game play [APA] [2]

16| my next mistake

     "WHERE IS HE?"

     Cait banged on the hotel room door loud enough for the whole floor to hear. Her dress strap was loose on her left shoulder and her hair had been thrown up into a mess.

     From the looks of it the girl had drank quite a lot when she was out with her friends but in reality she hadn't touched anything but her water. It wasn't alcohol that was messing with her brain right now.

     She kept slamming her palm against the wooden door until it clicked and flung open to reveal a shirtless Charles with only a towel wrapped around him.

      She shoulder barged last him, not letting him say a word, and walked into his room, "where is he?"

     "Where's who?" Charles replied confused out of his mind as to why she was banging on his door at two in the morning. Cait herself was confused as to why he was showering at two in the morning.

    "Keneti. Where is he?" She turned around and looked up into his eyes.

     "Have you checked your room? He wasn't feeling well so went back there around ten," Charles fixed his towel making sure it wouldn't fall.

     Cait gently closed her eyes, straightened herself up and slowly drew in a breath.

     "I'm going insane."

     "I mean, you were breaking down my door at two in the morning," Charlie chuckled as he took in the girl in front of him but snapped back up when he didn't hear anything come from her, "I'm joking, I'm joking."

     Charles walked over and squeezed her shoulders to try and reassure her. She slowly opened one eye and tried to look up at him without laughing, "why is he making me crazy."

     "Beyoncé said it best."

     "Do you think his ignoring me?" Cait asked as they both sat on the end of his hotel room bed. His clothes were still in his case despite the fact that they landed a couple of days ago. There were multiple glasses of water lying around the place and the bed was unmade.

     "Want to know what I think?" Charles asked and she nodded. "You guys have been together - what - two years roughly? You've been through everything." He glanced down at the scars on her arms. "When we were told that you fell, I've never seen KJ so," he paused as if he didn't know what to say, "empty. He didn't say anything for a while, just sat there. It was like he was missing something."

     "They always ask me to cover them for shoots and things," Cait looked down at Charles fingers subconsciously trailing over the scars caused by her sisters grip.

     "I think they're beautiful," he blurted out, "reminding you that you've been through hell and back. Like you walked outta hell with a goddamn smile."

     He looked up at her and they both smiled greatly. No laughter, no sound, just two grins and four eyes that said it all.

     "They call me selfish, you know."

     "Yeah, well, they haven't been through what you have. I'm just thankful you're still here."

     After the incident, Keneti and Cait never spoke about it. She felt like maybe she should have brought it up because it must have been killing him but they just never did. Anytime there was a question raised about it they both brushed it off as if it was nothing.

     Here, now, Charles and her had shared something that neither of them would have admitted to otherwise.

     "He really loves you. I wouldn't doubt that," she glanced back up at those chocolate eyes but he was staring at the wall in front of him.

     "Thanks," she gripped his hand that rested on his towelled lap, "for this."

     Charles turned his head but his eyes weren't meeting hers. Both of them, only centimetres apart, sat in each other's company. The pair of friends took each other in as if all they needed was this silence with the other person. What Cait didn't notice was Charles's clenched fist on the edge of the bed. The gesture was all he could think to do to try and stop words fumbling out of his mouth.

"You should probably go to sleep," he whispered.

"Keneti's probably waiting up for me," she replied back.

The brunette got up and walked to the door but turned around to say something. Her mouth was opening when she noticed that Charles hadn't moved at all from where he was sitting. So without another word, she slipped through the door and down to her room.

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[07.NOV.18]