𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 • 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤

thirteen

The next day went by pretty calmly. We all took an effort in cleaning up the house and with everyone doing their part, everything was clean again in only a matter of time.

I sat down on the staircase for a moment to catch my breath when Sam sat down next to me.

"So you know how Colby's birthday is tomorrow, right?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"We're throwing him a birthday party but we're going to have to get him out of the house for the day," Sam said. "Well, I correct myself, you are going to have to get him out for the day."

"Wait, why me?" I asked chuckling, pulling a hand through my hair. I was trying to think about how I was going to survive another one of their parties, so close to the previous one.

"Everyone else will be doing their own part," he answered. "We need you to do this, Ellie. Please?"

"Okay, I will," I laughed. "Where are we supposed to go? What do I tell him?"

Sam laughed and patted my back. "I'm sure you'll think of something."

I sighed in a sarcastic way and nodded. "Alright. I'll do it."

"Thanks," Sam smirked and stood up, heading towards the kitchen. I stood up as well and made my way over to the backyard, where Colby was fishing trash out of the pool with a small fishing net.

"Everything working out?" I asked, watching him as he tried to get to the red cup in the middle of the pool.

"It's working, but there's so much stuff in here. What were people even doing outside? It's cold," he snickered.

"It was pretty crowded in the house, maybe people were trying to catch a breather."

"Might be," he nodded. "That damn cup. I'm just worried that if I lean in too far I'll lose my balance and drop in, but I can almost reach it."

"Let me help," I said and walked over. Colby handed me the net and grabbed my waist, using his weight to balance me over the pool. I reached out as far as I could.

"Almost there. I swear to God, Brock, if you let me-," I was warning him, but I couldn't even finish my sentence. Suddenly, I made contact with the icy cold water and as soon as I realized what was going on, I resurfaced.

"Fuck, this water is cold!" Colby screamed.

"What happened?!" I asked. The other housemates came running out to see what happened.

"Oh my God!", Kat yelled laughing. "What are you guys doing in the pool?"

"I was trying to get the damn cup out of the pool! Colby was holding me back and then suddenly I was here!" I replied.

"I slipped!" Colby laughed out. "I slipped on the damn pool floatie!"

I reached for the cup and threw it out. "At least we got the cup out."

Colby looked at me and smiled. "We should get out before we catch a cold."

I nodded rapidly, following Colby out of the pool. I hugged him from the side so we could steal each other's warmth.

"You guys look dumb as shit," Jake laughed as we went for the door.

"Well thanks Jake," Colby replied, rolling his eyes. "Now let us in."

Corey stopped us. "We can't let you do that! You're going to make our freshly cleaned floor wet!"

"I will happily clean it again," I said and let go of Colby so we could walk through the door. "Damn it's cold."