moonlight | c.r [2]

24.

If there was something Sydney Evans always took pride in, it was her punctuality. She always made an effort not to be late to things given her complete and total distaste over being made to wait for people.

Her stubborn impatience made her always want to be on time for commitments, so when she found herself running around her hotel room, still scrambling to get ready, ten minutes after she and her boyfriend were supposed to leave the hotel, it was irking.

What made it worse, were Chandler's faux, mocking sighs as he waited for her, playing some game on his phone as he leaned against the bed frame.

When he exhaled for the eight time in five minutes- not that she was counting- Sydney decided to speak up. "Can you shut up?"

As she grabbed random clothing items and roughly shoved them into her suitcase with no sense of organization in mind, Chandler chuckled. "I just think it's funny how you always give me shit for being late, and yet-" He was quickly cut, off.

"Don't." Her voice was serious but he didn't seem to mind, failing to hold back his laughter when she finally got everything in her suitcase.

"We were only here for two days, why did you bring so much stuff?" The question was stupid and he knew it, but he was bored and Sydney was cute when annoyed, so he was entertained.

She was the one to sigh this time, extremely dramatically and loudly. "It was our anniversary. I didn't know what to wear and I wanted options." Chandler rolled his eyes, muttering something under her breath about her looking good in everything. She ignored him and started to put her hair up in a ponytail, not having time to do anything else. "By the way, can you do me a favor? Yesterday, in the dance GC, Kyle was going off and telling me to warn them when I'm going back to L.A, because Tori wants to have some kind of slumber party? Because we've known each other for a year and haven't done anything to celebrate yet? So could you text him and tell him we're going back to Atlanta today and I'm leaving for L.A in a couple days?" By this point she'd already moved to the bathroom, where she was once again collecting items, and Chandler mumbled an agreement, grabbing her white iPhone from the other side of the bed.

Taking a second to smile at the random candid of them she had as her lockscreen- Katelyn took it, she was going through a photography phase- and quickly used the fingerprint ID to enter her phone.

He scanned the top names on her messages, finding it weirdly adorable how everyone seemed to only have their initial letter of their name and a specific heart emoji. How Sydney told everyone apart was a mystery. Grinning at the stylistic choice of "c💙" for his own contact ID, he quickly moved on to "k💞".

As his fingers moved to type though, his eyes skimmed over a couple words, and he felt himself deflate.

'i do love you, just not like that'

So, he was right. Kyle had always seemed keen on Sydney, Chandler had just hoped he was like that with all of his friends. But the constant Instagram comments, the texts, the annoyance when he wasn't invited to things that involved Chandler and Sydney's relationship- it made sense. He was jealous. All along he was jealous.

And now, Sydney was going off to L.A again even though she didn't have to, just to hang out with him. To spend time with him. She said she loved him-

No. She was going to L.A for her music, and for her friends. Because that was all Kyle was. A friend. And he knew that, and so did she. Whoever was or wasn't interested in her had nothing to do with it because Chandler knew who she wanted. She'd expressed that again and again. And it wasn't Kyle.

"Maybe you should text the dance GC, actually. Tori might have an aneurysm if I don't answer her." Sydney chuckled, her echoey voice from the bathroom snapping him away from his thoughts.

He blinked a couple times. "Uh, yeah, okay." He hesitantly called out, before obliging, sending the message to the group-chat. He locked her phone and set it on the bed.

"Okay, I think I'm finally ready!" Sydney called out, the sound of her zipping up her bag flowing through the air. He hadn't even noticed she'd left the bathroom. "You okay?" Chandler blinked a couple times, taking in her slightly worried expression. Her brows met at the center of her forehead as she tentatively stepped closer to him. She seemed like she wanted to say something else but before she could, he nodded.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just catching up on some news." He smiled, lying easily as Sydney chuckled.

"Trump?" She asked, making him force an eyeroll. He let himself ease up as she laughed. "Jesus, I hate th-"

He stopped what, knowing his girlfriend, would've probably been a long political rant short. "We're gonna be late, Sydney!" His voice rang out as he stood up, dragging out the last letter of her name as she grinned at him. They picked up their luggage, and while they waited for their Uber after checking out of the hotel, he might have let himself kiss her a little harder than he should in a public setting. Because he could. And him, only.

_

double update bc why not. don't say i don't feed y'all

tbh i don't love this chapter but it's whatever bc shit's gonna go down. don't think this is over

also, you all forgot who tori was, i'm offended (she dances with kyle, lia, thea, and syd)