This is the second part of my Seasons With Sam series, as with the first part Summer this has been revised but nothing's changed except the title and the some grammatical errors.
Story first, sex second.
**
Extract from the Video Blog 'Relationships' Part 2 by Bryce Dawltry.
There's a song, maybe you know it, by a band called The Buzzcocks. There's a line that goes 'Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn't have fallen in love with.' That's essentially my relationship with Sam, she fell in love with me when she shouldn't have because I didn't love her back the same way.
My name is Bryce Dawltry and the dumbest thing I ever did was fall in love with a girl called Samantha Wyllie.
When I didn't really love her at all.
Chapter 6: All The Evil.
It had been almost a fortnight since Bryce and Sam had been together and they were thinking about what to do after the summer. When they returned home they told Mary and John about their plans to find an apartment together, they were a little scared about letting their daughter go but they knew there was no-one better than her cousin to protect her.
Ever since they came back Sam and Bryce hadn't been able to keep their hands off each other, alone with Mary and John at work they had resumed their lovemaking session from the Lake House. At least it was lovemaking for Sam, she was overjoyed to have finally found someone she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, Bryce on the other hand, still couldn't see that far into the future.
**
I loved Sam, I always have but I wasn't in love with her like she was with me and I hated it. I wanted to feel the same way, to hold her in my arms and know I wouldn't see anyone else but I didn't.
**
With help from Sam's parents Sam and Bryce managed to find a few good apartments but with the rent and deposit resting on their shoulders they had to get jobs, Sam managed to get a waitressing gig down at a local cafe while Bryce had his friend Jonathan Moreno put a good word in for him at the town's hardware store.
**
I've mentioned Johnny before, said he was my best friend, we'd known each other since primary. I was one of only a few people that knew about Johnny's past, he doesn't like to talk about it since it was a difficult time for him, still is. He's the oldest of three children, he has a brother, Vincent, who was two years younger than him and a sister, Lori, two years younger than that. Their mother ran out on them when Johnny was 8 leaving them to grow up with an abusive and violent father, when he wasn't using Johnny or Vincent as a punching bag he was doing unspeakable things to Lori. There was one night, when Johnny was 17, that is now referred to as 'All The Evil' that everything kicked off, fed up with how his father was treating him and his siblings, Johnny tried to stand up to his father, it didn't go well. Johnny ended up nearly getting the shit kicked out of him, his father would have killed him if not for Lori attacking her father with a hammer, it wasn't fatal but it got his attention. Johnny was drifting in and out on consciousness and it took him a good ten minutes to regain composure, when he did he saw his father assaulting his sister in a way no father should ever do to their daughter. He managed to pull him off her but then the beatings started again and this time Lori was stuck, traumatised on the floor. By a stroke of luck he managed to grab the hammer Lori had used and hit back, only he hit back several times, by the time he fell into unconsciousness from sheer exhaustion his father was dead and his head destroyed. When Johnny woke two days later he was told Vincent had run away, no-one knew where he was, Lori was in psychiatric care for what her father did to her and would remain there for several years and that he was to be questioned over the murder of his father. Johnny wasn't convicted since it was self-defence but now, with no parents, a missing brother and a sister two steps away from being a vegetable, it was only Johnny. He has nightmares about 'All The Evil' which keep him up at night, we use to meet up in the city centre at about 1, 2 in the morning and mess around.
**
Bryce was starting his first day at the hardware store, it was a Monday so it was mostly quiet. When he arrived he found Jonathan and another boy messing around in the kitchen area of the store, Bryce didn't recognize the boy but he approached them anyway.
"Bryce, how you doing?" Jonathan welcomed his long time friend.
"Alright Johnny, not much happening though."
"Ah it's Monday morning, most cunts are at work, it'll get busier this afternoon but not much. Oh Bryce this is T.J. Gallagher, a friend and fellow worker, T this is Bryce Dawltry, he's been through a lot with me so treat him well."
Bryce and the other boy shook hands. "T.J., that stand for something?"
"Tyler, but I forget what the J stands for, Jacob or Jarvis, something beginning with J a. Your surname's Dawltry right?"
"Yeah."
"You any relation to Caleb Dawltry, around your age, brain problems, has a sister called Billie?"
"Yeah he's my cousin, our fathers were brothers. I don't see much of them though."
"Shame really, Caleb's a good friend of mine, I actually dated Billie for a while."
"Well you probably know them better than me. Shouldn't we be working here?"
"Fuck it." Jonathan spoke up quickly. "The bosses know there ain't much to do in the mornings they don't give a fuck. I need a smoke I'm going outside."
T.J. and Bryce followed Jonathan outside to the garden area of the store, Jonathan takes out a cigarette and lights it. "So how was your holiday with Sam?"
"Uh it was good, not much to do but nice to get away, just the two of us."
"Who's Sam?" Asked T.J.
"My cousin, although she's more like a sister to me."
"Lucky, I've got a sister but she's more like a ghost the amount of times I see her. I take it you're pretty close then."
"You fucking bet they are." Jonathan chipped in with a lecherous comment.
"Fuck off Johnny. I love Sam alright but she's still my cousin."
"Well sorry Bryce but I assumed since you weren't with anyone you might succumb to temptation all alone with that hot piece of ass."
"JOHN. Seriously stop that."
"Lighten up Bryce. You know I'm only joking." Jonathan turned to T.J. "I like to tease Bryce, he hasn't had any action in so long it gets funnier the longer he waits."
"Fuck you Johnny, it's only been seven months since I broke up with Paige..."
"Still funny."
"...And I'm not seeing anyone else on my own accord. I'm done with relationships for a long while."
"Oh god not this again. Be warned T you get Bryce started on relationships he'll go on and on."
"Really, what's your problem with them?"
Jonathan threw his hands up in defeat and walked away.
"Relationships only hurt people, no matter what you do you'll only get hurt or hurt someone else. They never work."
"You've never been in a fucking relationship." Jonathan yelled across the yard.
"What about Elizabeth, what about Paige?"
"A real relationship, you went out with them just to fuck them they don't count."
"Don't count my ass."
T.J. chuckled "You really are Caleb's cousin aren't you? You share the same cynicism as him. I have to disagree with you about relationships though, I'm actually getting married next month."
"Married? Let me guess, you knocked her up after one date so you're doing the 'right' thing."
"Almost, we've been together seven years, I knocked her up two years ago, we have a daughter and I'm doing what I want to."
"Seven years? So you've been with each other, since... how old are you?"
"Almost 20."
"Since the start of high school. How the fuck did you manage that?"
"Relationships work when you want them to."
Jonathan came back, he threw his finished cigarette on the floor. "We're done for break, the first customers are here. Get to work."
**
T.J. was a mystery to me, he went against everything I thought about relationships, he was proof they do work. He became a close friend at the store and even introduced me to his fiancée and daughter, he really did seem to have a hand on everything. More than I did anyway.
**
Around the middle of July Bryce and Sam were invited by Sam's band-mate Rachel McCormack to her cousin Daniel's party, not having anything else to do they decided to go to it. They arrived around the middle of the party, most people were already drinking, drunk enough to dance without care but not drunk enough to fall over each other. Sam left Bryce to talk to Rachel and more of her friends so Bryce spent the night chatting with different people he knew around the house, one such person was a massive surprise.
A girl's voice behind Bryce caught his attention. "You seem familiar. Have we met?" Bryce turned around, there he saw his cousin Billie Dawltry sitting by a table.
Bryce hugged Billie "Hey Billie, God I haven't seen you in years."
"You should visit more often."
"I know but I've got so much free time I don't have time to do anything if you get me."
"I know, so what you up to these days?"
"Not much you know, taking a year out before starting Uni, not much else happening."
"You sound just like my brother."
"How is Caleb by the way, how's he coping with the brain problems."
"Well, he's coping. He dropped out of school as well as soon as he heard about his brain and started writing, he's quite successful but he still has headaches."
"At least he's surviving. Is he here?"
"Nah, Cay's not a big fan of parties, too many people faking sympathy.
"So you here alone or..?"
"No actually I'm waiting on my friends, I came here with a boy in my Uni, Vincent Moreno."
"Vincent? I know him, well I'm friends with his brother, he hasn't heard from Vincent in ages, he ran away after Johnny killed their father."
