Hardin Scott has been madly in love with Tessa Young since the moment he first laid eyes on her, but there's no way she could ever see him as anything more than a friend. After all, he's a bad boy with a promiscuous past and she's a sweet and innoce...
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"Go pack your bags. Now," Hardin commands. "We're not staying here another minute."
"Come on, Emma... I'll help you," I offer and follow her to her bedroom. Emma and I quickly pack her things while tears stream down her face. When we're done, she follows me back to my bedroom. She sits on the bed while I gather all my things from around the room and shove them into my bag.
A few minutes into packing, Hardin walks into the room. "Here, Tess." He passes me a towel with ice wrapped in it. "For your eye."
"Th-thank you." Hardin packs the rest of my things while I hold the ice against my already forming black eye, before moving onto packing his.
"Tessa, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," Emma sobs.
I sit next to her on the bed. "It's okay," I assure her as I give her a hug.
"You know..." Hardin interrupts. "None of this world have happened if you would have just listened to Tessa or me," he says sternly.
"Hardin, can't you see she's been through enough?" I warn.
"No, Tessa! It could have been a lot worse for you!" he shouts.
"I know, Hardin! I'm sorry," Emma cries.
"Hardin, you're not helping matters! Give Emma and me a few minutes."
"I'll be waiting downstairs. Don't take too long. I want to get the fuck out of this place," he threatens before leaving.
"Emma, I'm sorry about Hardin."
"He's right." She sniffles.
"That doesn't give him the right to yell at you."
"You could have gotten really hurt because of me. Again," she cries.
"Again?"
"Yeah... If I would have just told the police about what Neil did to me, he never would have been able to hurt you, too," she explains through her tears.
"Oh..."
"I'm supposed to be your best friend and I keep hurting you."
"It's not your fault Neil and Dan are bad people. The important thing is we're both alright and you're getting out of that situation with Dan."
"You have a black eye and Hardin hates me."
"My black eye makes me look dangerous," I joke and Emma gives a small laugh.
"And Hardin?"
"He doesn't hate you. He cares a lot about you. He was so worried about you being with Dan. You didn't see him, Emma. He was really upset."
"I hope you both can forgive me."
"There's nothing to forgive. We both love you, okay?"
"Thank you, Tessa." Emma sniffles before hugging me.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Yes."
Emma and I go downstairs and meet up with a very impatient Hardin.
"You ready yet?" he asks in a nasty tone.
"Yes, Hardin. Can you try being a little more compassionate?"
Instead of answering me, Hardin grabs the heavier luggage and Emma and I grab our bags and follow closely behind. He puts them in the car and we all get in and finally leave this unhappy place.
After about an hour of driving in silence, I notice Emma has fallen asleep in the back seat. I look over at Hardin and see he has a permanent scowl on his face. The last time he was this angry was the night of Neil's attack. "Hardin, we need to take care of your hands. They're all bloody and bruised."
"I'm fine, Tessa."
"Are we going to talk about this?"
"What's to talk about?" he replies rudely.
"Hardin, I know you. If you keep this all bottled up inside, you're going to do something stupid. So please, talk to me."
"Tess... I was terrified. It all happened so fast. I had no choice but to react. But now... it brought everything back to me. My mum's attack, my father's abuse, when you were..." he says as he begins to tear up.
I reach over and place my hand over his hand resting on the steering wheel. "We'll get through this, together," I assure him.
"I was so cruel to Emma... Does she hate me now?"
"No, Hardin. Don't worry about it. It was a very stressful situation. She knows you didn't mean it."
"I love you, Tess."
"I love you."
After another hour of driving, I notice both Hardin and I are beginning to get sleepy.
"Tess, it's too late to drive all the way back home."
"I know. Hopefully there's a hotel we can stop at for the night."
After another thirty minutes of driving, we spot a small, run down motel. It's not somewhere I'd really like to stay, but we have little choice right now. Hardin pulls into the parking lot and goes in first to make sure we can get a room.
Ten minutes later, he makes his way back to the car with a sour look on his face. Hardin gets in the car and announces, "I have some bad news."
"Oh, no. We couldn't get a room?"
"No, we got the last one they had."
"Oh, good!" I answer, relieved.
"It only has one bed," he adds.
"Oh, great..."
"Yeah. It looks like it's going to be an uncomfortable sleep tonight."
"At least we have somewhere to stay." I sigh. I wake Emma, and Hardin begins to grab our luggage. "Hardin, just grab a few things for the night!" I shout impatiently.
"I'm not leaving all our shit in the car. This places screams burglary. I'll be lucky if my car isn't stripped for parts by morning."
"Just come on!"
We make our way to door number five and I already feel like we're entering into a horror movie similar to Vacancy. As we enter, Hardin, Emma and I all stare at the small, dingy room and say in unison, "Great..."
