All at Once (Complete)

xx. The Boogy Man

"They're working on it, B. You know that." I tried to comfort her without lying, considering I agreed with the point she was making.

She sighed in defeat, "I know, I know. It's just frustrating I guess."

"Yeah, it is." I wanted Sabbie safe just as much as she did.

"Hey," she perked up. "When you finish, you wanna play some table tennis?"

I nearly choked laughing, little did my little blonde know I was the all-time master of table-tennis, "it's on, sweetheart."

-

"Hell Yeah!" Bliss cried as I failed to hit the ball across the net... Again.

She had continued to get better and better the longer we played until I no longer held the title of undefeated champion.

"This is not okay! How are you better than me? No one is better than me," I sounded like a spoilt child but who cares, she stole my title!

"You have actually beaten someone at this game before?!" She laughed at me, "who? The boogy man?"

"Ha. Ha. So funny." Despite the fact that she was laughing at my expense, I loved listening to her laugh, especially now that she had gotten more comfortable with me. When we first met, her laugh was timid but watching her now, her whole body joined in.

"Let's go again, I swear I'll beat you this time."

"Oh, bring it on, Mr. Undefeated."

I was just about to hit the serve when my cell phone rang, which was a rare occurrence since the only person who really ever called me was Riley and we communicated via the burn-out phones.

The number was unknown but I answered it out of curiosity anyway, "Hello?"

What sounded like a middle aged man responded, and as soon as he did my heart dropped.

-

Bliss

I was lightly bouncing the ball between my paddle and the table, waiting for Nate to finish his phone call.

I looked up at him as he casually answered Hello, before seeing everything in him slouch in a heartbeat. Never had I seen anyone go from happy to devastated in such a quick transition. God, I wonder what's happened.

"Yes. I understand. Yes. I'll talk to my brother. Okay, thank you."

The phone call was quick but I can tell it was shattering. I walked up to Nate, and placed a hand on his upper-arm but he didn't look at me.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, even though it very clearly wasn't.

It took him a few beats but he eventually looked up and answered, "I need to talk to Riley."

I had never had anyone look at me the way he did just then, as though he was looking through me rather than at me.

I followed him into the living room as he pulled out the phone we had only been on less than two hours ago. This had better be important, because Riley hated us using to phone too often, let along twice in one day.