Addicted

48

"We promise right now that we will just talk. That way, there is no temptation."

We finally made it to my car.

"There's always temptation." Colby replied.

 Don't I know it...I ignored him and looked around. "Where's your car?"

 "Huh? Oh, I took an Uber."

 "Okay, are you gonna ride with me back to my place or..."

He stared at me for a moment, chewing his bottom lip before nodding. I smiled and unlocked my doors.

"Get in then."

 The ride back to my place was quiet. Colby seemed nervous. He was wiping his palms on his pants, twisting the rings on his fingers and in his ears. Of course, I should probably be paying more attention to the LA traffic than him. The silence was killing me though so I tried to make small talk.

"So...how long have you lived in LA?"

He looked away from the window, over to me. "About 5 years now. Originally from Kansas."

My eyes grew wide. "Seriously?"

He nodded with a small smile. "I know. I don't exactly look the part."

 I started laughing. "Not at all."

 "What about you? I know that you haven't been here long but I don't know how long."

 "Almost two months now. When I first met you guys, I had only been here 3 weeks...seems like forever ago now."

 I looked at him and noticed a sadness in his eyes.

"Chloe, I'm sorry that I've been such a prick to you. I'm a prick to everyone but I've been harder on you."

I nodded. "Can you tell me why?"

 He looked out the window again. "No...but maybe one day. I'll explain what I can when we get to your place but I can't tell you everything."

Guess I would have to deal with that...I know it's going to drive me crazy though.

"Bet you're glad you got your car fixed huh?"

I furrowed my brow. I never told him that my car had been messed up.

"How did you know about that?"

 He almost looked embarrassed. "Sam mentioned it the same night that you first came over. Kat said that your car broke down, and you were scared to wait by yourself."

"I was NOT scared!" I exclaimed.

 Okay, so I had totally been scared, but that doesn't mean that Katrina needed to be blabbing to people that I didn't even know. He held his hands up in surrender.

 "I'm just repeating what was said."

 I huffed out a breath. "Okay, I might have been a little uneasy, but it was dark, I was alone in the middle of an alley, both of my front tires blew out even though I just bought new tires, and I kept hearing something in the trees beside me. I was a little freaked out."

 He froze for a second, then slowly raised his eyes to my face. I could feel him staring at me, even though I was looking straight. I don't think it was a good idea to drive with him in the car. It kind of felt like I was a drunk driver right now.

"Both of your front tires randomly blew, and you were hearing things? Did you see anything?" His voice had gotten a little rougher, but thankfully was still pleasant.

 I nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was just my overactive imagination though."

"What did you see?" he asked me earnestly.

I bit my lip. I was going to sound crazy.

He asked for it though.

"I thought that I saw someone in the trees,watching me, then someone jumping out of the trees and walking towards me. It honestly scared the shit out of me, but then Kat and the tow truck guy showed up. When I looked back, there was nothing there."

 He sat back in the seat, his index finger on his bottom lip, thinking. "I'm glad nothing happened to you. You should get my number. That way, if something like that happens again, I can help you."

My heart did a little pitter patter in my chest. The guy being all soft on me was going to kill me.

"Kat came to help me."

 He just gave me a look.

"No offense against Katrina, but I'm pretty sure that I can be of more help. Anyways, I can get to you faster." He replied, matter of factually.

 I pulled into my parking spot, and killed the engine.

 "Okay, here we are."

Now I was nervous. Fuck.

"Here we are." He repeated, staring at me, holding me hostage with his eyes.

 I'm sure it wasn't but a few seconds later, but after what felt like forever, he broke our gaze and climbed out of the car. I followed suit, locked my car, then started walking towards the entrance door, Colby beside me.

 Once again, our hands were barely brushing as we walked. I felt the coolness of his rings scrape against the soft skin of my hand and I felt chills.

 When we reached the elevator, Colby pressed the number 4 before I could tell him. I held my hand up a little, confused.

"How did you...?"

 He looked confused, looking at me, then to the elevator button. "Oh...Kat lives on the same floor as you right?"

 I nodded, but then had a flashback of him and I kissing on my balcony. Wasn't that part of that ridiculously lucid dream that I had? Or was it? I couldn't remember the details now, only the feeling. It had felt way too real.

I put my fingers to my lips, thinking about it.

"Hey," His soft voice filled my ears. "You okay?"

 I looked up and met his eyes, just as the doors opened. "Yeah," I replied, feeling my face heat up. "Was just thinking. It's nothing." I slipped past him, out the doors and headed towards my apartment.

 Why did this feel so damn intimate? I needed to calm down.

I opened my door and walked inside, dropping my keys in the little bowl on the counter. I looked back to the door to make sure that Colby had shut it, but he was just standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing?" I asked, making a hand motion for him to come inside.

 "Can I come inside?" He asked, still standing there.

 Did he go stupid?

"What the fuck Colby? No, I invited you over so that you could stand at the door."