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‘You don’t have to,’ Colton chimed in. ‘I’ll drive you home.’

Both Nina and Lily immediately turned their head to look at Colton, finally noticing I had company.

Deciding to quickly introduce them, I gestured to Colton. ‘Colton. This is Lily and Claudia, Nina and I used to live across the hall from them during my freshmen year.’ Turning to Lily, I said, ‘This is Colton. We share a class this semester.’

‘Nice meeting you,’ Colton said. But it seemed like Lily was still a bit too surprised to speak.

Trying his best to ignore Lily and Nina’s stares, Colton turned to me instead. ‘I had to park my car a couple houses away from here, you guys just wait while I go get it,’ he instructed before heading off.

‘Okay.’ I nodded, watching him as he went to fetch his car.

I kept staring after him, trying my best to prolong the moment as much as I could, before I had to face the shocked looks on my friends’ faces.

‘Did I drink way too much tonight or did Colton Reed just offer to drive us home?’ Lily asked.

‘Both?’ I shrugged.

Lily just arched a brow at me, while Nina had an amused look on her face.

‘He’s just being a good friend,’ I tried explaining.

‘Mmhmm,’ Nina hummed, clearly not believing me.

‘I’m serious.’

‘I didn’t say you weren’t.’

I didn’t get a chance to continue defending myself, when I heard a car door slam shut, and saw Colton opening the door to the back seat.

‘He’s here,’ I pointed out.

Nina and Lily hauled Claudia across the yard while I helped carry their purses.

Colton rushed towards us. ‘Do you need any help?’

‘No, we got it,’ Lily insisted. And she was right, it wasn’t the first time one of us had got a bit too drunk. By that point, we pretty much knew what we needed to do.

Upon reaching his car, we tried our best to situate Claudia inside the back seat. Lily entered the car from the other side to gently pull her in, while Nina slowly pushed her. Once all three of them were in the car, Colton shut the door and opened the car to the passenger seat for me.

‘Thank you.’ I smiled at him, getting in before he closed it.

I told him the street Lily and Claudia’s apartment was located on, before he started driving. He nodded and said he was familiar with the location.

The car ride continued in silence, with only the hum of the car and Claudia’s soft snores filling the void.

I was about to suggest turning on the radio to diffuse the awkward tension in the car, but stopped when I remembered that there might be an ABBA CD in there.

A sudden feeling of possessiveness came over me at the prospect of Colton having to share with them the story of him and his collection of ABBA albums.

I quickly swept the thought away.

Where did that come from?

‘Thank you for inviting us by the way,’ I said instead, figuring that was safe territory.

‘No problem. Glad you all had fun.’ He smiled.

Nina just snorted. ‘I think this one had too much fun.’ Softly nudging the shoulder where Claudia’s head was rested on.

Colton just let out a small chuckle.

‘Did I, somehow, not see you, or were you not at the party?’ Lily blurted out.

‘Good observation,’ Colton nodded. ‘I had something urgent outside, I just arrived about twenty minutes ago. I was in the house for a bit, then I headed out to the backyard.’

I tensed up slightly at that, knowing without a doubt that Nina would figure out we had been outside together, expecting her to say something.

But I was saved from the interrogation, when I noticed that the car was turning into Lily and Claudia’s apartment street.

‘Thank God,’ I muttered to myself.

I pointed out to Colton where their building was, and he parked at the drop-off spot right in front of it.

Colton got down, opening Nina’s door first, and then, mine.

We both thanked him as we got out of the car.

Nina slowly started to drag Claudia from her seat, with Lily softly pushing her from the inside.

Putting one of her arms around my shoulders, Nina took the other arm. Colton helped shut the door, while Lily went ahead to unlock the apartment building.

‘I’ll wait for you two down here,’ Colton said.

I nodded in acknowledgment before facing Nina. ‘Let’s go.’

Lily waited until we crossed the door before closing it and heading straight to the elevators.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long, when the doors immediately opened.

Once we reached the floor, Lily held the elevator door open, making sure we were all out of it before rushing to their apartment to unlock the door.

We tried our best to haul Claudia as quickly as we could, and made it into the apartment finally. Then, we went straight into Claudia’s bedroom, gently putting her down on the bed, and plopping her so she was lying sideways.

A bucket had already been there, beside the bed. I assumed Lily put it there when we were still dragging Claudia across the corridor.

Once she was comfortably situated, we left her room, gently closing the door behind us.

‘Mission accomplished,’ Nina huffed out, her breathing at a much normal pace than mine. ‘You ready to go?’

I just nodded my head, still slightly out of breath.

We hugged Lily and waved her goodbye before heading back down to Colton’s car.

I was anticipating some questions from Nina as we waited for the elevator and during the ride back down, but she just said nothing. When we stepped out of the elevator, Nina grabbed my arm, taking me by surprise.

‘You don’t need to tell me anything if you don’t want to, but I’m here if you ever want to talk about it,’ she reminded me.

After rooming all these years together, and her being as observant as she is, Nina pretty much could tell when something was affecting me.

But this time, I wasn’t prepared to talk about it just yet.

While her words were different each time, they held the same meaning: She’ll be there for me when I am ready to voice out the things I’ve been keeping to myself.

‘Thank you.’ I smiled at her.

Colton was on his phone, leaning against the car, when we stepped outside of the apartment building. Upon hearing us, he looked up.

‘Everything good?’ He pocketed his phone away.

‘Yeah.’ I gave him a nod. A yawn escaped my mouth as I tried to cover it with my hand.

Colton smiled. ‘Time to get you two home.’

He opened the door for Nina first, closing it when she got inside before opening mine.

There was a bit of traffic on the way back to our apartment. The night seemed to have caught up to Nina, when I heard soft snores coming from the back. Colton and I were back to sharing the silence, just like we did in the backyard.

Just when I was about to ask him where he had been before he arriving at the party, Colton stunned me with his words.

‘You look beautiful tonight, by the way,’ he said.

My eyes widened in surprise. ‘What?’ I blurted out, thinking I heard him wrong.

‘I said you look beautiful tonight,’ he repeated.

‘Oh, thanks,’ I replied sheepishly, caught off guard by his compliment. ‘Although, I definitely looked a lot better earlier in the night before we had to drag Claudia home,’ I added playfully, trying to brush it off as a joke.

But Colton wasn’t having it.

Briefly turning his eyes in my direction, he deadpanned, ‘You still look beautiful to me.’ His gaze was soft as he looked at me before facing the road once again.

‘Thank you,’ I breathed out, looking down at my hands, trying to cover up the blush on my cheeks. I tried to think of what else to say, but Colton—once again—beat me to it.

‘I’m sorry for not talking much just now.

Back at the house,’ Colton continued. I looked back at him.

His eyes had been facing the road, but they looked apologetic.

‘I saw you were sitting alone in the backyard and thought you could use some company. You looked like you were enjoying the silence, so I didn’t want to intrude on it and bother you with my talking. ’

My heart squeezed listening to him.

This boy.

‘Thank you,’ I said again, speechless over his thoughtfulness. ‘I appreciate it.’

Colton continued to drive, with me in the passenger seat next to him, and Nina with her soft snores at the back. We settled back into the silence while he drove us home.

As I lay in my bed that night, I couldn’t help but go over everything that had happened with Colton that night: right from when he sat beside me in the backyard of the baseball team’s house signing at me, to him dropping us home, and me signing thank you to him when he opened the car door for me.

My mind kept going back to what he had said in the car.

You looked like you were enjoying the silence, so I didn’t want to intrude on it and bother you with my talking.

How did he know?

As much as I loved spending time with my friends, my social energy was nearing zero by the end of the night. I knew Colton would’ve respected my decision if I had said yes when he asked me if I wanted him to leave.

But I had also meant it when I said I didn’t want him to leave, knowing I could still come up with enough energy to talk to Colton if he wanted to.

But he only spoke to me in ASL to ask if I was okay, just letting the silence envelop us, because he thought that was what I would’ve wanted.

I didn’t think my heart could take it.

And to make matters worse, the silence we shared wasn’t awkward at all.

I hadn’t felt the urge to talk to him just so he wouldn’t feel out of place or uncomfortable by my lack of energy to make conversation. Instead, I had learned that Colton was not only someone I liked spending time talking to, but someone I could spend time in comfortable silence with.

Ever since that conversation in his car the first time he drove me home, I had realized that agreeing to be partners in the ASL class could have made me like Colton even more as I got to know him better.

I knew my crush on Colton alone wasn’t enough for the curse to work, but how far was I willing to let myself fall deeper into this crush, without risking myself from getting hurt?

Because anything, beyond this friendship that Colton and I share now, cannot happen.

Not that I thought Colton liked me in that way, but just the idea of him being with someone else had already broken my heart a little.

But what if he does like me that way? The traitorous thought popped out of nowhere, entertaining that small possibility.

I quickly dismissed it.

Even if he does, I won’t risk it.

While unexpected, the ASL class had brought me Colton, who was now a friend I could confide in.

And I wouldn’t let my stupid crush and this stupid curse ruin it for me.