Vampires Rule // Colby Brock

|~37~|

Sam Golbach
I wake up to Katrina cuddled into my side . . . somehow. When I glance over at the small clock on my bedside table, I see that it's about five pm, which is definitely a time she'd be awake. Regardless, I leave her to sleep as I shower and get changed at vampire speed. By the time I enter the room again, she's shutting off an alarm as she yawns and sits up.

"Hey, babe. Why were you sleeping?" I ask gently, moving to sit at the door of the bed. She looks at me with the most adorable blush on her cheeks.

"I um . . . well, I just want to spend more time with you. And since I don't have a job anyway, I thought I'd just sleep a little during the day too."

"What about the other girls?" I wonder what Lydia did after I heard what they were doing early this morning. It'll be good for them; to go there. I don't want to think about it exactly but I've been thinking for a while that it's going to happen.

"Tara was still a little shaken up and so was Jake, so she stayed with him all day, I think Tori and Devyn went out for a little while and I'm not sure about Lydia. I haven't seen her all day." Katrina explains, motioning her hands around.

"Probably slipped out to work like the mad woman she is." We both playfully roll our eyes then I hear Jake leaving his room around the corner. "Ready to go downstairs?" She nods so I scoop her up and run really quickly into the garage, just about beating Jake and Tara to it. All of the boys—except Colby—are already inside so I take my normal seat with Katrina on my lap and settle in.

"How is everyone this fine evening?" Kevin asks politely with a big grin on his face. I narrow my eyes at him, wondering why he looks a bit cheery.

"I think everyone's fine. Are you?" Tara asks weirdly as she frowns at him. His eyes flick to the beanbag then to me, as if he knows what Colby and Lydia were doing this morning too. I doubt it, but there's no other reason for that grin, especially not when there's a small sound upstairs signalling Colby's awake.

"I'm just great, Tara. Thanks for asking." Kevin stares up at the ceiling and I divert my attention to Jake, who's looking a little confused. I don't want to tell anyone who doesn't already know but it's only realistic that everyone will by the end of the night. Especially if Kevin knows; he's going to tease them both the moment they step through the door.

Speaking of, Colby's footsteps come down the stairs at human speed—surprisingly—and he's being particularly slow about his movements. He's cautious, no doubt, to enter the lion cage aka this garage at this moment.

When he finally opens the door, I instantly catch the small slither of a smile that's on his face. He looks to be in a very good mood, and that makes me happy as his best friend. At least I hope I'm still his best friend. He takes a seat and closes the door by reaching over, catching Elton's eye. I realise that Elton is staring weirdly at him with narrowed eyes but he just looks away. If he could blush, I know he would be right now.

"Hey, man." I say, testing the waters a little. There are some small conversations between Reggie and Mike, and Kevin and Aryia, and maybe Corey and Devyn too but I can tell they're all listening a little bit.

"Hey." He replies shortly but flashes me a small smile. I can't help it when I immediately smile back, and widely. It's like he's how he used to be and not so hard on the outside. For that, I have to thank Lydia. I've hoped this whole time that she would be the key to getting the real Colby back, but I was starting to think he'd only be different for her. Until now.

"Did Lydia go to work?" I ask casually. I notice him slightly bite his lip as he nods and glances at Brennen. I guess he just felt the outright stare at him. Brennen raises his eyebrows in such a way that starts a bit of a conversation with their eyes. When Colby just barely nods and Brennen smirks, I know that he knows now.