Just for This Year

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Some time jumps for the next few chapters! We'll be wrapping up Lila and Sam's story soon sadly :( we have about 3 chapters left. I have them planned out, so hopefully I can get them to you all soon!

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Saturday
January 18th

College.

The idea of it made Sam's skin crawl.

He heard back from all the school's that Lila applied to for him.

He got into all of them.

Now, he was in the process of deciding between them. Sam had time before he had to make the decision, but he knew that if he procrastinated long enough that he just would never pick. Evidently, Charlie knew that too. He pleaded Sam to go through his options. Sam also knew that Charlie just wanted to know that Sam would be all right. Charlie wanted to make sure that just because he wasn't going to college with Sam, that didn't mean Sam wouldn't go at all. And in truth, Sam did want to weigh his options before he had to just make a last minute decision.

They had been at it for a while now. They were sat on the couch at Sam's house. Both his sister and mother were out for the day, so it was the perfect time for them to look at what was in front of him. Sam knew he had to do this without any influence from his family. He had to make this choice is for himself. But evidently, that choice was brutally difficult. Especially considering he was still hung up on Oakside.

"Okay... how about Redford U?" Charlie offered, pointing towards the screen to draw Sam's attention to it.

Sam leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. "Heard their food sucks."

Charlie snorted. "All college food sucks."

"I'll be the judge of that. Next," Sam dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"University of Kellington?"

"Their mascot is weird."

"Parley College?"

"That's a dumb name."

"Fine! Well, the University of—"

"No! They're all wrong!" Sam finally cried out, standing up and shaking his hands near his head.

"Whoa, it's okay, Sam," the sandy-haired boy backtracked, hands held in front of him in defense. "We can talk about it more later, I just thought you wanted to go through your options."

Sam scoffed, gesturing loosely towards the computer with a foul expression. "No, I don't want that, all right? They all suck, I don't wanna go to any of them."

"What? Cause they're not Oakside?" Charlie shot back hotly from the couch.

"Yeah, you know what? Cause they're not the one place I wanted to get into," he emphasized, holding his pointer finger up.

"Sam you... you got into better schools, why are you clinging onto Oakside so much?" Charlie finally asked, leaning his elbows onto his thighs.

A flicker of pain shot through Sam's chest, avoiding Charlie's deep gaze. He flopped back down on the couch, trying to think of how to say it. After a few moments of struggling to find the words, Sam laid down on the couch, his face muffled by a pillow to hide his face. "Because I can't tell my dad I'm going somewhere else."