A New Road ➢ Thomas Brodie Sangster

Black and Yellow

The rain makes hard slashing noises as it hits the windows of the hotel room.

"You lose, AGAIN!" says Ki, dropping his pencil onto the ground as he stands up in victory against Thomas.

Thomas rubs his eyebrows, "You're cheating in some way. I know it. How is it possible that you can beat me every time in Tic Tac Toe?"

It's been three weeks since our group's last adventure getting lost. Since then, we've all been in constant contact and hanging out when we can. We still text in the group message, though Henry pulled out cause we kept blowing up his phone, and when we can, we meet up.

"Man I wish it wasn't raining. Then we could actually go do something," whined Will as he plopped down on one of the beds.

"We could go swimming," I suggested.

"We don't have our bathing suits," said Grace with a sigh. "How about a movie?"

"No because then we can't talk to each other and that won't be fun," pouted Dylan. Suddenly his eyes light up. "We could play Man Hunt in the hotel! I mean, we're practically the only ones in here so we shouldn't get into much trouble."

"Yes! That's a great idea, Dylan!" said Ki, jumping up and slapping Dylan on the back.

Will and Thomas did not seem too ecstatic about the idea.

"We could always just watch movies. Or we could-" started Will.

"Nope! We are playing Man Hunt. Dylan, Grace, and I will be the taggers and the rest of you will be scared to death attempting to hide from us," says Ki with his eyes wide and a huge smile on his face.

"What makes you think I wanna be a tagger?" laughs Grace.

"Because it's what you live for." says Dylan like it was the obvious answer. "Okay, so taggers will wear yellow and hiders wear black. Everyone okay with that?"

"Umm.. Yeah. One problem. We aren't wearing yellow or black," I say while gesturing to Grace and I.

Thomas rummages in one of the drawers and pulls out a black sweatshirt and hands it to me. "Here. You can were this," he says. His face reddens a bit and he avoids my gaze.

I take the sweatshirt and feel my cheeks heat up, "Thank you." I say quietly and I slip the sweatshirt on. It's a little bit big on me but that's okay. It's roomy and not constricting. And I can smell traces of Thomas's scent from it. It's addicting. But I force myself into reality.

"Unfortunately, I don't have anything that is yellow," he says to Grace.

"I think I brought a yellow bandana with me," says Dylan. "Don't ask why."

While Dylan and Ki go to their room to change into yellow, Will and Thomas change into black in the bathroom.

"So has he talked to you about the date yet?" whispers Grace to me as we sit on the bed waiting for the boys.

"No. And it's fine. Honestly it was a bit soon and there was a lot of pressure from his friends. And you know my dating history. It never ends well and I always end up getting hurt," I says while fiddling with my hands.

"Well I think he really wanted to go. Maybe he's scared. Or maybe-" she starts, but I cut her off.

"Enough excuses. Whatever happens, happens. Okay?"

She nods in understanding. I really didn't want to talk about the whole date thing between me and Thomas. To be honest, I was a little disappointed that he never brought it up again. I didn't want to get hurt again, though, like I always have in the past.

At the right timing, Will and Thomas emerge from the bathroom dresses in black while Dylan and Ki enter the room with the key card they swiped from Thomas' wallet.

Ki is wearing a yellow t-shirt with the infamous "I ❤ LA" saying on it while Dylan wears a yellow jacket. He hands the bandana to Grace and she gingerly wraps it around her head.

We all step out into the hallway.

Dylan rubs his hands together and bounces on his feet, "Let's get this started, shall we?"