Chapter 11

                                    

                                          
-Colby-

                          
I turned myself awkwardly to look at the cuts and bruising on my back in the mirror. The cuts have mostly healed, and bruising looks bad, but it doesn't hurt anymore. 3 weeks ago, I almost lost my life to a precarious staircase. I was lucky to have gotten out of that with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises, it easily could have been a lot worse. 
                          
I gotta hand it to Brooke though, she did a good job helping me keep the cuts clean. Since I can't reach all the way back there, it was nice to have her there to help me. However, the feeling of her hands gently touching my back lingered afterwards and I felt it hard to control myself. But for her sake, I was willing to. She liked to kiss my XPLR tattoo between my shoulders, and it was her cute little gesture that didn't feel so "cute" to me, but she's adorable so I let it slide. 
                          
I was doing a lot better thankfully, I had to take a break from exploring for a couple weeks cause it hurt to run and climb, which is kind of needed with exploring. But I still recorded videos with people as long as we weren't doing a lot. I helped Brooke with her editing too. She was prerecording and editing videos for our upcoming trip to Bellavue, which is this coming weekend. I was excited to meet her dad and sister, I've talked to them a couple times through Skype. Sky is so funny and full of sass, she reminds me a lot of Brooke (even though she fully disagrees with me). Her dad, Kent, is really cool. He's been raising these two girls on his own for a few years now, but made sure not to compromise his relationship with them even when he had to work more. I admire the man a lot. 
                          
I'm at Brooke's apartment right now, she wanted help with organizing everything. Plus she's really stressing about this visit to Bellavue, I wasn't sure why though, I figured she'd be excited about her trip to see her family and friends. But she seems really stressed on making sure everything is organized. 
                          
I exited the bathroom and walked into Brooke's office. She was sat on the floor with video scripts she's planning to record during her visit. She's rewritten them 3 times now, and it's beginning to stress ME out. I sat down in front of her watching as she read one of the scripts for the millionth time.
                          
"I don't know, it doesn't seem perfect," She said, handing the script to me.
                          
"Babe, I've read it like 4 times now, it's amazing. I promise," I handed the script back to her. She groaned and pushed her hair out of her face. 
                          
"I'm so stressed."
                          
"Are you sure you want to record while we're there?" I asked her, gathering the scripts up and placing them on her desk.
                          
"Yeah, I'm sure. I promised my friends and sister I'd do fun videos with them," She sighed.
                          
"Okay, well, you need to take a break," I said. 
                          
"Colby, no, I gotta finish this," She giggled, standing up to go back to her desk. I quickly ran to her and leaned down, wrapping my arms around her legs and picking her up. She went over my shoulder as I walked toward the kitchen as she screamed profanities at me the whole time.
                          
"COLE ROBERT BROCK PUT ME DOWN!" She screamed, her arms going around my middle. She screamed again. "COLBY PUT ME DOWN!"
                          
I finally dropped her on the couch, her head hanging off the end of it, and her feet resting over the back of the couch. She was upside down basically. I laughed.
                          
"Oh my god, that was terrifying," She said as she turned herself right side up. 
                          
"You choose a movie, I'm ordering pizza," I kissed her forehead and sat down next to her on the couch, lifting my phone to my ear.
                          
Brooke eventually complied and picked out a movie for us to watch and decided on Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Good choice. The pizza arrived a while later, and we paused to grab a couple slices, before sitting down for the rest of the movie, laughing for most of it.