Past the Tipping Point

\ Chapter 16 /

Colby sighed, and the urge to roll his eyes was getting stronger. "Rebecca, I wouldn't be here if I didn't care."

"You're just trying to save face." She leaned back in her seat with crossed arms. "Everyone knows you only agreed to do whatever you did just to try and be remembered as some hero instead of the guy that vanished."

"That's not true, and you know it." Colby replied with furrowed eyebrows.

"Oh, drop the nice guy act." Rebecca laughed to herself. "It isn't you, and you know it."

"What do you want me to say, huh?" Colby's voice raised in the slightest but was still quiet enough to not draw attention, yet his words were still sharp. "That your best friend is worried sick she's gonna find you dead on the street one day because you've let yourself go and drink more alcohol than you do water?"

His gaze was intense and honed in on Rebecca. "That you can't move on from two years ago, so you use a situation you know very little about as your saving grace whenever you get the feeling that people are judging you?"

She stared at him emotionless as he continued. "Or do you want me to say that you're so scared of thinking about the past for too long because you don't want to remember how good it actually was? So you just drown yourself with pity?"

"That's all you could come up with?" Colby was slightly taken aback as Rebecca replied with a laugh after some silence. "Two years. Two years of reflection, thoughts, reminiscing, and that's all you could come up with?"

"No." He shook his head. "I know that now you stay as far away from love and connection as possible because you don't think you deserve it. And the thought of wanting it but not having it scares you."

Colby sat up a little straighter. "And I know I'm to blame for a lot of that. I know. And I'm sorry... but don't throw away your life because you're scared."

"You don't know what you're talking about." It was Rebecca's turn to poke at Colby. "You know what I find funny?"

She grinned with a shake of her head. "That you sit here and act all 'holier than thou' as if you've been the epitome of perfection all your life. When in reality, you're just as fucked up as I am. Even though you feel more ashamed than me and try to hide it."

She sobered up for a moment and stared at him. "I see straight through your shit and always have."

Then she looked into her lap once again and mumbled. "I should've known you'd leave. I should've seen it coming."

"How?" Colby finally replied after a minute of silence. "I didn't."

"Oh, bullshit. What? You can dish it but can't take it?" Abruptly, whatever feelings and thoughts Rebecca was experiencing while looking down vanished, and her tough act was enabled again. "And now you're at a loss for words and ideas? So you try to pull that card? Oh, please do explain."

Colby adjusted his sitting position, knowing it was going to be a while. "I-"

"Your drink, ma'am." The waiter placed it down in front of her and looked over at Colby. "Anything else for you, sir?"

"No..." He was caught off guard, so prepared to finally tell his truth, that the interruption felt like being brashly awakened from a deep sleep. "No, I'm good, thanks."

The waiter nodded before leaving. Suddenly, Colby's attention was diverted from his previous thoughts to the remaining problem at hand.

He couldn't stop himself, his words slipping from his mouth. "You're an alcoholic, Rebecca."

If Colby had to describe the range of reactions crossing Rebecca's face all at once, he'd say it was as if she'd never been told those words upfront before. The confusion at first to anger to sombreness to frustration. It was all a hard combination to read.

"Like you would know." She quipped weakly but gained a sense of attitude the moment she stared him down and took a sip of her drink. "You've been gone."

"It wasn't that hard to catch up." His eyes bounced between the alcohol and her face. "In my few weeks of being around, I've seen... enough."

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Seen or heard?"

"Both." Colby responded firmly, not backing down, even as their voices started to elevate from whispers.

Rebecca laughed, and it almost scared Colby to an extent. "Glad to hear you're right at home shit-talking me to the group you also abandoned."

"We're not talking shit." He sighed and he started to feel extremely verklempt, trying his hardest to remain level-headed. "They're worried, genuinely worried about you. They don't know what else to do."

"So what? They send you to be a knight in shining armour?" Rebecca scoffed with a shake of her head just before downing her entire drink and unexpectedly standing. "Kiss my ass. You can't do shit for me."

Colby watched Rebecca storm off and fixed his eyes on the table in front of him, not interested in seeing how many stares he was getting. He wiped a hand over his face to try and recenter himself.

Today was supposed to be about starting over again, gaining a sense of trust or at least a common ground with Rebecca before he seriously tackled things. But as per usual, his plans had gone awry.

He tried to think of a way to fix what had just happened or where to go from that point on, but he was coming up blank. The only reason he was drawn out of his headspace was because he felt a hand bump into his, on the table.

Colby looked over, to see the waiter standing nearby and a receipt next to his hand. It took a second to put two and two together, but when he did, he was on it. "Oh, right."