I Got You ~ C.B

SIX

Previous ~ Four Years

The first thing he does is put a drink in my hands, then proceeds to take me around and find his good friends for me too meet. Here, I formally meet Jake and the guy from earlier named Brennan. Then there's Sam, Corey, Elton, Heath, Franny, Kian, JC, Bobby, another Australian who is also another Corey. Liza, David, Scotty, Kristen, Corinna. I hit it off with all of them. Especially the girls. My first night in LA and I already found myself a 'girl squad'. All of them try to talk me into starting YouTube at some point in the night. We dance a lot, us girls and the boys joining. I sight Colby, out the corner of my eye, chilling on a log near the fire with a girl. Her body language suggests she's into him, his doesn't suggest he's into her. I make my way over to him, sitting down on the log on his free side, arm around his shoulders and hand in his hair.
"You look majestic sitting over here."
He turns to look at me, eyes widening slightly as he mouths
"Thank you."
I smile, leaning in to kiss his cheek. He hums, dropping my head against my shoulder. His shift allows me to see the girl who was trying to get in with him. She's actually gorgeous, and I suddenly feel intimidated. Her hair is long and straight and black, mine is chocolate brown and in natural waves down my back. Her skin is fair and smooth, mine tan. She's tall and skinny and fit and her clothes show substantial amounts of skin. I'm petite, shorter and curvy, dressed in distressed light wash denim mom jeans and a long forest green knit knit cardigan over them. Her nails are long and perfectly manicured, mine bitten and painted with chipped white nail polish. What the hell is wrong with Colby? Thank you? For what? Was that sarcastic? How could he want to thank me for interrupting a conversation with this perfect specimen of the female species? I play false confidence, smiling and extending a hand over Colby to her
"Hey, I'm Alaska. Nice to meet you."
She eyes me up and down, blatantly scoffs at me, rises and walks away. I stare after her wide eyed, how rude. Colby doesn't move as he tells me
"Her name is Shea. Don't worry, you aren't missing out on much."
I raise an eyebrow at him
"You don't like her?"
He shrugs
"She's a friend. I don't think she thinks she's just a friend. But she's a friend."
I laugh
"I have a feeling she doesn't like you having other female friends."
He shrugs, sitting up again
"She's just threatened by you."
"Why? She has zero reason to be."
His eyes search mine as he tells me
"She has every reason to be."
I feel my cheeks heat up, and hope it's only fire and not a blush. As if it wasn't enough to make me bashful, he proceeds to explain
"Because you, Australia, aren't just beautiful here," he indicates to my face, his hand coming in to point where my heart is "but also here."
When he pauses, I inquire
"Colby, you drunk honey?"
He shakes his head, proceeding
"I'm driving, sister. Anyway, as I was saying. You are the most free spirited, genuine, kind, adventurous, real person I have ever met. And I know this already, after hours from meeting you. Because you're honest too. People like you are rare to come across, Rey."
I smile up at him
"People like me?"
He laughs
"And you're one off a kind."
I giggle, looking into the fire
"Look, Colby, I don't do well with compliments. But thank you."
He tells me
"That's surprising. You'd think you'd be used to them by now."
I shrug
"I don't know. I think I was just raised to think accepting compliments are vanity."
"Well," he begins "I think you were raised right- except for that. Or maybe not. If you weren't you may have a big head by now."
I shake my head, smiling back at him
"You believe in chance Colby?"
He raises an eyebrow
"I mean, not in the Gambling sense."
I scoff
"Of course not. I mean like, let's say every decision you come to in life, every day, that the choice you make can lead to another path in life. And you have infinite paths because you have endless decisions to make?"
He hums and nods, but inquires
"Are you drunk?"
I laugh, shaking my head
"I've had one. I've been to scared to go get another one."
He nods
"Okay, and yeah, I get what you're saying. Please proceed. This seems insightful."
I laugh, and do as he asks
"Well, I'm trying to think back on what decision I made that got me on the path that made me meet you. It's a one in an infinity of chances and I made it."
He smiles over my face
"I don't think that could be chance alone. I think there had to be some higher power that brought you to my booth."
We laugh, and I tell him
"Yeah, That waitress that sent me to a table that didn't exist."
What happens next seems to happen fast and slow all at once. I see it coming, hope it does, and it does. One second we're laughing, and the next we're kissing. The excitement blurs my judgement so I can't tell if I started it or he did. Or maybe it was our higher power. Nature playing its course and making it happen. Either way, I'm not mad that it does. And I never want it to end. My body warms and tingles, and I'm not sure if it's the fire in front of me of the fire in me that has lit since meeting him. It does end though, the kiss, and not long after. It was a short, almost innocent kiss. Tender and electric. Our smiles interrupt it, giggles with them. He kisses me once more, asking me
"Want to go to the water?"
The inner romantic in me wants to emotionally tell him that I'd go anywhere with him, but the rational side of me slaps the romantic side and I just casually agree. Taking my hand we head off down the sand to wade in the shallows under the moon. Its a terribly perfect picturesque moment. We splash around in the water for a while, before he pulls me back into him, kissing me again with a hand against my face, and his other hand holding mine. This time it lasts longer, and is ever so slightly deeper. He's gentle with me, not pushing or forceful. I begrudgingly break it this time, stepping back to tell him
"Colby... I usually let the moment be. But i think we need to pause for a minute and think it through."
Taking both my hands, he tells me
"I have. And if that once chance brought you into my life, I want to make that one decision that will give me that one chance to keep you in it."
I sigh
"I'm going back to Australia Colby. I'm still in high school."
He shakes his head
"That doesn't matter to me. I just have a feeling we ended up here for a reason."
I can't help but smile
"I know."
Colby then suggests
"Let's just let it be. Pretend you don't have anywhere to be. You're not leaving. Just pretend while we still can Okay?"
I ask
"And when I do leave?"
He shrugs
"Leave it up to that higher power again?"
I think it over, and decide
"Okay, but it's completely up to that okay? I'm talking no social media's, no numbers, no email or carrier pigeons- nothing. And if we do by chance wind up here again...we play it out."
He links his pinky with mine, and brings my hand in to kiss the back of it. It's then that we hear Liza's voice from the DJ's booth. Having commandeered the mic
"This next song is dedicated to ma girl, ma new main thing- Alaska! Where you at baby?!"
I recognise the song they've dedicated to me as Australia- the Jonas Brothers. Colby smiles, indicating with a jerk of his head back to the beach
"We should get you back, before they send out a search party."
Laughing, and after one more kiss, we make our way back up the sand.