XPLR | Colby Brock

~35~

"Hey, sorry to bother you earli-" I interrupted Colby. "Hey, Uh... can I come over?" I ask quietly. I could tell he knew I was crying. His voice immediately went serious.

"Rose? What's wrong?" He asked. I leaned against my car. "Long story... can I come over?" I ask again. "Y-Yeah, you can come. Want me to pick you up?"

"No... I'm in my car, I'll be there in a few minutes. Thanks, Colby," I said as I closed my door and started to engine.

"No problem," he said, "Do you want me to stay on the line with you?"

I wipe my eye as I put my seatbelt on. "You don't have to," I say softly. "But do you want me to? I will," he said. "N-No. I'm fine. I'll be there in ten," I said, and hung up. I felt bad, but I didn't want him to hear me cry.

I don't even know why I cried so much. Kai made me feel worthless with his actions. The whole time I was rushing to get to the house, because I knew Colby would have the right thing to say.

I pulled up to the house, where Colby was waiting, leaning on his car. I sat in the car for a second, wiping what eyeliner I had left off.

I opened my car door, leaving my phone in the cup holder inside. Colby stood up and walked towards me. "Hey, Rose," he said. He didn't even asked, he just hugged me. It took my a second but I slowly hugged his neck back.

"What's wrong? What happened?" He asked, shifting his arms so one was above the other. "Can we go inside? Preferably to your room?" I asked.

"Yeah. Come on," he said gently as he took my hand and started to lead me inside.

"Was it Elena?" He asked as he opened the door and led me through then up the stairs.

I shake my head.

We walked through the hall that had Colby and Sam's rooms in them. Just as we were going into Colby's room, Sam's door opened. We made eye contact.

That was what I was afraid of. I didn't want anyone asking questions, because they could get it wrong...

Colby shut the door behind me. His room was different than I expected, even though I'd seen it before. It seemed smaller. It was messy, the bed wasn't made, some of the sticky notes on the walls were missing, his desk unorganized. But I for some reason thought that was cute.

He let go of my hand and sat down on the bed.

"Alright, can you tell me what's wrong? Any problem you have is mine now. If someone made you cry, I'll hurt them," he said, a serious expression on his face. He leaned over on, his arms on his knees as he looked at me. I ran my hand across his desk as I pulled the chair up and sat in front of it.

"So.. I have- had- a huge crush on this guy..." I said. I glanced over at him, and he was just staring at me.

"And... he invited me to coffee tonight, so I went..." I say softly. "And... he came onto me. He really freaked me out, he almost... forced it," I said. I was shaken up.

He looked at me, then suddenly pulled me into another hug. "Who is he?" he growled. "Why?" I asked without thinking. "I'm going to find him and beat the living shit out of him. He touched you. He'll pay for that," he said.

"Kai... Coleman..." I said, I wasn't used to hearing this angry tone in his voice.

"He's dead. I'm coming with you to class tomorrow, and you'll tell me who he is, Alright?" He asked, pulling me into the bed next to him.

"Alright..."

He let me go. It was cold now. "Well. You came here, what do you want to do? Go get food? Food sounds good..." he thought out loud.

"Food does sound good..." I said as I laughed a bit. I liked the fact he wanted to protect me so much.