Could you please sometime write something angsty involving your original character Sam? Maybe? Anyway I just wanted to say I love your tu me le page and your writing
I made mention that I was going to try and squeeze in a prompt this weekend (*barely skates in past the deadline*). I don’t know how “angsty” we’re talking, but this particular ask has been in my inbox a while:
****************
Sam DiLaurentis-Fields wasn’t the kind of kid who got into fights at school. For as long as he could remember he’d been a lover, not a fighter. When he was a baby he’d scream his little lungs out when his sisters fought. When he was a toddler, he always made sure to hug all of his friends so none of them would feel left out. He was the kind of kid who made sure everyone in his kindergarten class got a valentine on Valentine’s Day.
Sam wasn’t the kind of kid who threw right hooks, at least, not without reason. Yet, he was walking up his driveway with battered knuckles and a black eye.
He’d been going through some things at home. He’d had trouble adjusting to his sisters going to college. They still lived at home, but they spent a lot of their time on campus. They mostly just came home to eat and beg their moms to do their laundry.
His mother Alison had scoffed at the suggestion and had thrown a pair of dirty underwear at her twins before telling them to do their own damn laundry. His mother Emily had recorded it on her phone while laughing.
Sam had also been struggling to keep up in his English class at school. He was more sensitive than most little boys his age, and it showed in his writing assignments. It got him a lot of hate from his classmates. Normally he didn’t really care about it. He spent most of his time on the playground with his best friend Aurora Fitz anyway. He didn’t need anyone else.
But lately, the teasing and the taunts had been getting worse. It had made him angry and confused about a lot in life.
He pulled his hood up over his head before he reached the front door. He thought if he could just slip past his mothers and hide in his room for a while he wouldn’t have to explain how he’d laid out a boy in his class. They’d both managed to avoid disciplinary action at school because no one saw it happen and neither one of them snitched. But Sam had a feeling it was going to be a little harder to keep it a secret from his family.
He saw Lily’s car in the driveway and for a second he thought about sneaking in through the back to avoid his sisters and his moms. He hesitated before walking through the front door.
He heard laughter coming from the living room.
“Hey, little brother!” He heard Grace call out to him.
“Hey, big sister.” He called back as he walked towards the stairs.
He thought he was home free, but then he heard his mother’s voice.
“How was school today, Sam?” Emily asked as she walked around the corner.
Sam pulled his hoodie further over his face. Emily didn’t miss the reaction. She peered at her son curiously.
“Fine,” he muttered under his breath. “Lots of homework. I’m going to my room.”
“Excuse me? We came all the way home from campus to spend some time with our favorite brother and he can’t make time for us?” Lily asked as she walked over towards where her mom was standing.
“You drove seven miles to raid the fridge.” Sam gave her a hard time, hoping that his normal bickering would convince them he was fine.
“I’m offended.” Grace walked towards them. “It wasn’t the fridge. It was the cabinet.”
Crap. Sam thought to himself. He was never going to get past them. He did his best to shield his black eye.
“I’m surprised it wasn’t the trash. I’ve seen you pull pizza out of the garbage, Grace.” Sam uttered.
“Well, get a load of the snark on you.” Grace was surprised.
“Watch out, we got a real badass here.” Lily threw her arms up teasingly.
His mother Alison walked into the room and Sam thought he was going to have a panic attack.
“I’ll catch up with you later. Like I said…homework…” He tried to move towards the stairs.
“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were avoiding us.” Lily frowned. “What’s with the emo look, Sammy?” She reached towards the hood on his head.
“Nothing. I just want to go to my room.” His attitude shifted drastically.
“She’s right. You’re acting weird.” Grace frowned.
“Sam, is something wrong?” Alison asked. She looked at Emily, worried.
“No!” He grumbled defensively. He put his hand on the banister.
“Hold up…” Grace put herself between her little brother and the wooden stairs that led up to his quiet freedom from his sisters and his mothers.
She pulled the hood of his sweatshirt down, revealing his disheveled hair and what looked to be a bruise forming around his right eye.
“What the hell, Sammy?” Grace exclaimed.
Lily was behind Grace in an instant, observing the marks on his face.
“What happened? Who did this to you?” Lily’s voice came out as a fearsome growl. It was unlike any noise he’d ever heard before, especially coming from her.
Lily was calm. Lily was quiet. He’d never heard her react with such vigor before. She sounded like an angry tiger ready to sharpen her claws on the first thing she could find. It was a little bit intimidating…the quiet fire his sister had. Unlike Grace, who undoubtedly wore her heart on her sleeve when it came to emotions, Lily had a terrifying fire in her belly that could scorch the Earth without warning.
“It’s nothing.” Sam tried to play it off.
“Bullshit it’s nothing.” Alison had her hand on his face seconds later, cupping his chin and observing the purple discoloration beneath his right eye. “Sam, who did this to you?” She sounded like she was ready to rip someone to shreds.
He jerked away from her touch. Emily watched the interaction quietly. She could tell there was something he was too afraid to say. She could see that he felt cornered by all the aggression. She recognized that there was something he wanted to hide. Sam looked at her helplessly, begging for her to be the voice of reason, like she always was.
Emily was the only person who seemed to have a grip on her emotions in his family. Lily usually had a tight grip on her reactions, but she had a quiet fire that threatened to explode when someone hurt the people she loved. Grace and Alison both had a fire that couldn’t be diminished. Lily usually wasn’t one to lose her temper. But she looked ready to kill. The only one who had an even expression on her face was Emily.
“Just leave me alone.” Sam pushed Alison away and bounded up the stairs.
Grace followed him, her nostrils flaring. She grabbed his arm.
“Sam, you tell us who did this right now.” Grace ordered.
He jerked away from her and pushed her.
“Samuel Wayne DiLaurentis-Fields!” Alison snapped at her son.
But he was already gone. Grace stomped down the stairs and past her mothers. Lily followed her.
“You take them. I’ll take him.” Emily suggested.
“Oh, sure, leave me with the girls with hairline trigger tempers.” Alison scoffed sarcastically.
“That’s all you, sweetie.” Emily smirked at her. “You speak bitch-ese.”
Alison scowled at her.
“You’re lucky I love you.”
Emily smiled at her innocently before trekking upstairs. Unsurprisingly, she found Sam’s door closed. She knocked lightly and twisted the door knob. He was sulking on his bed. He turned over, refusing to look at her.
Emily walked over to the side of the bed.
“What’s up, Sammy?” Emily asked, sitting down next to him.
“I’m tired of everyone treating me like a baby.” Sam complained.
“Your sisters and your mother are just worried. That’s all.”
“Well, they can stop. I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can.” Emily shrugged. “You’re my kid.”
That garnered Sam’s attention. He turned over to face Emily.
“Did you get into fights when you were my age?”
“I threw a couple of punches in my day.” Emily nodded. “I was a little bit older than you are now. But I did bruise a few knuckles.” She picked Sam’s hand up to observe the scrapes on them.
He didn’t pull away from her. Instead, he stared at the blood on his hand. He barely even registered when Emily took a closer look at the shiner around his eye.
“We should probably get some ice on this.” She gently looked at the puffiness on his cheek.
Sam held his hand up, looking at the tiny bruises forming on his knuckles. He hadn’t known that punching someone’s face would hurt so much.
“I started it,” he murmured.
“What?” Emily asked.
“I threw the first punch.”
He waited for the inevitable explosion, the lecture, the mom-talk. But Emily had an inkling about what had happened. She’d seen the look on his face when he’d been unmasked by Grace. There was something in his expression that gave it away, but she needed to be sure.
“Sam, why would you start a fight? Your mother and I have taught you better.”
Sam turned away, refusing to say anything at first. But he felt his mom’s eyes boring a hole through his head. He sighed and turned around again.
“I’m sorry, mom.” His voice was shaking. “I didn’t mean to…” He stopped himself short. Because he’d absolutely meant to. He frowned, a scowl on his face. He looked a lot like Alison when he was pissed. “There was this kid…he kept talking smack about the fact that I’ve got two moms. And he talked about Lily and Grace, too. And it just made me so mad. He made it seem like you and mom weren’t normal…”
Emily had to contain her reaction. All she wanted to do was set the people who had hurt her son on fire.
“You and mom and Lily and Grace are all that I care about. I don’t like it when other people are mean to you. And when he was mocking me, he was mocking you…and mom. And everything about our lives. I mean, I know we’re different, and I’ve always been fine with that. But other kids don’t understand. And how can I compete with the stupid regular families with white picket fences and a mom and dad?”
“Regular is not a thing, buddy.” Emily touched his cheek. The bruise was starting to piss her off more and more. “Look, Sam, there are ignorant people out there.” Emily bit her tongue, trying like hell to fight the rage that she felt inside. “There are people who are going to tell you that your mother and I…that we’re not normal. And that your sisters are…” She struggled to find the right words to say to her young innocent son, “…that we’re different.”
“He said Grace and Lily were an abomination.”
I will beat this child. I’ve never hit a kid, but I’ll knock this little shit’s front teeth out…
But she controlled herself.
“That’s not true.” She tried to calm him down. “You and your sisters are the best thing that ever happened to your mother and me.”
Sam smiled. He loved his moms so much. And it hurt him when other people said ugly things about them.
“Whatever this kid said…it doesn’t change that.” Emily assured him.
“He’s such an asshole, mom.”
Normally, Emily didn’t like to hear her kids swearing. But this felt justified. And she didn’t say a word about it.
“Who was it?”
“I don’t want to say. You and mom will just make it worse.”
“Sam, I give you my word that this is just between us.”
“You promise?”
“I pinky swear.” She held her pinky out to him.
Wow. A pinky swear. This was big. Sam smiled at his mother. Emily felt her heart melting. He had his mother’s dimples. He hooked his finger into Emily’s and then looked at her.
“It was Justin Coogan,” he said with a frown.
Emily felt her temper flaring. Justin’s father, Ben, was a real piece of work. It came as no surprise that his son was a little shit just like he was.
“Well, between you and me…Justin is a dick.”
“Everyone who is anyone knows that.” Sam shrugged.
Emily laughed.
They talked for a few more minutes. She saw her son loosen up. Once she realized he was okay she decided to let him have the privacy he wanted.
“Sit tight, okay?” Emily pat his knees.
“You’re not going to tell mom and the girls are you?” Sam grimaced.
“I won’t say anything to Lily and Grace. But you and I both know your mother has been sitting outside the door listening this entire time.” She glanced towards the door, which she’d left cracked for that very reason.
The door creaked open and Alison peered in at Sam and Emily.
“Hello, dear.” Emily glanced at her.
“I’m going to murder that little son of a…”
“Ali, I’ll handle it.” Emily cut her off. “Sam, go with your mom. She’ll get you cleaned up, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He sighed.
He hopped off of his bed and walked over to Alison. Alison glanced at Emily with a look that said, “punch that asshole in the nuts” before she walked off with Sam.
Twenty minutes later Emily was on Ben Coogan’s doorstep. She rarely saw him, and she liked it that way. But when it came to her kids there was nothing she wouldn’t do.
When he answered the door he was surprised to see her. He leaned against the doorframe with a cocky look on his face. It was very much an expression that Emily wanted to wipe off of his face. But she fought back the urge to hit him.
“Emily Fields…” He grinned. “How have you been?”
“This isn’t a social call, Ben.” She balled her right hand into a fist.
“Mm.” He nodded. “I wondered if you’d show up and act like the self-righteous little bitch that you are.”
The urge to punch him was growing stronger.
“Your son has been harassing my son.” Emily gritted her teeth angrily.
“My son says your son threw the first punch.”
“Because your son was saying vile things to him.”
“My son didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.” Ben shrugged. “I mean, look at him…running to his mommies because of a little scrap at school…”
Of course the chauvinistic pig was siding with his little asshole spawn.
“You really are a piece of work, Ben.” Emily laughed angrily. “I’m sorry that you have a problem with the fact that I’m gay. And I’m sorry that your tiny little pea brain can’t comprehend that you never would have been enough to satisfy me. I’m sorry that your ego is that fragile. But I swear to God, if you don’t keep your kid in line you’re going to see a side of me that you’ll wish you’d never met. I will show you exactly who I am. And I guarantee that it will send you running to your mommy.” She leaned closer to him, showing a complete lack of fear. “Who do you think taught my boy how to land a punch?”
Ben took a step back and Emily couldn’t help but laugh. He was still the same scared insecure little boy he’d been in high school. She actually felt sorry for his son. Because Justin had no clue what a real man was like. Ben scoffed at her before he shut the door. But Emily knew that he’d gotten her message.
She used the walk home to cool off. Her adrenaline was pumping.
When she got home she was surprised to find Grace, Lily, and Sam in the front yard. Grace had on boxing pads and Sam had on big bulky gloves. Lily was coaching from the sidelines.
“Sam, you’re leading too much with your left foot. You need to really lean into it to get the power behind it and then follow through. And you don’t want to give away which fist you’re about to swing.”
“Yeah, don’t give that little shit a chance to react.” Grace added.
“Watch your mouth.” Emily glared at Grace as she walked past them.
“I’m an adult. You can’t tell me what to do anymore.”
“Is that so? Where’s my rent check then?” Emily asked.
“I love you, mommy.” Grace smiled innocently.
“What nonsense are you teaching the boy?” Emily asked. “You two do realize you could be tried as adults, right?”
“I don’t care.” Grace shrugged. She cared about her brother more than she cared about breaking the law.
“Yeah, Aunt Spencer would get us off.” Lily agreed.
Emily shook her head with a laugh and walked over towards the porch, where Alison was sitting in a chair and nursing a drink. Emily sat down next to her wife.
“You were supposed to talk them down from this.” Emily frowned.
“Yeah, that was before I found out the other kid was Ben Coogan’s son.” Alison sipped on her lemonade. She glanced at Sam, who had landed a decent punch into Grace’s boxing pad. “That’a boy, Sammy!” She raised her glass.
“Ali.” Emily looked at her in surprise.
“Oh, don’t play the high and mighty card. We both know you went over there to give that asshole a piece of your mind.” She faced Emily. “Did you hit him?”
Emily frowned.
“No. But I sure as hell thought about it.”
“I can’t believe the world lets people like that procreate. That kid is the walking embodiment of the devil.”
“That’s an insult to the devil.” Emily scoffed.
They watched Sam as his big sisters coached him on how to defend himself. Sam felt his stress melting away as he spent time with his family. He was able to get his frustration out.
So the next day at school it didn’t bother him when Justin called him a pussyboy. He simply ignored him. The taunts got increasingly worse as the day went on. Aurora felt like dumping her lunch over Justin’s head, but Sam told her he wasn’t worth it. He told Justin to get lost and he let him know he wasn’t afraid of him.
Later that afternoon Justin found Sam and Aurora near the buses. He tried to antagonize Sam into a fight, but Sam dismissed him. But the taunts continued, and it drew a crowd. It was getting harder and harder for Sam to ignore.
Fortunately for him, he had friends in all the right places. Justin was in the middle of calling Sam a mistake that never should have happened when a loud revving engine cut the boy off in the middle of his sentence.
Aurora smiled at Sam as her big brother’s convertible pulled into the school car pick-up lane. Her brother, Finn, stopped the car in front of the group of younger kids. Most of them gawked at it. They weren’t used to seeing the cool high schooler on their turf.
The top of the convertible was down. So were the windows. Finn looked out at his little sister and Sam. Aurora climbed into the back of the car. Sam looked over at the onlookers, who seemed impressed by the older boy’s status. Everyone knew Finn Fitz. He was a star lacrosse player and one of the sweetest guys at Rosewood High. Guys loved him and girls were in love with him. Anyone who was friends with him was automatically deemed cool for life.
Finn waved to Sam.
“Hey, hop in, kid.”
Sam flipped Justin the bird and climbed in next to Aurora with a huge grin on his face.
The crowd gawked. Was Sam DiLaurentis-Fields cool?
Finn glanced out the window, staring daggers at Justin.
“You’re Justin, right?” Finn lowered his sunglasses enough to look at the younger boy.
He had a menacing look on his face. It was enough to get Justin to back off.
“Who’s asking?” Justin asked.
“Don’t worry, little guy,” Finn said in a patronizing manner. “One day you’ll grow out of wetting the bed. Be brave, okay?”
Sam and Aurora snickered from the back seat.
“I don’t!” Justin exclaimed defensively.
But it was too late. The crowd had turned on him. Sam didn’t mind seeing him getting a taste of his own medicine.
Finn pulled the car out of the parking lot. Sam turned around and looked out the back windshield. Then he looked at his best friend. She shrugged innocently.
“I may have called for reinforcements.” Aurora shrugged, pulling her phone out of her pocket.
“Thanks.” Sam smiled. He leaned forward. “I owe you one, man.” He looked at Finn.
“Don’t mention it.” Finn shrugged. “Your sisters would have killed me had I not stepped in. I thought it would be better than having them show up with water balloons full of shaving cream.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “Don’t worry about those assholes, Sam. In a few years they’re going to be stuck in this town flipping burgers while you’re out there changing the world.”
Sam leaned back against the seat, a smile on his face. He knew that Finn was right.
He’d always known that his life was different.
But it was different in the best way. He had amazing parents, two incredible sisters, and friends that not even money could buy. He knew that his childhood would one day be a blip on the radar of his life. But he intended to appreciate that little blip for all it was worth at the moment.