Tracking Faith 》 Alicia Clark/OC

Chapter Five - How Do We?

《 ZACHARIAH》

Mexico was not the safe haven I had hoped it would be. At least not at the place we had first ended up at. And after losing Nick, Travis, and Chris - our group was a little deflated. We searched through the city, hoping to find any of them but were unable to locate anyone.

Then Stand wanted us to go back to the Abigail, where we found that the boat had been stolen. Our luck had apparently run out. I was sitting in the back of the truck with Ofelia, Ryan, Leah, and Alicia while Madison and Strand rode up front while we drove through the town - looking for somewhere to go.

The hotel was a relief to see for all of us, and once we got inside and Madison sent all of us other than Strand and herself upstairs to check out the rooms, we all split up into different rooms to get settled in and take showers.

Ryan eventually got tired of going through the rooms with Leah and I, insisting we go back to and catch back up with the others. And so we did. Only to find out that Ofelia was gone suddenly, and that there were others in the hotel.

As things went on and we got settled into the hotel, a little bit of a routine started. We all had our jobs to do. And although the Clark's were missing Nick, Chris, and Travis - things felt normal again. Which I attributed to us just staying in one place, it was easy to form a pattern when you weren't moving all the time.

It provided some time to relax, but it also provided - for me at least - a sense of unease. I spent most of my days outside of the hotel, at the cliffs by the ocean - unsure of what else to do.

Ryan had slid into a bit of a funk with Ofelia having left, he spent most of his time focusing on improving the hotel with some of the other people there. Leah kept her head in books all of the time it seemed.

Alicia had seemingly pulled away some, at least in front of other people. She tried helping with the improvements to the hotel, and was spending most of her downtime learning how to surf from one of the other guys.

Which left me alone, feeling uneasy at all times of the day. The nights werent any easier either. The nights that I spent alone in my hotel room were too quiet. And somehow the nights when Alicia showed up at my door were even worse.

I had the sinking feeling that whatever we were was only out of convenience. Matt was gone, and I was here. And she knew how I felt about her. All in all it seemed to make me an easy target for any convenient sleeping arrangements.

《●》

I was pointedly ignoring the quiet knocking on the door to the hotel room, not wanting to acknowledge what was about to go down. Me letting her in, us fucking, sleeping, and then her leaving. Just to repeat it again some other night.

About ten minutes after the knocking first started, I sighed and got up - walking over and opening the door a little. "Nope, can't." I said, shaking my head.

"You don't even know what I was going to suggest." She replied, I raised an eyebrow and she sighed. "Okay - maybe I was. But come on Zach, it's not like this hasn't become the usual for us."

"I don't want it to be the damn usual, Alicia!" I whisper-screamed, all too aware of the people sleeping in the rooms surrounding us. "I don't want to be fuck-buddies with you, for god's sake."

"Okay then, we can just sleep."

"We're not in this for the same reasons, Alicia. And I think it would be better if we just went back to being friends."