We dropped off Sam at his house and watched him as he ran across his lawn but quietly entered his house, waving to us before he disappeared.
I climbed into the front seat and Colby drove
me home, the radio played softly in the background as we talked about what happened tonight.
"It was fun though"
"Yeah, I agree." Colby said as he slowly drove down my road.
It was about 3 in the morning and the adrenaline was still pumping through my body.
He pulled into my driveway and sat there. I turned to him and he turned to me.
"Thank you." I said hugging him.
"Any time"
He continued staring at me and I stared at him, we were so close our nose were touching.
He closed the gap and kissed me, and I kissed him back. His hand reached my face, his cold rings hitting my face.
I felt pure bliss.
He pulled away, smiling. His face was red, either from the exercise from today or the kiss. I kissed him again, this time for longer.
He pulled me onto his lap and ran my fingers through his hair. I pulled away and hugged him again. He hugged back and we sat like that for awhile. "I love you." He whispered.
"I love you too."
I opened the door and climbed out of his lap and out of the car. I waved to him and closed the door.
I ran to my window, and climbed in. I didn't see his car move until I was completely inside. Then he drove out of my driveway and onto the road until he was out of sight.
I closed the window and turned to my room, smiling.
———————
My Mom woke me up the next morning. Telling me that breakfast is ready. I got out of bed and did my hair, going downstairs and seeing my Mom and Dad at the table, eating.
I did feel bad that I was going behind their backs and sneaking out, but if I tell them I'd be in so much trouble.
I prepared my plate and sat down next to them. "Have you been applying to colleges lately?" My dad asked. I nodded.
"UCLA, but that's probably not happening." I said taking a bite of my pancakes.
"You gotta stay positive. I know you're great you'll make it."
I looked at my email, hoping for a response from the college. Scrolling through all the useless spam emails until I came across one from UCLA. I opened it, trying not to get my hopes up.
Dear Jackie,
We are sorry to inform you that we have to reject you from UCLA.
I didn't even bother to read the rest. I was bummed out, but I know there's others I could apply for. Just not right now, I wasn't in the mood.
My mom knocked on my door about an hour later and I was laying on my bed under the covers. "Are you okay?" She asked opening the door.
I pointed at my laptop and she opened it, reading the email. "Oh i'm so sorry sweetie." She said sitting on my bed. "It's okay, there's other colleges I could apply to." I said shrugging. "You're gonna do great, I know a college is gonna be all over you." She said rubbing my arm. I nodded and smiled.
"Thank you." She smiled and walked back out of my room.
I got up and grabbed my laptop, sitting back down in my bed. I went on Youtube to search Sam and Colby's youtube channel. I wanted to know what other videos they made.
I came upon their channel and scrolled through it, it was all about exploring abandoned places. I scrolled to the top again and refreshed it.
Now, there was a new video, posted about 30 minutes ago.
I was in the thumbnail this time. They had a pretty big channel, so there was already thousands of views on it.
I clicked on it, dramatic music started playing, along with scenes that were as dramatic as the music. Including the crash we heard, us running up the stairs and us running out of the building.
The intro started and showed Sam and Colby plus me in the middle of them in the dark parking lot. The only way you could see us is with the flashlight they used on the camera. Sam introduced me and I gave a light wave, after some talking to cut to us walking down a small path.
After the video I watched some more videos, some were really funny, and others were really dramatic and scary.
I came upon Colby's channel, it had quite a few subscribers too. His videos were genuinely funny. Seeing him do all these goofy stuff made me smile.
I fell asleep watching one of their exploration videos.
Buzzing on my phone caused me to wake up. I rolled over and picked it up, not checking who it was. "Hello?" I said groggily.
"You ready for finals?"
It was Colby.
Finals? "We have finals?" I asked sitting up. "Yeah" He said expecting me to know.
"Shit" I whispered.
He chuckled, "I'll pick you up early so you can study." Colby said as I was getting up to get ready.
"Thank you" I said as I choose clothes to wear.
"No problem, I love you."
"I love you too." He hung up at that and I changed my clothes.
After I was ready I quickly made cereal. My parents came down, confused as to why I was up so early. "Jackie what's the rush?" My dad asked coming into the kitchen. "I want to study." I said finishing my cereal and putting it in the sink. I heard a honk outside, "Bye Mom, Dad, I love you." I yelled to my parents from the front door knowing it was Colby.
I ran to his car and quickly got in, putting my backpack on the floor.
"Good morning Sunshine."
"Good morning, thank you for picking me up." I said kissing his cheek. "Anytime" He said taking my hand.
I admired the sunrise, I've never seen one in color.
It was beautiful.
He parked in the parking lot, and got out. I grabbed my bag and followed him through the parking lot.
He took my hand again and I suddenly got nervous.
What will people in school think of us dating?
I shouldn't be worried about it but I am. He squeezed my hand before opening the door and walking in.
I shouldn't of been worried, because everyone was busy being stressed about finals they didn't noticed.
Colby lead me through the hallways into the library. Finding a table I put my stuff down and sat down, finding my study guides.
I went over my history study guide since I have that exam first. I looked up at Colby to find him looking at me with his hand holding up his head.
"What are you doing?" I asked putting down a paper.
"I don't want to study."
"You have too, I'll help you." I said and put the study guide to where we could both see it.
The bell rung signaling us to go to our exam room. "You got everything?" I asked pushing in my chair.
"Yeah, thank you." Colby said grabbing his bag.
"You're welcome, we have to do this tomorrow too."
I said walking with him and he nodded. "I'll see you after the exam, tell me how it goes." I said and we separated in different ways. Tess was supposed to test in the same room as me so I started searching for her.
Finally finding her next to Jess. "Hey" She said as I walked up to her. "Ready for the exam?" I asked her. "Barely, I didn't even study." She said and groaned. "Tess, this is big!" She shrugged. "I'm honestly gonna wing it and hope for the best." I rolled my eyes. "We have to go though, we're gonna be late." She said goodbye to Jess and we quickly walked through the hallways to the testing room.
The teacher gave us where to sit, we weren't next to each other which I was hoping for so I don't have to sit next to someone I don't know.
I sat impatiently waiting for everyone to come in and find their seats. I just wanted to get this over with. I took quick glances at everyone walking. As I took another glance, there was this guy. Josh, he's known for forcing girls to do stuff they don't want to do.
Yet every single time someone reports him the school does nothing about it because they don't want a 'bad record'.
To my luck, he walks down my row and sits right next to me. There's cardboard dividers around us so he can't see my computer but he can see me. I sit uncomfortably as everyone takes their seat and the teacher closes the doors to the classroom.
I noticed how he took glances at me every few times as the teacher talked through the procedures.
"You're with Colby, right?" He asked me very quietly. I didn't say a word and with that he poked me on the arm to get an answer.
I nodded.
"Oh so, have you guys done anything.. you know.." I gave him an annoyed look. Who is he to ask me anything like that? He held up his hands in defense, having this devious smirk on his face.
We were allowed to start testing, and I read through all the questions. Taking my time with answering them.
As I was going on question 12 I felt something warm on my thigh, I looked down and it was a hand, Josh's hand. I flicked it away.
"Don't touch me." I whispered harshly at him. We're almost adults and this is no way to act.
There was 35 minutes left of the exam and it was absolutely horrible. Josh kept touching my thigh, and every time I'd tell him to stop, his hand would come back, only higher on my thigh.
I wanted to cry, scream, anything to get him to stop. But I couldn't.
"10 minutes left!" The teacher said, walking around the rows. But she wouldn't walk down ours, I wished she would.
I knew she was scared, of Josh.
She's heard what he's done. That's why she's scared.
His hand was on my hip as the lump in my throat grew. I couldn't just cry in the exam room. I know it would cause me to get in trouble.
"Please stop Josh." I took his hand off and put it on the table.
I raised my hand, I asked to go to the bathroom.
"Make it quick."
I rushed out of that room.
I walked down the hallway, I wish Colby was here. I just wanted out of this school and be with him, he would know how to comfort me.
I walked into the bathroom and wiped the running tears off my cheek. Washing my face. I stood around the bathroom, waiting for the 10 minutes to pass. I'm stronger than this, I know it.
After about 5 minutes I walked out of the bathroom, making my way slowly to the classroom.
I quietly opened the door and stepped into the classroom. I sat back down in my chair, trying not to make eye contact with Josh. I could feel his eyes burning the side my body. The past 5 minutes he's done nothing, I think he was done with his game. "Alright, you guys are dismissed" The teacher said and I went up to grab my bag and went out of the classroom.
Not saying a word as Tess tried to talk to me going through the hallway.
I just wanted to be alone.
"Excuse me." I said to Tess and quickly walked away from her.
I walked out side and sat on a bench in front of our school. There was other people sitting around me, talking about how hard their exam was.
I put down my backpack and grabbed my phone. Dialing my mom. I wasn't gonna tell her what happened I just wanted a simple conversation to make me feel better.
"Hey mom"
"Hey sweetie, anything going on?" She sounded confused, probably because I never call her while I'm school.
"No, I just wanted to talk to you." I said leaning my head on my hand.
We talked for a bit and it really did help me feel better.
I ended the call and looked around to find Colby sitting next to me. I didn't notice him come over to me at all.
"When did you get here?"
"A couple of minutes ago." He said. I noticed a worry glint in his eyes.
"Are you okay?"
I sat there, thinking. I don't know if I should tell him.