Blurred (Colby Brock)

Onward and Upward

"Swear?"

"Kendall, I swear. Here, I'll even pinky promise." Colby said, holding out his little finger expectantly. I looked between the promise on his hand and the promise in his eyes before skipping the middle man and falling into a hug.

"I need you, Colby." I whispered into his shoulder.

"Hey," He slid his hands up my arms to cup my face. "Listen, it's just as difficult for me to live without you as it is for you. Okay? I don't think you realize how hard it is for me to sleep without knowing where you are and that you're okay." He kissed my forehead. "I will Skype you everyday. I might die if I don't."

I pulled him closer. "You better. If not, I'm gonna have to come over there and beat you."

He smirked. "Hmm, I might just take you up on that offer."

I wasn't angry with him for being like that this time. That attitude was apart of what made him Colby and for that, I loved him all the more.

Colby Brock is my boyfriend and neither time nor distance is going to get in the way of that. Our relationship is strong and sure and I should have no doubts that we'll be together again soon.

I repeated that to reassure myself over and over as I stared longingly into his crystal blue eyes.

"Colby, we gotta role." I heard Sam shout from a distance.

The brown headed boy glanced back and then to me again.

"I love you, you know?"

I nodded. "And I love you, too."

He pulled me into a tight, searching hug. "It'll be okay. We'll be okay. Right?"

I squeezed him harder and fought my tears. "Right. Swear?"

"Swear."

When he pulled away, I instantly felt empty.

"99, Kendall Jax."

His words sparked a fire of hope in my heart that grew and grew. I would never put it out because if I did, my fire of life would be extinguished too.

"99, Colby Brock."

~~~~~

When you break your foot, there's not much you can do without crutches. Same goes for when you break your heart: there's not much you can do without the thing that's keeping it together.

That's why on the day after Colby's and my date, I was dealing with a tropical storm of emotions.

That day was the start of Sam and Colby's "moving forward" or, "Onward and Upward." They would be leaving for Los Angeles, California to broaden their social abilities and heighten their fame.

Meanwhile, Brown and I would be stuck back in little ol' Kansas wondering what we were supposed to do with the rest of our lives.

An option was opened up to me a few hours after we had seen our boyfriends off. Charlie and I were home alone in my grandparents' lake house because they had run off to another Parks and Wildlife retreat for the week.

We had just made it back in from walking Trigger and picking up the mail at the end of our ridiculously long driveway when I plopped all the papers, magazines, and envelopes down on the table.

Charlie took her respective place on the couch and flipped through the channels and Trigger hopped up to join her. I laughed as I flipped through the assortment of mail when I heard my best friend groan at his weight and size.

"Junk, junk, MamaKay, Granddaddy, junk, ju--" The letter that stuck out to me was from a college. There was a giant green stamp marking the school. Nothing else mattered after that; all I could focus on was the color and the name on the front of the white envelope.