Heartless

72

The room fell silent as Sam and Colby stared at me. "It's just.....it got too close tonight..." I mumbled looking down at my hands. "She's right, dude." Sam said to Colby who had his hand placed on mine. "I know. It's just a lot to process. Do we think the fans would stick around until we got back?" Colby said and ran his free hand through his hair. "I think they will. They will understand. We can't keep putting ourselves in danger, and especially we can't keep putting the people we love in danger. We should have taken a break after Jake, Corey, and Cora got arrested..." Sam put his head in his hands. "Yeah man..I think this is the right choice. How long are we thinking? Because we should announce it at the end of this video." Sam shrugged. "A month??" Colby nodded, "that sounds like a good amount of time. What do you think, Cora?"

I looked up at them, "it's not up to me...I just want you guys to be safe. What could have happened tonight was scary and...and I wouldn't know what to do if that ever actually happened to you guys." I took a deep breath as my eyes stung with tears. "I know, baby. It's okay, we will take a month off and if we feel like we need more time we will take more time..nothing is going to happen to us." He spoke softly and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He looked down at my stitched up leg, the jagged line was surrounded by dried blood that covered my whole thigh. "You should go shower, While you do we will film the announcement." Colby said and kissed my head. I nodded and stood up, grabbing the roll of plastic wrap. "I need you to help me wrap this.." I mumbled and went to my suitcase, pulling out my pajamas. "Okay, I'll be right in." He said and I walked to the bathroom slowly, clinging on to my clothes.

The truth was that I was still horrified. The thought of being alone right now made my stomach ache, and the fear of passing out again made my heart race. I know logistically I wouldn't, but the thought alone made me nauseous.

When I got to the bathroom I slowly took my jeans off, the crusted blood pulling at my skin. I winced in pain and turned the shower on, I sat on the edge of the bath and waited for Colby to come in.

After about a minute of waiting I heard a light knock on the door. Colby slipped into the room and looked at me. He walked directly to me and caressed my face, looking into my eyes. "You're still scared." He said simply and I nodded, letting my face twist up as the sobs I had been holding in spilled out. He pulled me into him and let me cry on his shoulder, "I know it's scary..I know. Shh baby I got you." He whispered and played with my hair gently. "We could have died...we could have witnessed a murder..we..we.." I sobbed and I felt his body jerk with sobs too, "I'm so sorry Cora...I should have never let you come. I'm so sorry baby. We are okay though, all of us are okay." He held the back of my head with his hand as we both sobbed into eachother. After a minute Colby reached over and turned the shower off, since I wasn't getting in any time soon.

We sat in silence for a couple minutes as he just held me. Our sobs had calmed down, leaving us both sniffling. "Let me help you wrap your leg." Colby said eventually pulling away from me, he grabbed a washcloth and wet it with warm water. He gently patted my thigh with the towel, trying to get as much of the blood off my leg as possible. Once he finished that he looked up into my eyes. "Why didn't you tell me it was this bad?" He questioned softly. "I didn't think it was this bad. I knew I needed stitches but I didn't think it was a big deal. I just didn't want to ruin the video..." my voice trailed off and he sighed,

"Cora...you will always be more important than any video...when you passed out I was so scared. Hell. When I saw your leg for the first time I was so scared. You have no idea." I nodded, "I'm so sorry.." I squeeked and he caressed my face again, "it's alright, I'm just glad my mom was there...we would have had no idea what to do." I nodded, "I'm glad she was there too...I really like her Colby." He smiled, "I knew you would" he said as he started to wrap the plastic wrap around my leg.

"Alright, shower, take all the time you need. Sam and I are going to film our announcement to leave." Colby said and patted my knee then stood up, "Colby?" I said as he opened the door. "Yeah?" He said and turned to me slightly, "I love you." He smiled, "I love you, too." He said and then closed the door, leaving me alone once again.

I kept the water hot, letting it burn my skin as I washed away the memories of tonight. I couldn't help but worry that this was a bad idea and that the boys would never get their fans back. That thought chilled my bones, but I knew in the back of my mind that they would always be there for them, even after a month of silence. I finished up my shower and stood with the towel draped around me, I felt refreshed. My heart wasn't racing as much and I finally stopped shaking. I took a deep breath and got dressed, then rubbed the towel on my hair, drying it as much as possible, before hanging the towel up and going back to Colby's room.

The boys were sitting on Colby's bed in front of the camera. They weren't talking to it though, they instead were talking to eachother. "Should we take a break from all social media or just the duo channel?" Sam said as Colby rubbed his chin, "I don't know man...I feel like a clean break might be good for a little...but we should just announce the Sam and Colby channel being inactive for a while in this video and we can address our personal channels after we calm down from tonight a little bit...it's been a long night." He let out a sigh and turned his head, noticing I was in the room again. "Hey." He said softly and held his arm out, inviting me to come sit on his lap. "How are you feeling?" He said and brushed my wet hair behind my ear. "I'm okay, the shower helped." I mumbled and laid my head on his shoulder. "That sounds like a good idea, I'm gonna go take one now, can I borrow some clothes man?" Sam said getting up. "Yeah dude, pick out what you need."

Sam collected some clothes to wear and then left the room. Colby pulled me closer to him, nuzzling his face in the crook of my neck. I reached up and put my fingers in his hair, playing with it. "I'm so glad you're okay." He mumbled into my neck. "I'm so glad we are all okay." I said and turned my face, kissing the side of his head.

We sat in silence for a couple minutes, but eventually I got up off his lap. Sam came in the room, "your turn man" he said and sat on the bed. "Alright I'll be back." He said and left the room, after grabbing clothes to wear.

"Sam?" I said sitting next to him. "What's up, Cora?" He said looking up at me. "Do you think this is a mistake...I don't want you guys to get hurt but I also don't want you guys to lose your fans...I don't know." I played with my fingers as I spoke. "I don't think it's a bad idea. We talked about it briefly when you guys got arrested, but we wanted to come home and film at the warehouse so we brushed it off, but tonight was way too close and I feel sick that we put ourselves and you in danger for a video. A break is going to be good. And when we come back things are going to be different." He looked up at me and smiled, wrapping an arm around me, giving me a light squeeze. "I suppose I should tell Katrina about tonight..." he pulled his arm back and reached into his pocket. "You haven't told her yet?" My eyes widened, "no...we got back here and you passed out and then we were watching the news and now we are here, I just haven't had time to catch her up. I wanted to be able to call her...this story wouldn't translate well over text. She would freak out." I nodded, "yeah that makes sense."

He laughed and then stood, "I'm gonna go to the other room to call her, you gonna be okay?" He said and glanced back at me. "I'll be okay, tell Kat hi for me." He smiled and ruffled my hair, "will do." He walked out of the room, putting his phone to his ear.