a / n :
so here it is! colin and sadie are my otp and i'm absolutely excited to write their story. please keep in mind that there'll be none of the lyrical language i used in no hard feelings, particularly because this story will be told in colin's pov.
the teaser from the previous part was inspired by a prompt i saw online. i've had codie's story in mind for almost 6 months but never knew where to start until i saw that prompt. the teaser is the first thing i'd ever written for this story.
so, yeah!! welcome to #codie's story. i hope you love them as much as i do. love you!!
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o n e
THE CITY ALWAYS seemed too loud to Colin. That was one thing he didn't like about living here.
He grew up in a small beach town, where the quiet seemed to seep into his bones. Rivermount only ever becomes busy during the summer, and even then, it was never like this.
The city isn't simply just loud. It's alive, with busy streets that never sleep. It didn't seem too bad during Colin's first year in college. As a freshman, he lived in one of the dorms inside the campus, far from the beating heart of the city; where the constant traffic of people poking in and out of twenty-four-hour food joints was ever present.
When sophomore year rolled around, he began renting a small apartment a few minutes away from campus, together with his two (and only) friends, one of whom was taking the same major as him and the other he met from his part-time tutoring job. Not that he needed a job, to be honest.
Not to say that he hates it here, really. He can live with the noise. It's actually a lot less noticeable now, like it somehow grew on him in the past two years of his college life. He's done pretty well for himself, all things considered.
"Ready to head out?"
Colin looks up and sees Perry, leaning sideways against the doorframe. It's a Friday night, and as per usual, he and his friends made plans to eat out for the night. Their midterms are looming just around the corner, but it's the calm before the storm, and they're determined to make use of this time to have fun.
"Just a sec," he replies, trying to locate one of his shoes from the messy pile of footwear lumped together by the door.
If his mother were to see their shoes strewn all over the floor, he would never hear the end of it. They never bothered to buy a shoe rack. Much like they never bothered to buy a couch, or anything really. What little furniture they had were things they brought from home or stuff the previous renters left: the two dusty bean bag chairs, the small coffee table, the rustic shelf.
"Do you remember Lauren?" Perry asks him as they descend down the stairs, the keys jangling in his hands. "From last week."
"Was that the one with brown hair?"
"Yeah. She's pretty cute, right?"
Colin shrugs. "I guess?"
Perry perks up. "I heard she was asking about you," he says, not so subtly nudging him with his elbow. "I could get her number for you."
"I don't want it," he abruptly dismisses.
To say he isn't flattered would be a lie. The girl really did look cute. She was pretty funny, too, as far as he could tell last week. They met her last week at one of the bars they frequented, along with some of her friends.
Going out for some drinks on Friday nights has been part of their unspoken routine during the weekend. Or going out in general, really. Some nights, they settle for the cheapest fast food joint and hang around until they feel like going home.
Perry and him work for the same tutor center, though Colin highly suspects that Perry's in it for the girls. The two of them couldn't be more different, but they grew close after a living together for quite some time.
When Perry learned about Colin's dating life, or lack thereof, he took it upon himself to set Colin up with girls and, on some occasions, guys.
"Seriously," Perry tells him now, sounding more aggravated than he should be, in Colin's opinion. "I've never seen you date anyone. Ever. And we'd known each other for almost two years now."
"That's not true," Colin says. "Remember that Stella girl? I went out with her."
"Once." Perry steps in in front of him just as they exit their apartment building. "And only because I tricked you into it."
Colin nearly killed him that night. Perry told him to come down to Café Diem, one night during sophomore year and once he got there, Perry introduced him to Stella, only to promptly disappear right after. Colin had to spend the rest of the night with her.
"It was still a date," he argues now, shouldering past him.
"Which did not get you laid," Perry argues back. "Tell me, you actually have a girlfriend waiting for you back home, don't you?"
"Yes," he deadpans. "We also have three daughters and two sons and she's pregnant right now with baby number six. Do you want to be a godfather?"
Perry doesn't look amused. "You're funny."
"I can name him after you." A smile begins to form on Colin's face, but it immediately disappears when he catches sight of a familiar black-haired girl, clad in a maroon hoodie, her curls put up in a careless bun.
It's Sadie Reynolds.
Just thinking of the name makes Colin grimace.
She's standing near a lamppost, tapping furiously on her phone. She looks up, craning her neck as though she's trying to spot someone from the crowd.
Colin grips Perry's arm and veers him away, forcing him to cross the street before Sadie could spot either of them.
"Yo, what the fuck?"
"I want to try the new pizza place that opened up over there," Colin reasons halfheartedly. His eyes dart back to where Sadie is standing. She's back on her phone. It doesn't seem like she'd seen him.
Perry seems to notice his gaze, though, and he looks right at Sadie. "Oh, wow," he says. "She's pretty hot."
"What?" he asks, for some reason irritated. He instinctively looks back at Sadie's lone figure amid the bustling crowd. "That? Hot?"
"What? You were checking her out too."
A look of disgust takes over Colin's face. Perry's brows shoot up. He looks over his shoulder to give Sadie one last look. Colin keeps on walking and Perry has to run a little to catch up to him, nearly tripping over somebody's shoe in the process.
"Who is she?" Perry looks positively excited. "Was she an ex-girlfriend? What happened? Was it a bad breakup?"
Colin shoves him. "No"
"It's definitely an ex-girlfriend."
He glowers at his friend, who seems riveted by this new line of inquisition. "Knock it off."
"Who is she?"
"No one."
"Oh, no. She didn't cheat on you, did she?"
She didn't.
Colin's relationship with Sadie Reynolds is actually a lot less exciting than whatever Perry thinks it is.
Colin and Sadie go way back. For one, his parents are friends with the Reynolds (though, technically, his family pretty much everyone back home, what with them owning the only major grocery store in town), which meant that Colin has been seeing Sadie before they'd even started school.
School was where things between them began to sour though. Colin made the mistake of befriending Jackass Sean (the nickname, of course, came a lot later, when they all got into high school and Sean's assholery further intensified), and this jackass made the mistake of messing with Aanya Patel.
Getting gum in her hair. Splashing puddles at her feet. Pushing her off the swing.
What Jackass Sean didn't know was that Aanya happened to be friends with Sadie, and Sadie, even as a child, was a feisty little shit.
Whatever Sean did to Aanya, Sadie did better to Sean and, by extension, his friends. Colin should have jumped ship and abandoned that sinking boat when he had the chance, but he stayed and Sadie hated him all through grade school.
Colin, thank god, outgrew Jackass Sean come middle school, but whatever animosity he and Sadie brewed over the years stuck. It wasn't too bad until they got into high school, when Colin's best friend (not a jackass this time) got together with one of Sadie's friends, putting them in the same circle for pretty much all of high school.
To be fair, Sadie didn't really seem to hate Colin anymore by that time. It was just that she enjoyed making fun of him, annoying him for nothing but the joy of annoying him.
Which only annoyed him even more.
The point is, Colin hates Sadie.
He knows that seems juvenile, placed against the backdrop of college and all the complicated issues that came with it, but old habits die hard and old grudges never do, so Colin has been doing his best to avoid her in the past two years.
They move in different circles now, with different friends and different priorities, and they hardly ever speak, to be perfectly honest, save for the occasional run-in back in the halls of their home college.
Those run-ins are every bit as unpleasant as all their other interactions in the past, usually ending with Sadie laughing her ass off and Colin spending the rest of his day in a bad mood.
Unlike their other housemate Drew, who's also taking up Business Administration, Perry has never seen Sadie until tonight, and he's certainly never seen them interact. If he had, he'd never for one second think of them as an ex-couple.
"She's just some girl I knew from high school," Colin tells him now, if only to shut him up. "I just don't want to do the whole hi, hello, how are you thing."
"Oh." Perry's face falls for a moment. Then, "Are you sure she's not an ex-girlfriend?"
"Trust me," Colin tells him, "she's really not."
"Then do you think you can get me her number and—"
"Please do me a favor and put your dick in a blender and die."
Perry frowns. "Now that's not very nice."
"Your face is not very nice."
"What—did you just—are we back in middle school or something?"
"Just shut the fuck up and call Drew already. Tell him he needs to come before I slit your throat."
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"I'm getting the last slice," Drew announces, but the pizza is already halfway in his mouth, leaving hardly any room for either Colin or Perry to contest.
Colin's already done eating though and he watches Perry try to grab it from Drew with barely concealed amusement.
Drew's a lot like a vacuum when it comes to food. Everything that isn't explicitly labeled off limits in their fridge is at risk of disappearing. This is why a lot of Perry's food has BACK OFF DREW or PERRY ALREADY LICKED THIS labels taped on the food containers.
Last December, Perry bought thin mint cookies and put an ominous DREW DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE note on the tin can lid. Then Perry had to go for his tutoring shift and five hours later he came back to find half the cookies gone and a new note taped over his original note.
oh yes i fucking dared :)
"Where to next?" Drew asks them now through a mouthful of pizza.
Colin shrugs. "Why don't we just buy a couple beers and head back to the apartment?" That's a lot less expensive, and a lot less tedious.
Last week, Drew passed out and Perry and Colin were the ones who had to figure out how to get him home while the fucking asshole threw up on them and slept. Perry had to patiently talk Colin out of leaving Drew passed out on the sidewalk.
Of course it's him who protests against drinking at home. "The night is young, my friends," Drew says. "I feel like getting trashed tonight."
"Please, god, don't fucking do this again—" Colin says just as Perry goes "This time I'll really leave your ass in some dark alley if you—"
"I was joking!"
The three of them file out of the pizzeria in the usual manner that they did everything—loud, boisterous and unapologetic, with Colin and Perry both rehashing last week's events to Drew, reminding him how difficult it was to shove a full grown idiot into the backseat of a cab. (It was pretty difficult. Colin might have slammed the car door on Drew's head twice or thrice. You know, accidentally.)
"I get drunk once—once—and you both act like I'm some kind of alcoholic." Drew rolls his eyes and turns to them with a smile. "Why can't we all just love each other?"
"I don't know about you but me and Colin, we're pretty solid," Perry replies. "You're just the guy we're tolerating because we need someone else to split the rent with us."
As always, Drew ignores this and launches into another of one of his you're just saying that but I know you love me spiels.
Drew's a lot like a dog. Colin realized this immediately after meeting him. The kind that jumps around excitedly when he sees something he likes and whimpers openly when he was down. You feed him and he looks at you like you've given him life. You tell him he's an idiot and the boy tilts his head and smiles at you.
"I'm telling you guys," Drew tells them. "I think tonight's gonna be awesome."
Colin hardly thinks it'll be anything special. The three of them are walking towards their favorite bar now, Drew throwing an arm over their shoulders and tugging them all closer. Colin elbows him in protest, causing him to yelp and jump sideways, nearly tackling Perry sideways.
Colin laughs at both of them, especially when Perry begins to mouth off a string of four letter words and Drew merely smiles back. It's not a smirk, nor is it a grin. There's no hint of mischief or malice in Drew's face. It's just a smile, and not even a sarcastic one.
Despite everything, Colin knows he probably wouldn't be enjoying college as much without either Perry or Drew.
"Hey, isn't that Sadie?" Drew suddenly says.
Colin's laughter naturally dies out. He follows the direction of Drew's gaze, ready to glower at Sadie in case she was looking their way, but then he sees her.
He freezes in his tracks.
He's used to seeing Sadie laugh, a glint of perpetual amusement and mischief in her eyes. He's used to seeing her raging like a mad bull, ready to fight to death with whoever stepped on her toes that morning. He's used to seeing the invincible expression on her face, the one that tells people to back off and steer clear of her before she could even say a word to them.
But now he sees her standing there amidst the Friday night crowd, her hair disheveled and shoulders shaking, looking small and lost and not at all invincible.
Sadie Reynolds is crying.
Colin can't look away from her, his thoughts whirring to a full stop at the image. Confusion and unease settles in his gut at the sight. He doesn't believe what he's seeing. He can't believe what he's seeing.
Sadie Reynolds does not cry. He'd known her for years and he's never seen her cry.
But there she is.
"Shit, man. Talk to her," Perry gives him a slight push. "You know her, right?"
Colin shakes his head, but even Drew shoves him forward. "Just go."
"Why don't you do it?" Colin snaps at Drew.
"You know her better!" Drew says, this time shoving Colin with so much force that he stumbles forward.
He takes a few steadying steps, but they're enough to put him into Sadie's view.
She turns to him, looking lost at first, like she isn't exactly sure what she's seeing. "Colin?" she says and her voice is raspy and her eyes are watery and shit, what the fuck should he do?
"Hey," he forces out. He blinks and clears his throat, one hand reaching up to tug at his hair. "Are you—um—are you all right?"
Sadie looks right at him for a second and Colin curses himself for saying that. Or for being there in the first place. He squirms under her tearful gaze, feeling his ears heat up. He quickly realizes just how stupid his question was. She must be judging him, Colin thinks, and he wants to disappear and pretend none of this ever happened.
But then her expression begins to change—and just when he thought she'd finally give him that teasing smile he knows all too well, her face crumples even further, her eyes filling up with a fresh wave of tears as her lower lip begins to tremble and Colin stands there looking at her like the fucking idiot that he is and all he can think is Jesus, fuck, Colin, what the fuck did you do?
"No," she answers his question, her voice breaking at the syllable. "No, I'm not."
And before Colin can even register what's happening, she's already closing the distance between them. For a second, Colin's convinced she's going to tackle him. His eyes widen in panic and he nearly steps out of her way to avoid the impact.
But what she does is a lot worse than he'd imagined.
She wraps her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest as she cries into his shirt. It takes a moment longer than necessary for Colin to realize the fact that Sadie Reynolds is hugging him.
And what else can he do but hug her back?