Free Falling

"Angel, I really need your help."

The urgency in Nate's voice prompted me to sit up and grip my phone firmer. He sounded like he was writhing in pain.

"Are you okay?" I asked, dropping my pen on my notebook.

"Actually, not really," he chuckled, his masculine voice rumbling. "It's a Chloe situation." My heart rate decreased at the mention of his girlfriend's name, relieved he wasn't in any real trouble.

Nate was my best friend, and three years older we'd known ourselves since we could even register the world around us as kids. I stretched in my position at my balcony which graced me with a beautiful view of the city. I always managed to concentrate on studying better here.

"What did Chloe do this time?" I groaned, closing my notes because I knew I'd be leaving my apartment anytime soon.

"You wouldn't believe if I told you," he breathed. "Just come over to my place, please."

I narrowed myself at his tone and choice of words. Nate never used the word 'please' with me, often bullying me into complaisance.

"Nathaniel, you're creeping me out. Are you in a hostage situation? Has she finally kidnapped you?"

"Oh my God, Amy, can you do less talking and more walking? You're such a handful," he said and I made a mental note to smack his head when I got the chance.

"I hate you."

"I love you too."

I hung up and dragged myself inside, getting dressed in a peach dress and taking my time with my makeup because unlike Nate probably assumed, I did have something better to do on a Saturday than saving his ass.

I locked my door behind me and got into the elevator, descending to the ground floor. My relatively low heels made quick contact with the marbled floor as I hurried to the parking lot while my phone vibrated nonstop from Nate's incessant phonecalls.

I swiped at the screen and put in on speaker after it began ringing again. "Will you stop fucking calling?" I yelled, manoeuvring my Porsche fluidly out of the parking lot and into the road. My dad, being the meanest driver I knew, went out of his way to give me extra driving lessons when I decided to school in New York. He'd said I'd need it. I understood what he meant now.

"My guys have been calling me to meet up and I can't tell them I'm handcuffed in my apartment, Amanda." He whined.

I did a double take. "You're what? Handcuffed?"

I was met with silence from the other side. "That was a slip up."

"Why the hell are you handcuffed?" He sighed, sounding genuinely at his wit's end. "Nate, you have me driving like a crazy person because you're handcuffed? Why couldn't you call your Josh?"

"And tell him Chloe handcuffed me? Angel, I have a reputation to uphold here. You're the only person I can let see me this way."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm almost there."

"Thank you."

I hung up. Nate lived in the trendier part of the city with towering apartment complexes and pricey estates. I'd considered staying there, my parents had no problem with the steep price, but I decided against it at the last minute. The place where I stayed was just as nice and cost half the rent. I'd stayed in the university dorms for two years before I moved into my apartment a little over a year ago. I preferred the added independence over cramped living with another person who you could only hope to be nice. Roommates were the ultimate gamble. Find yourself with a nutcase and you were screwed for the rest of the year. I ended up with nutcases all through my stay in the dorms. One liked using my stuff without my permission like we co-owned all my property, the other had her boyfriend over all the damn time. And the worst part was he kept hitting on me behind her back.

Arriving at Nate's residence, I took the elevator to his floor and hastily scurried across the hallway to his door.

"Amanda?" A voice came from my right.

I turned to see Josh in front of the door to his apartment at the end of the hallway, a look of surprise on his face.

"Hey, Josh." I beamed at him, watching as he carefully made his way towards me. His blue eyes shone as they took in my appearance like they always did, lips curled up in a smile. I noticed his blond hair had been cut lower since I last saw him. "Oh my God, you cut your hair?" I noted.

A faint shade of pink spread across his cheeks as he let out a little laugh, running his hand lazily through his hair. "Yeah. I got bored with letting it grow long."

I made a sound of disapproval as I stood on my toes to meet his towering height, examining the new hair-do. "I don't think you can get it in ponytails anymore. I liked the ponytails."

His eyes widened by a fraction, my comment apparently catching him by surprise. "You did? I could just grow it back if it was better that way."

"What? No. Change is good. It's welcome, sometimes." I winked at him and turned to Nate's door. When Josh didn't move I looked at him over my shoulder. "Are you here to see Nate?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I lent him my cork screw and I need it back."

My hand hovered over the dial pad for the passcode. I was probably the only one except from Nate himself who he trusted with his passcode.

"Uh, Nate isn't in right now. He asked me to come get something he forgot." I lied, remembering he didn't want anyone knowing about his current situation inside his apartment.

"Oh. I'll come get it another time, then. Have a good one, Amanda."

"You too," I smiled and watched him retreat to his door. I blew out a breath of relief and typed in the four digit number and went inside. His living room was empty and I locked the door behind me, making my way to his bedroom and hovered at the entrance.

"Nate?" I called.

"About time. I thought I was going to have to chew my hand off." His voice boomed from inside. I pushed the door to the bedroom open and cringed at the sight in front of me.

"What the fuck, Nathaniel?" I shrieked as he laid half naked on his bed, right hand handcuffed to the his headboard.

His face softened. "Aw, come on. This isn't as bad as you're making it out to be."

I walked over to him and grabbed the comforter that laid haphazardly on the floor, spreading it over his bare chest. "Explain yourself."

He scratched his head with his free hand. His dark hair was a disheveled mess laying on his head, face contorted into an apologetic expression. "Chloe came over this morning. I ended things with her and she flipped out, handcuffed me and stormed away."

"Wait, why are you breaking up with her?" I folded my hands over my chest. I've never really been team Nate and Chloe since they began dating, mainly because they hardly got along as I'd hoped. She also didn't like me.

"It just wasn't working out. We tried. She wants this, I want that. And she hates you too," he shot me a look. "How can she hate my best friend?"

Exactly. She had a lot of presumptions, which all proved to be false. And Nate would never be that person. As an only child, he'd practically adopted me.

"Well, how am I supposed to get you out of those?" I nudged my head in the direction of his hostage hand.

"The key is in the bottom drawer over there." He pointed lazily behind me. Following his lousy directions, I stalked over to the drawer and pried it open, rummaging through it and grimacing at the alarming amount of condoms piled at one corner.

"You have way too many condoms in here." I mumbled, finding the key and turned to him. He offered me a smug look and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"I'm an active male, Amy."

"Spare me the details."

I unlocked the handcuffs and watched as he exhaled a relieved breath, stretching his muscles out and slipping into a T-shirt.

"Thank you. Where are you off to dressed so nice?" He walked out of the room and I followed him to the kitchen. "A date?"

I scoffed. "As if. I'm going to see professor Mallard at two o'clock."

Nate poured some cereal into a bowl. He shook the carton and I nodded, watching him pull out another bowl.

"She's showing you some of her manuscripts, right?"

"Yeah." I said, watching him grab some milk from the fridge. I sat on the kitchen island and watched him work. "I feel so privileged getting this opportunity. I didn't know she was this nice and accommodating when I took her class. A real more-beneath-the-surface individual."

Professor Mallard taught me last year and the both of us had developed an unlikely friendship that stemmed from my love for her books. I'd fan-girled so hard when I discovered that one of my favourite authors was my professor. In a small sense, she reminded me of my mom. She invited me to her home to take a look at some of her published and unpublished works. Talk about exclusive.

He pushed a bowl to me and I grabbed a spoon, digging in. "Everytime I'm over, this is all you eat."

He gave me a look. "You know I can't cook to save my life."

"You're just being lazy," I swallowed. "I'm pretty sure Frosted Flakes run through your blood stream."

"Whatever. Tell me something I'd like to hear, Amy. Talking with anyone... special lately?"

I looked up, meeting his eyes momentarily before shifting my gaze back to my cereal, ignoring his question.

"You can't be that interested in cereal."

"Don't start, please." I groaned.

"I don't know. It's been so long I've seen you with anyone that it's nearly worrying. How long has it been since him now?"

"Mm, this is some top quality milk. Did you milk the cows yourself?"

"Nice try, but not good enough. I need to hear it out of your mouth. I need you to hear it out of your mouth."

"Two years, Nate. Two years. Happy now?" I asked through clenched teeth. I knew where he was going with this. He always complained about how lonely I was and that I needed to give the dating game a chance. In my defence, I was doing just fine without his constant prodding.

"Amanda, not all guys are like Lucas. Just because he screwed up doesn't mean every other male on the face of the earth is going to be like him. I mean, take me for example. I know you can recommend me to a lot of your hot friends-which I recommend you do, seeing as I'm single again." He grinned mischievously.

"Nate," I warned.

"Because you're seated here, wasting all this your awesomeness and beauty just cooped up in your apartment all the time or neck deep in schoolwork."

I groaned. This lecture was unusually lengthy today.

"Everytime we hang out I can barely count the number of guys who come to talk to you or get your number, so I know finding someone isn't the problem. Heck, even Josh has a crush on you."

I cocked my head to the side and blinked at him. "What?"

"You're so dense, I swear. I think your social antenna is broken."

Josh liked me? He was a nice guy, and I guess his actions came across as friendly to me. Huh.

"Speaking about Josh, he wants his cork screw back."

"You're changing the subject," he started but was interrupted by his phone as it vibrated on the counter top. He slid his finger across the screen and brought it up to his ear.

"Umma," he said into the phone, indicating that he was speaking to his mother who was Korean. Nate was a mixed child, born to an American father and a Korean mother. He conversed with her in Korean and I think back to middle school when he couldn't speak the language and felt so frustrated because it made things a bit awkward at his mother's family gatherings. He actually had to take lessons and was really fluent now.

"Amanda is here by the way." He said and handed me the phone. "She wants to talk to you," he whispered.

I gawked as I received it. It had been a while since we last spoke. "Good morning, Soo-Yun." She didn't like the formality of being called Mrs Jacobs.

"Amanda, honey. How are you?" Her soft voice made me smile.

"I'm very good. How are you? And Mr Jacobs?"

"Eating like a pig on new year's day," she snorted. "Ever since his surgery he's been on an eating spree and there's barely any food in the house for the rest of us."

I laughed heartily, trying the imagine Nate's dad scarfing down. He did like his food. "Get him to start running, Soo-Yun. Don't let him get too comfortable."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. Thank you, sweetie."

"You're welcome. Send my greetings to him."

"Oh, I will. Take care."

I handed the phone back to Nate and listened as he bid her goodbye.

"Where were we?" He asked, placing his phone on the granite top.

"Eating Frosted Flakes?"

"Amanda." He drawled in frustration.

"Forget about my non existent love life. If someone worthwhile comes along, fine. If they don't, I have other things to worry about."

"Like what? Making As and Bs?" He asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Precisely," I crooned proudly. He shook his head, lips pressed into a thin line. I liked that he looked after me and out for me. His friendship was one of the blessings I was grateful for. "How's work?"

He worked as a big data engineer, and from what I knew about the profession, it was huge. Nate had always been good at school, in math especially, graduating with the highest CGPA in his year.

"Going well. I think you should be leaving now. It's almost twelve thirty. Wouldn't want you to be late for your professor." Nate relaxed on his couch and stared up at me.

One glance at my phone and I saw he was right. Damn it. I always lost track of time hanging with him.

I walked to his front door and shot him a warning glare. "I don't want to receive any calls that you've been handcuffed or anything of that nature, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." He grinned. "Love you."

"Love you too."