My Brother's Best Friend 

Chapter 3: Time to Talk

Edited

I was on my way to meet Nathan at the coffee shop. It wasn't something I was particularly looking forward to because Nathan and I weren't on the best of terms at the moment. Honestly, I was tired of it all. He never called me or texted me. I was always the one who had to do that. And even when I did he'd always have some sort of excuse to get out of doing things with me. That's why I asked him to meet me, which surprisingly he'd actually agreed to.

I really didn't know if I could handle being with him anymore. A part of me wanted to, but there was also another part of me that didn't. It wasn't helping that Nathan wasn't making an effort to make this relationship work either. That only added onto the one hundred million things I wanted to talk about with him.

If you're wondering, no, I did not consider Jared into this whole scenario. What was going to happen—if anything was—would be completely between Nathan and I. Jared had no influence on how our relationship was going to work out.

I don't even know why I'm thinking of him at the moment. He has nothing to do with any of this, so I should just push him out of my mind for the time being.

Even though I didn't want to.

Oh, shush Mallie!

I proceeded to get off the subway, walking towards the coffee shop, moving with the flow of people walking forward. That's the thing about New York City... everyone walked. There weren't a lot of people who owned cars because why own a car in this city? The traffic was horrible, so must people just took the subway—including me.

The coffee shop looked the same as it had for the past ten years. There was a bar section that wasn't really a bar since they didn't serve alcohol, but it was designed like one. And there was a small rectangular section at the back with tables filling the room where lots of college students came to work on papers and things. The red leather booths were, of course, where most couples sat to chit chat or just to get to know each other a little better... but not in my case.

I looked around searching for Nathan, before I spotted him trying to wave me down, my usual drink already waiting for me at the table.

"Hey, Mallie," he smiled, as I ignored his invitation to sit beside him and instead sat in front of him.

He seemed a bit discouraged as I looked at him, but he quickly hid it by placing a weak smile on his lips, pushing my drink towards me.

"It's your favorite," he said, referring to my favorite kind of milkshake—which just happened to be chocolate with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

I pressed my lips together, gathering my courage as I sat for a moment, thinking of how I wanted to say this to him without hurting his feelings—even though he's already hurt me a lot.

"Thanks," I whispered, before looking up at him as he drank his vanilla milkshake, "listen Nathan I asked you here because—!"

"Oh hey guys!" I heard his voice.

Oh no. I know that voice. Even if I don't know him all that well I still know that voice. It was his voice. Jared's voice.

I reluctantly looked up, my eyes falling on the girl who was standing next to him. The girl that everyone either worshiped... or hated.

Cassidy Newman.

Fortunately, I was one of the ones who didn't particularly like her. I didn't hate her because hate was a really strong word, but I didn't particularly like her that much either.

"Hey Jared," Nathan said.

I looked at Jared for a split second as he looked at me. For a moment we just stared at each other, before Nathan spoke up again.