The Piano || 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬

|65|

Colby was already waiting outside the place, leaning against the wall, his hands buried in his pockets. He was looking around with a calm expression that lit up when his eyes met Ashley's. Technically, she was late, because apparently the walk from the apartment to the Chipotle's took seven and a half minutes, but he didn't care.

"Hi," he said with a smile. "Sorry if this is weird, I was just nearby and thought..." His voice trailed off for one specific reason – he wasn't telling the entire truth.

"You're good," she said, smiling. "Honestly, I was rotting in my room all morning, so this is great. Sorry, I'm a bit late."

She was slightly out of breath. Had she walked that quickly to reach him in time? Colby knew her apartment was a bit further away than five minutes, but she shouldn't have hurried. He didn't speak that out loud, because how do you say I'm fine with you arriving late as long as I get to see you?

Simple: You don't. You also don't say I just drove half an hour to get here just to eat lunch with you. No, you say I was in the area, so I thought...

Yep, there were some things no one needed to know.

"That's okay," he said, gesturing to the doors. "So, should we...?"

"Oh, sure," Ashley replied, stepping inside the small restaurant right after Colby reached out to open the doors. She chuckled and rolled her eyes playfully. "Such a gentleman."

"Always," he responded with a small smirk.

After ordering their burritos, they stood around a little awkwardly. Well, no – for him, it wasn't awkward. He enjoyed the time he could spend with her. She seemed to be a little on edge, though. Because of him? He sure hoped not.

Until they walked outside, holding their orders, no one said a word.

"What kind of music do you like to listen to?" Colby blurted out.

Ashley looked at him, clearly surprised, before she grinned a little. "No, I'm not going to answer that."

"Why not?" he asked.

"My taste in music is boring, trust me."

"What! Come on, it can't be that bad," Colby insisted. She sighed and rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Fine. I don't listen to a lot of music, but when I do, it's mostly Taylor Swift."

Colby stayed silent for a moment. "Seriously?"

"See? I told you. Boring," she said, feeling the need to defend herself.

"Eh, you're not boring," he protested. "Just a little... confused. And that's okay."

"You're such an idiot," she scoffed. "What about you, though?"

"I like to listen to-"

"... I swear to god, if you say My Chemical Romance..." Ashley muttered under her breath.

"One Direction."

"Dude. And you're saying I'm confused and boring," she said, rolling her eyes and playfully stepping further away from him. "That's not a lot better."

"To be fair, you were the one who said your music taste is boring," he responded.

"You didn't disagree." The smile on her lips betrayed the fun she had with this conversation.

"Should I have lied?"

Too soon, Ashley said she had to leave again – unfortunately, she'd scheduled a stream for tonight, and if she stayed much longer in the park they had ended up in, she would be late. Still, she seemed hesitant to walk off, glancing over her shoulder and waving to Colby, who was still sitting on the bench.

He felt particularly high-spirited the entire way home, humming along to the music in his car and drumming on the steering wheel. But when he parked the car and entered the house, a frowning Sam walked out of the living room and made Colby's contented expression falter.

"Dude, where were you?" the blond asked. "We were supposed to film a video for the Reacts channel today."

Colby glanced at his phone to check the time. Oh. "Shit, I'm sorry man, I totally forgot the time," he said while walking past his best friend.

"Whatever. Can we do it now?"

Colby hesitated. "Uh... What about tomorrow? I still have some stuff to do."

Sam didn't look convinced as he arched an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, well..." he replied, shrugging helplessly. "It's not like we're busy tomorrow, right?"

"Guess not." Sam turned his back on Colby and walked up the stairs to his room. Colby shrugged and entered his own, switching on his lights to make the whole room seem dark blue. Waiting for his computer to boot up, he opened his phone and checked whether Ashley was live yet.

She was indeed, and he smiled as soon as his computer was ready so he could pull up the stream on the big screen. She'd changed her makeup as well as her outfit before starting to stream, probably so she would seem less casual.

After a while, he opened his mail program to simultaneously respond to the few mails that had reached him today – mainly from his and Sam's team.

Quietly working with Ashley's stream running in the background, the hours passed. Colby felt at ease, and he could let his thoughts wander. He relished in the warm feeling this afternoon had left in his chest, but soon drifted off to Sam's reaction to him being late. It's not like his best friend had overreacted in any way, but it still felt wrong. Almost as if he were disappointed in Colby. Was it justified? Of course. Was it also unexpected? Yes.

Before Colby could think about it too much–or decide to go ask Sam if something was wrong–Ashley started humming a melody. One Colby recognised but couldn't quite place in the first few seconds. Something in his subconscious stirred, alerted by the melody.

It was only when he read the chat that he recognised it, along with several viewers. With a mischievous smile, Colby took his phone, opened Ashley's chat, typed a quick People r gonna think you're haunted if you keep humming that, and sent it before he could regret it.

To his delight, her phone screen lit up, and she checked it before she could read the chat. As soon as she read the message, her eyes flicked up to the camera as if she were looking directly at Colby. He leaned back in his chair with a contented smile, enjoying her flustered reaction.

She quickly glanced at the chat and frowned as she saw the messages.

"Girl, why are you singing Ilse's melody," she read one of the messages out loud. "Wait, shit, I didn't even notice that... Do you have an- Nope, we're not even going there. Why is that always the first thing everyone thinks of when talking about ghosts? It's hardly that common."

Ashley scoffed, shaking her head. "And like- come on. Ilse wasn't all negative?"

Colby couldn't resist. He leaned forward, quickly typing a message and sending it in the chat.

"Yeah, it's not like she shoved me down the stairs," Ashley read it out loud with a sigh, not even surprised that he was watching. "Okay, Colby. Fair enough. But that was just because..." She hesitated. "Whatever, I have no excuse. But she shoved me down the stairs too, and I've forgiven her."

A smile tugged at her lips as she watched the speed of the chat multiply. People were straight-up spamming messages, and it was impossible to read even a third of them.

"If you're confused, go watch the new collab with Sam and Colby," she said with a lopsided grin. "Very subtle, I know. But it's worth it, I promise. To be fair, I haven't watched the finished version yet, but it's a night I'm never going to forget. Get Colby to join the stream? What, isn't my Minecraft world enough for you guys anymore?" she asked, laying her hand on her chest in a dramatic gesture. "You wound me. Besides, why did you have to write it like that? Asking politely would definitely work better. Don't tell me I have to be the one teaching you manners, chat."

She diverted the topic back to her own stream skilfully, but Colby couldn't resist the temptation to send a message every once in a while. She read each one of them aloud.