pretty girl (Lauren/You- first person)

chapter forty one.

I was sprinting blindly down the hotel hallway as I made my way towards the room the five of us had shared for the night, nearly stumbling over my own feet as I skidded to a stop in front of the door. I fumbled with the keycard, my hand shaking as I attempted to swipe it through the handle. With a frustrated huff, I finally managed and flung the door open, startling my friends and brother. Dinah's head whipped around from where she was laying stomach down on one of the beds, looking down at her phone. Normani jumped in her seat, letting out a small squeak of surprise, and Jake brought his hand to his chest as his mouth fell open. If the situation wasn't critical, I might've laughed at their reactions.

"Holy shit! Wha-" my brother started to question why I barged in the way I did, but I quickly cut him off.

"They're here. They're in the hotel, Ally and Delilah are at this hotel." I rushed out, my hands flailing in distress. Yet again everyone looked startled. Dinah jumped up off the bed and ran the few steps to stand in front of me.

"What did you just say?" She asked, looking down at me slightly because of the height difference, never taking her eyes off of mine, or even blinking. My own eyes started tearing up as the reality of the situation started to kick in.

"She's here." I half whispered, my voice betraying me as I struggled to hold he tears back.

"Where's Lauren?" Jake suddenly stood next to Dinah, and out of the corner of my eyes I caught Normani walking over briskly, standing between my brother and I. Three pairs of eyes watched me intently, waiting for my explanation.

"Fifteenth floor. They went to the fifteenth floor." I exhaled heavily, taking a few more deep breaths as the three of them started asking a thousand questions, all at the same time.

"When did you see her?"

"Did she see you?"

"What's Lauren doing?"

"Should we call the cops?"

"Let's go up there and get her!"

"What about the troopers?"

My head was spinning from the barrage of words flying at me, their voices mingling together I could no longer tell who was saying what, everything sounded like a blur. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, my mouth scrunching up as I resisted the urge to yell at them to shut the fuck up, in the nicest way possible of course.

"Please stop." I spoke softly, holding my hands up in front of me, opening and closing my eyes slowly as I tried to calm down enough to answer every question. It took all of five seconds for them to quiet down, leaving the air suddenly heavy with anticipation and nerves.

"We were walking to the elevator, kinda far away but had a clear view. So the door was open, we saw a guy leaned down, talking to Ally. She was holding Lilah's hand, I saw her face." I explained as quickly and simply as possible, not wanting to waste any more time than was absolutely necessary. Jake started to speak, but i held my hand back up and silently asked him to wait, and thankfully he complied.

"Lauren ran, but the elevator was already going up. But we watched the numbers and it went to the fifteenth floor then she just, she just, she just ran and so I ran the opposite direction and came here. And that's it." My brow furrowed as I stumbled over my words. I was speaking quickly again, and getting as many words out in a single breath as possible.

"You're sure it was them? Sometimes when you're under stress your mind can play tricks on you." Normani rubbed my shoulder sympathetically as she spoke. I shook my head vehemently.

"No, I saw her. Lauren saw her too. The guy that was talking to them was tall, he had dark hair, a short fade like the trooper we saw. He was wearing casual clothes though." I looked off to the side as I tried to commit his image to memory, the pale yellow, solid v neck shirt and a pair of light khaki shorts sticking out against his dark skin. "I have no idea what Lauren's doing." I voiced my next thought out loud, looking up at Dinah and meeting her wide, worried eyes.