Changed by Time ✔

nine.

Wendy threw her bag on the bed closest to the window. In turn, Nolan threw his onto the one closest to the bathroom. He opened his bag, digging through the papers as he pulled out his notepad and the packet about Poplin Library.

Wendy opened her own backpack and pulled out a yellow tank top, hairbrush, and a smaller bag. She turned to Nolan, watching as he kicked off his shoes, pulled off his jacket, and sat on the bed as he went through his notes.

"Did you bring any fresh clothes?" she questioned as she passed him, going into the bathroom. She pulled off her flannel and t-shirt, throwing on the tank top as she further said, "Cause if we're gonna be here a couple of days, I don't want to be able to smell you three rooms away."

"I brought an extra shirt and pair of socks," he replied. "Don't really need that much for a research trip."

"You know, there's another group staying here that's also apparently on a research trip," she said, opening the door as she pulled her hair out of the low ponytail.

"Oh yeah?" He didn't look up from his work as she threw the flannel and the t-shirt over him and onto her bed.

"Yeah, those two that were in front of you and that girl I was sitting at the fireplace with – Abigail. She told me that they were here for the night and that they'd be continuing North for the next few days." Wendy began pulling the brush through her hair, pulling out a bottle to spray on as she did so. "I don't know how much I believe her though."

"What makes you say that?" He looked up from his notepad. "Is that your superhuman ability?"

"No. It's a gut feeling."

Nolan blew a stray piece of his hair out of his face before he looked back down at his work. "Well, a total stranger isn't gonna tell you their travel plans, now are they?"

"That's why I told her we were cousins going East in a couple days that couldn't help but stop here for a few nights for our leisure trip," she said, parting her hair as she began to braid it into pigtails. "I don't think Abigail and I were lying for the same reasons, though."

"Well you can't exactly tell a random stranger we're here to find the source of superhuman abilities and how the government used this source to create a cover ops team. A team they almost totally slaughtered three months after it was created." He looked up from his notepad with a fake, exaggerated smile. "That wouldn't go over well."

Wendy put the bottle back into her small bag and went back over to her bed. She shoved the flannel and t-shirt into her backpack and flopped back onto the comforter.

"Do you think it's actually going to be here? Or like one of those moments in videogames where this just has a clue that leads to where the treasure really is?" she asked, rolling onto her side as she turned to Nolan.

"I'm not sure," he said, closing his notepad and placing it on the packet. "Whatever it is, we'll have to figure it out as we go. Then we'll go from there."

"Hm." Wendy rolled back onto her back. She rested her hands on her chest as she stared up at the ceiling. She knew that she should've been trying to sleep (it was finally the perfect time to) but her mind was racing. She could feel her heart pounding as the question she should've asked much earlier came into her head.

"Nolan."

"Yeah?"

"What's going to happen once this is all over?"

He turned towards her, hanging one foot off the edge of the bed as he sat on the other. "What do you mean? I'll write my paper, submit my evidence and findings to NYU or whatever museum wants them, and—"

"No, that's not what I mean." Wendy picked her fingernails as she kept her eyes glued above her. "Once this is all over, will we remain friends – or whatever we are?"

"Oh, I thought we were cousins?" he laughed.

"I'm being serious. Will we just go off our separate ways or will we be friends? If we ever got the opportunity to do something like this again, would we go for it together?"

Silence filled the room. Wendy wasn't sure what he'd say, but Nolan didn't seem to know either.

"I don't know, Wendy. I really don't know."

--

Wendy was in and out of sleep that night. Every time her eyes opened, she'd be facing someplace different.

The window.

Nolan.

The window.

Nolan.

The window.

The ceiling.

Nolan.

She sat up, grabbing the end of one of her braided pigtails and began pulling at the ends. She looked at the window and rolled out of bed towards it. She pulled the curtain open ever so slightly and peeked her head through it. She could see a couple of the shops closer to the edge of town.

She pulled off the hair tie on her left braid and began to undo it, running her fingers through the fresh waves. She began to undo her right braid when her fingers stopped running midway through her hair.

Wendy narrowed her eyes as she spotted a shadowy figure coming from either between the shops or from the shops themselves. She knew that they weren't an owner or employee because they came straight out without looking back at the door -- as if they couldn't care less about what happened to the building behind them.

They continued walking down the street, further from the hotel and closer to the edge of town. They stopped abruptly, turning towards one of the stores and made the slightest gesture. It would've been extremely hard to notice if Wendy hadn't already been watching. In the moonlight, she saw the slightest glint come off of them as they moved.

A couple more shadowy figures emerged – possibly around four or five other people. They gathered around the original figure, appearing as if they were quietly communicating with one another.

The main figure, who she kept her eyes on nearly the entire time, turned back towards the direction of the hotel. Wendy pulled her head back from the curtain and closed it, practically, yet silently, leaping back onto the bed.

She quickly finished undoing her braid and pulled herself back under the covers. She turned to face away from the window – towards Nolan. She watched as he turned in his sleep, his dark waves ruffling against the pillow.

Watching him turn under the covers cleared her mind. Just earlier that day, she had been mere inches from his face, resting on his shoulder, and mere centimeters from his ear as they quietly spoke to one another. Now that he was over five feet away and in possibly the last place they'll have total calm until the next morning, she ached for those moments again.

It'd been a long time since she ached for someone's touch.