No Control (Chris Motionless)

Chapter 34 - Some Help

I knew that I would sleep poorly, but I didn't expect my head to swim as I sat up in bed the next morning. I stayed there for a moment, trying to will it still, and peered around the now brightly lit room to find it vacant. When I felt like I could get to my feet without falling over with the first step I took, I made my way to the bathroom. I haphazardly got myself dressed, pulling together a simple outfit of black leggings and a thin black hoodie with the Emigrate logo on the back of it. I then swiftly tied my hair in a messy bun before heading towards the door.

I slipped on my worn black Vans and made my way to the elevators, going over in my head what I had planned to say to Chris, hoping that it would be enough. I picked at the ruby red nail polish on my nails as I played a thousand scenarios inside my head of how this could go, causing my stomach to flip around the whole time. I let out a long sigh, this whole mystery was taking a toll on me in more ways than one. 

I made a beeline for the hotel, telling myself to be calm. The whole ride up to Chris's floor all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears. As soon as the door slid open, I made eye contact with a woman pushing a cart of towels and sheets. She gave me a polite smile, which I returned as I made my way past her. I held my breath as I knocked on Chris's door and waited.

"Miss?" The cleaning woman called from beside me and I turned to her. I glanced to find that her name tag read Laren. "The gentleman in there asked the staff to make sure that he didn't have any visitors today."

My heart seemed to wilt in my chest as I nodded, "Right, well thank you for letting me know."

I turned back towards the way I had come, feeling defeated and scorned. I began debating if I was going to do this by myself or if I should go back to the campus to get one of my friends to tag along with me to the police station. I approached the elevator recalling that I had woken up in the dorm alone, so I figured that I should go check Blake and Cody's room first.

"Um, excuse me?" I heard Laren call from behind me and when I looked back at her, she continued, "I know it isn't my place, but he hasn't come out of his room. Nor, has there been anyone else in or out."

When I raised an eyebrow at her, she elaborated, "I've seen you around outside of the hotel with him a couple of times, so I figured that there's something going on between you two. I have been up here cleaning all morning, so I would have seen something."

"Oh, okay. Thank you." I responded with a small smile as my face warmed up, who knew what else this girl probably knew or had seen?

With that, I slipped into the elevator feeling slightly relieved by what Laren had told me because some part of me worried that he might have just up and left the Cambridge area. After last night, I wouldn't have been too surprised if he had, considering the way he had looked at me. A fire had been burning in his amber eyes and I knew that he had secretly longed to burn me with it. He wanted me to hurt the way he was. He hadn't though, he'd left before anything even harsher had left his mouth and in a way, I was grateful for that. Matt would have never spared me in the slightest if I had done anything like that to him.

Maybe Chris just needed some space. I glanced up at the descending numbers while the elevator slid back to ground level, my gut sinking as well, maybe he wouldn't want to see me again. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut as I ran a hand through my hair, begging the thoughts to leave me be for a moment.

As soon as the doors parted to reveal the lobby, I wasted no time heading straight for the boy's dorm. I was confused when I only found Cody at the desk in the corner of the room, head bent over a text as he highlighted a few sections of the page he was on.

He turns to look at me over his shoulder, giving me a friendly smile before asking, "What are you doing in here?"

"I came to see if Mackenzie or Lea were in here."