Bridges • (Nate Maloley)

Chapter 3.

"How have you been?" I went in for another hug. Nate's hugs are honestly the most comforting, I had almost forgotten.

"Good, busy, you know?" He let out an airy laugh and squeezed me tighter. "What about you? What have you been up to?" He pulled away from our hug and just stared at each other, our bodies still connected.

"Been good, I got a job a while back so that and school have been keeping me occupied." I sighed while talking and put all my weight on one hip and put my arm to rest on it.

"Awe, well that's great! Any guys I need to break while I'm here?" We both laugh and I shrug looking over at Sarah trying to get her to get the hint to change the subject. Brice will obviously put me in a sour mood and it's been a good day without the drama.

"Hey, Nate! So I'm guessing you brought Sammy?" Sarah laughs and that totally brings up a conversation about Sammy who's real name is Samuel from what I got out.

"Yup, where is he by the way? I have to take him home." Nate starts walking away and I get the chills from the cold air brushing past me.

"Oh, here.." Sarah goes off to the lead the way and Nate obediently follows. Great, I'm alone, again.

Just as I was about to walk towards Johnson to get Zoe, I feel my phone buzzing from inside my purse. I dig through my purse exploring for my phone which happens to be at the very bottom and I take it while accidentally answering who ever was calling.

"Hello?" I greet not looking at the called ID and start my way to Johnson.

"Hey, baby, I," and just as I heard that voice, I stopped in my tracks. Brice. "We need to talk. I heard that Sammy was going to the party so I don't know if you met him already or what," okay, how does everyone know this 'Sammy' but me? "But he's bad, okay? So please, I know we're not on good terms right now, but I still care about you and I don't want you to get hurt." What does  he mean by 'bad'. Like, murderer bad or.. Just regular teen bad boy bad?

"I'll be fine. I know how to take care of myself. After all I have been taking care of myself all my life so." I really just wanted to hang up but then that would bring in an argument and I'm so not up for that. Especially when Im here. Ben and Nate would be pissed.

"Okay. Well can we talk?" Great. Could he have picked a worse time?

"Maybe tonight? I'm still here, should be leaving soon, I guess." I lied. I don't guess we're leaving soon. I'm actually just going to drop off Eli and Zoey at home when mom gets off work, and come back here to sleepover. I just really want this phone call to be done with and if I told him this, he would have really gotten me in a sour mood.

"How bout tomorrow then? I'm doing something later so I'll be busy." Of course. He's always busy and usually he tells me but he has moments when he acts super weird and just says 'busy' but we aren't together right now and I couldn't care less.

"Okay, sounds good. Goodnight, Brice." Please just say bye so I can end this.

"Goodnight beautiful." I heard him mutter something else but I couldn't really process exactly what that was. Whatever. As soon as I hang up the phone, Johnson starts walking towards me, Sammy following. Oh, great.

"Hey, so you met Sammy, right?" Johnson states as he passes Zoe to me and I rest her on my hip.

"Um.. Not quiete." We let out an airy laugh and seems to be awkward. "Hi, I'm Hailee." I put my hand out for him to shake and he follows.

"I'm Samuel, but you can call me Sammy," he shakes my hand and gives a small smile. Cute smile, polite. Mh, doesn't seem bad..atleast for now.

"Cool, nice to meet you." I smile back and we let go of each other.