𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 • 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤

twenty-four

"What did they win?" Sam asked Kat as he looked at me from across the table. Colby and Brennen had managed to get up.

Kat thought about it for a second. "Bragging rights?"

I sighed, smiling at her. "I can live with that."

"But can I?" Brennen added, and I hit him in the arm.

"'Course you can," I said.

He pouted but didn't say anything else, gathering the cups.

Colby chuckled and pulled me back into the dancefloor room. "Do you wanna get out of here?" he whispered in my ear and placed his hands on my waist, swaying us from side to side to the music.

"I would, Colbs, but we've been drinking. A lot," I replied, my hands joined together as they laid in his neck. "And it's 4 a.m., where are we gonna go?"

"I'll think of something, babe," he said.

I breathed in deeply, looking up into his eyes. "Okay."

He smiled, taking hold of my hand to pull me towards the garden.

"Front door is the other way," I chuckled, following him outside.

"We have a tradition to uphold," he smiled as he tugged on my hand to lead me into the small alley that ran by the side of the house.

I stopped in my tracks, suddenly not feeling too well. "Colby."

"Ellie? Are you okay?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed together in concern.

"Colby, I think I'm about to throw up," I breathed out, tears forming in my eyes.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

I quickly nodded, resulting in him taking my hand as we rushed back inside the house. There was a literal line outside the bathroom. "Shit," Colby cursed. Without any sort of announcement, he swooped me up and carried me upstairs. He ran through the hallway and into his bathroom, and I hovered above his toilet just in time. I threw up, and let me tell you, I had an irrational fear of throwing up. As a child, I almost choked to death because I had to throw up so much I didn't get any time to breathe and it had left me traumatized.

Tears streamed down my face by now and I was trembling. "Colby," I said, calling for the boy who was currently holding back my hair. "I don't want you to see me like this."

"No, Ellie, it's alright," he whispered right before I had to throw up again. "I'll be back in a second."

I nodded as I leaned my forehead on my arm that was laying on the toilet seat. I would normally be freaked out about germs but at this point, I couldn't care less. It didn't take long for Colby to return. "Here," he said, handing me a bottle of water. I gladly took it and sipped at it, as he was tying back my hair with a hair tie he had brought. "I also brought you one of my shirts to sleep in because I didn't want to go through your stuff."

"Thank you," I replied softly. I really wished it hadn't come this far.

Colby wiped my tears with his thumb. "I'll leave you to change."

"Could you unzip me first?" I asked, really just incapable of doing it myself.

"Of course," he smiled gently, crouching down to reach for the zipper. His hands were cold on my skin, but it felt comforting and I just wished he'd been unzipping my dress under different circumstances. "Call me when you're done."

I nodded and watched as he closed the door to the toilet behind him, leaving me to tug off my dress and slip into the shirt he gave me. It smelled like him and though that wasn't surprising, it caught me off guard. It added to the comforting feeling he gave me in general.

"I'm done," I said, it came out rather weakly but he still heard me.

He crouched down and sat on the floor beside me, rubbing my back. "Are you feeling better?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure."

He nodded and pulled me closer, my head rested on his shoulder. His arm was around me, his fingers tracing figures on my arm. "Tell me when you feel like you can go to sleep."

"You don't have to stay, Colby," I sighed, looking down at my hands.

"It's fine, baby. I'll stay for as long as I have to," he softly answered. I really didn't deserve him.

It took about two hours of us sitting on the cold floor of his bathroom until I felt slightly better. Colby had went to get a bucket downstairs about an hour ago, and he helped me up so I could brush my teeth. "Sorry for ruining that trip you were planning on making," I apologized as we entered his bedroom.

He chuckled. "We can go on an impromptu late night trip some other time."

Colby turned on the lights and placed the bucket next to his bed. I hesitantly looked at it. "Are you sure you want me in your bed in this state?"

He nodded. "I wouldn't want you sleeping anywhere else, in this state."

I was so insanely tired, I crawled into his bed without further objection. Colby turned off the lights and made his way over to the bed, crawling over me to get to the side next to the wall. "Goodnight, Colbs. Thank you."

"Please don't hesitate to wake me if you start feeling bad again," he said, draping his arm over my stomach. "Sleep tight, Ellie."

Luckily for me, I didn't wake up at all during the night. When I woke up in the morning, Colby was next to me playing a game on his phone.

"Good morning," he smiled. "How are you feeling."

"Really bad," I said as I sat up and pulled the bucket into my lap - just in case.

He nodded. "I'll get you some water."

"Thanks," I replied as he stood up to go get it. When Colby had left, Kat walked into the room.

"Hey girl, how you feeling?" she asked. She looked pretty hungover as well.

I smiled. "Not too great."

She sat down at the end of the bed and watched me sympathetically. "We should've stopped you from taking all those shots during fear pong."

"Oh please," I chuckled. "You couldn't have stopped me if you tried. This is on me, not on you guys."

Colby walked back into the room with a glass of water and handed it to me. Kat stood up from the bed. "Can I get you some food?"

I rapidly shook my head. "No please, the thought by itself makes me want to vomit again."

"Alright," she chuckled. "Good luck."

"Thanks," I smiled. "You too."

She left the room and Colby crawled back into the bed beside me. I put the bucket down on the floor again. "You should probably stay in bed for a while," he said.

I nodded and crawled back under the covers, cuddling Colby's side. This poor boy must have been feeling like crap himself, seeing he had also consumed a fair amount of alcohol the night before and he was still doing this for me. "So should you."

He chuckled and turned on his tv that he had repositioned to be in front of the bed. "Maybe we can finally watch the TFIL travel vlogs."

"Sounds like a plan," I replied with a smile as Colby went on YouTube to find TFIL's New Zealand vlogs.