Lost in the Game {Brollins}

| Chapter 68 |

"Where are you going?" Colby asked as the group followed Jonathan, watching him jump into his truck.

"To a place." He responded, clipping in his seatbelt while starting the ignition.

"Let me come with you." Colby tried to open the truck door, only to find it locked. "Please?"

"Listen, man, I don't know if that's the best idea." Jonathan shook his head.

"Please?" Colby repeated, and Jonathan could see the worry and seriousness his eyes held.

"Fine." Jonathan unlocked the door, "But only if you stay in the car."

Colby immediately nodded, "Deal."

"Shouldn't we all go?" Pamela questioned confused.

"I don't know." Jonathan confessed, "Maybe it'll overwhelm her."

"This is assuming that Rebecca is actually at said 'place'." Mercedes chimed in.

Jonathan nodded, "It's a shot in the dark, but I have a gut feeling."

"Okay." Mercedes responded, "I trust you guys."

"Go bring our girl home." Ashley backed away from the window, coaxing the rest of the group to the backyard.

After a few minutes of driving, Colby furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed they were pulling into the school's parking lot. "She's gonna be in the school?"

"Nope." Jonathan turned off the ignition and hopped out of the truck.

When Colby saw him walking in a different direction, far from the school's entrance, he opened the truck door, calling out to Jonathan. "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere." Jonathan turned around, walking backwards. "It's better if you don't know, then you can't come and intervene."

As much as he hated it, Jonathan was right and eventually disappeared out of his sight. Jonathan felt nerves coursing through his veins the further onto the field he got. He didn't know what state Rebecca was in, or if he was even at the right place, but he knew he had to try.

Eventually, he made it into the trees and the small forest. When he pushed some branches out of his way and made it to the shoreline, he saw the old broken-down barn he had shown Rebecca when they first connected.

"Rebecca?" He called out, as he walked towards the entrance.

When he made his way inside, he saw a dark silhouette leaning against the wall, sitting on the floor.

"Rebecca?" He took a slow step forward.

"Yeah." Her empty voice, made the uneasy feeling coursing through Jonathan, increase.

He walked forward slowly, trying to figure out what the best way to approach this was before she spoke again. "I needed a place to get away."

The cracks in her voice were breaking through her words, and from where Jonathan was standing, the large hole in the roof was projecting the moonlight on her.

She looked tired, her eyes puffy and red, on top of the dark circles underlining them. She slowly stood up and Jonathan walked over, wrapping his arms around her. He felt her cling onto him, and he could hear her uneven breathing and feel her shivering.

"He's here isn't he?" She whispered, backing away from Jonathan and wrapping her arms around herself to try and replace his warmth.

"I'm not gonna lie to you." He responded and she nodded slowly. "Did you wanna talk to him?"

Rebecca sighed, staying silent for a while, before weakly responding, "Yeah."

Jonathan nodded, swiftly giving her a reassuring smile, before leaving to get Colby. When he made it back to the parking lot, he smacked the hood of his truck, startling a dozing off Colby. "You're up."

"She wants to talk? To me?" He got out of the truck with furrowed eyebrows, watching Jonathan nod.

He pointed out the direction for Colby to walk, "How will I know I'm there?"

"You'll know." Jonathan responded and Colby began walking away.

As Colby came up to the forest's edge he stopped hesitantly. "What's with all this cryptic shit. 'You'll know' he says. Just give me the damn location."

He continued through the forest and came out to find a worn-down barn. Colby slowly walked towards the entrance, "Rebecca?"

Relief washed over him as he saw her standing with her back towards him. However, when he heard the tone in her voice his nerves quickly reappeared. "Colby, I can't keep doing this."

He took a step forward, "Doing what?"

"Whatever this is." She turned around, gesturing between the two of them. "You just want the chase, after that, I'll be another girl under your belt, and you'll move on. And I can't handle that right now."

"Just because I used to do that doesn't mean I haven't changed." Colby shook his head, not letting her attempt to push him away, happen. "I just needed to find the right girl to make me wanna stay."

"That's not me." Rebecca crossed her arms.

Colby took a deep breath, "But what if it was?"

"It's not. Life isn't a fairytale, not every ending is happy." She saw the determination in his eyes and sighed, not knowing why he was so adamant about staying.

"I'm just- I'm tired of pretending." She choked out, "Pretending like everything's fine. Like I don't need a support system. Like I'm perfectly capable of doing everything on my own all the time."

"So don't. Let me be there for you." He pleaded, "Let me be... your permanent knight in shining armour."

"I can't do that to you." She forced herself to ignore the reference, shaking her head, "You don't deserve that."

"But what if I'm okay with it?" He gently spoke, "Stop worrying about what I want. What do you want?"

"I don't know." She ran her hands through her hair, tears welling in her eyes, before she whispered to herself, "I don't know."

She was trapped in her mind, and she couldn't escape it, and they were lost in the game they didn't know they orchestrated.

"There's nothing going on between us." She whispered begrudgingly.

Colby just smiled, "Those times we almost kissed, the times we did, you wearing my hoodie, and that necklace. All prove otherwise."