Next Up

14

Zoe sat up quickly. The alarm clock on the side table rattled and wailed, a god-awful noise. In the other bed, Colson grabbed his pillow and pulled it over his head to block out the noise.

'I never want to hear something like that for as long as I live,' she thought as she sat on the edge of her bed, her heartbeat sounding like thunder in her chest. 'How Ivy was able to sleep through that is a total mystery to...' Her thoughts melted; she had turned around, the bed perfectly made on the right side of the bed. She had never seen Ivy make her bed once in the month she'd known her.

"Colson..."

Usually, Colson would roll over and try to go back to sleep, but the urgency in Zoe's voice made him sit up, "yeah, what's up?" He yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"Ivy is..." She pointed at Ivy's side of the bed, not a single wrinkle in the sheets.

It took a few seconds for Colson to realize what she was saying. He walked over to the bathroom, the door was ajar, and the room was lightless. He flicked the light switch and looked inside. 'Empty....'

Zoe opened the closet and looked under both beds; at the same time, Colson walked back from the bathroom.

"Do you think she might have...done something?" He asked, suspicion filling his tone.

"No! She wouldn't do anything like that!", 'I need to stay calm and not worry about every little thing.' She took a deep breath, trying hard not to freak out.

Her facial expression said otherwise as Colson said, "Zoe...are you...."

"I'm sorry, just... Just don't say anything like that again, alright?" She walked to the door, opened it, and looked both ways down the empty hallway. 'I knew we shouldn't have done this! I knew something bad was going to happen.'

"Hey, just sit on the bed, alright? I'll check the hotel; maybe the girl got lost or something. Everything's going to be cool," he said with a calming voice.

She took a few deep breaths. "I'm fine. We just need to think, where could she have gone, and why."

"Do you think she just went ahead without us?"

Zoe checked her bag; the map was still inside. Untouched. "No, there's no way she would memorize the-"

The door slammed open, and Ivy sprinted into the room. Sweat dripped from her face, and she was breathing hard. She was hunched over with her hands on her knees, a small laugh came from her, "man, I think that's the fastest I've run in my life!"

"What were you doing?" Colson cried.

Zoe was staring at her incredulously, "Ivy..."

"No-no-no, listen, so I was outside, just walking around, I found this abandoned Charcat right, then I met this guy-"

Colson raised an eyebrow, "Oh, you met a guy. I see what you were doing," he said, looking at Zoe.

"Yea, you get it. But then I realized that it was late...or maybe early...anyways, I'm here now." She said through deep breaths.

Colson looked to Zoe and burst out laughing. Zoe stared blankly ahead, looking exhausted.

"I don't get it," Zoe said. "Can we go now?"

"Let's," Colson said as he shook his head.

They sat on the stairs outside the hotel, Ivy wearing the same white jacket, black boots, and white camo shorts. Zoe wore the same long t-shirt that reached her knees and dirty red tennis shoes. Colson wore a black long sleeve shirt with grey sweatpants. They had asked the person at the front desk to call them a cab and were awaiting its arrival.