Mending Heart |18+|

Chapter 38

Protective

"Love is a commitment to protecting another person's heart with the same passion you use to guard your own." – Rob Hill Sr.

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When Ethan and I finally got to State College, PA – who names a city that – it was almost three in the morning. Factor in some traffic along the way and all the pit stops we had to make so I could pee, a trip that was supposed to take eleven hours and a half ended up taking nearly fourteen.

By the time we checked into our hotel and showered, the two of us were exhausted and fell asleep immediately.

"McKenzie." The sound of Ethan's voice stirred me out of my sleep.

"Five more minutes," I mumbled, turning on my other side.

"It's almost noon." He chuckled as I let out a loud groan. My eyes fluttered open and I stretched, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"Tell me there's coffee." My eyes scanned the darkroom and they immediately landed on a tray resting on the little side table by the entrance.

"You really have an unhealthy obsession with caffeine," Ethan said as I got out of bed. Pulling the curtain open so sunlight could enter the room, I glared over my shoulder at him.

"Look who's talking." I snorted, adding two sugars to my coffee. I didn't bother adding cream because today was a black coffee kind of day.

Not only did I go to bed around four in the morning, but then I woke up two hours later with period cramps. I unwillingly dragged myself out of bed and began digging through my purse for a bottle of Tylenol, and when I couldn't find it in there, I took everything out of the duffle bag in search of it. I eventually gave up and went downstairs to the small convenience store they had right next to the reception desk and bought a brand new bottle.

I felt bad for the poor lady coming off the night shift who had to interact with me that early in the morning.

After getting changed and popping another two of Tylenol, Ethan and I left the hotel and walked over to Zoey's dorm room. Luckily she was staying in Pennypacker Hall, right off the main street, because otherwise, I wouldn't have remembered how to get there from memory. Every building and street looked almost identical.

Raising my hand to knock, I waited patiently for Zoey to open the door. From the corner of my eye, I saw Ethan standing a couple of feet away checking his phone. "Those better not be work emails you're checking." My eyes narrowed in on his iPhone.

"Sorry." He mumbled, pocketing it before I could reach for it.

"Vacation Ethan, vacation." I rolled my eyes just as the door swung open to reveal my very tired, very much still half asleep sister.

"Kenzie?" Zoey grumbled, one hand rubbing her left eye and the other still holding the door open. She was wearing an oversized t-shirt from high school, and one of the pant legs on her pajama bottoms was rolled up to her knee. "And... Ethan?" From the looks of it, we were the ones to wake her up.

"Why are you still asleep?" I asked, scanning her appearance. "Don't you have classes?"

"I just took my last final yesterday." She stifled a yawn and stepped to the side, opening the door wider so that we could step inside. My eyes scanned the room and I turned towards Zoey, hands on my hips.

I opened my mouth to scold her on the mess everywhere, but she put a hand up to stop me. "Listen – I need to shower and wake up before you take that tone mom always uses when she's about to yell at me." Grabbing a towel and a change of clothes from one of the many boxes scattered around the room, she went to take a shower.