Take Chances {c.b}

Five

Colby's POV

Charity shakes her head. "What!? No! He doesn't think sex is necessary, actually. Why are you being to protective?"

I shrugs. "I don't know about him, Charity. He seems like trouble. I can tell."

Charity rolls her eyes. "You don't even know him. When you've actually sat down and got to know him, then we'll talk but for know, stay out of my relationship."

She dashes up the stairs and I hear her shut her door a little loudly. I sigh and make my way back to the living room. I see the turned off TV and my pillow and blanket laying on the couch. There wasn't an interesting show on. She's naive to think I wasn't gonna wait up for her.

Ethan is new and the way he glared at me when he picked her up today was alarming. It was almost as if he hated the idea of another guy being in the same room as her. I don't have to know him to know that something feels wrong about him. I don't know what, but I can tell.

I hear footsteps coming down the stairs and toward the living room. It's Sam.

"Yo, what was that all about?" He asks while rubbing his eyes like he got woke up.

I shrug. "Sorry, I didn't realize we were being that loud."

Sam shakes his head. "Don't worry about it. You wanna talk about it?" Sam asks while sitting down next to me and placing one the couch pillows on his lap.

I sigh. "I don't know bro."

Sam looks over at me. "I know you like her."

I snap my head in his direction. "What?"

"I know you like her. I can tell."

I chuckle nervously. "Yeah? Why do you say that?" I respond by leaning back against the couch.

"It's so obvious, Colby. Or maybe it's obvious for me because I'm your best friend. Either way, I know."

I pause for a moment and then sigh. "You're right."

He was right. Sam was always right. He always knew when something was wrong or I was hiding something and this was something I've been hiding for years. It all started junior year. Prom night.

"Brooo, we gonna get lit tonight." I shout fixing my tie in the mirror and looking over at Sam who was finishing tying his shoes.

Sam laughs and we high five each other as my phone starts to ring. "Yo, Colby. It's Charity." He says while passing the phone to me.

I smile and answer it. "Well, hello there pretty lady." I say in a country accent. I hear sniffles on the other line. I go serious. "Woah, what's wrong, Char?"

"He never came." Another sniff.

"What do you mean?" I ask while Sam gets up, pats my shoulder and leaves the room for privacy. I take a seat on the end of my bed.

"Gabe. He never showed up. He was supposed to be here two hours ago so we could meet his friends for pictures at 4:30 and dinner at 5:30 and it's now 7 and prom starts in an hour. He stood me up, Colby." I hear Charity start to cry really hard. What an asshole.

"Hang on, C. I'll be there in a few seconds."

I hung up the phone and went downstairs. Sam looks up from his phone. "Everything good?"

I shake my head. "No. That asshole stood Charity up, so I'm gonna walk over there and get her."

Sam nods his head. "I'll meet you guys there. Sound good?"

I nod my head and grab my keys and walk over to Charity's house. I knock lightly on the door. Charity's mom answers.

"Hey, Colby. I'm glad your here. She's a little upset. She's in her room."

"Thank you, Mrs. Andrews."

I walk up the stairs and open her door slowly. I see her head shoved into her pillow, her body shaking slightly from her cries. "Charity?"

She looks up at me and I see her makeup smeared all across her face and her hair a little messy from the pillow. She looks so broken and hurt.

"Why would he do this?" She voice cracks softly.

I stare at her from the door with sad eyes. "I don't know. Some people can be mean."

She scoffs and wipes the snot from her nose. "Yeah, no kidding."

I spot makeup wipes from her dresser and grab one. I get on my knees in front of her and grab her face softly, wiping the excess mascara off of her cheeks and under her eyes. I comb through the tangles in her hair and do my best to pin it back how it was before.

After cleaning her up a bit, I grab both of her small hands and pull her to her feet. "Perfect." I smile at her.

She sniffs and looks down. "I don't feel perfect. I feel used."

I lay my index finger underneath her chin and pull it up so I can see her face. I suddenly feel nervous as I noticed the space between us was limited. I can smell her perfume. It's soft and fruity and it matches the lotion she put on her hands. They were soft and cold, but I noticed how perfectly her hand fit in mine.

Her hazel eyes were bloodshot but I could still see that she had a sort of twinkle in them that I hadn't noticed before. Our faces were closer than they have ever been before which allowed me to see a light freckle placed on the center of her nose. I smiled slightly but immediately stopped myself. What am I doing? This is my best friend, but why is she making me nervous? And why haven't I noticed the twinkle in her eye or the freckle on her nose, or even the smell of her perfume. Why haven't I realized how gorgeous she is?

I shake my head slightly and move a little bit back. "Come to prom with me."

She looks at me confused. "Colby.."

I give her the look and she rolls her eyes. "Okay, but what if I see him there?"

"Then your gonna make him regret ever standing you up."

Sam looks at me intently as I finish explaining how I started to realize I like her.

"So you've liked her since prom night, junior year?" Sam says in disbelief.

I nod. "Yeah. For some reason, it just hit me. Then rest of the night I couldn't stop realizing all of the things hadn't noticed before. Like the way her eyes close when she laughs. The way her eyebrows constantly rise when she talks. The slight dimple she gets when she smiles. Everything started to hit me like truck and she suddenly wasn't like a sister to me anymore. She was way more than that. She's the love of my life and for years I've been falling for my best friend and watching her take interest in other guys. I'm loving her from afar." I look down at my lap as silence takes over the room.

After a few minutes, Sam speaks up. "Why didn't you tell me or her for that matter?"

"She wasn't interested in me. I could tell. We've been friends for way too long. Having her in my life is more important to me than my happiness. I don't want my feelings to cause a problem in our friendship. I didn't tell you because I knew that you would try to get me to ask her out and I didn't want to push my feelings deeper than they already were."

Sam shakes his head. "If that's what you want, then fine but I think you'd be surprised what could come out of this if you told her."

"No way." I say while facing him. "Sam, you have to promise me you won't say anything. She's met someone else and even though I get weird vibes from him, she likes him and I just... I want her to be happy. Okay?"

Sam nods his head. "Okay."

I sigh in relief. "Thank you."

There's another silent filled moment before I speak up. "How did you know I liked Charity?" I say while looking over at Sam.

He smirks and pats my shoulder. "Because the way you look Charity, is the same way I look at Kat." I stare at him in shock. "Goodnight Colby." He says smiling while getting up and walking away.