Sam and Colby: The Penitentiary

3

"Mom's been worried sick about you. Practically begged me to come up since you won't talk to her or Dad about anything. Says you've been using the excuse that you're here for Dad for months," said Vance.

                "Okay, so what? I'm worried about him. He had cancer, for god's sake," I said.

                "Yes, but in one small tumor that had no risk of spreading to the rest of his body. They caught it early and you of all people are smart enough to understand that he's perfectly fine now," he replied. "So don't give me that bullshit."

                "I just... I need some time away from the big city, okay?" I replied.

                "That is also bullshit. You've been craving a city life ever since you were old enough to talk," he answered. I sighed.

                "Can you please just drop it already?" I asked, starting to get annoyed.

                "No! I will not! My bright little sister is all dull now and it's depressing. You're not the same as you were before and you know it. Your smiles aren't genuine and I know you don't feel at home in this shithole of a town. I don't either, to be fair. But at least I can be honest about it. Now what happened?" he asked. I bit my lip and plopped down onto the ground, grabbing a stick to scrape the mud off of my boots.

                "Colby," I muttered.

                "Well yeah, duh. He was all you would talk about every time we called when you were in LA. Dude made you happy. Like, genuinely happy. Something big clearly had to happen to ruin that," Vance said, picking a piece of grass to fumble with.

                "Swear you won't tell Mom?" I asked.

                "I swear I'll leave out any details that fully reveal the story if I can still provide a solid answer or at least let her know that you really are okay," he said. I took a deep breath and didn't look up at him, continuing to scrape mud off my boots.

                "He asked me to marry him," I said quietly.

                "He fucking what? No way. When?" asked Vance.

                "On my 22nd birthday," I said.

                "Well that's a little young, but you clearly loved the guy. You said no? Why?" asked Vance. I shrugged.

                "I don't know. We'd only been together for ten months, I'd just learned that Dad was sick and we didn't know how bad it was yet," I said.

                "But y'all were already living together, weren't you?" he asked.

                "Well, yeah. But it's not how you think. There were eight of us living in the house," I said.

                "Oh. All of your YouTuber friends? Sam and Jack and Corbin?" he asked.

                "Oh my god, no. Have you not watched any of our videos?" I asked with a short laugh.

                "I watch your vlogs sometimes. Not really into that spooky shit, though. And neither were you before you met them," Vance said.

                "I know, they just made me feel safe with it and all of the research I did was really intriguing to me," I replied.

                "Leave it to you to do research to go on cool trips," he chuckled.

                "Their names are Sam and Jake and Corey. And their girlfriends, Devyn and Kat and Tara. And then there's Reggie, Kevin, Aryia, Cassie, Mike, Brennen, Xepher, Griffin, Aaron—,"

                "Woah there, nerd. Slow it down. I couldn't even remember any but Sam and Colby," Vance said.

                "Right," I laughed. We sat there quietly for a moment, listening to the birds loudly chirp.

                "So you just let a boy get in the way of your dreams?" Vance asked.

                "No! I'm still posting online and driving to Oklahoma City for Victoria's Secret and Chanel shoots," I said.

                "Right. So when are you going back to LA? Or did you already take your deposit back on the house?" he asked.

                "I still pay my part of rent every month. It's an automatic transfer online," I said.

                "Oh yeah. I keep forgetting you're rich," he chuckled. "But you've stopped posting videos."

                "I actually made one last week. A little tour of the farm and what I do around here, the chores and the four wheeling and the shooting and the tractors and whatnot," I said.

                "Well, that's enough content to maybe last for two ten minutes videos. This isn't exactly the most exciting life," he said.

                "Yeah, I know. I'm posting tonight though, since it's Friday," I said. "Oh shit, did you want to go to that bonfire with Hunter?"

                "Sure. Haven't seen him in a year or two. You know he likes you, right?" said Vance.        

                "Pretty hard to forget when it's blaringly obvious and Ida constantly reminds me," I said.

                "Oh, good old Ida. Don't miss her. But I know you used to like him. And you didn't answer my question. When are you going back to LA?" he asked.

                "More like am I moving back. I was thinking about maybe renting an apartment in Oklahoma City or maybe even Dallas," I said.

                "V, you hate going to new places where you don't know anyone. You only went to LA because you knew your dorm roommate Alice from high school," he pointed out.

                "People can change, loser," I said.

                "Not like that. There are some things people just inherently love and those things don't change. No matter what. A passion is a passion, and your passion is big crowds and lots of exciting friends and adventures." I sighed and dropped the stick, having scraped all the mud off my boots.

                "Okay, then I guess I'll move back to LA when I feel that passion again. When I get tired of being here and genuinely miss what I left behind. But there's no way of knowing how long that will be," I said.

                "You going to move back into that house? With Colby again?" he asked.

                "I... I don't know," I admitted. "I've hardly even talked to the guy since I said no to his proposal and ran inside crying. I was gone a few days later to go see Dad, barely left any of my stuff behind since I had most of it shipped here," I said.

                "You've really made quite a mess of things, huh?" he asked.

                "Wow, you are so helpful. Way to make me feel better," I said.

                "If you want sweet talk and reassurance, Mom's the way to go. But you clearly refused that so you're stuck with me and my tough love," said Vance.

                "Unfortunately, you're right for once," I said.