electricity - colby brock

-traffic jam-

30 minutes went by, and I was in a cycle of daydreaming dozing off, in the back of the car. I kept on replaying the events of this morning in my head, over and over. I snapped back into the present, and there I was, in the back seat of Sam's car, on the way to collect Kat, so we could go to a demon infested house in Rhode Island. Hooray.

Rhode Island is about as far away as you can get from California, so we all had a lovely 5 hour flight to look forward to. It's definitely not the longest flight, but I've never really liked flying. Our flight was at 4pm, and we were around an hour away from Kat's place. Then, we had a 3 or 4 hour drive to the airport, traffic dependent, where we would arrive at around 1pm. 

My eyes slowly began to shut again, and I leaned against the window of Sams car. He was driving quickly but carefully, talking excitedly to Colby, who was sitting in the front seat. I focused on their voices as I began to drift off to sleep.

'Is she sleeping?' I heard Colby ask.

'I think so, she's been like that for a while' Sam replied. 'Are you ever gonna tell me what was up this morning dude? It looked like I walked in on some crazy shit' Sam said, a smile in his voice.

'Nothing was up man.. we were just play-fighting, y'know?' Colby sighed.

'Dude, you know you can tell me anything right?' Sam said gently. 'I get that you were just messing around, but c'mon, the look in your eyes when you left the room? I haven't seen you like that before man.' 

'I know, I know' Colby sighed, exasperated. 'It's just.. complicated I guess'.

Sam continued to reassure Colby as we drove along, but I didn't really catch the rest of the conversation. I wonder what they meant? What was complicated? Why did Colby sound upset? None of it really made sense to me in my dreary state, but it probably wouldn't make much sense if i was fully awake either. Their voices began to slowly fade away, as I drifted off to sleep. 

I woke up around 25 minutes later, to the sound of a car door being shut. I opened my eyes slowly, dazed and confused. The sun was shining bright in my eyes, and as they began to focus, I noticed we were parked outside Kat's house. Sams door was open, the driver seat empty. Colby's door was also open, and his seat was empty too. 

Suddenly, the back door across from me opened wide, and Colby clambered inside. He shut the door, and glanced over at me. He noticed I was awake and grinned. 

'Good morning, sleepy' he teased, chuckling at my disgruntled expression.

As he was still chuckling at me, Kat's front door opened and she walked out, smiling wide, closely followed by Sam, who was carrying her bag for her. They walked over towards the car, and Sam smiled at me, seeing that I was awake. He walked over to Colby's side, and opened the door. He shoved Colby, to tell him to move over into the middle seat next to me, and placed Kat's bag on the free seat. The trunk was already full of equipment, so this was really the only free space in his 5-seater car. He could have put it in the middle, between us two, but that was more effort, and hey, I wasn't complaining.

Kat hopped into the passenger seat, and Sam climbed into the drivers seat. He looked back at us sitting in the back and grinned as he turned to face Kat. 

'Colby sacrificed his seat for you babe,' he said to her, in a joking voice. 'Isn't he just great'.

'Always the gentleman' Kat responded, laughing.

'What can I say?' Colby said sarcastically. 'I really am the perfect man'.

 I mhm'ed in agreement, already half asleep again. The others laughed as Sam started the car up. We pulled out of Kat's driveway, and commenced our 4 hour drive to the airport. I opened my eyes as we drove away, looking around the car. Sam and Kat were already deep in conversation. They have a beautiful relationship, which I sometimes envied. I've always wanted to experience that kind of unconditional love. 

My neck began to cramp after about 10 minutes of laying against the window, so I lifted my head up and attempted to stretch my neck a bit. Colby looked at me inquisitively, and I pulled a face at him. He laughed and pulled a face back. I smiled gently, and turned back to the window. I leaned my head against the window again, and realised that this position just wasn't comfortable for me anymore. I sat up properly and sighed, my head sitting uncomfortably  against the head rest.

Colby glanced over at my uncomfortable position, and turned off his phone which he was scrolling on. He lowered his body down in his seat, and made his shoulder- which was previously considerably higher, due to our large height difference- level with my head. He gently took my face with his hands, and I looked him in the eyes as he did so, my skin growing hot on contact. I hoped he couldn't feel it. He carefully placed my head upon his shoulder, and then opened his phone again, as if he'd done nothing. 

My heart was racing from the feeling of his hands against my face, but I quickly dismissed any silly thoughts that attempted to front my mind. This was Colby, my best friend. He was being nice, as always. I sighed in relief as I adjusted to my new position. This was more comfortable, and definitely more favourable- for more reasons than just relieving my neck cramps. Yet again, I drifted off into a peaceful doze, feeling very safe and comfortable with my new pillow.

I awoke drowsily 2 hours later, to the sounds of traffic filling my ears. Kat had fallen asleep, and Sam was stuck in a traffic jam. Colby's head was rested on mine, and he was fast asleep. I smiled happily to myself. Apart from the honking of horns and shouts of entitled LA dwellers, it was incredibly peaceful. I caught Sam's eye in the rear-view mirror, and smiled. 

'Nice sleep, y/nk?' he asked, his eyes full of hidden meanings. 

'Yes actually' I whispered back. 'It was  a wonderful sleep'.

'Hmmm.. I wonder why' he replied, smirking back at Colby's head rested on mine.

I sighed. 'You do know I don't understand your jokes, right?' I asked. 'They just don't make sense to me. I mean, I don't know where you got those ideas from anyway.

'You know, for someone so intelligent,' Sam responded quietly, holding back a laugh, 'You are quite stupid sometimes.' I feign an offended look as he looks back at me. What does he mean? 'Listen, I know you're tired. Go back to sleep and I'll wake you up when we're there okay?' he smiled at me through the mirror. 'But one thing first, to give you something to think about.' He held eye contact with me as he said, 'Y/n, try to open your eyes a bit, okay?' He looked away as the traffic began to move, leaving me to go back to sleep, alone with my thoughts.

What was he talking about. 'Open my eyes?' It sounded a bit stupid to me, and to be honest, I was much to tired to think about his dumb philosophies at that moment. I had a 5 hour plane journey ahead of me that I could do that in. Instead, I shut my eyes, and focused on the feeling of Colby's presence. I focused on the warm and inviting smell of his cologne. I focused on the slow, and rhythmic sound of his breathing, and with that, I fell asleep, for the third time.