Rewrite the Stars (bxb)

Chapter 37 Colton Shows Up

Orion wipes his hands on a towel. "Not at all. I made chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. Hope you're hungry."

"Starving."

We all sit to eat, but I can't even look at the food. I feel sick.

"You okay, Blythe?"

I snap my head up with a smile. "Yeah. Of course. I'm so glad you're here, Colt. I missed you."

"Same here. How's the crazy house? No offense guys."

I smile. "It's good. How's college?"

He groans. "Terrible. I've already had to drop my math class because it was going to bring down my GPA because I was going to fail."

"You know you could've asked me for help. I would've."

"I know. I know. But I wanted to try to do this by myself."

I nod in understanding.

"Where do you go to college?" Orion asks.

"Tennessee Tech. I'm majoring in computer science."

Jax looks up. "I am too."

"Really? Where do you go?"

"Online at USC."

"Carolina?"

Jax nods.

Colton grins. "Oh." He glances at me, and I roll my eyes. I know where this is going. "Well, our mom went to Clemson. Go tigers."

Jax laughs. "Blythe. You are no longer allowed to live here. Shoo." He waves his hands at me. "And take your brother too."

The table erupts in laughter, and I smile and nod, feeling that bubble in my chest finally dissipating.

"What other terrible things should I know about Blythe, Colton? Because he never tells us anything." Jax looks over at me.

"Yeah, that sounds like Blythe. Never talking about what he's feeling. Do you guys know that he hates pizza?"

"We do actually," Sam says. "When he told us though, Peter over there almost fainted."

Peter laughs and then groans. "How can you not like pizza? It's like— the food of the gods!" He hits his head on the table and groans.

Everyone else laughs.

"He can also eat an entire pint of chocolate ice cream in one sitting. It's kind of freakish."

Everyone looks at me, so I shrug with a smile. "What? I like ice cream."

A ringing interrupts our conversation. Orion gets up and picks up his phone on the counter. "What? No." He glances at me. "His brother is visiting. Okay. Okay. Yes. I will. Okay. Love you too. Bye." He hangs up and comes back over. "That was Phebe. She says she's coming over tomorrow. Something for you, Blythe."

"For me?"

"Who's Phebe?" Colton asks.

"My mother," Orion replies. "She's known for her surprises, and she apparently has a surprise for Blythe tomorrow."

I can't help but smile.

"No fair," Peter whines. "The only thing my mom is known for is her mac and cheese. Why can't my mom be that cool?"

"You're telling me," Sam mutters. "My mom just sucks."

"Yeah, you're telling me," Colton says, and an uneasy feeling comes to my stomach. "Our mom is batshit crazy." He laughs. "There was this one time where I slept in, because I worked late the night before, and mom wanted me to do something, right? But I was sleeping. So then she decides to bust into my room, knocking the door down and scaring the crap out of me mind you, and yell at me. She took my phone away for like a month afterward. And another time, I couldn't find something in the kitchen, so I asked mom where it was, and she blew up at me. Went batshit crazy. Took my phone away again and my car." He groans. "She had my phone more than I had it."