and took the money.

“You give 50 dollars to a stripper, not a waitress, Matt.”

“No way in hell I would give 50 dollars to a stripper. Unless you wanna provide me with extra service.”

Samantha glared at him. He let out a throaty laugh with food still in his mouth. Samantha couldn’t help but break the glare and smile at him.

“You’re an ass, Matt.”



Samantha checked herself out in the mirror for what seemed like the 10th time. She wore a pair of faded blue jeans with rips at the knees, a Pantera tee and a purple jacket. Her straight, long brown hair draped over her shoulders. She touched up her eyeliner and finally decided she was done. She didn’t know why she was so concerned with how she looked. It wasn’t like she was meeting up with Corey; it was just Matt. She turned off her kitchen light, grabbed her tribal print messenger bag and left. Matt was sitting at their old spot on the beach. It was farther down the shoreline, away from the usual crowd of people. Samantha walked towards him, thinking about when they came to this very spot on prom night..

“You made it. I’m surprised you didn’t bail on me,” said Matt.

She sat down next to him in the sand. She placed her bag on her lap and got situated before answering, “God, Matt. You make me sound like a bitch.”

Matt laughed as he put his arms over this bent legs.

“That’s not what I meant.”

She watched him stare out into the ocean. He seemed content. He had on a long sleeved black shirt, dark jeans and wore a black beanie on his head. Samantha didn’t want to admit it but he looked good.

“I see you still wear band shirts,” said Matt.

“Yeah, I haven’t changed much.”

Matt nodded. Silence fell around them again. It wasn’t awkward at all, more like comforting. Minutes later, silence turned into conversation. Matt shared a few of his band stories and memories. He told her how they started with a dollar-a-day budget. Then he told her about touring for City Of Evil and eventually playing with Metallica. Of course he left out his experiences with drugs and groupies. He didn’t want to ruin his chance of finally catching up with her. However, he did tell her how he met Anna at Ozzfest. Samantha didn’t say anything about it even though she had plenty to say. She also didn’t want to ruin their moment. Samantha told him about her experiences as a journalist and how she ended up getting fired. Of course he asked why she didn’t come home when she had the chance. She simply said she was too embarrassed, which was partially true. She couldn’t tell him the full truth. It would only bring up their breakup and neither one of them were ready to discuss that. In fact, both of them avoided that subject entirely. After briefly catching up, they were silent again.

“Do you think we can become friends again? Like we used to be?” asked Matt.

Samantha felt her eyes start to water when she heard the pain in his voice. She missed being friends with Matt more than anything. Without thinking, Samantha leaned over and placed her head on Matt’s shoulder. She felt the tears cascading down her face as she finally responded, “I think we can. We just have to be patient and honest with each other.”

Matt was surprised when she laid her head on his shoulder. But then he noticed her tears and immediately wrapped his arm around her waist. He never could stand to see her cry. He pulled her closer to his side and lightly rubbed his thumb against her side. Sam inhaled his familiar soothing scent and started to calm down. She hasn’t felt this content in years. Matt always knew how to comfort her. They sat nestled next to each other for another 10 minutes until Samantha pulled away slowly and wiped her eyes with her jacket sleeve. Matt gave her a sad smile.

“Sorry about that. I’m just glad you want to give our friendship another chance,” she apologized.

“No need to apologize, Sammy,” said Matt as he wiped a tear from her face with his thumb.

Samantha laughed lightly and playfully punched his side.

“You’re turning me into a softie, Sanders.”

Matt laughed and pushed her lightly.

“Pfft, you’ve always been a softie, walker.”

Samantha stuck her tongue out at him.

“We should have Thriller Thursdays again,” Matt suggested.

Samantha smiled wide at the idea. Her and Matt used to watch scary movies every Thursday. It usually turned into a sleep over when Sam was too afraid to sleep alone in her bedroom.

“Omg, yes! Can we?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have offered if we couldn’t.”

“What about Anna? Would she let you come over to my place every Thursday?”

Matt scoffed, “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want to do. I let her go to book club every Saturday.”

Samantha still found it weird that Anna went to book club and only on Saturdays.

“Ok! Besides, we’re just friends. She lets you hangout with the guys and I’m no different,” she said.

Matt flinched when she said just friends.

“Then it’s settled,” said Matt with a forced smile.

Samantha suddenly jerked when she felt her pocket vibrate. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone to see a text from Corey.

Hey, babe! I’m coming over with Chinese at 7. Figured we could eat and watch a movie.

Matt watched her reply to the text with a huge smile and he automatically knew it was her boyfriend. Samantha replied to Corey and slipped her phone back into her pocket.

“You gotta go, huh?” asked Matt, somewhat hostile.

Samantha noticed his slight change in attitude and sighed.

“Yeah, Corey is bringing dinner over to my place in 20 minutes.”

Matt just nodded and stood up. He held his hand out to Sam and pulled her to her feet. She thanked him as she wiped the sand off her jeans. When they walked back to her car, they exchanged numbers so they could keep in touch.

"No good-bye hug?" asked Sam.

Matt smiled and pulled her into a tight embrace. They held onto each other as if a hug would make up for seven lost years.

Notes

Looks like things are getting less tense. Ant thoughts? Predictions? :)

-Thanks for reading this far!