All The Little Lights // c.b

5

The whole ride to the party I had butterflies dancing in my stomach. I never liked parties, the one's I went to with Lewis were absolutely crazy, and over three-quarters of the people were so drunk they could barely walk. As we got closer to the house, I noticed all the lights were on, and shadows moved from room to room. We eventually pulled into the driveway and parked, and we all piled out of the car.

"You guys go in, I'll be in in a second," I say, and check my emails to kill time. I killed about 5 minutes before I knew I had to at least say hi to somebody. I walk in and am instantly overwhelmed by the presence of people. I weave my way around people, trying to find at least one person I know. I finally ran into Corey, who was sitting on the couch on his phone.

"Hey, Corey," I say, sitting down next to him.

"Oh, hey Josie. You seen Devyn?" He asked, looking up from his phone.

"No, sorry," I say, and he sighs.

"No worries," he says, and I decide to let him be since he looked pretty tired. I wandered around more people until I got to the backyard, and as I turned around to go back inside, I ran into someone, of course.

"Sorry," I mumble, but the person grabs my bicep gently. I look up and see it was Colby I had run into, which made me feel a bit better.

"Hey Jo," he says, and lets go of my arm.

"Hey, Colby. Thought this was supposed to be a small party?" I say, as someone whoops loudly and splashes into the pool.

"I guess people just have a lot of friends. How are you? You look amazing," he says, and I smile.

"I'm alright, and thank you," I say.

"That's better than not okay. Has he tried to contact you recently?" He asks, and I shake my head.

"I blocked him everywhere and he doesn't have any other way to contact me, that I know of," I say, and he nods.

"That's good," Colby says, and I smile. I tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear, and then I hear someone calling my name. I turn around and see Ella running as fast as she could through the crowds of people.

"Josie!" She says, out of breath. I put my hand on her shoulder and looked at her worriedly.

"What is it?" I ask her, and she takes a minute before answering.

"Lewis," she says, and my body freezes.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I mumble, and walk quickly away from the two, despite them calling after me. I go up the stairs quickly and sit down against the wall by the stairwell. I hear footsteps coming after me, and I was convinced it was Lewis until he stooped down t the level I was sitting at.

"He's here?" He asks, and I nod, swallowing. He helps me up and guides me to his room, which was covered in sticky notes.

"What's with the sticky notes?" I ask, and he laughs a bit.

"Sam helped prank me, but I liked it so I kept it up," he says, and we freeze when we hear footsteps coming up, and someone opening and closing doors. The person came to Colby's and opened the door, and his eyes locked on mine.

"Josie," he murmurs, and opens the door wider.

"Lewis, how the fuck did you find me?" I ask, and Colby steps in front of me. I push him back behind me and confront Lewis in anger.

"I know, I'm friends wit David Dobrik and he invited me, I swear I didn't know you were here. I was looking for the bathroom..." he trails off.

"There's a bathroom downstairs, dipshit," I say, and walk forward to close the door on him.

"Jo, wait," he says, and holds it open. I wasn't strong enough. I looked at Colby for help and he easily closed the door on him. We stand in silence before I turn to Colby.

"Did you know he was friends with David?" I ask, and he shook his head.

"Swear to god I didn't," he says, and I purse my lips, accepting the answer. I open the door again and he is gone, so i step out and go to call an Uber.

"Who you calling?" He asks, and I turn to him.

"Uber," I say, but he takes my phone out of my hand and ends the call.

"I'll drive you home," he says, and I give him a look.

"You should be able to enjoy the party, Colby," I say, but he shrugs.

"We can do a party anytime. Let me drive you," he says, and I finally agree. Taking my wrist, he helps guide me through the people and out the door. It felt so good to get a breath of fresh air. He let go of me as we approached his car, and I got in the passenger seat. 1

"Josie!" I hear his dreadful voice suddenly say. I look up and see Lewis standing a few feet outside the door.

"Leave me alone, and never ever try to speak to me again," I say to him calmly and coolly, and Colby drives away towards my apartment. When we get there, I open my door and go straight to my room.

"Be out in a sec. Netflix is on the TV, pick something good," I say, and close my door. I remove Devyn's beautiful work off my face and moisturize. I change out of my clothes and replace them with sweatpants and a short tee-shirt. I tie my hair into a bun and then go out to see what Colby picked.

"The Conjuring?" I question, getting happy.

"Yeah," he says, and I hop on the couch as it plays.

"It's one of my favorites," I say, and lay my head on his shoulder while we watched the movie. It's amazing that you can know someone for such a short amount of time and be as comfortable around them as if you were friends for years.