Misguided - Colby Brock

Twenty

Chapter Twenty

I woke up in Colby's room feeling like I had a hangover. I've heard horror stories of them from friends and tv shows. Of course, I don't drink so I don't personally know what they feel like. My head was pounding from the beams of sun shining in through the window and my memories from last night were a bit hazy. I pinched my eyes closed. I remember falling asleep on the couch, but I don't know how I ended up in Colby's room.

I took the covers off my body to see that I was in nothing but my underwear and the balenciaga sweatshirt. I wondered where my cargo pants went. And where Colby was. I heard sporadic key clicking and opened my eyes to see Colby at his desk.

I shuffled over to where he was sitting and promptly made myself at home, sitting directly on top of his lap. He was spooked to say the least, causing me to chuckle. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my shoulder.

"Good morning," he said, plugging in his audio splitter and handing me a pair of headphones. He was editing the prank video from last night.

"We didn't do anything last night, right?" I confirmed, referring to the fact that I was only in my underwear. He just chuckled and shook his head.

"No, the buckles and chains on your pants were digging into my skin so I took them off. Hope you don't mind. But if they were uncomfortable for me, I can't imagine how they felt to wear them."

I shrugged my shoulders, "Not that bad actually. So you gonna show me the beginning?"

He played the video from the start so I could see him and Kat doing the intro. I saw him setting up the hidden camera in the hallway and the one in his room. The hidden camera picked up on Sam chasing me to give me a sweaty hug. I also saw how uncomfortable Kat and Colby actually were sitting on the bed together alone. It was quite comical actually. It gave me second hand embarrassment seeing how cringe they were.

"Damn, Colbs, you should've just showed me the video after I thought it was real, because you guys look so awkward being alone together," I chuckled.

"I felt like I was doing something wrong being alone with Kat," he explained.

"You know you can hang out with girls without me around, right? I'm not going to control you. I don't see anything wrong with it as long as we're not hiding anything from each other, you know?"

He nodded, "I know. And that's why you're the best girlfriend a guy could ever have. I'm the luckiest person on earth right now."

"Now you're just flattering me," I grinned, kissing him on the cheek.

We both laughed and he played the video to continue editing it. I listened in on the split audio as I was scrolling through Twitter. A fan account of Colby's tweeted out a screenshot from my newest video and laughed about how cynical Colby was acting.

"I didn't know you posted my video," I brought up. I didn't mind. I honestly forgot all about the video and probably wouldn't have remembered it existed until a fan brought up me posting. That's one of my flaws; important things slip my mind. Sometimes, I can be asked of something and within thirty seconds, I won't remember.

He shrugged, "I finished editing it and I had your login info."

I thanked him and went through my non verified mentions on Twitter to see what people were saying about my new video. So far, everyone loved it. I haven't seen one bad thing about it. After looking through the repetitive comments, I searched my name in the bar to look through my indirects.

"Someone said, and I quote, 'Leslie is the girl version of Colby, fight me on it'."

Colby shook his head and chuckled, "I don't see it."

"I don't either," I replied.

I looked up from my phone screen when I heard my voice ring out through the headphones. I cussed Colby and Kat out, and split seconds after running out the door, I saw the pain on Colby's face. Then Sam poked his head through the door, saw the two of them, and told them not to talk to him or I again. It was nice of him to fend for me even in times where he's hurting. I know that if anything ever were to happen between Colby and I, I still have a forever friend in Sam.

"I would never cheat on you. I'd give up my life before that ever happens."

"Can I tell you why I was so hurt last night?" I told him.

He nodded and gave me his full attention. I never told anyone this. Not even my mum.

"I've only had one other boyfriend. We met in middle school. We lived in the same neighborhood with like four other boys and we were all friends. Me and one boy's friendship in the friend group kinda grew into something more. Mostly all the guys in our friend group had girlfriends going through high school. And my ex decided to cheat on me with one of their girlfriend's. So seeing you with Kat, it sent my mind back to high school. It wasn't that I didn't trust you, it's just that I went through something similar."

"I'm sorry Leslie. If I knew you went through that I would've never done that. We were just in the prank wars. I did the same prank to Corey."

"It's okay, Colbs. The stuff from my past is exactly that—the past. Okay?"

He nodded his head and continued editing the video. He wrapped his right arm around my waist and reached for his keyboard. It gave me the added comfort while I watched through the prank video. He's editing the part from after Sam and I took off. He got Sam's Audi leaving the driveway, but you couldn't see our faces. Clips afterwards showed Colby crying on the front steps alone. He cut the entire footage of that out though. Probably didn't want people seeing him cry.

When he was finished with editing, he inserted the end title, then set it up to schedule upload on Friday. It's cool that YouTube can post videos at a certain time when you're not around.

"Oh my god, I almost forgot!" I exclaimed, jumping over him and sprinting to my backpack. I pulled out a brown cardboard like jewelry box and brought it over to where he was sitting.

"What's this?" He chuckled. I handed it over to him excitedly and sat down on his lap. I bounced a bit in nerves. I hope he likes it.

"It's your Christmas gift," I smiled.

He looked up at me then down at the box before opening it. He stared at the ring in awe and put it on his index finger. Then, he flaunted it in front of me like he was a girl showing her nails on a mercedes benz steering wheel.

"I love it, thank you," he told me, enveloping me in a hug. Sometimes I hate giving gifts because I feel like people actually hate the gift but don't tell you. But I really believe that Colby likes the ring, "And here's your gift. I was waiting for the right time, but since you gave me yours, I'll give you mine."

He reached behind his computer monitor and pulled out a sleek, matte black box. The box alone looked immensely expensive and I got anxiety in the pit of my stomach. I hate receiving expensive things because although I do appreciate them, I'd be happy with a hair tie from walmart. I think Colby knows at this point, though, that I will love anything he gets me.

"Oh my god Colby. I love this so freaking much," I said, pulling out a gold locket. It didn't look expensive and it looked like it was from the titanic times. I opened it up to see a candid of us inside. We took it right before trying to take an actual selfie. The thing with Colby and I is that we can't take pictures without cracking up laughing over nothing for twenty minutes beforehand. The picture in the locket was me holding Colby's face, smiling up at him as he had his head leaning on mine, smiling down at me. It radiated genuine love and was my favorite picture, as I showed the fans the other day in the Q and A on the plane.

"I'm actually going to cry I love it so much," I told him. He offered to put it on and I held up my hair for him. I closed the door to the locket and fumbled with the front cover of it. I love old time-y things; polaroids, cassette tapes, vinyls, disposables, etc. I've never been too vocal about that to Colby, though. I'm so glad that we can pick up on little cues like this to each other.

"And I love you," he said cheesily, kissing me on the cheek.