Heartless

65

I was exhausted, but I couldn't sleep. My head laid against Colby's bare chest as he soundly slept. Every time I would close my eyes I was afraid the house would start shaking again. That was my first earthquake ever and it truly freaked me out, whereas everyone else had experienced them before and easily recovered. I didn't know what time it was, but the sun eventually rose, causing light to pour into the room.  My eyes were barely holding on as Colby slowly woke up. "Hey babe." He said quietly, as he shook his fingers through his hair. "Hi." I said and slowly traced the tattoo over his heart. "Look at me.." he said softly and looked down at my face. I lifted it and he breathed out a sad sigh, "you didn't sleep.." I nodded, confirming his statement. "You should have woken me." I looked down at his tattoo again, not saying anything. "Baby.." he said softly and cupped my chin lightly pulling it up so I was looking at him again. "Go to sleep. I'll protect you." He caressed my face as he talked,

"What if it happens again?" I spoke quietly and bit my lip. "An earthquake?" He said and started rubbing circles on my arm. I nodded my head, embarrassed. "The chances of another hitting any time soon are slim, but if it happens I'll protect you, I'll hold you until it's over. I won't let anything happen to you. I promise." I smiled as he leaned in and kissed my forehead. "Please get some rest, It hurts me to see you like this." I smiled softly and nodded once, nuzzling into his chest. It took less than a minute to fall asleep as Colby rubbed my back gently.

We sat at the edge of the cliff, looking out into the horizon. We were at McMillan. Colby's arm snaked around my shoulder as he pulled me closer. "I love you." He said softly and turned his head to kiss my temple. "I love you more." I whispered and stared ahead.

When I woke up Colby was next to me, on his laptop editing. "Good morning, love." He said pulling out his headphones. "What time is it?" He chuckled, "it's only noon, you didn't do too bad." I rubbed my eyes, I really had to get a better sleep schedule. "What are you editing?" I said and moved to see the screen better, "the new series, everyone is loving it so far..." his voice trailed off, "are people saying stuff about us?" I said and breathed out a laugh, "some people are taking our relationship better than others, that's all I'll say." He said and laughed, then kissed my head. "I don't care what they think." I said confidently. I had felt so good after the short sweet dream I had. "good, because I love you and that's all that matters." He said as I started to get out of the bed. I almost forgot there was glass everywhere until Colby gasped, "wait!" He said before my feet hit the floor. He got up and started to clear the glass, he looked up at me and smirked as I stared at him. He suddenly lunged forward and pulled me into his arms, swinging my legs around. I irrupted in a fit of giggles.

"Colby!! Stop I'm gonna pee!" I yelled and laughed as he set me down next to the door. "You're crazy" I said and walked out of the room to the bathroom. I heard noise downstairs and assumed people were cleaning up the wreckage that occurred last night.

By the time I got back to Colby's room, the mirror had been cleaned up. "You work fast." I said and wrapped my arms around his waist. "What can I say I'm a man of many talents." He bowed dramatically and I laughed, "maybe you can help me clean up my apartment...I don't even want to know what the damage is." I sighed, remembering that the earthquake didn't just happen at this house. "I'll help you, come on." He said and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

When we got downstairs there were about 15 workers cleaning up the shrapnel from last night, "you guys hired people?" I said as Colby grabbed his keys, "no, the person we are renting from did, he came by earlier and saw all the damage." I nodded and we went out to his car. I was genuinely pretty nervous about the condition of my home, if that earthquake could do that much damage to a whole house I didn't even want to know what would happen to my small apartment. The car ride was silent as Colby held my hand securely, keeping his eyes on the road. We pulled up to the apartment complex and I took a deep breath. "It's gonna be okay." Colby said and looked over once he was parked. I nodded, "I know, let's go check it out." I sighed getting out of the car.

When I opened the door the door frame crumbled, it would have hit me if Colby hadn't yanked me away by my waist. "Shit." I whispered and walked through the door, it was a mess, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. My book shelf was broken off the wall and smashed on the floor, the walls had cracks in them, when I walked into the kitchen cabinets were broken off, but they looked easily fixable. "It's not as bad as I thought." I said as we made our way to my room.

All the pictures and paintings I had on my walls were scattered on the floor. The first painting I ever did was ripped down the middle since it landed on my ukulele, which was now also broken. I took a deep breath, grabbed the ukulele and sat on the bed. "Babe..." Colby said and sat next to me. "I came here for music." I said quietly as tears formed in my eyes. "And now the only instrument I can really play...is broken." I angrily wiped a tear that fell onto my cheek. Colby wrapped his arm around me, "we can fix it. I promise we can." He said and grabbed it from my hands. "I'll take it to a guitar shop and get them to fix it while you're at work, okay?" He was really the sweetest. I nodded and looked up at him, I gave him a small smile as I placed my hand on his cheek. "How did I get so lucky." I whispered causing him to smile softly. "I'm the lucky one and you know it." He said and kissed me.

I sighed and looked at the time, "I have to get ready for work." I got up and looked through my closet, finding my work uniform. I didn't really want to go, which was weird.

Colby dropped me off at work, "I'll pick you up when you're off okay?" He said as I got out, "okay I'll see you then, love you." He smiled, "I love you too." He said then drove away. I made my way inside and saw Kat, sweeping the floor.

"Hey girl!" She said and ran up to hug me. "Hey, how are you feeling after last night?" I said and she held her head, "I have a massive hangover, but other than that I'm as good as can be."

We weren't opening for another couple hours because we were cleaning up the rubble from the earthquake. Luckily things weren't too messed up.