Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

86 - Rebecca

I arrived home shortly after and found myself almost running up to my apartment to get to Katrina. If she really was helplessly sitting on my balcony waiting for me, I was going to punch Sam for a completely different reason. However, when I opened my door, I found her sitting on my couch with her legs curled up to her chest and my TV playing some sort of terrible soap opera even she wasn't interested in.

Her head snapped to me when I walked inside, her eyes tired but weirdly happy. She only wore a thin cover-up dress that showed off her bikini underneath, her hair tied into a messy bun looking like it was still trying to dry on top of her head. She had my backpack sitting next to her and a little bag of her own crushed between her thighs and her chest. Great. She was going to be staying tonight.

"How did you get in?" I snapped.

"The balcony door was unlocked. I was going to text you, but I figured it wouldn't change anything." Since I didn't want to admit that I had practically run upstairs for her, I scowled and slammed my front door behind myself. "Do you... Do you wanna watch something?" She asked hopefully.

I didn't make eye contact with her as I collected my backpack from the couch and peered inside. It had all of my essentials, but it wasn't the work backpack. I would have to return the red designs to that filing cabinet another time. I spoke lowly, disinterested. "Whatever."

"Movie or TV show?"

"Whatever."

"Got Netflix?"

"Uh-huh." Katrina didn't ask anything more, twisting back to face the TV and working my remote. I ignored her completely and took my backpack to my bedroom, dropping it on the floor as soon as I got inside. My eyes flicked to Colby's backpack in the corner. I considered, for one long moment, changing into one of his shirts, but I decided just to wear the one I always did for bed.

I made a mental note not to let Katrina sleep with me tonight, just in case Colby came over—we struggled to sleep apart.

Wearing just Colby's shirt, I walked back out to the living room and dropped onto the couch as far away from Katrina as I could manage. She glanced at me and smiled, though she knew she wouldn't get a response. If only she knew those cheerful smiles had actually gotten to me. Maybe she did and was letting me pretend that I hated her as much as anyone else. I was pretty sure her whole group knew that I liked them even though I made it clear I wanted to hate them.

Katrina found a movie I had never seen before but looked good. She played the trailer before putting it on and gauged my reaction out of the corner of her eye. I hadn't given her much except for a tilt of my head upwards in approval when I saw someone get decapitated. So she put it on and we sat in silence at opposite ends of the couch watching it.

Occasionally, Katrina would jump or start hyperventilating. I never showed any sign of a reaction, though my heart was racing with adrenaline during a couple of scenes. The sex scene was weird to watch next to Katrina; she tried not to look at it or me whilst I was using it as an excuse to keep my eyes from her. That also meant that my mind was wandering places Colby wouldn't let me go yet. And then I was frustrated again.

The atmosphere shifted when I visibly got angry: my arms folded over my chest; my chin lifted stubbornly; my legs crossed over each other. I was physically stiff and reluctant. Katrina had seen me sitting this way, but she'd known better than to mention it. She knew she would get a mouthful and likely an attempted punch in the face before I controlled myself and pulled back.

As the movie came to an end, I noticed Katrina drifting off. She looked like she could fall asleep right there and then if it weren't for the intense climax of the movie that kept even angry me on my toes. Of course, it had been hours since things had started to get 'ugly' at the house, and I had suspicions that it was at least starting to end now, if not it had been for a while.

A part of me wondered if Colby was going to show up here tonight or if he would remain over there and just skip sleeping—I wasn't going to run over in the morning and cuddle with him to get him to fall asleep. It was his fault if he didn't come back here tonight.

Katrina fell asleep in the end. Luckily on the couch, so I didn't have to try to tell her that she wasn't welcome in my bed this time. Admittedly, I put a blanket over her and turned the TV off immediately so it wouldn't disturb her. Leaving her backpack just next to her, I slid away into my bedroom, turning off the lights.

My room felt a little lonely, but I had to face that or go and get mixed up with whatever 'ugly' meant at Colby's house. It was certainly tempting to learn once and for all the secret and the extent of which Colby's job sometimes took him too, though I had just enough self-restraint left after all of today to know that was a dumb idea: I should learn all of that from my boyfriend himself rather than fishing around for it.

With great difficulty, I eventually drifted off to sleep in my bed. All alone.

My dreams were going to be intense.