Emily
  As soon as I entered the house, hysterical laughter greeted me. Lilly must've invited someone over while I was gone. I walked around the hallway into the living room, to see Colby. A movie was on, but they didn't seem to be paying attention to it.

  Colby was sprawled along the couch, with Lilly next to him, her head on his shoulder. They were looking at each other, smiling and laughing. I stayed to see if they would notice me, but they didn't, so I coughed to get their attention.

  Lilly's head snapped up, and both of them quickly separated.

  "Oh! Em! You're home!"

  I laughed, and watched as she bit the side of her lip nervously.

  "Lills, calm down. I've seen how much you've been hanging out with him for these past four weeks."

  She gave a small laugh. "So, you're not mad?"

  "Why the fuck would I be mad?"

  "Because I haven't told you."

  I rolled my eyes playfully. "You're good, honestly."

  I glanced over at Colby. "And you, why didn't you just tell Brennen and I that you wanted to hang with Lilly instead? Does Brennen know?"

  He gave me a confused look. "What do you mean? We didn't have any plans."

  "Are you..sure?"

  He nodded.

  I looked over at the kitchen then back at him.

  "Uh, Colbs? Meet me in the kitchen."

  He got up from the couch, and we walked over to it. I jumped onto the island in the middle of the kitchen, while he leaned on the counter.

  "So, what's up?"

  "When I talked to Brennen on the phone this morning, he said that you and him wanted to hang out with me. But only me, not Lilly. So, I said alright, but when I got to his apartment, he told me that you had to leave."

  He shook his head slowly. "I haven't been to his house. At least not today."

  "Really?"

  Colby nodded. There was a moment of silence between us, but then Colby chuckled.

  "What?"

  "You really don't know why he did that, do you?"

  "No, thats why I asked you."

  He smirked. "Well I'm not totally sure, but if it is because of what I'm thinking, then it would be his place to tell you. Not mine."

  "Colby, what do you know?"

  He smiled and looked away. I took my elbow and put him into a head-lock.

  "Cole Robert Brock! You tell me right know, or I swear!"

  "Alright, alright! I'll tell you! But I don't know if I'm right!"

  I reluctantly let him go and he rubbed his neck.

  "Okay, now spill."

  "Well, I think he did it because-"

  Before I could stop him, he took off. Colby ran out of the kitchen and upstairs into the nearest room, which just happened to be mine. I thought I would be able to catch him, because my short height gave me the advantage of running fast, with him at 5'11" and I at 5'5". But I was so wrong.

  I turned the knob and shook the door, trying to open it, but he locked it.

  "Colby! Open the damn door!"

  Soft footsteps came up the stairs and joined me. "What's going on?"

  "Your boyfriend was about to tell me something important, but then he bailed and ran. And now he won't come out!"

  She chuckled. "Well, he has to come out sometime. And he's not my boyfriend, he didn't ask me out."

  Lilly made sure to whisper the last part to me. I nodded, showing her that I understood.

  She covered her mouth and yawned. "What time is it?"

  I swiped the phone out of my pocket and checked.

  "One in the morning."

  Lilly nodded. "Well, I have a shoot early tomorrow morning, I should get some rest"

  "What should I do with this loser in here?", I asked, pointing to my room.

  She shrugged her shoulders. "He should come out in a few minutes."

  Lilly pressed her mouth to the door. "Goodnight, Colby!"

  She earned a goodnight back in response, and said the same to me. As she scampered over to her room and shut her door, I pressed my back and dropped to the floor against mine.

  After a few minutes of scrolling through my phone, I felt the door slowly open behind me. I whipped around and saw Colby frantically try to close it as soon as he saw me.

  We fought for the door, and I won. I swung myself into my room and pressed my back to it.

  "So, Mr. Brock. Want to tell me what you were going to say?"

  "Nah, not really."

  I glared at him with a death-stare, and after a few seconds, he caved in.

  "Fine, alrighty, I'll tell you!"

  "Once again, I'm not sure. I could be totally wrong, this is just a assumption. But I think that I could be right."

  "Come on!"

  "Okay, okay! I think he said that I was going to be there just to make you go. He probably just wanted to spend time with you alone, and he didn't think that you would go if you thought it was just you guys."

  "But why would he do that?"

  "Because, I think he likes you."

  My face went blank, and I went over to my bed and sat down.

  "You think - you think he likes me?"

  He nodded and sat down in the spinning chair across from my bed.

  "Yeah, I mean, he always hangs out with you. And whenever I'm with him, he always smiles when he texts you, and whenever you're around, he fixes his hair and shit like that. I've personally seen it, Em. We all have."

  "We?"

  "Yeah. Corey, Aaron, Elton, Heath, myself, we all have. Anyone that's ever seen him around you thinks the same thing as I do."

  I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded. Brennen? Like me?

  Colby must be insane, there's no way someone like him could ever even have the slightest attraction towards someone like me.

  Colby attempted to break the awkwardnesses a couple of times, but I was frozen in place. He said that it's just an assumption, but was it true?

  That would explain why he tensed up when I put my elbow on his shoulder when he was driving. However, that could be for a whole different reason, and Colby could be totally wrong.

  "Em?"

  "Yeah?"

  "So, do you?"

  "Do I what?"

  "Brennen. Do you like Brennen?"

  Holy crap. Do I?

a/n: ooo suspense, and thats chapter 17 for ya guys. Also plz tell me if i misspell anything or get anything wrong, bc sometimes i miss it. Thx 😘

Irrelevant, but mi amiga found this guy at my school who looks so fuckin similar to brennen (not identical but close) and im enjoying creepily stalking him from a distance, but im pretty sure he suspects us 😭

Anyways today's shoutout goes to xBanGster_x , thx for voting. You da real MVP 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Song : Reaching Out - Ricky Smith
(does anyone even actually listen to the songs I put??? Theyre super good so u should, i put a variety of music genres bc i dont rlly have a favorite)

Stay spicy, my spices (???) 🔥🔥🔥