XPLR | Colby Brock

~142~

"I can't believe this," Logan grumbled as we stepped off the train at Newark Airport. "Can you be nice? The guy's got nowhere to go," I said, trying to sound nonchalant, even though my heart was hammering so hard in my chest I couldn't breathe. How Long ago was the last time I saw him? Nearly five months ago...

"Be nice? Be nice to my girlfriend's cheating ex-boyfriend, oh yeah, that's piece of cake," he huffed, like a child, as he took my hand and held it close to him. He was a protective guy, so was Colby. God, Rose, stop thinking about Colby.

I walked towards the entrance we were supposed to be meeting Colby at, it was the same place Logan picked me up from nearly five months ago. Nearly five months ago.

I searched around for that telltale brown hair, those broad shoulders and tense frame. My ex-boyfriend. Ex-love-of-my-life. What if he's still that? The love of your life? I don't know.

I could've spotted Colby in a sea of a thousand people, even with his newly dyed hair. Blue looks good on him. I stopped, which consequently stopped Logan as well. "What? What is it?" he asked, then he glanced up. Just as Colby sensed us, and he turned and looked towards us. Our eyes met, and suddenly, we were the only two people in this bustling New Jersey airport.

Only two people in the world.

How much I've longed to feel those eyes on me. See what he was thinking. It was always so easy to tell. Staring at those gorgeous eyes was like watching a movie, he didn't even have to speak when telling a story, I could tell exactly what he was saying by the way his animated eyes moved, the way they turned up at the edges when he smiled. And those long eyelashes would brush against the bottom set, and when he laughed, they would close, and when they opened again, they would be bright with happiness.

But not these eyes. This set of blue eyes were different. They were dull, grey, aching. But nevertheless, they were speaking for him. Something in him was being satisfied, just as something was in me, while simultaneously, another urge or longing opened up within our souls.

And we both knew the other was thinking the exact same thing.

People moved around us, Logan whispered to me, light from the sky above us warmed my skin, the sounds of cars and people and birds and life were all so present in my mind, but none of it registered. The only thing that I knew and could trust was the fact that the man I've been yearning- yes, yearning, there's no more denying it- for was standing right before me, feet apart. Ten feet, then nine, then eight and seven and six five four three- until the last three feet were rushed, and his arms were wrapped around me so tight I wasn't even sure it was real.

The ardent love inside the both of us was so unimaginably zealous and dedicated, and our hearts collided like soft, hungry fingertips and the ivory keys of a piano.

His face was buried in the crook of my neck, and I was left unblinking as I wrapped my arms back around him. We fit perfectly together, like two puzzle pieces.

My skin burned with passion and ecstasy, and I could tell he felt the exact same way, by the way he squirmed in my arms.

"Ahem," Logan coughed. That broke our perfect little world, the one where we were the only two beings in it.

I composed myself and brushed my hair behind my ear, looking over my shoulder at him. "Colby. This is.. This is my boyfriend, Logan," I said, returning to the guitarist's side, wrapping my arms around his arm and holding his hand. This wasn't a gesture to make Colby mad, this was to reassure Logan that that hug was the only physical interaction Colby and I would be having.

I bit my lip and looked down at the ground, then back at Colby as I waited for his response. To my surprise, Colby grinned and reached out his hand, offering a handshake. "It's nice to meet you, Logan. I heard a lot about you, back in California. I wish I'd seen Phantom of the Opera. I'm sure it would've been phenomenal."

A smirk I've only seen a very few number of times appeared on Logan's lips. "Too bad you were busy with other things. Or rather, other women," Logan's words had a certain edge to them. Words that cut both me and Colby in half.

"Yeah. Anyway-"

"You can stay at my place tonight," I said. I just wanted conversation of that night to be over. Since tears were threatening at my eyes, and I wasn't sure I could hold it in for much longer. "Huh?" Logan immediately asked, looking down at me.

"I'll spend the night at your place for a few days," I said, nonchalantly, shrugging. Trying my hardest to keep my composure. It's a good thing that I was taught when I started doing piano competitions to keep my nerves down when in the spotlight. The spotlight I was in now is metaphorical, of course, but with two pairs of eyes owned by two boys I love sure feels like there's a beaming light from above shining down on me, singling me out.

No, not love. You don't love Logan.

That, disembodied voice in my head, is correct.

I'm glad we finally agree on something!

"Oh. Right," Logan said. "Well, let's hop to it then. It'll be late once we're finally getting back to the Heights. Washington Heights. I forgot you're not a New Yorker like me. Like us," Logan said to Colby, before his arm was suddenly wrapped around my waist and he was tugging me back towards the train tracks we'd come from. While he was focused on keeping us on schedule, and keeping me next to him, a power came over me, and I glanced over my shoulder at Colby without really meaning to.

Who was still giving me that dull, blank stare, right back at me. He was looking right through me.

But as Colby's first serious girlfriend, the first girl he was ever in love with, there was something I saw that perhaps few others would catch.

The slightest flicker of hope, dancing around his irises like fire flies.