XPLR | Colby Brock

~18~

It was cloudless tonight, so much so that the stars shone brightly in the sky, and the moon was blinding. The sand on the beach looked white. So beautiful.

We were walking at this point, and Colby wouldn't tell me where we're going. The farther away we got from the parking lot, the more nervous I got.

Kai had texted me on the ride over, but I didn't even open it. I really wanted to, he wanted to make plans, but... Colby's surprise was a little more intriguing then coffee with Kai. So I'll just pretend I'm asleep.

He was giddy, excited. I laughed at that. "What are you so excited for?"

He grinned at me. "To show you this place. It's beautiful, you'll love it."

I trusted him on that.

"Are you with anyone?" he asked blatantly. I hid my surprise from his question and just shrugged. "No," I say shortly, shrugging.

"Well that's good, I didn't want another Elena situation. Because if I got arrested and ended up next to your on-off boyfriend, I'd freak out. You kind of handled that situation well."

"Kind of?" I laugh a little as I stand up on the border of a long flower bed separating two sides of the side walk, balancing on it and holding my hands out.

"You seemed pretty freaked out and confused," he joked as he grabbed my hand and helped me balance. I smiled at him and held his gaze for a moment before looking away.

Oh my god.

He wore rings. I never noticed he wore rings. They were cold, but his hand was warm. Very warm. I smiled at that, and used his hand to balance all the way to the end before I let go and jumped down.

So wrong. So wrong, so wrong, so wrong. I'm supposed to like Kai. I do like Kai. I really like Kai. Does that mean I should be hanging out with Colby right now? One side of my brain said.

Of course you can hang out with Colby! You're just Colby's friend. That's all. Don't cut this short, you deserve a break. The other side said.

"Tell me about piano," Colby said to me as he put his hands in his pockets.

I chuckled. "What about it?"

"When's your next performance?" he asked, looking down at me. I paused for a second. "About three weeks from now. Why?"

He smiled. "I'm there."

I rolled my eyes sarcastically and ran a hand through my hair. "Are we almost there?"

"Why, is someone getting impatient?" he teased. I shrugged and said, "Yes."

He chuckled. "Yep. We're almost there." He pointed to a small house that was on a cliff that was growing in the distance.

He smiled as I looked at it. "You're going to love it," he repeated.