Have another prompt. Kiana once mentioned she thinks of Sam and Deena doing cute things like going to the drive-in and Olivia says she sees them being like demon slayers (lol). Maybe a cute discussion with Sam and Deena joking about being monster hunters/demon slayers while watching something at the drive-in. Sorry, I just rewatched their Strand Book Store video and it got me thinking :)
The words "have another prompt" just might be my favorite in the world so thanks for that.
Also this prompt is truly epic and I love every single word of this message. I still haven't watched this interview but I am definitely going to and I love the answers Kiana and Olivia gave because after having met and spent time with them, it checks out completely. So thanks, anon, for bringing back all the fond memories of Olivia' chaotic energy.
Also this prompt gave me a chance to include another little Olivia tidbit that she shared at the panel I was at, so that was an added bonus. IYKYK.
Through the speaker clipped to the car door, the dinosaur’s roar sounds tinny and pitched, far from the ferocity that Spielberg had likely imagined when bringing his vision to life, but the kids on the screen seem appropriately frightened anyway and so Deena tries not to be too critical. It would be difficult to compete with that irreproachable first time anyway, when she’d sat in the theater with Simon on one side of her Sam on the other and the pounding in her heart had had nothing to do with the T-rex on the screen.
As though spurred by the thoughts running through Deena’s mind, Sam says, “Remember when we went to see this when it came out?” her head still pillowed against Deena’s shoulder.
Where it had most definitely not been that first time, in the theater back in Shadyside when the summer that had stretched out with seemingly endless monotony had suddenly seemed painfully bright with possibility when she’d found herself sitting next to Sam in the darkened theater and let herself wonder for the first time. Her thoughts had been so scattered, so focused on the inches of space between her knee and Sam’s and the way she’d sat rigid in her chair for two and half hours because she’d been too afraid to let her elbow brush Sam’s accidentally that when Sam had asked what her favorite part of the movie had been, she’d only been able to blurt out, “The dinosaurs” because she was at least sure that was something that she knew for a fact had actually happened on the screen.
Though, to be fair, the dinosaurs are pretty great.
“Yeah,” Deena says, trying to reach for another handful of popcorn without dislodging Sam from her position tucked against her side. “Of course.”
Sam moves anyway, passing over the popcorn bucket and brushing her hair over her shoulders. “You know, I used to use the ticket stub as a bookmark. For like…months.” She shrugs. “Because every time I opened the book I thought about you.”
Even years later, even after years with Sam, statements like this still manage to find their mark directly against Deena’s heart, making it race in the way a tyrannosaurus could never hope to. “You’re such a cheeseball,” she tells Sam, as though she hadn’t kept her own ticket stub tucked into the drawer of her nightstand, proof that, for one night at least, she sat next to Samantha Fraser in a movie theater and let herself imagine it was the type of thing she would get to do forever. “It’s kind of embarrassing actually.”
“Oh really?” Sam smirks, raising her eyebrows. “Weren’t you the one who wanted to come to this tonight because it was like our first date?”
Deena clears her throat, studying the popcorn bucket in her lap with a determined focus. “I don’t think I said first date…”
“Well, you thought it,” Sam says, which is infuriatingly true and something she is infuriatingly good at most of the time. “Which I guess it kind of was.”
“You think so?” Deena tilts her head, thinking over the idea. “I don’t think our actual first date was that bad.”
How could anything involving the words “date” and “Sam” in the same sentence and context be bad? It’s still a philosophy that Deena holds pretty near and dear to her heart.
Sam reaches over to take a handful of popcorn. “Even though you kept stalling out whenever we tried to drive somewhere?”
“I was nervous!” Deena protests, picking up the popcorn bucket and holding it out reach, using her shoulder to try and block Sam from reaching to grab it back. “I kept thinking about what I was going to do if you tried to kiss me.”
Sam smirks, lifting her eyebrows. “If I tried to kiss you? I don’t remember it like that…”
“No, it totally was,” Deena says with a grin and this time she surrenders the popcorn bucket when Sam leans into her to get close enough to grab it, though Sam doesn’t make an effort to slip out of Deena’s space once she’s got it. “I remember it like it was yesterday.”
“Oh? You’ll have to refresh my memory then.”
Deena can’t resist the shiver the trails down her spine, can’t ignore the press of Sam’s knee against her thigh, and she lets her gaze drop toward Sam’s lips before returning to her eyes. “It was a lot like this actually.”
Only then they had been in the front seat of Deena’s car rather than sitting in the back like they are now, and Deena had been nervous enough that she’d slammed her knee into the gear shift and Sam had started laughing and the sound of it had flooded Deena with a startling calm and a crackling need that had suddenly made it easy to lean closer and press their lips together.
That feeling of need, of anticipation, is still there even now, even though Deena has long since lost track of how often she’s been able to pull Sam to her and kiss her. Their lips meet and Sam’s closeness, the subtle saltiness of her lips and the feeling of her skin beneath Deena’s palm, are more than enough to distract from the movie still playing out on the screen in front of them, the sounds of rustling and chirping coming through the box speaker fading to the back of her mind.
Unfortunately, it seems that Sam is not so easily distracted.
The sensation of her lips quickly becomes nothing more than a memory as Sam pulls away suddenly and Deena opens her eyes, brow furrowing. Sam’s attention has shifted, something Deena tries not to take personally. “I love this part,” Sam says as though once again sensing the direction of Deena’s thoughts.
On the screen, the guy from that sitcom her father had always loved -much to Deena’s confusion and annoyance- is attempting to throw a stick for a dinosaur rather than getting the hell away from the dinosaur which is most definitely what Deena thinks she would be doing in his situation. And she feels like facing down a group of undead murderers has given her the right to be a little bit judgmental of people’s life choices.
The dinosaur quickly turns ferocious and murder-y and Deena glances at Sam out of the corner of her eye. “I worry about you sometimes.”
“Oh come on,” Sam says, bumping their shoulders together. “That’s cool. Look at its…fan thing.”
Deena laughs, shaking her head. “Yeah, I think ‘fan thing’ is definitely the scientific term.”
“Thought so,” Sam says, settling herself against the back of the seat.
There may be a smile on her face while the dinosaur eats the guy, but Deena loves her nonetheless.
It doesn’t take long before the popcorn bucket has been relegated to its spot on the floorboards once more and Sam has her head on Deena’s shoulder again, her fingers brushing absently against the curve of Deena’s wrist and skimming over the hills and valleys of her knuckles. Deena is certain she could be anywhere in the world in this moment and be perfectly happy as long as she has Sam’s head on her shoulder and the gentle brush of the tips of Sam’s fingers against her skin. The steady feeling of contentment settles itself across her shoulders the way it does so frequently now and the idea that flits across her mind -I could do this forever- doesn’t terrify her the way it used to.
Somewhere around the time Dr. Sattler unwisely declares the park to be back in business, Sam finally lifts her head and says, “Have you thought any more about what your advisor said? About narrowing down your major?”
Deena sighs, just barely managing to stifle a groan, though she’s sure that Sam knows her well enough to imagine it anyway. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about school or the future this weekend,” she points out, giving Sam a pointed look. “Or are we also going to talk about what you’re going to do next semester.”
It’s not like the prospect of actually becoming a college graduate and doing something with her life outside of toiling away in Shadyside for the rest of her life has lost its appeal, but there are a few times where Deena thinks it would be easier just to bury her face in her pillow and not get out of bed for a week or two.
Being eaten by a dinosaur might be more pleasant than trying to narrow down what she actually wants to do with the rest of her life.
“Oh, I know what I’m going to do,” Sam assures her.
Deena lifts her eyebrows because this is definitely news to her. She’s become well acquainted with coming home from classes to find Sam sitting in the empty bathtub -her favorite spot in the apartment to work through whatever might be weighing on her mind at the moment. In fact, Deena had found her there just yesterday, which had partially inspired the suggestion that they needed to get out of the apartment and do something other than figure out how they were going to spend their last year of college and, apparently, the rest of their lives.
“Really?” Deena asks, and she can’t tell if its skepticism or envy coloring her tone.
Sam shrugs. “I think we should just become monster hunters. I mean, we already know that we’re pretty good at it. Well, you’re pretty good at it.”
The casualness with which Sam makes this statement makes Deena laugh before she can control the impulse and her reaction gets a grin out of Sam, though she still tries to feign sincerity. “What? It works for Buffy.”
“Demon hunting,” Deena repeats, once she’s managed to swallow down enough for her laughter to form actual words. “I…didn’t know that was an option.”
“For us? Definitely.”
“In that case why are we even going to college?” Deena asks. “Hell, let’s just start right now. There has to be a demon around here that needs killing.”
“Or a curse that needs breaking.”
Deena grins, shaking her head, and pulling Sam closer. “Yeah, I think that only happens when I’m feeling particularly motivated.”
Sam smiles, her nose brushing against Deena’s before she kisses her, and this time not even the tinny roar of the T-rex is enough to distract them.
my favorite shows are Hannibal, SpongeBob, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and tbh I think that tells people basically everything they need to know about me
