Freeze Frame

Today is like Christmas for me! No, nothing special happened with Sara, if it did that would be like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one!

No, today is the one day where I actually waited for the department managers to come in. Today was the one day I hung around the store to actually buy something. If you didn't know, today is Transformers day!

I can not tell you how excited I am to see this movie. If you can recall, I tried to go see it with Sara when it came out this summer but we ended up playing arcade games until the place closed for the night. So I haven't seen it and it's killing me, it looked so awesome in the trailers!

I'm not a Transformers fan, I don't know the story, I didn't follow the show. I played with Transformers as a kid but I had no idea at the time what they were or that there was a huge cult following with it came to them. Hell, I didn't even know there was a freaking cartoon until a couple years ago! It's a little hard to explain how excited you can get for a movie that you have no idea about.

But fuck was I excited to get a copy!

At seven the department managers come in and at seven I normally run out the door. This morning I was circling the unopened displays for the movie, waiting for the Electronics manager to come over so I could get a copy.

I'll be damn if she wasn't late!

At 7:15, I was damn near bouncing. I wanted to hunt her down and beat her for not being there so I could get my copy before I went home.

"Come on," Sara tugged on my hand. "Let's go grab some breakfast and come back just as the store opens, they have to be out then!"

"But...but..." I stared at the non descript cardboard box surrounding the display as it blocked me from getting my hands on one. "What if they sell out?"

She laughed, "Tanner they won't sell out first thing! Come on," she motioned for me to follow her as she started for the front of the store.

I ended up following her, I didn't really want to wait until the store opened, I wanted to go home immediately and watch it but breakfast with Sara? I could put of Transformers for a little while to be with her.

Breakfast was great, I think the other customers were a little confused by us ordering burgers and fries but it was more like supper time for us, not breakfast. We talked about little things, I'm still finding out stuff about her like, this morning, she told me that when she was a little girl, she would climb up to the top of the biggest tree in her backyard. She would spend hours up there, watching the neighbours and writing or drawing what she saw.

"Do you still climb the tree?"

She shook her head, "No, I fell out of it when I was 15 and suddenly it didn't seem like so much fun anymore."

When we were finished eating, we went back to work. Sara said she needed to grab some things for her mom, so she went off to do that while I ran - ok, I didn't really run - to Electronics and bought the movie.

I tried to talk Sara into coming home with me by saying she owed me a movie but she said she couldn't, that she had stuff to do at home.

If you are counting...and I am....it's been 12 days since Sara has come home with me. 12 days since we really hung out.

I don't count the time I went to her house...

Fuck! I guess I still have to finish that story. Damn Transformers made me forget about it!

Where was I?

Oh yeah...

"Tanner?" Sara gasped as I came flying around the corner of her house, ready to cause injury to the bastard for even daring to be around her after all he did.

"Where is he?" I looked around frantically.

Sara frowned, "Where is who?" She glanced at the chick that got out of her car before looking back at me. "What are you doing here Tanner?"

"Tanner?" The chick came bouncing up, gawking at us. "This is Tanner?" I swear her jaw was scrapping the ground as Sara nodded. "Oh my GOD! Yum!"

"Becca!" There was a red tinge to Sara's cheeks as her eyes widen.

"What?" Becca smiled. "You told me he was cute but...mmmm," She was checking me out. "He's hot!"

"BECCA!" Red looks good on Sara but I'm sure she was wishing for the ground to open up and take her. She tried to pretend that she wasn't embarrassed as she turned to ask me why I was there. "Is something wrong?"

"That's the bastard's truck," I pointed to the street. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"Tanner..." Sara grimaced as she shot a look to Becca.

"What?" I had all these thoughts rushing through my head, and one of them was an image of the two of them back together which made my blood boil. "If he hurts you again Sara, he's a dead man!"

"Tanner!" Sara's eyes narrowed. "Stop it right now!"

"Why? He's a bastard and he didn't deserve you. I won't let him hurt you again."

"I don't think..." she glanced at Becca once again before asking if we could just talk about it later.

I shook my head, "Why is his truck here? Have you seen him?"

Sara crossed her arms over her chest...and yes, even though I was angry about the bastard, my eyes shifted downwards. "No, I haven't seen him Tanner."

"Then why is -"

"Hey," Becca threw her hand out in front of me. "I never introduced myself. I'm Becca," she smiled up at me. "The bastard's little sister."

"Wha..." I noticed Sara was nodding her head. I started to stumble over my words as I went to apologize.

"No," Becca stopped me. "I happen to agree with you, I love my brother but he is a bastard and he didn't deserve Sara. I don't know how she put up with all his crap for so long, I would've kicked him in the nuts years ago!"

"I'm home for Thanksgiving," she continued. "I told Ken I needed his truck to run some errands. I drove here in his truck. Not him, he's not here so you can relax."

I felt like a complete ass.

"Sara," Becca gave her a hug. "I'm so glad we got to hang out for a little while, I was afraid that you wouldn't want to see me now."

"Of course I want too," Sara hugged her back. "We were friends before Ken, I don't see why it would make a difference now."

"It shouldn't," Becca stated but there seemed to be something hidden in her tone, like the bastard not liking her talking to Sara still. "It was nice to finally met you," she said to me. "I have to go, it's a long drive back to school." She started to walk towards the truck. "I'll call you soon Sara."

She was about to get into the truck when she stopped and called out to Sara. "Maybe you should get Tanner to help you with that little 'problem' we were talking about earlier, he looks like he would be more than willing!"

Sara couldn't even look at me after Becca said that.

"So?" I rocked back and forth from my heels to my toes, my hands were shoved deep into the front pockets of my jeans. "I made an ass out of myself, didn't I?"

Sara chuckled, "Yeah," she nudged me. "A big one."

"I freaked when I saw his truck."

She nodded, "I know, I did too. I couldn't even get in it when Becca said she wanted me to go with her to the stores; that's why we took my car."

I threw an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry I reacted like I did."

"It's ok," she turned, wrapping both her arms around my waist. "You're a guy, you aren't expected to think before you act."

"Hey!"

"But I'll let you make it up to me," she smiled up at me.

I raised a brow, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," she looked at her car. "You can help me with some stuff."

Nice moment...isn't it? Being close, talking, enjoying the day.

Then I had to ruin the moment....

"The thing that Becca mentioned?"

Sara went red. And she pushed away from me. "I'm going to kill her" she muttered as she walked towards her car.

I killed the moment! Fuck! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that moment back? I tried for the hour that I was at her place but nothing I did came close to us being back in that place. Sara didn't freeze me out, she just didn't get that cozy with me again.

Maybe I should learn to keep my mouth shut.