Static Electricity | Sam and Colby

Epilogue

Colby doesn't see his best friend for a very long time. He feels like eternity yawns between the days he lives and nobody dares to go into Sam's room. The shattered mirror is still on the floor. He'd tried his best to keep track of Samuel Golbach but one Instagram announcement later and he'd all but disappeared.

Something in Colby's chest tightens painfully when he sees the familiar blond hair mixing with the flaming red of another man's; the pair giggles quietly when their coffee cups tap together. It's cute, Colby thinks, but it's too painful for him to endure.

"Colby?" He almost doens't stop walking away but Sam's voice is quiet and vulnerable and Colby doesn't have the heart to walk away one more time.

He can't turn around though, can't bring himself to stare into the blue eyes that had seemed so fractured before. "Hiya Sam."

There's a brief jolt of his wrist before he's spinning. Arms circle his shoulders and someone's pressed into him before he even realises he's moving. Sam holds him tightly, a tremour to him that has Colby wondering if Sam really was happy without him.

"Please," Sam whispers and it takes Colby too long to realise that he's begging. "Please just hug me back. Pretend my absence means something."

"I don't need to pretend," Colby murmurs, wrapping Sam in the tightest hug he can manage. "Did you really doubt us all that much?"

Sam doesn't give him an answer.

"Sammy?" It's the red head from before, approaching them hesitantly. "Is...Is everything okay? Who's this?"

Sam pulls away from Colby and dries his eyes. "Yeah Connor," he says. "Everything's good. This is Colby, my oldest friend."

Connor gives the brunette a reserved smile. "Hi," he says shyly. "I'm Connor."

"Colby."

Sam leads the two of them back to the table Colby had seen them at but Colby lingers at the door. "It's okay," Sam says without looking up. "I'm okay, Colby, you can go."

"I don't want to," Colby admits.

Sam chokes on a small, bitter laugh. "I've fixed my broken window. Now it's time for you to fix yours."

Colby nods and looks down. "I'll see you around then," he says neutrally.

He turns before he can see the glimpse of pain on Sam's face and he walks away before he can hear the stuttered breathing that Sam's trying hard to control. Connor does though and he does his best to glue the cracking boy in front of him back together.

Colby goes home and he watches his bathroom mirror shatter.

Because he realises it now, as blood drips from the glass in his fist, he understands what Sam had meant. He'd shattered the mirror, he'd shattered Sam and he was breaking everything else because that's who he was.

The roommates find him laughing in his bathroom, a band-aid on the mirror.

And they understand when he breaks down into sobs that abduct his vision and they understand when he can't stand up because he can't feel his legs and they understand when he flinches away from them when they try to clean his hand.

They understand when he falls unconscious and they hush him gently when he wakes up again, all shuddering breaths and rapid talking they can't actually understand.

And they take the band-aid off and let the rest of the mirror crumble because sometimes its better to start again than to fix something tainted.

Colby doesn't mention Sam but he doesn't need to because they can all tell so they leave him alone with it and take care of him in a way that they never did with Sam.

In their hearts, piece by piece, they begin to fix themselves too.