In Another Life

67

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Most girls would kill to be in my position right now, whether or not he stays in touch. Right?" She nodded. "Right. Enjoy it while you can. Now or never right?" "Right," I laughed. I hugged her again. "Thank you Necee. I love you." " I love you too T. Always." "Awww, my girls! I love you guys sooo much!" Sarah exclaimed. She and Kenzie joined the hug, all of us with our arms wrapped around one another. "Okay," I sniffed, and laughed. "We really have to get ready." They pulled away from me, and laughed too, a little teary eyed themselves. "Okay. But whatever happens, just know that we're here for you. We always will be," Necee said, leaving her hand on my shoulder. I nodded, and hugged her again quickly. "I know Nece. Thank you." I took a deep breath, gathering myself together, and picked my suit back up. "Let's get ready for beach daaay!" I exclaimed, feeling a little excitement start coursing through me. "Night," Kenzie replied, stripping her clothes to put her suit on. "Beach night then. That's even better," I replied. "I can't believe Brennen isn't going to be there," Sarah whimpered, pouting a little. "I know. I'm sorry babe. You'll still have fun though. And I'm sure he'll get in touch with you as soon as he can. He seems to really like you," Kenzie told her, as she helped Sarah tie her suit up. "Yeah...I guess so. I don't really know him though, so maybe I'm just the 'for now' girl, ya know? Like, he's going back to LA, back to all those beautiful, skinny ass models, who probably throw themselves at him...I don't know." I slid my own suit on, and looked down, thinking that my face would betray my thoughts. I felt the same way that Sarah did. I didn't really know Colby, no matter how much I might think that I did. We had only been talking for a few days. Yeah, so he had kissed me a few times, and he was being really sweet and flirty...but how did I know that he wasn't like that with other girls. I remembered a couple of videos, especially the one from Heardwell over Coachella. Colby had said that he fell in love hard and fast, and often. If he fell in love often, that meant that he fell out of love, just as often. My mind was overthinking things again, and I hated it so much. Not tonight. Tonight, I was going to enjoy being in the moment. Whatever happened tomorrow, or after, didn't matter tonight. I was going to the beach in Florida, with my best friends, my favorite YouTubers, and Colby Brock, the man of my dreams. What more could a girl ask for? We all finished getting ready, throwing shorts and t-shirts on over our suits, and stuffing what we needed into our beach bags. "T?" I looked over to see Denise on her phone, a worried expression on her face. "Have you been on Instagram lately? Or Twitter?" I shook my head, my stomach suddenly feeling like it was full of lead. "Nooo, why?" I asked hesitantly. "They've IDed you. The fandom knows that it was you in that picture. They think you're hiding something because you won't answer them, and because Colby hasn't been active. Plus, they identified Sarah too and they know that you guys are friends. My inbox is full of people asking questions." "Shit," I relied, sinking down onto the bed, and running my hand through my hair. I pulled out my phone to see the damage for myself. "It's literally every post!" I exclaimed, then groaned, as I scrolled through Instagram. My inbox was full of messages, but there was no way that I was touching that. Not right now. I had to talk to Colby. "It's not a big deal though, right? Because we aren't together or anything. He's literally just looking at me coming out of the pool." I looked at Denise, my eyes begging her to agree with me. She shook her head slowly. "Nope. Another pic has surfaced. I think when you guys left the restaurant early. Look." She pulled up a post, and passed me her phone. You couldn't see our faces, but you could plainly tell that it was Colby in the pic. You just couldn't mistake that body for anyone else. That fan girl must have taken the photo before she called his name. That little bitch. "Okay, but you can't see my face. So that doesn't prove anything. I can say that isn't me." "You could. But maybe talk to Colby first and see what he plans on doing about it. If anything." I nodded. "Okay. I'm just going to ignore it for now then. Deal with it later. For now, beach time." A knock sounded on our door just then, so I went to answer it. I held the door open for Sam, Colby, and Kat to come inside. "Hey, you guys ready? We're gonna go tell the others bye, and then head out. Still have to call and get a couple of Ubers though," Colby said, giving me a small smile. I nodded, trying to push all of the negative thoughts out of my head. "Yeah, but we don't need two. I can just take my car." "You have your car here?" He asked, raising his eyebrows. I don't know why he looked so shocked. "Yeah," I laughed. "We drove here. Made it into a two day road trip." "That's kind of awesome. I love road trips," he said softly, stealing my breath with that intense gaze again. "Okay, grab your things and let's go see these idiots off," Sam said, wrapping his arm around Kat's waist. "Hey!" She exclaimed. "What?" he asked, as we all walked to the door. "Tara isn't an idiot," she said grinning, before she poked him in the cheek. He rolled his eyes and smiled. "Okay, the other idiots then." We walked out into the hallway, me keeping step beside Colby, until we reached the Jake, Tara, and Brennen's room.