XPLR | Colby Brock

~105~

On long drives, it's easy for your mind to drift elsewhere.

I ended up in Sacramento. Ironically, I've never really been to Sacramento, even though I've lived in Oregon for most of my life and LA most recently. A five and a half hour drive (yes, I turned back to see it. Might as well, right? I won't be in California for a long time) both ways was never appealing, and I never had concerts there.

I drove around, and around noon I felt myself getting a little hungry. Granted, I'm always hungry, but it was enough to stop at a little diner. I parked and walked inside, looking around. I found a spot to sit just as a waiter came to greet me.

"Good afternoon, Miss. I'm Tom and I'll be your waiter today," he said as he handed me a menu. I looked up at him, just as his eyes darted up back to mine. He'd been checking me out.

That made me feel good for a second. Surprisingly.

He gave me a smile.

"Why are you alone?" Tom asked, unflinchingly. I did. "I'm going home to Oregon for a few days, then I'm going to New York City," I answered truthfully.

"You meeting anyone there?" He asked with a smirk as he slid into the booth across from me. Tom might actually be younger than me. I know I look two years or so younger than I actually am, but I never expected someone two years or so younger than me to hit on me.

Colby was lucky.

I've been getting some attention since we broke up.

"I am," I answered. I needed to turn him down. "My boyfriend, he's so sweet," I said with a fake smile. Fake in the sense that it hurt to say to word boyfriend because it brought Colby's face to my mind.

First it's smiling, but then it morphs into the last face I saw of him, the one where he was crying. Grabbing for my hand. God, he was crying.

You don't need to get soft about it now, Rose. He cheated on you, he'd do it again and you know it.

Too late to go back now, anyway. But maybe I should send him a text.

Tom backed off. He took my order of a sweet tea and a deli sandwich and walked off. Meanwhile, I opened my phone. I had about six messages from Colby now.

Sighing, I opened them.

Sunday, December 10, 2018, 3:48pm

Rose, I'm worried about you. Are you okay?

Sunday, December 10, 2018, 5:37pm

Rose?

Sunday, December 10, 2018, 9:04pm

Rose, I know you're mad at me. Please. Call me, we can talk about this. I just want you, Rose.

Monday, December 11, 2018, 12:24am

I'm so stupid.

Monday, December 11, 2018, 4:01am

Be careful.

Monday, December 11, 2018, 11:56pm.
16 minutes ago