The Pact We Once Made

Closure ?

Half an hour later, we're walking into the hotel lobby to see a sobbing Layla sitting next to the fireplace in the corner.

"Oh my gosh, what's wrong?" I rush towards her and sit in the chair next to her while Quinn sits on the bench across from us, looking worriedly at me.

She looks up with mascara running down her face and watery eyes. "Jude and I are done. For good." I grab her hand in attempts to comfort her. "Are you sure?" "Yeah," she wiped her hand across her face. "We got into an argument and he drunkenly said he never wanted to get back together with me ever again. To stop having hope where none is needed." she mumbled and I hugged her. Poor ol' Jude was always somewhat of a jerk when he was drunk.

"Oh and another thing," she says and looks slightly nervous. "What is it?"

"Camden tried calming Jude down but he only got angrier and turned in both their key cards."

I was suddenly confused. Don't both parties have to check out of a room for it to be officially checked out of?

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the one thing Aliyah didn't check was the intelligence of the people at the front desk. Jude turned in their key cards without letting Camden get his stuff and now he can't get back in the room because he left his I.D. in there and they insist on seeing it."

"Are you kidding me?" I turn around and see Camden walking out of a room behind the front desk with two men wearing hotel uniforms. Camden looks as if he's pleading and the hotel officials look like they couldn't give a crap.

"I'll be right back," I tell them and stand up, walking towards the front desk.

"Hello, I hope you're having a great night," I smile kindly towards the men and they both look utterly pleased. "Are you having some difficulty with this one?" I joke, nodding my head towards Camden, who looks like he wants to just leave. "He's insisting he needs to get back into the room he checked out of earlier," one of them says and Camden looks exasperated.

"I'm telling you, that was Jude! Not me! I'm Camden Smith!"

"But how can we be sure? You don't seem to have an I.D."

"Because it's in my room!!" he covers his face with his hands and walks away.

"You see here, gentleman, I went to high school with this guy." They both look flabbergasted. "Yeah, we actually dated for about 6 years."

"He never proposed??!" the shorter guy hisses in a whisper. "No, our jobs took us in different directions, it just didn't end up that way." I say, looking down the hallway at him, watching him pace back and forth.

"Anyways," I redirect my attention. "I'm saying you can trust him. I'll go up there with him and make sure he gets his stuff."

They give each other before the taller one looks resigned. "Alright, he has 10 minutes and I wanna see his face and I.D. back down here." he says before handing me a key card.

"Thank you so much." I smile before walking down the hall.

"We have 10 minutes to get your stuff." I tell him and hand him the key. "What..how..?" he says trailing off and just goes to the elevators.

We sit there silently and get off at the 4th floor. I sit in the desk chair as he gets his stuff together, every once in awhile glancing at me and shaking his head.

5 minutes pass and I check the time on my phone. "Are you ready?" I ask, standing up and resting my head against the door. "Yeah, hold on," he says from inside the bathroom then walks out and grabs his duffel bag off the bed.

I open the door but apparently not enough because it slams right on my pinkie.

"OUCH!" I grab my pinkie and start waving it back and forth, praying for the pain to go away.

"What'd you do?" he comes out of the room with a worried expression and immediately cringes at the sight of my purple pinkie.

"The door slammed on it," I start tearing up cause gosh dang, that is a seriously heavy door.

"Oh no, don't cry," he says softly and wipes away the single tear trailing down my cheek. I would rip myself away from him but I'm exhausted from today's events and maybe my heart had softened a little.

He grabbed my pinkie softly and kissed it, barely touching the skin.

"There you go, all better," he smiled softly and grabbed my hand and I didn't feel like stopping him.

We walked, hand in hand, to the elevators and stood there in the elevator, hand in hand.

If I'm being completely honest, it felt nice to hold his hand. It was like some small part of me had been glued back.

Wait, what am I saying??

I'm letting myself fall into it again.

I can't.

I yank my hand away and walk out the elevator when it opens, not looking back to see his face.

I go sit with Quinn and Layla who are now laughing at Harry Potter memes.

Just the fact that Quinn can cheer someone up with memes is absolutely great.

"Is everything okay?" I ask and collapse in the chair across from them. "Everything is great," Layla smiles and look genuinely happy.

"Uh, guys?" I hear Camden and look up to see his questionable face. "What's up?" Quinn asks.

"So, all the rooms are full and the room I was just in is being checked in early tomorrow morning."

"And?" I ask blankly, not caring he doesn't have a room.

"I was hoping I could stay with one of you...?" he trails off, looking at me.

I look over at Quinn for help and she just shrugs. "I was actually gonna stay with Layla tonight and postpone our marathon for tomorrow." she looks empathetic then turns back to her phone.

"So..?" he says and I just glare at him.

"Fine." I roll my eyes and I see a small smile form.

"But no funny business mister," I point a finger and he holds up both hands.

"No promises," he smirks and I stand up and slap him in the chest, immediately reminded of old times. "I said, no funny business or you can just find another hotel." "Okay, okay," his smirk drops and I sigh inwardly.

I wanted closure, not forced to stay in the same room.

"Let's go," I wave to the elevators and proceed to stand outside one, waiting for one to open.

"Before you say anything, you get Quinn's bed that the maids were supposed to clean today so you won't get a messed up bed. Second, there is leftover fried chicken in the mini fridge, you eat it and you die, and third," I held up a third finger. "If you brew coffee when we get upstairs, I might be nice to you." I smile and he just laughs. "Of course I will, anything for you Paige," he smiled softly and gosh darnit, his smile was absolutely gorgeous.

UGH

NOT NOW

We stepped into the elevator and I stood the farthest away from him I could, but it wasn't very far, it was only an elevator.

"Paige, I just want to thank you for letting me stay in your room tonight. I know you didn't want to but I just wanted to thank you. And I'm sorry for everything that happened." I looked up at him and immediately wished I could take back everything that happened.

"Thank you," I muttered quietly before the doors opened and I walked out, leaving him behind to walk alone.

I needed time to think.

I opened the door and held the doorstop open for him so I didn't have to open the door myself.

I quickly grabbed some clothes and locked myself in the bathroom, starting the shower.

Either I was going crazy or I felt even worse than I have all these months away from him.

~~~