A Piece of Me

44

Elizabeth's pov

"Shit," I said, bursting through the front door before calling out, "Colby!"

I wandered through the first floor, shouting out his name. The closer I got to the garage, I realized that he was calling back to me.

"In here!" He shouted as I walked in to see him sitting on the couch on his phone.

"Today's Halloween," I said, and he glanced up at me. "Yeah?"

"We need a costume idea," I said, "We should do a matching costume or something,"

"Uh, okay. Is this for the party tonight?" He asked, pushing himself off the couch.

"Yeah, I guess so," I shrugged, following him as we went to the bedroom.

"We should be farm animals," He joked, "We practically live in a barn so it makes sense,"

"I think I have a stuffed animal or something at my house," I said, "We could just wear similar clothes so that we don't get too hot,"

"You're so smart," He said sarcastically, "No, I actually have a pink shirt so I'll just be a pig. What are you going to be?"

"I think a cow would suit me best," I said as he stepped over his still packed suitcases to grab the pink shirt on the floor.

"Yeah. You want this?" He asked, holding up a white and black shirt.

"Sure," I said, "What time does the party start?"

"I don't know, people start showing up whenever. This place will be crowded by eight though, for sure," He said, "We have to cover all the windows and doors and stuff so that we won't get busted,"

"How many people will be there?" I asked, taking off my shirt as Colby threw the other one for me to put on.

I put my hair up in two low buns, not really caring how messy they were.

"About two hundred. We have a list," He said, changing his own shirt.

I got a peak at his chest, muscular but no abs, unfortunately. He drank far more than any of the other roommates, even Jake, who's his drinking buddy.

I've been sleeping at home so I didn't have to see it, so I could pretend it wasn't happening. But I'd come in in the morning to find him puking, or even just reeking of alcohol.

Jake was no better, but at least I didn't have to see it. I've done my best to avoid him, and ignore the thoughts that would pop in my brain about him.

I'm surprised Jake hasn't said anything to Colby yet, drunkenly mumbling something to Colby that caught his attention.

But so far, no mention of anything. It would be easy to deny, as long as Tori isn't around. I could blame it on his alcohol-brain state of mind.

It would leave Jake to be busted, but only for "thinking" such thoughts about me.

"So how do we start doing stuff?" I asked, following Colby out to the closet in the hallway. He opened it, checking to see what was in it before shutting it.

"We have these mats that Sam said we should tape to the windows, and it should keep the sound in the house," He said, poking his head into Corey's room and shouting, "Brother, I'm starting to cover stuff up!"

He didn't wait for a response, going down the stairs to search for the mats. I grabbed a few of the random duct tape rolls at the top of the stairs before following him, risking a glance at Jake's cracked open bedroom door.

I couldn't hear anything from here, which meant he probably wasn't in his room.

Quickly, I shook my head and made my way down the stairs to see Colby dragging mats to the living room.

"I got duct tape," I said, waving the rolls and throwing them all in one hand, grabbing another mat from the pile he had made in the middle of the floor.

They looked like gymnastic mats, and I wondered why they even had them. Maybe they used them at every party, but I just never noticed.

I started ripping duct tape as Colby held the mat up against the glass beside the back door.

"I'm just gonna stick it along the entire side," I huffed, dropping everything else as I ran the tape across the top, having to stand on my tiptoes to get above Colby's head.

He waited until I had the first layer of tape around the entire glass until helping me double and triple tape it. We repeated the system over the entire door and entire window, and we had a pretty good thing going until I got lightheaded.

"Woah," I said, squeezing my eyes closed as I tried to steady myself. I felt dizzy, and I felt Colby grab my arm, "You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, just a little dizzy. I'm fine though," I said, opening my eyes once my faze cleared.

"Okay, you sure?" He asked, slowly letting me go, grabbing the tape roll from my hand.

"Yeah. I'm going to get a drink real quick," I said, walking over to the kitchen and grabbing a bottle of water out of the case.

"Let me know if you need to take a break," He called over.

"This is my break," I said before taking another drink. "You want one?"

"No, I'm alright," He said before adding, "Thanks,"

"Can you come hold this? I got this stuck on my hand," He said, motioning to how his arm was almost completely tangled in duct tape.

"How did you manage that one?" I asked with a laugh, making my way over to him. I replaced Colby's hands, holding the mat to the window as Colby ripped the tape of the roll.

"I have no fucking clue, I've just been powering through these things," He said, wincing as he tore the tape off.

"She shouldn't be holding that," Jake said as he came down the stairs, "Move, Liz, I'll do it,"

"I'm fine," I said with a laugh, waving his hands away, "I'm not helpless,"

"He shouldn't be making you do that," He insisted, crossing his arms.

"It's not even that heavy, brother," Colby squinted at Jake, "She's only been holding it for like point-five seconds,"

"Yeah that's too long," Jake decided, "Let's just have us two do it, let her go relax or something,"

"Jake, if I'm not doing this then I'll be doing something else that's probably more work than this," I pointed out, "Does this really bother you that much?"

"Yes, and Colby should be more concerned than he is," He said, motioning to Colby.

"We're getting nothing done if we're standing here arguing," Colby said, ignoring the insult.

"That's what your biggest concern is right now? A party?" Jake scoffed, "God fucking dammit Colby,"

"Calm down, it's not that big of a deal," I said, throwing my arms up in the air, letting the mat fall to the ground as the tape gave out. "I'll just go do something else,"

I'm sick of the arguing between these two. I cared about them both very much and if my stupid ass is going to interfere with their friendship than I can't be around either of them.

But I'll just have to give them another chance.