Him and Me.

Him and Me- Twenty.

We could’ve sat there for hours, our hands joined. The little circles Colby’s thumb was making, as minute as they may seem, calmed me and after a moment, my tears stopped. Silence still enveloped us, our breaths the only thing that could be heard, mixed with the rustling of leaves. The sounds of children playing had long been gone, as the sky was already turning a faint shade of purple.

If it was any other moment, I might’ve pulled my hand away. After all, I wasn’t exactly the touchy-feely type. Like what was said though, my hands cradled in Colby’s calmed me, and it has to be admitted that I didn’t want to pull away just yet.

I did it. I finally told someone about one of the things that were buried deep inside me. Finally too, I had let go of the bottled sadness and poured it out. All in front of a green-eyed boy who used to tease me relentlessly about how attracted I was to him, who once called me a pedophile, who hunted me down at a bowling alley just to tell me I had to babysit, and who once referred me to a talking pig. The same boy who loved his little cousin, who let me wear his helmet the first time I rode his motorbike, who had come up with a different way of breaking the ice, and who had seem to have the uncanny ability to read my mind.

If that didn’t seem crazy, nothing was.

But you know what was even crazier?

The profound sense of comfort, trust and warmth I was feeling. There wasn’t even a hint of awkwardness. It was pleasantly surprising. I mean, me and Colby were holding hands. I was letting him, and it seemed like not too long ago that I had a deep sense of dislike towards the guy. Now, in this moment, it was like we've been friends for a while.

It was definitely something that I could get used to.

The slightly calloused thumb rested on the back of my palm, and Colby stopped drawing circles. He still didn’t let my hands go. The silence that surrounded us, though awkward at first, turned into a comfortable one. 

Out of the blue, Colby started whistling, and my head, which was bent down, quickly snapped up. My eyes went wide in disbelief as I stared at him as if he’d grown a second nose. He pointedly ignored me and whistled even more loudly and enthusiastically. 

Really? Out of all the songs he could whistle, it had to be something from Justin Bieber?

It was so incredibly bewildering (and disturbing) that I couldn’t help the giggle from escaping my lips. Could you imagine someone like Colby, with his rugged looks and badass image, whistling a Bieber song? It was absolutely ridiculous!

Colby stopped briefly to grin stupidly at me, before whistling again, this time a different song but still from Beiber. This time, a full-blown laugh came out of me, making me bent at the waist. He shrunk back a little, in the process releasing my hands.

You know that instance when you found something so funny that you laugh and there was no sound coming out of you for a few seconds, and then when the sound finally came out, it was really, really loud? For me, that was the best kind of laughter. Sure, it can cause you to have a hard time breathing, but it was worth it.

I didn’t even realize that Colby had stopped whistling until I tamed my laughter into small chuckles. He was looking at me with a small smile on his face. He was sitting Indian style, his elbows resting against his knees and his hands clasped together in front of him. Wiping my eyes, I shook my head and held my tummy as I shoot him a glare with mocked annoyance.

“You made my tummy ache,” I said. Colby raised his eyebrow and the small smile that his face held turned into his smirk.

Rubbing my stomach for emphasis I added, “You did that on purpose!”