"Yes! Okay can you please stop saying it?!" Natalie said.
"Wow" Wendy said "So...is he...?" she asked.
"He's...above average yeah" Natalie said.
"Really?" Wendy asked pleasantly surprised "How was it?" she asked.
Natalie looked at her in annoyance "Wendy, you are completely missing the point here" she said. "Oh my god it was amazing" Natalie said.
"I knew it" Wendy said smiling "So between the two of them who's better?" she asked.
"Wendy! This is bad okay, I am having a real problem here!” Natalie said to her.
"You're right, I'm so sorry...okay let's recap, you go out, you run into Bradley, the two of you get into this big fight, you at some point end up in bed together, Neilson walks in and sees the whole thing" Wendy said as Natalie nodded along. "Wow...it's like a Lifetime movie" she said.
"I know" Natalie whined hiding her face into her hands "This isn't just about me, what about Bradley and Neilson? Their friendship is basically destroyed at this point...and I'm the one who did it" she said.
"I'm sure it's not as bad as you think" Wendy said.
Neilson opened his locker and stood in front of it switching books out. Bradley cautiously approached him.
"Hey" Bradley said leaning against the locker next to him, Neilson glared at him before turning back to his locker.
"Can I help you?" he asked, Bradley closed his eyes and sighed.
"Neilson come on we need to talk about this" Bradley said.
"I don't want to talk about it okay? I especially don't want to talk about it with you" he closed the locker and walked away.
"Neilson" Bradley said following him "You can't just keep shutting me out like this" he said.
"Okay fine you want to talk, how's this? you're a selfish, inconsiderate son of a bitch who can't stand to see anyone else happy and has to have what everyone else does" Neilson said. "That good enough for you?" Neilson asked walking into a classroom, Natalie walked into the room and they looked at each other, Neilson then took his seat.
"Hi" she said to him softly, sitting in the desk next to him.
"Hello" he said, avoiding her face.
"How are you?" she asked.
"I've been better" he said.
She nodded "Neilson...I don't even know what to say to you..." she said sadly.
"There's nothing to say" he said.
"Have you talked to Bradley at all?" she asked.
"No, I'm not really interested in what he has to say either" Neilson said.
"He's your best friend" she said sadly.
"Yeah I thought so too" he said bitterly.
"So that's it? You're just going to write him off?" she asked.
"What do you care?" he asked her.
"Okay everyone take your seats" their teacher said coming into the room.
Bradley sat in his class jotting something down in his notebook.
A pair of elevator doors opened to Sasha, she stepped out on to the hospital floor, Vicki stood at the nurses’ station reviewing a patient’s file.
“Hey” Sasha said.
“Oh hey!” Vicki said upon seeing her.
“Welcome home” Sasha said as they hugged.
“Thank you” Vicki said closing the file and handing it to the nurse.
“How was the conference?” Sasha asked.
“Oh my god it was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life” Vicki said hastily pushing Sasha into her office “So boring, the most boring thing you can ever imagine” Vicki said as she shut the door.
“So did you get a uh…welcome home present from Brian?” Sasha asked suggestively.
“Oh I wish, no I didn’t get home until late last night and I had to be here early so…so what’s going on? This is a surprise” Vicki said.
“Yeah, well I tried calling you” Sasha said.
“Oh yeah my stupid phone died and my charger isn’t working, why?” Vicki asked.
“Well you better brace yourself because…a lot has happened and you’re not going to believe any of it” Sasha said.
“This doesn’t sound good at all” Vicki said “Who are we talking about here?” she asked pulling a couple water bottles from a small refrigerator.
“Your son, my son and that little tramp Natalie” Sasha said taking the water bottle from her.
“What happened?” Vicki asked as they sat on a small couch.
"Well for starters, Neilson and Nat broke up" Sasha said.
"What?" Vicki asked.
"Yeah" Sasha said.
"Oh no" she said "What happened?" she asked.
“The reason doesn’t matter because it’s as stupid as you would think” Sasha said.
“Wow…well I’m sorry, I guess…but where does Bradley fit into this?” she asked.
“I’m not a hundred percent on all the details yet, this is basically all just hearsay but Bradley went out one night, he ran into Natalie and they ended up fighting…I guess she was flirting with some other guy” Sasha said.
“And knowing my son he probably confronted her in Neilson’s defense” Vicki said.
“Yeah...anyways they started arguing and then something happened, it turned into this moment of passion, they kissed and they ended up going back to her house" Sasha said as Vicki sighed in frustration.
"Bradley slept with Natalie" she said.
"Yeah but it doesn't end there" Sasha said.
"It gets worst?" Vicki asked.
"Neilson walked in on them" Sasha said.
"Oh my god" Vicki said.
"Yeah apparently, he saw everything" Sasha said.
"Oh no" she groaned.
"Well he stormed out, Bradley found him in the park, they had it out there and needless to say Neilson's not very happy right now" Sasha said.
"Well I guess not, what is the appropriate reaction to finding your best friend in bed with the person you love?" she asked “Oh this is bad” Vicki said.
“Yeah it is, Neilson’s actually staying with me right now so he doesn’t have to be around Bradley" she said "It's a mess" Sasha said.
"Well it sure sounds like it" Vicki said “And I know my son, Neilson is the most important person in his life, Bradley is going to beat himself up about this and he's going to drown himself in guilt and regret” Vicki said.
“I’m coming to you as a friend and another mother, how do we get them through this?” Sasha asked.
Vicki sighed "as much as I would love to make this all better for Bradley, there's nothing we can do" she said.
"Yeah I figured as much" Sasha said "I guess they need to find a way to work this out themselves" she said.
“This reminds me how much high school can suck” Vicki said.
“Tell me about it” Sasha said “At least we had it easy…we got pregnant” Sasha said, Vicki nodded in agreement.
“I just don’t get how Natalie could do this to them she's been around them long enough to know what their relationship means to them” Vicki said.
“Ugh don’t even get me started on that girl, I could just strangle her” Sasha said angrily Sasha looked at her watch “I got to get back to the store.”
“Okay, thank you so much for filling me in” Vicki said as they hugged.
“Course, I wish it was better news” Sasha said.
“Call me later okay, my phone should be fixed by then” Vicki said.
“Will do, bye” Sasha said.
“Bye” Vicki said as Sasha left her office.
She picked up the picture of Bradley from her desk and looked at it sadly.
