Her Devotion [Sam Uley]

Chapter Nine

Christina sat in the middle of her bed and hugged a pillow to herself, trying not to let the tears in her eyes escape. Between the hurt that Bella caused and the confusing feelings about Sam and adding on the stress of what happened in Ohio, she felt like she might just burst. Christina looked up as she heard footsteps on her stairs, assuming it was her uncle coming to check on her she wiped her eyes and plastered a smile on her face. Confusion crossed her face when she realized it wasn't Charlie but rather Sam making his way upstairs.

He walked in her room and smiled at her and sat on the edge of the bed and just looked at her curiously. "You okay?" Even though he knew that she was indeed not okay, he wanted to give her a chance to open up to him a little and show her that he wanted her to open up to him.

"I mean, yes, but not really. I'll be fine really" she answered somewhat honestly. Sam just raised an eyebrow and continued to look at the girl. She sighed "Bella just isn't in a great mood and I'ms till adjusting so its all hitting at once I guess." Sam just sat silently hoping she trusted him enough to open up a little bit. Christina looked around her room and continued "I didn't move out here for shits and giggles, I moved because I had no other place to go really. I was living in Ohio with my boyfriend at the time and things were great, until they weren't." She took a shaky breath in and Sam scooted closer to her "We both had good jobs that paid well and we got along great, then he lost his job and everything went downhill from there." Sam reached out and moved a strand of hair from her face "what happened?" She looked down to her lap and said "he blamed me for losing his job. He said that I was stressing him out so much at home that he couldn't focus when he was at work. Then he started drinking. He kept swearing that he would get help for it but I found out that when the meetings were taking place, he was holding his own at a friends house. We were arguing one night over bills and he lost it." Christina looked up to Sams eyes seeing both sadness and anger in them. He swallowed hard before asking a question he was sure he knew the answer to "Did he hit you?" Tears filled her eyes as she nodded her head.

Sam looked away and clenched his jaw. Christina couldn't hold the tears back anymore and said "after that day he did try to do better and we went almost a week before another fight broke out. That was my breaking point." Christina looked at Sam and said "Uncle Charlie knows about the drinking but he doesn't know about the abuse, you can't say anything to him either." Sam reached out for her hand and said "I wouldn't tell him unless you wanted me to do so." Stroking her hand he asked "did he let you go easily?" She shook her head "I left when he went drinking one night, I packed everything that I could and left to my friends house and got a hold of Uncle Charlie and talked to him about everything. With both my parents gone he's the only one I could turn to at the time. He convinced me to move out here but Derek didn't want to let me go as easily as I hoped. He even followed me to the airport. Luckily he didn't know where I was going so I don't think that he would come here, even if he managed to get the money to come out. But he still texts me from time to time."

Sam let go of her hand and stood up and started pacing " you need to change your number so he can't do that anymore" he stopped and looked down at Christina "you know you're safe here, right?" She smiled "yeah, I know, I've felt nothing but safe since I got here. I now see why my parents both loved this state too. It's become home to me." Sam smiled at her and said "good, I'm glad you feel safe here. If you're ever scared or anything or need anything you can always call me, I'm here for you." She smiled, "thanks Sam" She took a deep breath in and said "I bet you weren't expecting pizza and a sob story tonight, were you?" He laughed and said "Not really, but that's okay, it seemed like you needed to talk about it. How about we head downstairs and grab some pizza before it disappears?" She stood up from the bed and straightened her shirt "sounds good to me."

They made their way downstairs and grabbed some soda and pizza from the kitchen and sat at the kitchen table just chatting about day to day stuff. It came time for Sam to leave and he looked at Christina "hey, would you want to go get dinner with me sometime? Maybe this weekend?" She smiled up at him "yeah, that sounds nice, I close Saturday but I have Sunday off." He smiled and said "Okay, Sunday it is, how does 6 sound to you?" She nodded "Works for me, I'll see you then Sam." He leaned down and kissed her forehead "see you later" he whispered as he walked out the door. She closed the door and turned around to see her uncle leaning against the doorframe smirking at her "just friends huh?" She blushed and hit his arm as she made her way upstairs for the night.