Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

138 - Rebecca

Colby and I walked downstairs after making it quick. Despite how much I would have loved to go the whole night and then sleep all day, we now had to stick to some kind of schedule because there were times when Linda would need me unassigned so I'd have to be awake to answer her phone call. And I tried to go to the studio every day to bother my employees now—both new and old.

The red room whistled at us when we entered, and I was the first one to glare at the roommates. They all grinned back at me knowing they'd pissed me off. All I could think was how to hurt them so that they'd heal in a few days rather than straight away.

As if he could sense that, Colby glanced at me and a little smirk came over his face. I winked at him before stopping next to his chair. He sat down then I perched on his lap sideways, my legs hanging over the arm of the chair. It was as natural as breathing.

I saw Tara already coming for me, so I didn't bother pretending to be distracted. I watched her move to the end of one of the couches—the one closest to us—then sit down on the arm. She faced me with a smile on her face, though I could tell she didn't mean it. "Hey, Beck," she greeted.

"Tara," I replied snappily.

"I wanna hang out more—just the two of us. It's been a while and I actually miss you... bitch," she said as she stared directly in the eyes, removing any chance of escape. She wanted my attention and she wanted it now.

"I'm busy," I told her. I had plenty of time to hang out, really. However, I spent most of that time with Katrina or Colby, since Katrina was around in the morning and we had breakfast together and Colby was Colby. If I came home early, Katrina was also usually the only one awake to hang out with.

Yes, I basically lived here now.

"I know you are," Tara muttered, rolling her eyes, "but that doesn't mean we can't hang out once in a while. Like now: what's stopping us?"

"Me." Tara gave me a look. "What would we even do?"

"Go out for a bit, I don't know." Colby stiffened beneath me and Tara noticed. She glanced at him for a moment in thought then looked back at me. "Maybe we could bring along some of the other girls and they could keep their distance. For safety."

Who was I trying to unnecessarily argue against here? Tara or Colby? Admittedly, Colby was currently in my good books and Tara definitely wasn't, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to sit on a terrace with a coffee opposite Tara. It was how we gained this fucked up relationship and it felt like the thing we needed to maintain it.

"No," I finally decided, "if we're going out then it's just going to be us." I noticed Colby looking at me now but I paid no attention to him. My decision, not his.

"Does that mean you want to go out?" Tara asked hopefully. I didn't smile at her like she wanted me to, however, I did nod my head. She looked at Colby for a long moment then sighed. "I don't know if—"

"Let's go, Tara. I'll deal with him in a second."

An amused, mischievous grin came over her face as she zipped over to Jake, kissing his cheek before she zipped to the door. I waited for her to be ready knowing that Colby was going to at least try to convince me out of this—with his eyes, if not his voice. Those were almost more dangerous.

When I looked at Colby, I didn't give him a chance to open his mouth. "I haven't spent time with just Tara for ages, so I'm going," I said sternly. "She's a feisty little bitch so she can protect me should something go wrong. You don't own me and I love you. Got it? Okay, bye." I kissed him swiftly then got up, knowing he wouldn't be able to stop me.

I noticed the others looking at me out of the corner of my eye but I didn't turn to them, walking over to Tara at the door. She looked amazed but happy and neither of us looked back.

She grabbed my hand along the way, taking me off guard so much that I just let it happen. I wasn't dressed in my usual attire—I wore a large t-shirt of Colby's above a pair of jeans, since I saw the look Colby gave me when I tried to walk out of his room just with the t-shirt on. Admittedly, I was glad for that little decision.

Tara walked me to her car and we got in silently. We weren't going to speak until we were away from prying ears, which I was pretty sure would happen tonight. Colby was going to be talking to me about this.

We drove to a 24-hour cafe—because those existed—and sat at the table in the window with coffees, as if that would help me get back to sleep when we got back to the house (or apartment for me). We weren't chatting much, but it was enough to put a smile on my face. Tara saw it and she got more excited. I would have gotten more distant any other day, but it'd been so long that I couldn't help myself: I just kept talking.

It was only much later into the night that I happened to glance out the window and see glowing red eyes. At first, I thought Colby had sent someone to come and watch over me, but I knew that if he had, they wouldn't be standing in the shadows like that.

I only looked at the eyes when Tara wasn't paying attention so she didn't force us to go home, but that meant that I only caught glimpses of them.

It felt like hours until the person; the vampire stepped out from the shadows to let me see them, if only for half a second.

It was a teasing move meant to scare me; meant to make me intimidated by the figure as if they had some reason to frighten me. I didn't want to think about it until it was happening and I was trying to pretend it wasn't.

One glance, he's in the shadows.

Two glances, he's moving.

Three glances, he's clearly visible to me.

And then I almost scream.