Freddie walked through the sliding glass doors of the hospital as he had done nearly every day for over a month now. The receptionist didn't even make him sign in anymore. As Freddie walked towards the door to the hospital room he paused and peered through the rectangular window. Sam sat where she always did. Right by her mother's side. She somehow looked more helpless than her mother. Freddie hated seeing her like this, it was like she was an entirely different woman. Her hair was messy, her clothes were disheveled, and Sam had exclusively slept at the hospital, only leaving to shower. Freddie took a deep breath and walked through the door. Sam looked up, she smiled wearily.
"Hey," Sam whispered, turning to face her ex
"Hi," Freddie paused in the doorway, as he felt a tsunami of emotions crash over him, emotions he hadn't felt in over half a decade.
"What up Benson?" Sam's eyes dropped to the floor. She couldn't even look Freddie in the eye, she was way more emotionally vulnerable than she was comfortable with, and the last thing she wanted was to show any more weakness to Freddie.
Freddie, noticing Sam's emotional walls going up, decided she needed to get out.
"C'mon Puckett, grab your coat. Let's grab a smoothie." Freddie said, grabbing Sam's leather jacket off the chair in the corner of the room.
"I really don't know Freddie-" she started.
"I really wasn't asking," Freddie said with a playful smile.
Spencer was sitting on the plastic barstool in front of his pear computer when Carly burst through their loft apartment.
"Almost showtime!" she shouted in a singsongy voice.
"WAHHH!" a startled Spencer tumbled off of his stool. "Nothing!" Spencer bolted upright in an effort to block his computer screen.
"What are you… Looking at?" Carly asked hesitantly.
"Nothing. I'm looking at nothing. And you wouldn't understand," Spencer stammered.
"Oh, move," Carly said shoving her brother aside.
The computer was lit up with a GIF. Three German Shepherds animated to stand on their back legs and dance over a strobing pastel background.
"Well, you're right, I don't understand," Carly said, baffled.
"Well, now that you have humiliated me, Gibby is waiting upstairs with that boyband. Ya know, I never understood how they can call it a boyband when they're all pushing 30," Spencer questioned.
"Bye Spencer," Carly said, ignoring her brother and heading upstairs.
Brad strolled into The Groovy Smoothie as he did every Friday. It was something of a creative zone for him, he got all of his best ideas sitting there with a Strawberry Splat. It also helped that his friend Melanie worked there. They had met when they both were entered into a countrywide dessert-making contest for high schoolers. Neither of them won or anything, but it was a random way to meet his boss's twin sister. He and Melanie actually hit it off immediately, he might have even asked her out if he didn't know she would be heading back to Vermont after the contest was over. Even so, they exchanged phone numbers and texted each other every so often. The difference between Melanie and Sam was astonishing and not just emotional and mental, despite being identical twins they had such a different energy, they did their makeup differently, dressed completely differently, and even did their hair differently. As he recalled, Sam wasn't built like Melanie. Melanie was more like a gymnast, slim, with fewer curves. Brad had made his way to the counter now, unfortunately, Melanie wasn't the one taking his order, today it was Troy. Troy was a nice enough guy, a bit odd, but no more odd than Spencer, and definitely not as odd as Gibby. Troy greeted him and took his order.
"Is your boss here today?" Brad asked casually.
"Melanie? Yeah, she's here."
"Cool, if she's not busy can you send her my way?" Brad asked, polite as can be.
"Sure. Wait, are you gonna complain about me? C'mon man, I need this job bro," Troy asked in a panic.
"What? No, she's just a friend of mine. You're doing great man," Brad clarified.
"Thanks, bud, you're alright," Troy said, mood shifting completely.
Brad made his way to the table he always sat at. Melanie had a lot going on right now, and Brad wanted to be there for her, with Carly being so wrapped up in her podcast Melanie didn't have the support system Sam had. Brad was sure that Freddie still had feelings for her, Freddie would absolutely do anything to help Sam. Melanie didn't have that, and while Brad was far from "in love" with Melanie he certainly cared about her. Just as he finished his thought Melanie arrived at his table.
"Hi Brad, what brings you here?" Melanie smiled at him cheerily.
"Actually, I come here every week. My friend, she works here and I'm hoping if I come in here enough she'll start giving me free smoothies," Brad joked, happy to see she was holding it together.
"Ooh, how's that working for you?" she teased, sitting down.
"It's a process," he smirked.
"Sorry, I've been so hard to reach. I've got a lot on my plate." Melanie explained, apologetically.
That was so like Melanie, her mother was in the hospital and she still felt bad for not being an attentive friend.
"Your mom is in the hospital Melanie, I think you're entitled to your space." Brad took a sip of his smoothie.
"Still, you're basically bending over backward to spend time with me."
Brad could feel her mood changing.
"Can you help me with a girl question?" he blurted, that always worked, Melanie loved answering his girl questions.
"Of course," Melanie perked up immediately.
"Do women find earlobes attractive?" Brad asked, staring blankly. How is that the first question you came up with? Brad thought to himself.
"Earlobes?" Melanie would have been amused if she wasn't so incredibly confused.
"Yeah, a guy I know said that I have ugly earlobes. Totally random right?" Brad desperately tried to make his initial question make sense.
Melanie glanced at Brad's ear, "I don't think most girls care if your earlobes are cute." Melanie said, giggling at Brad's very oddly specific question.
Mission successful. Brad knew Melanie would need to talk about everything she was going through, but not now, not here.