Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

Sam tugged her jacket closer to her body as a harsh wind blew upon the steps she was sitting on. She glanced at her phone, noting the time, and was now seriously regretting her decision to wait up until Freddie's final class finishes. It's not like their place is too far away, but waiting for Freddie definitely has its perks. First, it saves her the effort of walking or the money to spend for the commute. Second, and most importantly, he always, always, no matter how grudgingly, buys her dinner. But as she felt her stomach grumble and as another chill attacked her body, Sam thinks that waiting for Freddie today was not her best idea. She was glancing down at her phone again to see how slowly the minutes passed when she heard an unfamiliar voice call her name.

"Hey! Glad I caught you," the owner of the voice panted, "I thought you would have left by now. Sorry I'm late."

Sam stared at him for a moment, until finally, "who the heck are you?"

The guy looked a bit surprised at her reaction, but answered her nonetheless, "it's me, Brad. We talked over Fatebook yesterday?"

Sam raised an eyebrow as she replied, "sorry dude, I never talked to anyone online yesterday." But as she said this, Sam seemed to think that this guy looked a bit familiar.

"Um, but you did," he insisted. "I added you up after Freddie introduced us yesterday, and then we chatted for a bit. You told me to meet you in front of this building, and that you," he paused, looked at the ground and with cheeks tinted pink added sheepishly, "remember me as the cute guy from the parking lot."

Sam stared at him dumbly, trying to figure out what this guy could have possibly ingested to be babbling such nonsense. He was about to tell the guy to buzz off when a fragment of last night's events flashed into her mind—Carly going on about some cute guy who added her up on Fatebook and then apparently directly ignoring her words as she flirted with the guy, on her account! Bestfriend or not, that girl is gonna get some Puckett lashing when she gets home.

Apparently, Brad noticed the obvious anger on her face as he backed off a bit and said, "look, I'm sorry for this misunderstanding. I could've sworn it was you that I added and talked to, but—"

"It's not your fault," Sam cut him. On seeing his confused face, she then proceeded to explain, in great detail, what Carly had done and by then end of her explanation, an amused Brad was chuckling at her distress.

"Wow. Can't say I've ever had a friend who was that interested in my life," Brad said laughing.

"Ugh. Interested is weak term. She's obsessed. With anyone's life really, but most especially mine. She's probably thinking that I'd be happy that she got me a date with you or something," she grumbled.

"Aren't you?" Brad asked, as nonchalantly as he could manage.

Sam looked caught off guard by his question. She didn't think he'd still push the date idea after she had explained about Carly's antics.

"Um, well, don't get me wrong, I don't think you're hideous or something, it's just that I'm not really interested."

"Oh," Brad said, trying to hide his disappointment, "anyone you like?"

For the life of her, Sam could not fathom what it is about this guy that made her spill out what she had been successfully hiding from everyone for years, but it was definitely with an easy gait that she answered, "Yeah, you know him actually." Sam looked both relieved and burdened that she had just admitted this out loud, if that was even possible.

A flash of recognition crossed Brad's face almost instantly. He smiled ruefully to himself. Honestly, a bunch of girls throwing themselves at him back in high school, heck even here in his first few days at college, and the one girl he's actually interested in seems to be in love with someone who just yesterday had vehemently denied any sort of attraction to her.

"I see," he responded after a while. "And how's that going?" He wasn't trying to be mean. Really. Okay, maybe a little, he'd just been dumped for this guy after all.

Sam gave out a bittersweet smile. "It's going nowhere. He's in love with my other best friend. Has been for years actually. I'm pathetic, aren't I?"

Okay, he didn't mean to be that mean. But he hadn't expected that answer. Of course he'd heard of Carly before, a pretty girl that Freddie had a crush on, but those short stories didn't give him the impression that he was in love, and the last he'd heard of her was quite some time ago too. Still, Sam knows Freddie a lot better, so he offered the only thing he could, "Sorry about that."

Sam looked at him, a curious expression on her face. "Hey," she said poking him a little too forcefully on the shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"We could be friends," she said smiling widely and the stopping as she took in Brad's blank expression. "I mean, if you want to, although I get how it could be potentially weird," she added hastily.

Brad laughed. "Well, you do seem like the perfect person for me to have a weird friendship with."

Suddenly, Sam wasn't regretting her decision to wait for Freddie at all.