I run, and run, as fast as my legs could carry me.

I run past the group, but Sam stops me.

"Hey Ash! Come join!" He laughs, waving me to come over.

I smile as best as I could but, Sam, it is not the time!

"Yeah, I'll hang in a bit," I say with fake enthusiasm. I had a little more important matters to attend to at the moment...

"Cool!" He smiles, with everyone else.

I nod and keep sprinting away.

But of course, I lost Colby because of the little encounter.

Dammit.

I need to find him.

It's always been about the chase, hasn't it?

The chase, the stupid fucking chase.

And the rivalry, the stupid fucking rivalry.

I always need to freaking bite my tongue because I frequently want to spit my harsh words followed by actual spitting.

I dig my hands into the roots of my damp hair and walk across the street and into the beach house.

The music was at least a hundred times louder than it was before.

As I opened that door, the sound waves just radiated off of everywhere and hit my eardrums with loud bangs.

I mean, glad everyone was having a good time, haha.

The whole bottom floor was filled with sweaty bodies, getting turnt and drunk. This is gonna SUCK to clean up.

Ashlyn, stay focused, find the boy.

I slither my way, lightly pushing people over to make way. "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me!" I say every five seconds, trying to create a path. I find Devyn and Corey having a conversation in the kitchen and head over to see if they saw him.

"Hey, you guys seen Colby?" I say, almost out of breath.

"Uh, last I saw him, he was looking for you...about fifteen minutes ago," Devyn replies.

"I think he went upstairs? Don't know," Corey shrugs.

I internally roll my eyes, "Oh, great. Okay, thanks guys."

They say no problem and I walk upstairs to the bedrooms. I might as well go change, I don't think I'll be in the mood to go swimming again anytime soon either. As I emerge into the hallway with a fresh set of clothes, I hear the smack of lips colliding and a voice. The bedroom door is creaked open and I decide to snoop and peak inside. I sneakily peer into the crack and see, a drunken Ellie on top of a random drunken guy. And, Corey was right. He was upstairs. Colby was there, watching.

Ellie is almost naked, as well as the random guy but Colby, well, he is fully clothed.

He's pacing and shaking his head at Ellie on the bed with the guy. He says something along the lines of, I'm your boyfriend, what are you doing, you're being ridiculous, inappropriate, horny, disgusting, irrational; ya know, the usual things you'd say when your girlfriend tries to invite you to have a three way.

I'm as well as disgusted, that's my wasted best friend being a slut. I'm not proud to say that, but what the fuck is she doing?

Honestly, who is so fucked up and offers her boyfriend into a three way as she is about to have sex with a random guy she just met at a party?

The thoughts of it cause me to zone out and I didn't notice that Colby was walking out.

As he passes, he slowly turns around and sees me.

I slowly look up from my crouched position.

I slightly wave, "Hi."

"You're here? Goddammit!" He shouts, walking angrily down the stairs.

I get up from my stance and chase after him, once again.

"Wait, Colby!" I yell.

He runs into the sea of people and I try to follow his path.

"What the fuck, hey! Colby! Stop!" I scream at him over the music.

"No! Leave me the fuck alone!" He screams back, quickly looking over his shoulder and speeding off further into the crowd.

I almost get pushed away and almost lose sight of him but I still am managing to trace his movements. I hear the slam of a door being closed and I automatically knew he was the one who did that.

Colby Brock, you can't get rid of me, you kept doing it before, but not this time.

I want you to stop running from me.

I want you to start running to me.

Why is that so hard?

I finally get to the door and lunge myself out from the grasp of bodies, consequently making me fall off the steps of the front door onto the solid paved stone path.

"Ah, ouch!" I wheeze, blood dripping from my now, roughly scraped knees and a small portion of my palms.

I attempt to heave myself off the stone walkway of the beach house but no use.

Crap, I must've fallen on the wrong side of my ankle, because now it's really aching and I barely have the strength to get up.

I sit still on the flat walkway, unable to get up, sighing and trying to stop the small flow of blood oozing from my knees.

"You okay?" A familiar person asks.

Colby Brock, surprisingly.

"So it only had to take my two busted knees, scraped palms and a twisted ankle for you to talk to me?" I squint at him.

He rolls his beautiful ocean eyes at me and offers me his hands. I reluctantly take them and he helps me up. He faces the other direction as I brush off my body.

"Thanks, Colbs," I mumble.

He directs his attention at me again, "Okay, don't 'Colbs' me, Neil."

"No. What's so wrong with 'Colbs', Colbs?" I annoyingly retort.

"Shut the fuck up, there's nothing wrong with 'Colbs', there's just something wrong with you!" He points with frustration at me.

"What's so wrong with me then, huh? Am I just that terrible to like? I know, I'm literal trash, I'm ugly and gross and speak like an idiot, yeah I get it, you don't have to tell me twice!" I shout.

"No, don't say that, my god!" He waves off.

"Why not? Why can't I say that I'm a piece of trash and that I'm ugly and shit? You said those things to me before? Remember?" I argue back.

"It's not like I ever meant that!" He yells at me.

I limp forward more to him. "Yes, you did! You do! You hate me! Say it!"

He shakes his head no, not daring to look at me.

Why won't he admit it?

A silence begins to linger, the sun begins to fade out of existence so the night can arise out of its slumber, and the two people who have issues are still arguing because their feelings are too fucked up.

Just let him get it over with, let him say it. I'm his enemy, a menace to his eyes. I'm nothing but a speck of dust compared to him and I can't do anything about it.

It crushes my eternal spirit, happiness, and heart.

My soul wants him.

My body craves him.

My words scream for him.

But he hates me still, right?

Colby, please just admit it already so we can be done with.

I'm tired of fighting, worrying, fearing, and crying.

I'm doing all of those things right now because of you.

I whisper with sorrow, almost tears escaping,

"Tell me you hate me."

"If I did, I would be lying,"

He whispers back, slowly staring up to me, a drop of water escaping his ocean eyes and rolling down his cheek.

When I look at him, it's as if the ocean is crying, and it tears my heart and shatters my soul.

"Colby..." I trail, reaching gently to him with my hand. He doesn't take it. Leaving me a little more broken.

"Ashlyn, we're rivals. Don't you get it? You hate me. Why try to fix anything with me?" He murmurs, sadly.

"We can change that," I quietly say, feeling my voice shrink.

Anger flusters him, while yanking his body away, he shouts "No! I-I refuse it, why? I don't know, you hate me, I hate you...? I don't know! I remember you beating me for Student Body President, I-I remember you stealing my lunch money and donating it to baby koalas for a week, I r-remember you spray painting my locker with how 'cool' you are, and I kept that in my locker because I liked you! I remember the day we first met and you sent me to the principle's office, and you, barely getting in trouble! I should be hating you! I, I don't understand what's wrong with me, why I must feel like I have to be the one who has to like you, when you clearly hate me! So basically, whats the FUCKING POINT? The world sucks ass! It's a piece of garbage where I have to end up liking my rival! You hate me, but I keep kissing you because you intrigue me, you make me think about how lucky I am to have someone so kind and witty motivating me to be better and push my limits, which is BIZARRE because you make me want to scream off the rooftops, but it's because I hate liking you, and it stinks when you don't like me back! Hatred burns in our eyes and I can't help to feel like-"

Now, it was my turn to cut him off.

With a kiss.

I pull his boiled cheeks with my scraped palms and connect our lips together again.

I want to make him feel like how I felt, sounds kind of cruel but, what am I doing to myself? My life and relationships? I'm putting a lot on the line. I press our lips as passionately and lustfully as I could like he did to me. He trails his hands to my hips and grips them with his mighty strength.

However, I want him to suffer like how I had, with the same pain he lent onto me. I slowly pull our faces apart, my own heart yearning to kiss him again already. I whisper, "You've been wrong this whole time, Colby Brock." I say, slowly moving away. I try to run as fast as I could with my twisted ankle, across the street but because of how shitty my luck is, of course, all of a sudden,

I black out.

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SHORT ISH IK BUT... MY BAD. Another cliff hangerrrrr, and why you may ask? Because don't you wanna read more? Mwahahaha you must all hate me mwahahahaha. Love you all, from ze bottom of my heart. I can't wait for the next chapter;) We're so close to getting to where I wanna get!! Ahhhh! aLSO, jacob sartorious and bart baker just followed me on twitter (@colbybrockers ;) AND IDK WHY i just liked one of his tweets and im not even rlly a fan of his but he just followed me WHAT THE FUCK AHHA

COMMENT, *VOTE* & SHARE!! DON'T BE SHY, FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED!

comment "Colby>Jacob" if you read up to here LMAO<3

hugs, kt