In Another Life

63 (Colby's POV)

"Denise and I just recently got an apartment together. I'm working with Sarah at her dad's hospital." I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "You work at a hospital?" She nodded. "Yeah, I think I'll basically just be doing admissions, and filing, that sort of thing. If they need an extra hand on the floor, then I might pitch in. Nothing serious though. Just delivering food trays, or checking in on a patient. I hope they let me visit with the ones that don't have family coming to see them. It's gotta be hard staying somewhere like that, and not having your loved ones around," she replied, her voice going soft. My heart faltered in it's beating for a moment, seeing the compassion in her eyes and hearing it in her voice. For people she didn't even know. "That's really awesome," I replied, just as softly. She looked up and met my gaze, blushing a little, then tucking her hair behind her ear. "I just know what it's like to be alone. It's not fun. Your head can be a hateful place when you're stuck with nothing but your thoughts." She looked down at her plate and continued eating. "Yeah, it can be. I know that from personal experience," I replied, still watching her. The others weren't really paying attention to us, having their own conversations and eating their food. I was finished, and it looked like Terra was mainly pushing her food around instead of eating it. "Do you wanna go back to the hotel with me? We still have a few hours before we head to the beach. I mean, if you guys wanna go." She looked a little surprised by what I said. "You're going to the beach? At night?" "Well, yeah. It's beautiful at night, and not as many people. I don't know, I just like it. It's peaceful," I replied, a little defensively. "I would love to go. The beach at night is one of my all time favorite things. Why are we going back to the hotel now though? Don't you wanna wait on the others?" I cleared my throat nervously, and glanced around the table at our friends. They still weren't really paying attention to us, thank God. I didn't need an audience. "I kind of wanted to talk to you. Since we're both leaving tomorrow, I wanted to spend some time with you. Without everyone else around. That's all." She pressed her lips together, then chewed her bottom lip, looking like she was in deep thought. Why did she have to think about it so hard? Jesus, I was already nervous enough, now it felt like it was taking her so long to answer. "Suure," she breathed out quietly. I released the breath I was holding, and nodded, like I wasn't just about to have a panic attack. "Okay, cool," I replied, nodding my head. I stood up and held my hand out to help her up. She took it and stood, her face unreadable. "Where are you guys going?" Sam asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Just back to the hotel. We'll see you guys back there before we got to the beach. By the way ladies, we're going to the beach tonight, if you're interested," I replied, nodding at Denise and Kenzie, who were seated next to each other. I was pretty sure that Sarah may have already known or would be doing whatever Brennen was doing. "Oh yeah, that sounds great!" Kenzie replied, with a wide smile. "Great. See you guys later." I didn't give anyone else a chance to say anything, just took Terra's hand and pulled her with me, away from the table and out the door. Then I remembered that I hadn't called an Uber. "Why are you rushing?" She asked, taking her hand from mine and stopping, as soon as we exited the restaurant. I shrugged. "Just didn't want them saying anything stupid or perverted. Didn't want to make you uncomfortable." "Oh," she said, smiling at me a little. "Well, I know how they are. It's fine. You don't have to be embarrassed of your friends. Especially when I know you act that way too, when you're with them." "Ha, yeah, I guess there isn't really any point in trying to hide that part huh? I keep forgetting that you're a fan actually. You probably know way more about me than I want you to know," I joked, kicking a rock that was by my foot. "I love everything that I know," she replied softly. I looked up and met her gaze, but didn't respond. She didn't love me. Not really. She didn't know me. She thought that she did because of videos that she watched. The story of my life with fans. I tried to be as real as possible online but in reality, I just didn't think you could love someone that you hadn't even really spoken too before. I broke our gaze and pulled out my phone to call an Uber. We didn't speak much while we waited, both of us nervous now for some reason. Instead, we leaned back against the restaurant wall, waiting, while playing on our phones. I went back to Instagram and looked up the same account from before. I was almost certain that it was her fan account from the way her phone had went nuts earlier. Then the embarrassed look that she had gotten. I couldn't be positive however, so I tried it again. I commented on one of her previous posts with a black heart. It was a pretty cool picture edit of Sam and myself, talking about how proud the user was of us for how far we had come. I rarely commented on anything, but sometimes I did, so this shouldn't seem weird. Our Uber pulled up right as I hit send, so I stuffed my phone back in my pocket, and opened the car door for her. She climbed in, and I shut the door, then walked around to get in myself. I caught her eye after I shut my door, and she had a suspicious look on her face. "What? Is there something on my face?" I asked, rubbing at my mouth.