Room 537

Chapter 26

Charlie

Elijah's been a little bit off the entire day. He's quieter than he usually is. He's bitten off all of his nails. He also hasn't moved from his desk. He's spent half of the day writing something and when I asked him what it was, he wouldn't let me see.

I've had enough of it.

"Elijah." I say.

"Yes?" His eyes stay on the piece of paper in front of him.

"Elijah look at me." I say in a sterner voice this time. He finally turns around to look at me.

"Did I do something wrong?" I ask.

"No."

"Are you taking back what you said last night?"

"Baby, of course not."

"Do you regret what we did? Was I bad?" I ask. He stands, taking my hands in his as he listens to my voice crack.

"Baby, last night was perfect. You were perfect. You still are."

"Then, what's wrong? Why do you seem so anxious? Why aren't you talking to me?"

"I'm sorry. "He sighs. "I'm sorry. I know I'm a little off. I'm just a bit stressed, that's it."

"About what?"

He takes a seat on the bed and I follow. "I don't know." He runs his hands down his face, letting out a deep sigh.

"I just have this gut feeling that something bad is about to happen and I have no idea what. It's driving me crazy. I... I... I'm just really anxious and I'm not handling it well and I'm sorry. I know you overthink this kind of stuff."

"So you're okay? You don't regret anything?" I ask.

He places a hard kiss on my cheek, "Absolutely nothing. I love you even more than I did last night."

With that way he was acting I was starting to think what he said last night was just a dream. A wonderful, heart-warming dream.

"I love you." I say and then we kiss and all my worries disappear. A knock sounds on the door.

Elijah and I distance ourselves and he goes to sit on his bed. "Come in." He says. A guard walks in. He's tall, light brown hair with deep blue eyes. As attractive as he is, I've started to automatically resent anyone who works here or has anything to do with this place.

"Mr Lockwood's looking for the two of you." He says. Elijah and I quickly glance at each other before standing up and walking towards the door. He accompanies us all the way around the back and to the field.

My heart sunk faster than the fucking Titanic. My stomach hurts from all the knots it's in. What could Elijah's dad want to talk to us about? Are we in trouble? Is it another inspection? Did he find out? No. He couldn't have. We were being careful and when we did something semi-public we were hidden. Jack and Malik are the only ones who know about us. They wouldn't tell. If Billy was still alive, I'd be nervous, but he isn't. And he only knew for a day before he died. I'm 99% sure he didn't snitch. But that 1%...

The guard grabs both of us by the collar and throws us in the movie room. Elijah falls to the ground. I want to help him up, to ask him if he's okay but if there's a chance that his dad doesn't know I don't want him to suspect anything. All the seats are cleared out and pushed to the side except for two in the middle of the room, right next to each other. Mr Lockwood stands in the middle of the room with a smirk on his face. That ignites a tiny bit of hope in me that he doesn't know, but then he talks and I can hear it in his tone.