Blue (Colby Brock)

Chapter 1

It didn't make sense at the time. Everything in my world had been changed, not in a good way either.

My dad was dead, my brother, dead, my mother, in prison for life. My dad had brain cancer, taking 2 years to actually kill him. My mom was a heroin addict that almost killed me. My brother was murdered. He was shot in the head 2 days ago.

That's why I was here. In Australia. In the sunset lighting. On a random beach. Alone. Getting away from life at home in Cali. Where my brother was killed right in front of my eyes on the street.

I laid in the sand, staring at the rainbow colored sky. It reminded me of when my brother Ryan and I used to color rainbows and have drawing competitions as kids.

We were both great artists, everyone said so. Not a single person denied it. Even as adults, we learned more and became the best in our state art contest.

I didn't notice anyone around me until they coughed. I sat up and looked to my left, a guy with shaggy brown hair, a Nirvana shirt, and black pants was walking across the smooth sand of this Australian beach.

I cocked my head at them, wondering why he was here, now.

"Hi." He said as grew closer, about 3 or 4 yards away.

"Hey." I replied, wondering why he was talking to me.

"What's your reason for being here?" He asked.

"Not to be rude, but why would I tell you?" I asked. "I don't even know you."

He sat next to me in the sand, facing the sunset, but his head turned towards me.

"True. My name's Colby. You?"

"Tara." We didn't shake hands and strangely, I felt comfortable with him around.

"Well then, Tara, why are you all alone on the beach?" Colby asked.

"Just the emptiness of it. It makes me feel like my brother is still here." I said openly.

"Why? Where is he?"

"Two days ago, the two of us were walking home from a store by our house and someone shot him in the head." I felt like crying. And dying. Why was I telling him this?

"I'm sorry about your brother. I bet my best friend felt the same. One of my other friends and I played a prank on him to where we got kidnapped and I was killed. Sam was crying so much until I showed my face and told him it was a prank. I still feel a little bad about that." Colby replied.

"I bet Sam did feel like me. But at least he was happy to know it was fake..." I felt tears forming in my eyes. I wasn't going to cry in front of some random person. I'd look weak.

We sat in silence for a while. The sun was gone, the stars were out and we stared at the sky. We talked about anything and everything, by the end of it all, we know practically everything about each other.

We both heard a car pull up on the pier, and Colby stood up. I stood up too and we walked over to see who it was. We saw the car close up, a blonde guy in a white shirt in the driver's seat.

"Oh, that's Sam. I guess I'll see you later." Colby said.

"You want to go to the fair tomorrow? Maybe he could go with us?" I suggested.

"Sure. Bye Tara." Colby climbed into the car.

Just before he closed the door, I managed to say, "Bye Colby."

I stood there as Sam and Colby drove away. I looked back up at the stars. I stared for a few minutes, then checked my phone. It was midnight.

One thing I couldn't forget about one detail from that night: Colby's eyes. Blue.