"Can you just tell me what we're doing?" I sighed, nearly out of breath from walking. 

After we finished our drinks, we ended up sitting at the restaurant and talking for about an hour. Drew ended up paying for our drinks, even though I offered countless times. Once we exited the restaurant, Drew asked me if I had any plans for the rest of the day, which resulted in me following him through LA, having no idea where we were going or what we were doing.

Drew and I now stepped into the elevator of an apartment building. "You'll see." He smirked as he pressed the fourth floor button. He removed his hat and sunglasses once again and ran his fingers through his hair, pushing his sweaty hair back.

"Can I get a hint?" I cocked an eyebrow as the elevator began to move up.

Drew bit his lip for a second before he nodded. "Remember when you told me you had no body here? No friends or family?"

I rolled my eyes at the fact that he was bringing this up. It was quite embarrassing, I didn't even know why I told him. "Yeah," I nodded. "How could I forget?"

"Well," Drew smiled. "That's about to change." He said as the elevator doors now opened.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him as we stepped out of the elevator and began walking down a hallway.

"You'll see." Was all he said as we walked up to a random door.  Drew covered the peephole with his finger before speaking. "Housekeeping." Drew said in a high pitched voice as he knocked on the door.

I immediately recognized the infamous line from the show. I couldn't help but crack a smile. That was all he seemed to make me do, was smile.

A few seconds passed and Drew was still covering the peephole. The door opened and Drew took his finger back and a girl with dirty blonde hair tossed into a messy bun answered the door. "Drew's here!" She exclaimed and I could hear people inside cheer.

"Sup Mads." Drew chuckled as he gave her a side hug. "I brought a friend." He told her as we entered the apartment.

"Yeah," She smiled as she looked at him then me. "You told me you were bringing a friend." She now smiled at me. "Madelyn, but you can call me Mads." She smiled as she stuck her hand out.

I knew exactly who she was, and after her opening the door and hearing the commotion from inside, I had a feeling I knew what was happening.

"O-Oh my gosh," I finally spoke. I was frozen in place, trying to absorb the fact that I was not only standing with the Drew Starkey, but with the Madelyn Cline. "H-Hey, I-I'm Mallory." I stammered as I shook her hand.

She smiled as our handshake died down. "Glad you could make it. We've been waiting on Drew for like an hour now." She chuckled as she looked up at him and stood up on her tiptoes as she messed up his hair.

"I told you Mads," Drew lightly chuckled as he lightly pushed her hand away, now fixing his hair. "Had something come up."

"I-I am so sorry," I apologized for the millionth time that day. "That was entirely my fault a-and I am so sorry." I expressed. I didn't know Drew had somewhere to be when I ran into him, but to be fair, he was the one that wanted to go and get a drink.

"It's fine," Madelyn giggled. "I just like messing with him." She now whispered to me. I awkwardly smiled, not knowing what to say. "C'mon," Madelyn smiled as she nodded her head towards the living room. "Let's introduce you to everyone."

I followed her and Drew into the living room where I saw a decent sized group of people.

"Drewseph is in the building!" I saw Rudy Pankow stand up from the couch with a beer in his hand.

"It's 'Rafe Motha Fuckin' Cameron'!" Austin North exclaimed as he threw his arms up.

The way that I have never met any of these people in any way, yet I knew exactly what they were referring to when they announced Drew was here. I was all too familiar with their friend group just by what I've seen online.

"Yeah, yeah," Drew chuckled as he shook his head. "Nice to see you guys too."

"Long time no see, buddy," Chase fucking Stokes fake sobbed as he came up to Drew and engulfed him in a hug. I couldn't believe my eyes.

Drew hugged him back tightly as the two had a moment together. Chase held one beer in his hand as he now used his other hand to sniff Drew's hair. I couldn't help but crack a smile at their interactment.

"Summer ocean?" Chase questioned before Drew smacked the back of his head playfully, resulting in them pulling away from the hug and the boys laughing.

"Don't act like a fucking weirdo in front of my friend like that." Drew chuckled. Drew Starkey considered me his friend? We met less than two hours ago. There was no way this was actually happening.

Chase now looked over at me as I gazed up at him, my breath completely taken away. "Nice to meet you," Chase smiled as he stuck out the empty hand that was just holding onto Drew's hair. "Chase." He told me.

"H-Hi," I smiled up at him. "Uh, Mallory." I nodded.

"Mal." Drew interrupted my moment with Chase as he corrected me. "She likes to be called Mal." He winked down at me with a half smile, which resulted in me smiling.

"Y-Yeah," I stammered, now looking up at Chase. "He's right."

"Very nice to meet you, Mal," Chase joked politely as he bowed in front of me. "I may be a little tipsy right now." He whispered to me and I cracked a smile. I took note of his almost empty beer bottle, leaving me wondering how many he had before that. "Care for a drink?" Chase asked me as he began to walk backwards, his eyebrows raised in question.

"U-Uh," I hesitated as I looked around and noticed everyone else with a drink in their hand. "Sure." I nodded. "Whatever you have is fine."

Chase continued to slowly back up, waving his arms out in front of himself. "Beer? White Claw? Truly? You look like a Truly girl." He smirked as he sent me a half nod.

"How did you know?" I playfully gasped. "Is it that obvious?" I perked my eyebrows up acting surprised.

Chase laughed before he turned around and went over to get me a drink. I looked up at Drew for comfort as I saw him talking with Austin North, who plays Topper on their hit show. I couldn't believe I was in the same vicinity as the Outer Banks cast.

Drew now introduced me to the rest of the group, which included Austin, Rudy, JD, Madison who told me to just call her Maddie, along with Rudy's girlfriend and Maddie's girlfriend. They were such a cool group of people, I almost felt out of place.

"Your drink, milady," Chase announced with an accent as he walked up to me with an ice cold, unopened Truly lemonade.

"Thank you, kind sir." I lightly giggled as I accepted the drink from him.

"And for my lover boy," Chase now directed his attention to Drew who was still talking to Austin. "A cold Coors Light for the Kook Prince himself." He nodded as he handed Drew an ice cold bottle.

Drew gasped playfully before beginning to fake cry. "My favorite. You remembered." He now embraced Chase in a hug and I couldn't help but laugh with them two. I felt so empowered getting to see Chew live and in person. Despite their characters hatred toward each other on the show, they had a serious bromance in real life.

I stood around awkwardly as I watched everyone converse with each other. I was so amazed, yet felt so awkward and out of place. I wanted more than anything to make friends, but I was just too awkward. I didn't know how to start a conversation, and it wasn't my place to just go up and join in other people's conversations.

As if my mind was being read as I looked around the nicely decorated apartment, I heard someone call my name. "Mallory!"

I turned my head behind me to see Mads, Rudy's girlfriend, Elaine, and Maddie all together. Mads waved me over, so I accepted her invitation as the small group stared at me. I walked over to them, holding my drink close.

"Hey," I smiled shyly. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help but feel awkward and out of place. They were all friends with each other because of the show. I had nothing to do with the show.

"What did you do to Drew?" Elaine giggled as she tried to keep her voice down.

My eyes immediately widened, hoping that they weren't ambushing me with a million questions about Drew and I. I knew as much as they did, we were barely friends who met each other not even two hours ago.

"I-I uh, n-nothing I-I-" I stammered, trying to think of something to say.

Elaine began giggling as I looked at Mads and Maddie for their reaction to help myself understand what she was talking about.

"We haven't seen Drew with a girl in... What?" Maddie trailed off as she looked at Mads and Elaine. "Well at least the three years we've known him."

Mads nodded her head, agreeing with Maddie. "Yeah I mean," She looked over at Drew who had been laughing about something with the guys. "I know he took his last break up really hard, and that was when we first met him. He's wanted nothing to do with another relationship for as long as we've known him."

I cocked my eyebrow in surprise, not believing what they were telling me. I had no idea Drew wasn't into relationships.

"I-I genuinely have no idea." I shook my head. "I-I mean we met for the first time not even two hours ago. He asked me to grab a drink with him a-and I didn't want to pass that up. We talked for like an hour then came here." I explained to them.

Mads and Maddie looked at each other with a smirk growing on their lips.

"He sees something special in you." Mads told me softly and I couldn't help but gape my mouth open in shock. Me? Of all people, me?

"M-Me?" I nearly choked out, unable to believe what I was being told. "N-No way, I-I really doubt it. I-I mean I ran into him, like physically ran into him by accident a-and I asked him how I could make it up to him and he just wanted to grab a drink. I-I really doubt he'd be into someone like me." I explained even further to the three girls standing in front of me.

Mads shrugged before she took a sip of her beer. "I'll have Chase ask him about it later." She smirked.

"If you find anything out, let me know because I'd love to know what's going on too." I slightly chuckled in disbelief.

There was no way I had managed to run into Drew Starkey. Out of all the people I ran through, I ran into him? And then he wanted to go grab a drink with me? And then he brought me to meet his friends? That just doesn't sound real. It doesn't feel real.

And for the girls to think that Drew was into me like that seemed even more insane. Sure, I found Drew incredibly attractive and I loved him from the show, but there was no way he'd be into a girl like me. There were so many gorgeous girls out there that he could've gotten a drink with. He was such an attractive man, any girl would be stupid to turn him down. But he chose me? I just didn't understand.

The girls and I made small talk, and I felt myself getting more and more comfortable with them as time passed, and as more drinks were in my system. I looked over at the guys every now and then and saw Drew either laughing with the guys or doing something that made the guys laugh.

He was exactly what I pictured him to be like in real life. He was so kind, sweet, funny, and charming. If I was going to be hanging around this group of people, especially Drew, I had to prepare myself to not catch feelings in the way that I knew I would.

*****

a/n:

i wanted to upload the second chapter so you guys get a better feel for the story, and i really hope you like it so far! hoping to upload chapters three & four tomorrow.

also sorry for the weird ending, i didn't know how to just end it, but here we are.

let me know what y'all think!

-nicole<3