Her giant BF . . . F?

Chapter 24- Nate's Proposition

Nellie glared at Colton and that annoying laugh of his just as they came to a stop next to Nate. Then Colton’s laughter stopped.

Nate didn’t look mad per say, but he didn’t look overly thrilled either. “Hey Nellie . . . Colton.”

Colton replied with a tight smile and slight nod of the head. But Nellie smiled warmly at the giant lanky boy. “Hello Nate!”

Then she looked back up at Colton and asked, “Can I talk to Nate?”

“Sure,” he said.

But then when he preceded to do nothing she added, “Like give me to him.”

He looked down at her slightly shocked, “Oh . . . you sure?”

“Yeah, are you sure?” Nate chimed in, his face looking a little distraught.

She smiled at both of them. Even though it had been just a day since she’d met her new giant friends she felt like she could trust them. “Yeah, I’m sure. Unless you don’t want to. Then we could just sit on the curb and talk I guess.”

Nellie looked down at the rough ground of the road and frowned. The terrain wasn’t exactly fine and even at her size. Making even the shortest of walks exhausting and killer on her feet.

“No I can hold you.” He reached out eagerly and waited for Colton to hand her over.

With a little hesitation he carefully slid the tiny girl from his large muscular hands, into the long, thin hand of the body in front of him.

Whereas Colton’s hands were soft from the extra flesh and warm, Nate’s were bonier and colder, but still gentle and comforting.

It was weird how you could feel a sense of ease being able to fit in the hand of another being. And how one could feel a sense of protection in the hands of one a sense of danger in another’s. It was like a gut instinct. You knew if someone was ready to hold another’s life in their hands after just a few seconds of being held. If they held steady and firm, then they wanted to keep you safe. If they were shaky and nervous then they weren’t ready.

Nate was ready. Nellie gripped the thumb that was wrapped around her waist like a seatbelt and looked up at Colton, “can you wait over there?” she asked as she pointed to the other side of the street out of earshot.

She watched him grudgingly walk across to the other side of the road, looking a little irritated. But that didn’t bother her. He needed to be shunned at least a little bit for what he did. And even though she was willing to forgive him she still wanted space. She had a whole new year ahead of her; one full of new friends, both human and retsnomian.

“Well hey there little lady,” Nate said smiling down at the tiny petite girl sitting in his hand. “How are you this morning?”

Nellie returned the smile and gave him the usual answer, “I’m good, and you?”

To which he replied in the customary manner, “I’m pretty good.” Only to add, “How is Colton doing?”

This surprised Nellie a little. She hadn’t expected him to acknowledge the elephant in the corner, but he did. “He’s pretty good, I guess. I mean, he’s as good as he can be. I’m not sure. I’m really bad about forgiving people too quickly, I don’t like holding grudges.” She looked down shamefully, “I know I should hate him. He did such awful things to the other humans, he and Genevieve and the other bad kids.”

She looked over at Colton’s sulking form across the way, trying to overheard or pay attention to anything that may or may not have been happening on the other side of the street. “I don’t know why I can’t bring myself to hate him.”