Enemies with benefits

Chapter 25: Talk to me

Colby gave a wonky smile at that. "Someone just did."

Finley's eyes lit up at the realisation. "Damn, no way. I gotta try that on Brent."

Colby wobbled out of the shower with bones made of rubber and a brain far far away.

"By the way," Finley tried to wake him up, "apparently Ezra had some suspicious marks on his back today. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you Colby?" Finley teased.

"He told everyone it was me but they took it as a joke." He was unsure of how that made him feel.

"I know. They all think it's hilarious, only joke they told the whole of practice. You can tell that none of them have been through trauma because none of them are funny."

"Finley. Your hamster dying of diabetes because you used to give it marshmallows is not traumatic."

"I was six years old, man, it was traumatic to me. Now look at me, hilarious because his fat ass couldn't take the heat."

Colby had gotten changed by the time Finley stopped explaining his "trauma". Colby had never seen the hamster in real life but he had seen pictures. The poor thing looked like a bowling ball being held up by toothpicks but hamster sized.

Colby's phone buzzed and he looked to check on the notification.

It was from Sophie. It said nothing apart from 'Can we talk?'

A part of Colby really missed her. They'd been friends since forever and he thought he knew her inside and out. Sure he'd known she was religious but he didn't assume that also meant she was homophobic. Finley was Christian and he was gay, his parents were supportive of it too.

'Sure.' Colby responded.

'Meet me in room 18 at lunch x' She sent a kiss, maybe that meant she was being friendly now.

The rest of Colby's day was pretty mundane, the same run of the mill school day.

At lunch he told Finley that Sophie wanted to talk to him.

"Are you sure you wanna go, man?" Finley asked. "She isn't exactly being gay friendly." His expression soured.

"I'll just talk to her, see what she wants, maybe she'll apologise."

"Whatever." Finley grumbled. Colby knew that Finley was very anti-Sophie after the comments she'd made about his relationship with Brent. Colby couldn't understand why she didn't like them together, they were so cute.

"I'm sorry, bro." Colby patted Finley's back. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

He went to the classroom that Sophie wanted to meet in. It was an English classroom so there was pictures of Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe on the wall along with poems written by students. Sophie was leaning against the teacher's desk. Her auburn hair flowing down her right shoulder in loose ringlets and she was wearing a floral dress.

She looked nervous, even more so when she saw Colby at the door but she smiled anyway.

"Hey, Colby." She laughed awkwardly. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, I suppose it has been." Colby replied, his posture was stiff as he lingered by the door. He was unsure if he wanted to do this. Part of him wanted to fix things, to hear Sophie out but another part of him had an uneasy feeling that talking would only make things worse.

"Did you want to talk about something?" Asked Colby, he closed the door behind him for a bit of privacy.

"Yeah, yeah I did." She took in a deep breath before exhaling. "Listen, I'm not as stupid as you or Finley may think I am."