Out of the Darkness

104 Anna's POV

 "It's been forever since we've all hung out. Let's have a little pool party and let loose!" Kat shimmied in her glittery two piece, making all of the girls laugh. "Yeah Colby, hang out with us! Pleeeaaseee," Tara begged, poking her lip out. "You're both annoying," he replied, to the two girls who were like his sisters. "Fine. Whatever. Let me go change." "Yaaay!" They cried, then laughed as they watched him slosh his way into the house. I didn't bother going inside with him. I knew that I would want to talk to him. I couldn't. I couldn't be in the same room with him, watching him change. It was better this way. For who, I wasn't sure because, at this moment, it didn't feel like it was better for me. I hated this. I hated everything about it. I wanted to scream in frustration. Instead, I grabbed the sides of my head and opened my mouth in a silent scream. I didn't accomplish anything but it made me feel a little better. "So, he's single right?" I heard a girl say. I knew who it was and who they were asking about before I even turned in their direction. Sure enough, Addy was leaning close to Kat, blushing up a storm as she asked her question. Kat looked at her in surprise. "Who? Colby?" Addy nodded with an embarrassed smile. "Yeah, he's single. I think. He's been hanging out with this girl Anna, but I don't think they're dating. At least, not yet. He really likes her though." I watched in satisfaction as the girl's face fell. "Oh. So, probably shouldn't pursue that then, huh?" Kat looked at her, with kind of a shocked expression on her face. Like she was just now realizing that the girl liked Colby like that. "OH. Um, I don't know. Colby is hard to pin down. Usually, he's not looking for anything serious because he says LA girls just aren't his type. It's different with Anna though. She's different. Not like anyone I've ever met actually," Kat mused. I didn't know what she meant by that so I didn't know how I should take it. Her facial expressions weren't giving anything away, but I had always felt like Katrina liked me. I was sure that she did. She was right though. I wasn't anything like the other girls that I had met or seen since I had been "awake" again. They all wore clothes that I would have been embarrassed to wear, just because of how much skin they showed. They had bright colors in their hair; pink, purple, blue, green. It seemed like I had seen every color of the rainbow and then some colors that I hadn't even known existed. The world had definitely changed since I was alive. It felt like it was way too fast for me now. Like I didn't belong. I sighed as I thought about that. I guess I didn't. Not technically. I heard the back door open, and glanced up to see Colby walking out, in a pair of black swim trunks with red hearts on them. He had a towel slung over his shoulder. When he reached the lounge chairs, where the Addy and Katrina were waiting, he tossed his towel on one of the empty ones. "Where'd Sam go?" He asked, glancing around. Kat nodded towards the hot tub, where Sam was leaning back against the side of the bricks, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the hot water. "I think his back is bothering him more than he is letting on," she whispered to Colby. "I think he should go back to the doctor, just to be sure that everything is still okay, but he won't listen to me. He says he's fine." Colby looked over to his best friend and nodded. "I'll talk to him." Kat looked at him, relief in her eyes. "Thanks Colby." "So, are we swimming or what? Where is everyone else?" "You're the first one back out. Devyn, Tara, and Jake are in the pool. Corey, Chazz and Tavan haven't come back out yet," Addy told him, her eyes tracing over his body while he wasn't looking. I wanted to smack her. "Floozy," I muttered under my breath. Again, Colby's eyes shot around, searching the darkness where I was standing. "Did you guys hear something?" he asked the girls. They both shook their heads, and stepped closer to him. "Why? What did you hear?" Kat asked, a tiny bit of fear in her eyes. Colby cut his eyes down at both girls. "Is that seriously all it takes to scare you two?" he asked, rolling his eyes. "Shut up," Kat replied, shoving him. He laughed, then took another couple of steps backwards. He was walking backwards to the pool. "You girls better get in the water or the Boogey man is gonna get you," he said, then turned and did a flip into the pool, splashing both girls. They screamed, laughed, then jumped in behind him. I ached, literally ached, to become solid and jump in with them. It looked like so much fun. Jake and Colby started a splash war, then Colby jumped up and grabbed Jake's head, dunking him underneath the water. Jake came back up, shaking water from his hair like a dog. I got closer to the water, and sat down on the edge of the pool, letting my transparent legs hang over the side. It wasn't like I could get them wet right now. Corey and his friends joined the gang soon after, bringing music with them. I didn't know any of the songs that they were singing along too, but I liked most of them. The girls seemed to go a little crazy when someone named Justin came on, and a band called One something. I couldn't really hear over Tara's screaming. What was funny to me, was that I knew it was a boyband. In my experience, guys automatically hated any boybands, and always accused them of being gay. Not Colby and his friends.