Chapter 34 - Alyssa.
"We're gonna have to stay in a hotel," Katy exclaims, to all our horror. I stare at the scene in front of us, and all I want to do is get out of the city.
My parents will be furious when they check the news channel.
I see Jack and Niall exchange one of those boy-glances that guys do around girls, before sighing simultaneously.
"What else can we do?" Jack asks helplessly. I shrug hopelessly and look down at our linked hands, beginning to get tired. I just want to get out of here.
"Everyone back please! Everyone back! Move it!" A police officer with yellow and black tape is beginning to cordon off the area of the road around the station. Jack and I are ushered out of the way, and that's when we begin to follow Niall and Katy back the way we came, panic in the air around us.
"It'll be alright," I hear Jack mumble as he pulls me along at a pace quicker than I can manage. His hand squeezes mine in reassurance, and I quickly dart out of the way when three men come running past us.
It's a long walk. It feels like we're going to be stuck on the streets all night, and everywhere we go there are people looking panicked and shouting. In fact, the amount of people if anything starts to increase, not decrease, on every street we pass. We end up walking past the same restaurant about three times, until finally Niall takes us down a back alleyway and there seems to be a bit of quiet for a while.
"Niall, what the hell are we doing?"
Jack demands after a while. Unlike Katy and I, he hasn't let out any sign of tiredness or annoyance with Niall wandering until now. He gets ignored.
And a minute later it starts to pour down, big threads of rain splashing down from the navy grey sky. Niall suddenly lets out a noise of triumph, and we are led inside a small, darkened building.
When my eyes adjust to the darkness, the first thing I see is a girl about our age sitting at a desk opposite the door. The carpet is pretty threadbare and there isn't much decoration, but there is a roaring open fire in the corner of the room, with one armchair.
Thunder rumbles outside, as the girl doesn't seem to notice us. She's reading. Only when we walk up to the desk and Niall clears his throat does she look up, her eyebrows raised.
"No, I'm sorry," she mumbles in a low tone. "We don't check people in until eleven tomorrow morning."
"How convenient," Katy snaps, sarcastically. I sigh, putting my head in my hands.
"Don't you want business?" Niall asks, confusedly.
The girl's eyes flicker from each of our faces to the next, before landing back on Niall's. "Rules are rules. What are you doing here anyway?"
"We can't get home because a car exploded near the tube station and all the lines are down anyway," Katy says through gritted teeth. "We just need a place to sleep for the night. Don't be the innkeeper who didn't let Mary and Joseph in and got hated for the rest of history."
Jack looks amused, and I roll my eyes, but the girl narrows her eyes. "That's even more reason not to let you in," she replies, but somehow it feels like she is warming up. "Is one of you pregnant?"
Niall laughs. "No. And we're not gonna be messing around or anything, we're exhausted. So don't worry. Come on."
"Please?" I add, exhaustedly. Behind me, Jack gently strokes my back.
It takes a while of staring and giving the girl pleading smiles. But then she finally grabs a black book from under the desk and opens it slowly, beginning to write.
YOU ARE READING
Where I Found You
Teen Fiction***THE SEQUEL TO HOW I SEE YOU*** Will & Alyssa never thought that it'd work out this way, but boy it did. As they say, old habits die hard.
