Catastrophic

12

Kiara's pov

Colby didn't say anything else about it, instead switched the subject to my bandages.

"You should really learn how to switch your own bandages," Colby advised as he began to peel the bandages off my arm, going slow to avoid tearing the wound back open.

"I do know how to switch them. I could probably do it better than you," I grunted, holding my arm up to keep it steady for Colby, "But I'm left handed. And you decided to stab my left arm. So this has become your problem,"

"I forgot you could be such a bitch," He muttered as he wiped away the blood that dried to my arm.

"Aw, you're so sweet," I smiled sarcastically, and I'm sure if Colby's hands weren't busy, he'd flip me off.

"Just be grateful I'm doing this for you," He huffed, pulling the cover off of the bandage so he could place it onto my arm easily.

I watched as he patted the wound after setting it on, gently, but it still hurt. "Asshole," I called him as I shooed his hands away.

"Should have thought about that before you let me switch your bandages," He said as he grabbed all the garbage, crumbling everything together and setting it in the trash can beside the bed.

"Why can't you be sweet?" I whined as I began to tear off my own bandage,

"Sweet does not fit into this lifestyle," He reminded, causing me to roll my eyes.

"I should be an exception," I complained, tossing the old, crusty bandage in his direction.

He didn't say anything after he caught it, not a single comment on how gross it was or anything like that.

So maybe that was him being sweet.

"No. No exceptions," He said, handing me a fresh bandage to stick on it.

"Well that's a pretty shitty way to be," I pointed out, laying the bandage over my thigh and smoothing it on gently. "See? That's how it's done,"

"It's not a shitty way to be since we are basically strangers. Why would I be nice to a stranger?" He squinted at me before picking at his nails.

"We aren't strangers. Just people with strange pasts," I pointed out, collecting the rest of the mess I had made and setting it into a pile for Colby to throw away.

"You always insist that I know nothing about you, so why is it any different now?" He asked, and one glance into his piercing blue eyes told me he was actually curious.

"You know me," I motioned to my body before pointing to my head, "But you don't know me,"

"Fair. And it's the same way with me. A lot of things are different now," He said, running his fingers through his hair, "I can't just be nice to whatever girl I want. It leads to bad things, it always does,"

"That's because you have a girlfriend now, huh?" I asked, and was surprised to feel a piece of my heart crack a little when I said it.

The piece that will forever love Colby. The piece, though small, had such a big impact on who I am.

"It's not like that," He began, but I stopped him as I held up my hand. "I heard Stas when she came into my room. You went to call her "baby" but stopped yourself. And that's alright,"

"Kiara," He began quickly, "Look, I know that probably looks really bad. Yeah, I can honestly say that what her and I have is nothing like what we have-had," Colby quickly corrected himself.

"Sam wanted me to prove that I was fully over you so I turned to her, and over time my feelings for her may have grown but I swear to God I would never do that to you," He tried grabbing my hand, and after a couple of seconds of me internally fighting myself I let him take it.

"But you already did, didn't you?" I asked, feeling my heart crush more and more as he continued to talk, continued to make excuses.

"No. Kiara. Stop," I couldn't tell if he was getting mad at me or himself, "I don't know why you would think that. You were gone for a year and I never thought I'd see you again. And I bet you as soon as you get done with whatever you need to do you're gonna leave and forget about me all over again. And it'd leave me with no one,"

"That's not true," I said, before shaking my head, "Why are we even talking about this? I came back a day ago, two days at this point,"

"Because, with you it's now or never. We don't have the luxury of taking our time, not in this world," His voice became quiet, "I could die tomrrow and this would all be over,"

"So could I. I'm in this life too, now," I reminded him.

"I know," He gave me a sad smile, "I hate it,"

"There's not much we can do to change it, huh?" I guessed with a laugh. Colby joined in, though I'm sure he wasn't very amused.

"Nope. We just have to make the best of it," Out of nowhere, Colby leaned forward on the bed, causing me to sharply inhale as his lips met mine.

The kiss was gentle but rushed at the same time. I loved it and I hated it. Things were going way too fast and I felt like something would eventually go wrong.

Colby pulled away from me, just enough to whisper, "This will just have to be our little secret. Just until I get things figured out, alright?"

I nodded, causing him to smile and kiss me again. This time, I was prepared for it a bit more and I grabbed his face with my hand, leaving my injured arm to lay on the bed.

Something about this told me that it would end in an awful disaster.

But I wasn't scared of that now.