Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

71 - Rebecca

          I was too lost in my thoughts after that to listen to anyone's conversation. The thing that momentarily brought me out from my thoughts was the feeling of Colby's thumb rubbing over my thigh. It took him a few tries to realise he did it whenever my eyes drifted to anyone else in the room, which I wasn't even in control of.

If only he knew the rabbit holes I was falling down realising that my boyfriend as of today and all of his friends were quite possibly not human. It seemed like a ridiculous conclusion for someone to jump to — after all, not that much had happened that was so out of the ordinary. But all the little things coupled with Colby's own words: "dangerous" in particular — and then Katrina saying that none of them were normal but her.

That meant that she and I were the only humans, if my insane hypothesis was true.

Ignoring Colby's thumb this time, I scanned my eyes over each of his friends. The main thing that set them apart from almost anyone I'd ever seen was the silver ring around the eyes — a ring I had seen around the bouncer's eyes from the club. It was distinct, and I was starting to think that it marked them as another species, maybe. The way it expanded wasn't normal, let alone that split second I saw only silver and purple in the light of the party.

My brain worked way little than it should have to remember the blue lights that had been the only way of seeing that night. And I thought about the purple... it had to have been mixed with the blue of the lights, which meant that his eyes had been red. That certainly wasn't human — for them or change like that.

Yet, after this little revelation, I still didn't feel the need to jump out of his lap or save myself from him, because I was too far in that I couldn't walk away now. I wondered if he'd like that or hate it. He had hated every time I brushed off a crime he'd committed like killing someone — and the almost crimes like wanting to kill me. How would he react knowing I didn't care that he wasn't human, if he really wasn't?

I wanted to believe that he was human, because that was the logical thing to do. Even a smart-mouthed bitch could see logic. Yet, I just couldn't, because Colby and his friends weren't the only people I had come across with silver rings around their eyes.

Flashes of memories I had tried so hard to hide came back in bright assaults on my head. I saw my mother being carried to but not through the door of our house. I was supposed to be asleep, of course, but I wasn't because Dad had forgotten to take me to bed again. And then, years later, when I already wanted to escape from the shitty atmosphere that was my family, that same man was carrying my sister to the front door and letting her drowsily make her way up the stairs whilst I watched around a corner.

He had almost seen me that day — a new target for whatever it was he gave them for their high — but I had ducked back so hard that there was no way he could identify me. He'd brought my mother back the same night hours later.

The brief glances at that man's eyes in my memory told me all I needed to know: there was some other kind of species out there that looked and mostly acted like humans, but weren't. And my boyfriend was one of them.

Yet that still didn't bother me.

When I looked at Colby's face, I saw that he wasn't focused on me anymore, though his thumb was still rubbing circles on my thigh. He was staring at Sam intently, like he was listening. And when I looked at Sam, I barely saw his lips moving.

Yes, 'good hearing, I guess' was how you would describe that kind of ability to hear.

As if Sam could feel me looking at him, he glanced in my direction and smiled, tugging Katrina close to him. She was half asleep on his lap, resting her head on his collarbone with her eyes half shut. To anyone else, Sam's action would have looked normal, but I knew it was specifically made to look that way; to look less suspicious.

I turned back to Colby casually as if it had worked and met his eyes instantly. He, too, was gauging my reaction to Sam, wondering if I was looking at him for any particular reason. I was, but he didn't need to know that. I smiled a little at Colby, closing my arm around his neck to make myself closer. He stared at me for a second's hesitation then pulled my body the rest of the way into his, both arms wrapped all the way around me now.

Following Katrina's lead, I acted a little tired. I dropped my head into the crook of Colby's neck and sat completely still, eyes closed, waiting for something to happen. I didn't know what I was waiting for, Colby to suddenly sweep me up in his arms and take me to bed? That wasn't going to happen here, even if he may have done it in my apartment.

Annoyingly, I actually started to fall asleep. It was all too easy when lying in Colby's arms to drift off into a world of dreams, even if he wasn't in them. I gave up trying to stay awake when I uncurled my arm from around his neck and tucked both of my arms into my chest, bending my knees with my shoes on the chair beside him. I essentially nuzzled into his neck.

Everything I had been missing was right here, beneath me and around me like a blanket. Could I afford to lose it by making a wild accusation like 'you're not human'? At the same time, I felt so sure that I was right. It felt right to think he wasn't human; that he was something else entirely.

I was too out of it to notice when I was swept up and carried from the red room.