𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 • 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤

thirty-three

"Hey Sam, have you seen Colby?" I asked the blonde boy, who I had finally found.

He shook his head. "No, is he not with you?"

"He said he was going to get a drink but he seemed upset," I explained. "I don't know where he went."

Sam let out a small sigh, wrapping his hand around my wrist. "Come on, let's go look for him."

I nodded and let him drag me along his house. We looked everywhere - literally, I even checked a couple of closets - but we could not find him.

"Okay, listen Ara, I'm scared to even ask but are you sure he's still here?" Sam asked, placing his hands on his waist.

I shook my head, hesitating for a couple seconds. "No. I'm not."

He sighed. "I'm gonna go out front to see if his car is still out there and if it isn't I'm driving you home whenever you wanna go."

I nodded, looking down at the floor. "Okay."

"Alright, I'll be right back," he said and squeezed my shoulder shortly, before leaving me by myself in the corner of this way too crowded living room.

I felt like crying, really. I just wanted to collapse onto the floor and bawl my fucking eyes out - but I couldn't do that in front of all these people I didn't know. But then again, the way Colby looked at me, I probably didn't even have to think of him bringing me to Sam's parties ever again.

I didn't know why he left like that, I didn't know what I did wrong. Maybe he regretted kissing me. Or did I kiss him? Maybe that's what was bothering him, he didn't want to kiss me at all. But he was leaning in, right? Did I imagine that? Did I just ruin the only genuine friendship I had left?

I hate you, Arabella.

With a small sigh, I walked over to the front door and waited there for a few more seconds before Sam came back. He had a confused look on his face. "His car is still here."

"Maybe he walked home," I replied, looking over his shoulder to look at the street.

Sam let out a dry chuckle. "He wouldn't leave his car at a party like that. He has to still be here."

"Sam, we both know we looked everywhere," I sighed, wrapping my arms around my torso.

The blonde shook his head, wrapping his arm around my shoulder to guide me through the house. "Not everywhere."

I frowned as he led me towards the backdoor. "What do you mean?"

"There's a small forest on our property behind the garden that my dad built a treehouse in ages ago. Colby and I used to hang out there sometimes so maybe he still knows where to find it," Sam explained as we walked into the freezing evening air.

"Okay," I spoke as he guided me through the trees behind his house. If I wasn't so concerned about Colby, I would've probably been thinking about the fact I hadn't even known Sam for that long and was now letting him take me into a fucking forest, at night.

"There it is," he said and pointed up into the trees.

I didn't know what I was thinking when he said 'treehouse', but it definitely wasn't this. This thing looked like someone had taken a whole chalet and put it down on a couple trees.

I was a little in awe, you could say. "Your dad built that?"

"Yeah," he answered. "With a couple friends - one of them does this for a living. But yeah, it's been a couple years. It's usually being used by my siblings, when they want to hang out with their friends. Or when someone just wants to be away for a little, you could practically live up there."