Are you mine?

Chapter 52

I wake up still sitting outside of room 112, my head resting on Noah's shoulder while he still lays sound asleep on the linoleum. The rest of the hotel guests are gradually starting to creep out of their rooms for breakfast.

"Hey," I nudge Noah a couple of times and his eyes slowly flutter open, "We fell asleep," I explain as he narrows his eyes, adjusting to the morning sunshine.

"That explains my spine being twisted into a pretzel," he says as he stretches.

"I'm going to take a shower," I say as I wipe at my face with one hand and use the other one to push myself to my feet, "I'll meet you at breakfast, okay?"

"You don't want me to walk you to your room?" he says readily, standing up.

I take a second to look at him before I kiss him softly, feeling his tense muscles relax under my touch. "I'm okay Noah," I assure him, stroking up and down his arm with my hand, "I don't want you to worry, you don't need to be surveillancing me 24/7 now."

"You understand why I feel the need to though, right?" he looks down at me, taking my hand in his.

"Of course I do," I reply, rubbing my thumb on the back of his hand, "But unless you want to come in the shower with me, you're going to have to let me go," I tease.

"Is that like an invitation or...?" Noah asks, going back to his usual, playful self.

"Bye Noah," I roll my eyes and laugh as I start walking up the stairs.

As I step through the door into my own room, I'm immediately brought into a bone crushing embrace.

"Oh my god finally!" Syd sighs as she hugs me close, "I had to hear about what happened from Jackson when I got back last night. I tried to go looking for you, but they foced us all to stay in our rooms, so I've just been pacing around this fucking prison cell all night waiting for you to come back."

"I'm sorry I made you worry so much" I apologise, "I was exhausted and fell asleep outside of Noah's room." Wrapping my arms around Sydney, her messy hair tickles my face.

"Are you kidding? Don't apologise to me! I'm the one who should be sorry. I should have been here. If all of us had come back together then none of this would have happened."

"Please don't blame yourself. Not you too," I beg, "These things happen, too often unfortunately. And if it hadn't been me, it would've been somebody else. Maybe someone who was even more out of it than I was, and that would've been a lot worse." I say, rubbing her back comfortingly with my hand.

"Why are you comforting me?" she pouts, "This should be the other way around."

"There's no need," I affirm, "I just want to forget about last night, and enjoy the last day of my senior trip with my friends." I say, pulling away from her and etching a thin smile on my face.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Syd asks, "You know I'm here for you if you do."

"I'm fine, I promise," I say, "I just really need a shower. Get out of this goddamn dress, maybe burn it since I'm never putting it on again."

"If you say so," she gives up and finally lets go of me.

"Can I ask you one favor though?" I ask.

"Absolutely. Anything," Syd nods diligently.

"Could you give me a moment alone in here, please? These past few hours have been complete chaos, and I just want to be by myself for a little. Collect myself to face the rest of the day, you know?"

"Of course," she says reluctantly, sighing. "I'll be waiting for you downstairs when you're ready."

"Save me some breakfast, yeah?" I say as she opens the door to exit the room.