All The Little Lights // c.b

37

Colby's POV

I heard someone go in the kitchen, and thought it had to be Josie.

"Dude, don't go in there," Sam tells me, but I ignore him. I had to apologize to her. I walked in and saw she was at the fridge. When she closed it and saw me, she dropped the water bottle she had and backed away. My heart hurt when she did that, and I took a minute to examine her face. Her eyes were red, and there were black circles around her eyes from mascara that had bled. Her cheeks were flushed, and I noticed she was wearing my hoodie.

"Josie," I start, but she shakes her head, covering her mouth.

"No,' she mumbles, and runs around the island and back upstairs. I start to follow, but am blocked by Corey and Sam.

"Leave it, bro," Corey says, and he sounded pissed. Hell, I was pissed at myself. It was such an idiotic thing for me to do, and I loved Josie so much. I still do love her, and all I wanted right now was to give her a hug and tell her I was sorry.

Josie's POV

I ran back into Devyns room and sank against the wall, letting the tears flow. I brought my knees to my chest and rested my forehead on them, sobbing.

"Josie?" I hear Kat's soft voice say, and I felt her presence in front of me.

"Why, Kat?" I say looking up, and she looked so heartbroken.

"I don't know, Jo," she says, and moves so she was next to me.

After an hour of sitting and crying my heart out to Kat, I finally spoke.

"I want to talk to him, but I can't," I say, looking over at her.

"I can help you, if you want to talk to him," she says, and I swallow.

"Let me clean up," I say, and move into the bathroom. I borrow Dev's makeup remover and clean off my raccoon eyes, and wipe a cool cloth over my blotchy and red face. I pulled my braid to the side and put my hood on and took a breath. I knew if I didn't talk to him, I would only feel worse. Kat and I walked downstairs and Dev joined us. I walked into the living room and curled up on the couch, waiting for Colby. He walked in with Sam and sat on the other side of the couch.

"Why, Colby?" I start, letting my tears fall.

"Jo, I'm sorry, I had too much to drink and—"

"So why didn't you stop?" I throw the question at him, feeling myself becoming angry.

"People kept handing them to me, I didn't know what to do."

"You should have stopped! Or told Brennen to pull you away if you were going to do an idiotic thing!" I say, raising my voice. I stand and start pacing.

"Josie, I know. I fucked up, okay?" He says, and I nod my head.

"Yeah you fucked up. I loved you, Colby! I trusted you! I had no doubt in my mind anything was going to happen when you left, and now here you are!" I say, and he drops his head in shame.

"Josie, I will never forgive myself for what I did," he says, and I nod.

"Remember when you had that girl slung around you at that other party almost a year ago? Yeah, that was your first warning, and now it has happened a second time," I say settling, my mind swirling with things I could do and say. I didn't even realize people had left the room, and it was only Sam and Kat who were left.

"I do remember, and I regret that too. I don't want to hurt you," he says.

"Then why did you?" I ask, and slump back on the couch, wiping away my tears, "I think we need a break," I say, not making eye contact with him. He is quiet, and the only sound heard was our hard breathing.

"How long?" He finally whispers, heartbroken.

"I don't know," I say, and stand, going to leave the room.

"Where will you go?" He asks, and I stop, looking back at Sam, Kat, and Colby. I only made eye contact with Kat and watched my vision blur.

"I'm going back to Australia," I say, and go back upstairs to pack my things.

Colby's POV

A break. For who knows how long. A break where she is going back to Australia. Australia!

"I seriously fucked up," I say, covering my face with my hands and I started to cry.

"You did, and maybe you wont fix it now, but you can start to mend your relationship now. No promises you can get her to stay, but you can start by not putting yourself in situations like that," Sam explains, and Kat also says something, which sticks with me.

"Knowing Josie, it will take her a while to forgive you. But it is never too late to start mending your relationship," she says, and I nod. I could hear her banging suitcases on the floor and zippers being zipped, and knew she was about to leave me for who knows how long.

"Her flight is in two hours, and she wants me to take her," Sam says looking at his phone.

"That was fast," Kat says and Sam nods.

"She said someone had cancelled their flight right as she called," he explains, and then you could hear the crashing of suitcases on the stair.

Josie's POV

"Dammit," I mumble as one of my suitcases falls down the stairs. I start walking down with my second one, and pause when I see that Colby had picked it up. I hesitantly reached forward and took it, and he stepped back so I could pass. I walked out the front door and started to heft the first suitcase in the car.

"Here," I hear Colby say behind me, and I step back fast. He loads both of them and closes the trunk, looking at me with watery eyes.

"I love you," he says, and I swallow, fighting back the tears as Sam came out. I am quiet, examining his facial features and his hair, and I felt the urge to hug him. But I couldnt. Hell, I couldn't even get words out. Instead a single tear rolled down my cheek as I got in the car. I left the door open, and finally muster out a couple words.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, then close the door. We drive away, and I watch Colby watch me as I drove out of the house and down the street.