Lost in the Game {Brollins}

| Chapter 57 |

Colby brushed his lips against Rebecca's ever so slightly, but just before he could press them onto hers fully, his phone began ringing and vibrating, startling the both of them.

"You've got to be shitting me." He growled, leaning his forehead on Rebecca's before she moved back, silently telling him to pick it up.

"Hello?" He picked up the call, heavily annoyed.

"What are you doing?" Rebecca could hear Jonathan's voice through the phone, "Joseph says you better not be banging a cheerleader."

Rebecca raised her eyebrows with a silent laugh, and it got increasingly harder to stay incognito with the look on Colby's face. "I'm taking your advice, you idiot."

"What advice dumbass? I tell you a lot of things that you completely ignore." Jonathan responded snarkily.

"I'm talking to Rebecca." He clenched his teeth together, practically seething, knowing what Jonathan just interrupted.

"Oh damn!" Jonathan yelled before filling in who Colby assumed was Joseph. "He's talking to Rebecca."

"Don't let him charm you over Irish!" She heard Joseph yell into the phone. "He's a certified douche."

"Wow, thanks, guys." He rubbed his temple with his free hand.

"Why do you sound so tense? Are we cock blocking you, dude?" Joseph responded jokingly, knowing the chances of that actually being true were impossible, "Because if so, sorry not sorry."

"Don't do it, Lucky Charms! He's got infections!" She heard Jonathan call out and she quickly snatched the phone from Colby.

"We aren't banging, Jesus. Shut up you ass." She laughed, "Stop living vicariously through me, if you want a piece of Colby he's all yours."

"Nah, I'll pass." He replied, "Don't worry, I know you're better than that. You can do way better than him."

"You guys are the worst." Colby heard the two laughing on the other end of the phone before taking it from Rebecca and hanging up.

Rebecca just laughed before laying back and looking up at the sky. Colby just took in the scene for a few minutes before deciding to break the silence. "So why does the notorious Rebecca, prefer to be alone?"

"I have little patience for bullshit." She shrugged, looking over at him.

He chuckled and nodded his head, "As I've seen."

"And most people." She added quickly with another shrug.

"That might not be a bad outlook on things, fewer problems." He placed his hands down on the grass as he listened to her.

Rebecca quietly snorted, "You'd be surprised."

The long pauses in between their conversation weren't awkward but surprisingly comfortable, so Colby continued to ask questions, "What was little Becky like?"

"Reserved, mature, studious." She smiled before sadness seeped into it, "She was forced to grow up faster than she was supposed to."

She could see the thoughts and questions swirling in his head, so she quickly wanted to take the attention off of herself. "What about tiny Colby?"

"He was hyper and rebellious, but innocent and naive." He stared off into the distance, and Rebecca knew something was eating at him.

"Don't worry," She started and he looked over at her, "You don't have to go any further than that if you don't want to."

He froze, not expecting to get a response like that. She was openly giving him space to decide what he wanted to talk about and was respecting his boundaries without a second thought. Something new clicked in Colby's brain and made him want to be around her even more, all of the time, surrounded by the safe feeling she was providing.

"My life isn't perfect. Nobody really knows, but people like to assume." He started slowly, "My parents are divorced, my mom has a new husband, and I haven't seen my, uh, father in years."

He looked over at her and she could see the pain in his gaze. "I'm always home alone because mom struck gold with her new man. He's filthy rich and they're always travelling the world 'for business'. They come back once every odd weekend, but most of the time it's just me."

For once in his life, Colby felt good while opening up, and Rebecca was doing what therapists never could for him. "Before the new man came into the picture, it was just me, mom, and dad. Like any other little kid, I thought things were perfect, but they weren't. That man that I used to call dad, was abusive to my mom, and I couldn't even tell for the longest time."

She sat up and turned fully towards Colby, attentively, in hopes of helping him feel more comfortable.

"One day," He looked back out at the water, keeping his words steady, "I heard yelling, so I went to the noise. I walked in just in time to see him release his hands from my mom's neck."

He paused, before feeling Rebecca gently place a hand on his thigh, "He walked away and I saw it all. Her body was lifeless, her clothes rumpled with some pieces thrown on the floor, and her body was battered and bruised."

Rebecca ignored the lump in her throat and gently rubbed her thumb back and forth across Colby's thigh, as she waited for him to continue.

"It was obvious that she was raped and beat, and he tried to cover it up. But I didn't know what to call it at the time, I just knew she was hurt." He spoke, watching Rebecca move her hand in her lap and stare down at the ground, "When I was too dumb to realize what was going on with her it was the first time I ever felt like a failure."

There was an extremely long pause, but Rebecca didn't push for anything else to be said, and that's what made Colby want to continue.

"But when I wasn't fast enough for you," He proceeded as he saw her head snap towards him, "I knew I made the same mistakes and had failed again."