A good four hours have passed, and my mood has definitely flipped. 

Who's Colby Brock again? 

Sam and I have just been driving around, talking and eating Big Macs. There was so many people walking on Hollywood Boulevard at this time at night, it was amazing. People, probably drunk were having a good time and this sight was better than Kansas's aurora. Dull. 

"So, my friends set out the fireworks and we heard cops, and almost completely booked it! I think it might've been one of the most scariest moments in my life, no joke."

I laugh and kick my feet up out the window and continue eating the fries from McDonald's.

"You got any frightening stories?" He asks, grinning.

"Well, you know me. Miss Perfect doesn't do bad shit," I smile innocently.

"I'm not one to cause trouble but you, are unbelievable," He rolls his head and laughs.

"What? I don't break rules brotha," I snatch a chicken nugget from his box.

"Hey!" He says annoyed, "Girl, we gotta get you a story so next time someone asks you about a scary moment in your life, you'll have an answer."

"Yo, I don't wanna be scared!" 

"Nah, look at this opportunity to create a scary but thrilling moment in your life that you can look back on and laugh and say wow I can't believe Sam made me do this. He's stupid."

I burst out laughing, "Fine, one day I'll tell my grand kids about this moment."

"Cool, I'll be honored for it," He chuckles.

"What do you got in store for me?" I ask.

"Hm, I was thinking we could go spray paint the Hollywood sign...I've never done something like that before, and it's on my bucket list," He says nonchalantly. Like that was no big deal. What! 

"You say what now." I seriously look at him like he was crazy.

"You heard me! What did you think I was going to say? Oh let's go stand in front of a no loitering sign!"

"YES. You can't vandalize the Hollywood sign!" I say aghast. 

"Yes you can, it'll be art." 

"One problem, I don't think you're an artist," I sassily reply.

"Did you imagine only me doing this by myself? Ha, you thought! We're in this together for a good story for your future grand kids. We're doing this." He makes a turn into Walmart. "See we're already here to buy spray paint, Ash! Plus, you're an artist." 

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," I sigh, getting out the car.

"Don't be so cliche, believe it girl. We are doing this."

/////

We get out of the store, I'm holding the Walmart bag, and am nervously shaking. What if we get caught? I might just blame Sam and ditch him. I'm a good girl, I don't do this shit. I'm only doing this because Sam is peer pressuring me, I swear!

"I don't wanna do this, this is too crazy and illegal!" I burst out.

Sam stops dead in his tracks, in the middle of the parking lot and stares disapprovingly.

"We're doing this, how many times am I going to have to tell you? Grand kids. Stories. Un-boring life."

I turn around, "Nope, I'm out, wait hey!-"

Sam picks me up and slings me over his shoulder, "Live a little!" I try to wiggle out from him but no use.

"This guy is kidnapping me!" I yell, pointing to Sam who is still holding me and walking to the car.

"Shut up! You'll make me look like I'm actually kidnapping you," He whispers angrily.

I giggle, "That's the point,"  he puts me down. We hop into the car and we were off to the Hollywood sign. 

Kill me before they arrest me please.

/////

"No way," I breathe out.

"Yes way, cmon let's get spraying," Sam happily says with a devilish grin. He gets out the car and I stay put. Today is not the day I'm getting put into jail, I'm such a goody goody! This is terrible for me.

"Come out Ash!" Sam yells from outside. I shake my head rapidly. 

"No, stupid!" I yell back. He rolls his eyes and gets to my side of the car and opens the door.

"Come on, this is happening, like now," He says, yanking my arm.

"Nope," I reply.

"Well we gotta quickly do this before they notice there are two crazy teens suspiciously here at three o'clock in the morning!"

"Then, let's leave!" I holler back.

"I'm not leaving til we both spray paint our names on the back of the D," He seriously says.

"Really, the D?" I ask.

"You know you want it," He smirks. I hit him with the Walmart bag.

"Perv!" I laugh, now getting out the car.

"Oh so now you get out?" 

"If you're gonna be a perv, I'll be a perv with you then," I grin.

"Well okay. Ya know,  if I already knew it would've take only one pervy joke, I would've made one awhile ago," He laughs.

"Yeah, well just this once Sammy," I giggle, opening my highlighted green spray can. 

"Hey, can I have mine?" 

I take out the last item from the bag and hand Sam his highlighted blue spray can.

"This will be such a great story for our grand kids!" He exclaims, shaking his can.

"Lets just get this over with..." I sigh.

We quickly jog up the hill to the Hollywood sign, we pull out our phones for light and make our way through. I begin to shake my can and prepare myself for the consequences of creating graffiti. But this is pretty sick, I must admit. We arrive at the letter D of the Hollywood sign.

"You ready?" Sam asks.

"Guess no turning back now," I begin to spray a tiny heart, "Holy shit, I just did that!" I smile, and bounce a little.

"I'm so proud!" Putting a hand on his chest. Sam begins to spray paint a lightning bolt. "This was on my bucket list and this is probably one of the coolest things I've ever done," He beams.

I turn around, "Damn, look at the view."

The city's lights cascaded a white and yellow glow above and it was breathtaking from here. I feel surely blessed that this is now my home. I'm not religious but damn God, you created a magnificent world.

This is definitely going in my top five best nights of my life list," I say, turning back around to spray paint a star.

"Here, snap a few quick pics?" I ask, handing Sam my phone.

"Sure, after, do me too haha," He begins to capture a few of my poses and hands me back my phone. 

"Omg, this is literally aesthetically pleasing to look at, actually very tumblr," I say, looking through my pics. "Here lemme do you." Sam nods and does some quick poses of his own that look super casual and chill.

"Yo, how about we take a picture. We gotta commemorate this moment together," He says, clicking the camera app on his iPhone and taking a selfie of us, and the flash on his camera turns on.

"HEY! Who's there?" A loud voice shouts.

Sam and I's eyes grow wide. Fear takes over my body, this is it. I'm going to jail now, aren't I? Why me, why did I agree to this! I might as well just turn myself in right now. Hopefully I won't get into more trouble if I just admit to my crime now.

I drop my can and throw my arms straight in the air. 

"What are you doing! You're gonna get us caught!" Sam yells in a hushed voice.

I turn to him, "We're going to get caught no matter what!" I say, equally as quiet as his voice.

"No, we're not," He replies, shoving me hard enough for me to get onto the ground behind the sign, softly.

"Stay down," He instructs.

My right cheek of my face is plastered onto the dusty dirt surface of the Earth.

"Sam, I'm actually scared. Lokey frightened for life," I mumble. He turns his eyes to face me, our bodies are touching, and he has one arm securely wrapped around my shoulders.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine," He reassures.

An unknown light quickly flashes across the bushes. "Anyone here?!" The same voice booms.

"Shit!" I squeak quietly. Sam pulls me into both of his arms.

His body leans over mine as he says, "Shhh..." He puts a finger in front of my lips to hush me. Our noses we're practically touching and he leans in, pulling his finger away from my mouth. He fills the space between our lips and kisses me. I put my hands around his neck and he rests both his arms on each side of my head. We were making out underneath the Hollywood sign. The kiss is enchanting, like a scene from the movies. His touch is soft and gentle but moved with mine as if we were ball-dancing. Bizarre, but it made me feel like a princess.

But it sucks too.

Because I'm imagining Colby.

And wishing he were Colby. 

He pulls away and lifts his head towards the direction of the man's voice. 

"Crap, I hear movement," He murmurs, and gets off me, "Lay flat and as still as possible."

I silently nod my head and press my body as forcefully as I could onto the dirt, making sure I laid my hands as flat as possible. The hairs on my body are definitely sticking up. After a solid maybe ten minutes, Sam slowly sits up. 

"I think he's gone," He whispers.

"Thank the sweet baby jesus," I exhale heavily.

"Yeah, but hey aren't you happy?" He smiles.

"Why would I be happy!" I throw my hands to his face. Boi.

"You just survived one of the most scariest encounters of your life," He grins.

"Wow. My grand kids are going to just love this story," I half smile, crossing my arms.

"Yeah they will," He grabs his spray can, "Now let's finally spray paint our names!"

I roll my eyes and grab my can too. He spells his name out on the bottom of the letter and I write mine diagonally beside his.

"This is cool," I admire our little art.

"Ah, the memories we are making," He sighs back, joyfully.

"Wait..." I write 2017 between our names and step back to marvel over the handy work.

"Looks perfect," Sam says, grabbing my hand. "Let's get home."

 We try not to fall down the hill together and hike to the car, hand in hand.

Before we get into the car, I stop him. 

"Thank you."

"For what?" He cheesily smiles.

"For making me feel a lot better tonight, and creating a story for my future grand kids." My hair falls in front of my face and he tucks it back behind  my ear. I pull him into a long embrace.

"You're welcome, it was all my idea anyways," He boasts.

"Okay cocky, it was nice meeting you but let's go now," I snort. 

"Aight, back to the apartment."

/////

I question what Colby and Ellie are doing. Probably doing it. 

Nevermind. 

That disgusts me, I cannot think about that any longer, it'll crack a little more of my heart.

We pull up to the apartment, and ride the elevator up for the quadrillionth time today. 

"Tonight was so much fun, we gotta do another crazy adventure soon," Sam says, putting an arm around my shoulder.

"Yeah, good luck trying to convince me to doing something else that is also illegal," I scoff.

"Hey, we'll get Colby and Ellie to join us next time and we'll make it an exploration video for our Youtube channels. C'mon think of the views!" He pleads.

I pretend to think about it, "Hm, I'll do it with you for a vid, but most certainly not with those two butt nuggs."

"True, but one of those butt nuggs is my partner and best friend and the other is your gal pal," He says.

"But those two together is just bad news, Sammy," I groan, "Look what we saw in my own bed!"

"Point taken... it'd be a bad idea to sleep in your apartment tonight,  Ash," He mutters. 

"You're right,... is it cool if I crash with you?" I ask.

"Of course, I was just going to offer," He replies, opening his door. "Make yourself at home, you can sleep in Colby's room tonight."

I pity laugh, "No, don't let me sleep in Colby's room." Sam should know that's just trouble if Colby found out.

He half laughs too, "Uh, why not?"

I lament, "We both know Colby despises me, he'll probably get all pissy at me when he finds out I slept in his nest of a room and then pissy at you because you let me, smart one."

"Right... well you can take my bed, I'll sleep on the couch," He shrugs.

"Nah, take you're own bed, I'll sleep on the couch," I insist. 

"Ashlyn, seriously. No worries, I got the couch," He pushes back, opening his bedroom door for me. 

"There's no blankets, remember? I dropped them at my apartment,"

"Oh, so what are we gonna do?"

"We'll both sleep on the bed. No big deal Sammy boy," I respond, sitting on it.

"Okay, I'm fine with that," He shrugs, sitting next to me.

I want to like Sam, and not Colby. The difficulty is unbearable. Sam's cute, and such an amazing person. Why must I like Colby? No idea. 

You tell me. 

I stare into Sam's aquamarine eyes and lean in. This time I connected our lips and it was like an everlasting, delicate feeling. We part and he smirks.

"Time to get into bed," He wraps an arm around my waist.

"No funny business," I deadpan, pointing a finger at him.

"Yeah, let's not be like Colby and Ellie," He sighs.

"Good boy." 

Sam pulls out the comforter and we both emerge ourselves in it. He lies back and I rest my head on his chest. He firmly encases my figure to his and I comfortably wrap an arm around his waist.

"Goodnight Ash," He sleepily utters.

"Night Sam," I reply.

We slowly drift to sleep in each other's arms.

But the whole time, I longed for Colby. 

While Colby, longed for Ellie.

And he had her, wrapped around his finger, in bed too. Probably also asleep, and also holding each other's bodies.

Naked bodies.

It's sickening, but I wish it was my naked body he was holding and not Ellie's. 

I like Colby, but I hate him too. 

Oh how I want him badly, 

Oh how I never could have him, ever.

I hate liking my rival.

And at this point, 

I might even hate my best friend.

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Woah, I just saw that I gained like 200+ MORE reads... this story has 365+! THAT'S HOW MANY DAYS THERE ARE IN A YEAR. Woahhhhh again. Thank you all and shoutout to colbybrockfan123 for commenting on my past chapters!!:))

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hugs, kt