The Trouble with Love

❝ put your love in lights ❞

(unedited)

Open up your skies,
Turn up your night.
To the speed of life,
Turn up your night.
Put your love in lights,
Turn up your night.

"Find You" -Zedd (ft. Matthew Koma & Miriam Bryant)

I should've known Jacen wouldn't give any more answers after that.

I was starting to think he and Ashton had some kind of limit on how many clear answers they could give at a time. Either that, or they were playing some kind of game to see who could leave me hanging on a cryptic remark the most.

Wouldn't be the first time the Elite played a game.

It has gone past a game, though.

It had stopped being a came when dead bodies came into the picture. It was way too fucked up to be called a game now.

"You okay?" A voice asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I looked across the table littered with various breakfast foods to see Nathan give me a concerned look. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired." It wasn't a complete lie.

After Jacen has taken his biggest swig of alcohol yet, and basically turned incoherent, I had headed back to my room. But I hadn't been able to fall asleep. Jacen's words haunted me.

You're dead either way.

It wasn't like those four little words had a hundred vastly different meaning, but had he really meant it? Or has it simply been something he had said to make me worry, throw me off? If I could, through some strange turn of events, make Ashton fall in love with me, was it a pass out? Or did I really still end up six feet under the ground? I wasn't sure I could put it past the Elite -or whoever was going this- to create a game where they couldn't lose.

Hell, at this point I would've willingly believed they were three hundred year old vampires who sparkled in the sunlight. Minus the fact that I had already seen them in the sunlight. And while some of their fans glowed, there was definitely no glitter.

"You're quiet this morning," Vanessa remarked, nudging me lightly with her elbow.

"Headache," I replied. Also not a lie. My head did hurt a little from the sip I had taken from Jacen's bottle. But it was my thoughts keeping me silent, not the minimal hangover.

Keira glanced at me. "Would it happen to be liquor induced?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she gave me a slightly accusing look.

That was another thing. Jacen was noticeably absent from this morning's table. Probably hungover in bed from everything he had drunk last night.

"No," I lied, widening my eyes to look a little more innocent. "Just from lack of sleep, that's all."

Jacen stumbled into the room then, thankfully stalking the conversation. He headed straight for the coffee, then grabbed a plate and took a seat beside Skylar.

"What?" he snapped, finally noticing all of our eyes on him.

"That's it," Keira said. "I'm dumping all of your alcohol down the drain when we get home."

Jacen rolled his eyes, clearly not taking her seriously and scooped some bacon onto his plate. A stilled silence fell over the table until Vanessa finally decided to speak up after a couple awkward moments.

"So, we're going on the yacht after breakfast," she said.

"Yacht?" I repeated. I wasn't entirely sure why I was surprised. This was, after all, the Elite.