Heartless

97

We made our way to the hiking trail, I drove my old car and held Colby's hand securely. "Why were you crying this morning?" He said quietly as I pulled into the parking lot, "just got emotional talking to Kat." I said, letting out a deep sigh, "are you okay though? I can't have you unwraveling on me again." He said as we got out of the car. As soon as he was close to me he took my hand in his, "I'm fine I think." I breathed out, feeling him squeeze my hand. "Let me know if that changes." I nodded and looked up at the trees as we walked. The silence between us was so comforting, I didn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now.

"I love you." I blurted out once we reached the top of the trail. The view was always breathtaking, trees cascading down the mountain, with a lake at the bottom of the cliff. Colby chuckled and pulled me into him, admiring the view with me, "I love you too. Way more than you'll ever know." He mumbled against my hair. We stood there for a while, before I pulled out my phone. I turned and took a picture of Colby, he looked at me and smirked, "you're so hot." I said causing him to scrunch his nose, "I probably look like ass after that hike. Let me see." I shook my head, "nope!" I said and started to walk away from him, putting my phone back in my pocket.

"Hey!" He yelled and ran after me, causing me run away squeeling, "babe!" I yelled, letting out a giant laugh. He caught me without even trying and wrapped his arms around my waist, spinning me. My back was pressed against his front as my feet lifted off the ground. "Put me down!" I laughed and folded my arms over his. "You gonna show me that picture?" He laughed out, "yes! Yes!" I screamed as he stopped spinning and put me down. I showed him the picture I took, but didn't delete it because I loved it so much.

"We need to go grocery shopping." I said and grabbed his hand again, "sounds good to me." He said as we made our way back down the trail, "so...tell me about this new house." I said after a couple minutes, "oh! Yeah..I meant to tell you when we got back from Kansas, but Sam and I bought a house. The back yard is gorgeous, and we would get the master bedroom but if you don't want to live with the guys we can get a house of our own...We bought it way before you even got pregnant, we have just been working on it." I nodded, "no I think we should live with the guys, they can help us with the baby..maybe one day Kat and Tara will move in." I said quietly, thinking again about how scared I was to have a baby. I wasn't ready and neither was Colby, and we both knew it.

"Hey hey, don't stress..it's okay." Colby said and tightened his grip on my hand. "Do you honestly think we are ready?" I said and put my free hand on my stomach. "Not at all, but when we get back to LA we will read, and take classes, and learn. When we tell my parents my mom will help you, we will get through this like every other obstacle we have faced. It's not ideal by any means, but it happened and we are going to take it as it is and get through it."  He stopped walking and turned me to face him, cupping both sides of my face with his hands, "together." He said and I repeated, "together."

We made our way down the path and got back in the car. "I want animal crackers." I said causing Colby to laugh, "that's a weird thing to want." He said and grabbed my hand as I pulled out of the parking lot, "yeah, but I want the frosted ones with sprinkles, ugh that sounds so good." I groaned as Colby laughed, "good thing we are going to the store, I'll get you as many animal crackers as you want." I smiled as he brought my hand to his lips.

When we got to the store we grabbed a cart and started our shopping, "okay we need ground meat, oregano, tomato sauce, bread crumbs-" Colby laughed, "animal crackers." I gasped, "animal crackers!! Okay you go get the pasta sauce, I'll go grab the animal crackers." I said and kissed his cheek, then scurried off as he chuckled. I heard him mumble, "crazy girl." As he walked to the pasta aisle.

I walked through the store looking for the animal crackers I wanted, then finally found them on the top shelf in the cookie aisle. I wasn't tall enough to reach them, but I kept trying before I heard a deep voice, "need help?" The unfamiliar voice said from behind me. "Yeah that would be great." I breathed out at the tall, built guy who was stepping passed me, reaching up to grab the animal crackers. "I'm Ryan by the way." He said and grabbed the package, then stepped away from me, "I'm Cora." I said and held my hand out to grab the cookies, but he didn't hand them over, "you're gorgeous, can I have your number?" He said causing me to to suck in a breath, "thank you, I'm totally flattered, but I actually have a boyfriend." I chuckled awkwardly as he raised his brows and looked around.

"I don't see him anywhere." He said and stepped closer to me, I took a step back and laughed uncomfortably, "just because you don't see him doesn't mean he doesn't exist..." I mumbled and took another step back. He just looked at me, letting his eyes roam my body leaving me feeling uncomfortable. "You have no idea how sexy you are. Better go get your boyfriend before I bend you over right here, right now." He growled out causing me to shiver, "Um I'm gonna go...you can keep those I guess." I said and turned on my heal to walk away. I sniffled and looked down as I hurriedly made my way back to Colby.

"Hey I don- woah hey...what happened?" Colby said and took me into his arms as I tried not to cry. "This guy..he just made me so uncomfortable I don't know...I...I told him I had a boyfriend." He tensed up and held me at arms length, staring into my eyes, "did he touch you?" His voice coming out as a growl, "No! No. He just said something really gross, I'm okay..just a little shaken." I said honestly and put my hand on his cheek, caressing it gently with my thumb. His face softened slightly, "okay, just stay with me, we will get your cookies next, you're sure your okay?" I nodded and turned to the sauces Colby was looking at.

"Um, this ones my dad's favorite I think." I said and grabbed a jar off the shelf, Colby nodded and grabbed it from my hand, and put it in the cart. "Okay! We still need breadcrumbs and meat." I said and smiled at him, trying to just forget about the encounter I just had. "Let's go," he said and grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently. We walked through the aisles, grabbing the things we needed as we went.

A chill went down my spine when I saw Ryan at the other end of the aisle we were in, causing me to tense up. "You okay?" Colby said and squeezed my hand, "that's him." I whispered causing Colby to stiffen up, I could tell he was angry from how his jaw clenched.

Before I knew it, he let go of my hand and started storming down the aisle. "Hey!" He shouted angrily causing Ryan to look up at him.