Malachi Gregory (Volume One) - Rough Draft (Final Copy Coming Soon to Amazon)

Chapter 11: Sam

Bailey's POV

When Mal gets back to the Levs' place, I'm furious, but also relieved. "Mal! Where have you been," I ask as frustrated and anxious with her as I've ever been

"I told you," she answers as she takes off her jacket. "I went for a drive."

"You left five days ago," I exaggerate.

Instead of responding, she gives me "the look."

"Okay, well, it felt like five days," I clarify. "What happened to make you stay gone for so long?"

She opens her mouth to answer, but starts crying instead. "Oh my gosh," I worry, rushing toward me. All anger evaporated. "Are you okay?"

Between tears, she laughs. "What is wrong with me? Why do I keep crying?"

I laugh with her, but I'm sure she can hear the nerves in my voice. I am so worried about her. I have no earthly idea she where she's been the past several hours. Now, mentally and emotionally, I still have no idea where she is. I have a feeling this has something to do with Xane, but I don't know. I don't know anything. Mal has never liked anyone in our entire friendship and I don't know how to handle to Mal. She's used to me falling apart over stupid guys, but it's usual fast and fixed with ice cream. I don't know if Mal works like that. I doubt it. She feels so much more deeply than I do, especially when she fights so hard not to feel something.

"Is this what happens when you start to give your heart to someone," she asks with annoyed amusement.

"Apparently, it's what happens for you," I tease, glad to her acting somewhat normal. "Everyone's different though, so it's kind of interesting to see how you handle falling for someone."

I hear the gentle buzz of her phone in her pocket. The smile that crosses her face is honestly kind of terrifying when not two seconds ago she was crying. "Wait," she tells me. "I need to get this."

She smiles even wider when she looks down out her phone. "Malachi Elizabeth Gregory, you better tell me what's going on right this minute," I demand. "Two seconds ago, you were crying and now you're grinning at your phone like a child on Christmas day."

She tries to play it off by saying it's nothing, but I don't believe her.

"That's not nothing face," I realize. "Oh my gosh! Give me your phone!"

"What, no," she says holding it closer to her. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I tackle her, push her onto the bed she's standing text to, and take her phone away reading the two most recent message on her phone.

The first is of a really good-looking man with the text, "Hey, it's Sam. But you can tell from the picture. I thought we should have pictures for our contacts. Thanks for making my lonely New Year's Eve a little less lonely."

The second is a recent photo of Mal sent to him with the text, "Thanks for giving me a reason to smile at the start of the New Year."

I gasp. "You met and started flirting with someone new in approximately five hours," I ask in disbelief. "Girl, when you open your heart, you don't hold back!"

"It's not like that," she swears.

"Mal, you've fallen for two guys in a month," she reminds me. "In the nearly ten years that I've known you, you haven't fallen for anyone. Now, you're falling for two guys at the same time?"

"I'm not falling for anyone," she denies again.

"Mal," I say exasperated. "I've seen you feel a lot of things, but I have never seen you smile as brightly as you have with Xane or when you looked down at your phone for that text message."