Chance Encounter ➳ Drew Dirksen

5. sweets & surprises

a/n: this may or may not be a pretty long chapter. not sure :/ and i listened to life of the party by shawn mendes the entire time i was writing this (im so interesting wooow... no im not) also i changed the cast a bit and im laughing so hard omg

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It was the actual day of Brandi's birthday and Nate was arranging a surprise party for her, even though she specifically told him not to and would probably scold him if he did. That's why he sent her out to a store that was half an hour away, so he had some time to fix up her flat and get the guest list sorted for that day. He also made Levi tag along with her because she couldn't drive and the bus wouldn't travel that far.

Nate didn't exactly understand why she wanted to live alone. She loved her family to death and she didn't really have a good purpose to move out at all. Also, she practically lived in Nate's guest room, so why not just move in with him?

"Nate, dear? Are you sure we'll have enough time to prepare everything?" Brandi's mom, Beth, asked.

"Well, my parents are already helping out and Austin is on his way, so I think we'll be able to fix this place up by the time she gets back."

"And where exactly did you send both of my children off to? Lonnie— who's hers and Levi's dad— asked as he climbed onto a stool to hang some decorations on the walls.

"Just some store outside the city. I go there sometimes to escape the stress and Brandi had been there a couple of times as well," Nate replied. "She's probably giving Levi directions on how to get there."

Suddenly, Nate's phone began to ring. He checked the caller ID and rolled his eyes.

"What do you want, Levi?"

"Nate, I ditched Brandi in the foreign candy section to call you. Please tell me you're almost done," Levi said through the phone and Nate could actually hear him hyperventilating. "And this place is pretty cool, by the way."

"Austin isn't here yet, but we'll be done by the time you two get back, so calm down and just stall her, okay?" Nate replied. He heard the front door open as Austin casually walked in with some balloons and those party popper things and he sighed in relief. "Nevermind, Austin just arrived."

Nate heard some shuffling and what sounded like a faint voice in the background, which he recognized as Brandi's.

"Is that Nate? Can I talk to him?"

"No it's not."

"Oh, well who is it?"

"It's Austin."

"But didn't Austin break his phone yesterday?"

"Did I say Austin? Silly me. It's.. uh.. uncle Barry."

"But we don't have an uncle Barry."

"Of course we do, otherwise I wouldn't be talking to him."

"You're hiding something."

"What? No I'm not. Oh look, gummy bears! Let's buy some."

Nate rolled his eyes at Levi's stupidity and decided to just hang up and let him deal with his problems by himself. He made a mental note to never let Levi stall for him ever again, because of obvious reasons.

"Hey Nate," Austin called from the kitchen as he helped himself to some of Brandi's frozen cookies that he had found in the fridge. "Aren't you supposed to pick up the cake?"