Piece by piece, I was restoring my usual chipper mood as I ran around the hotel room to find all the stuff I'd discarded carelessly, believing we'd have a whole five days on this island. It had become difficult when we'd had to pack Alia's things to hand over to the police but the boys had come to our rescue then, offering to pack it themselves. It still hadn't stopped the tears from leaking from the corner of my eyes. Thankfully, they hadn't judged. They were currently seated on the edge of our bed whining like babies since we were leaving. We'd refrained from telling them about the note. 

According to them, Alia had been killed by a freak animal attack and they didn't see any reason for us to run scared. According to Sebastian's reasoning, the wild animal was going to attack a boy next so we were all safe. As stupid as ti sounded, the thought of finding them in a pool of their own blood had my veins freezing and Zahra had been quick to shut him up. Yet, he still wouldn't quit trying to make us stay.

"Girls I know you're scared but one night of partying can fix all of this, trust me," Sebastian said for the umpteenth time. 

How he took this so lightly, I didn't know. Then again, he hadn't really known Alia and I was fairly sure he'd had something to drink this morning, hence the unfocused eyes.

"Sebastian please be serious," I requested. 

I finally managed to find my hairbrush. She'd brushed my hair with this. My hands shook slightly as I threw it in my suitcase. Thinking better of it, I took out the hairbrush and threw it in the garbage instead. It wasn't like I'd ever be able to use it without my hands shaking.

"Is Davina Rossetti actually telling me to be serious," Sebastian asked with a cheeky smile. 

I smiled back. His mood was pleasant actually. It was the only thing that kept all of us moving without breaking down and kept that dreadful, sad silence at bay.

"No actually just be yourself. We need to get home though. I can't stay in the hotel room she was in just yesterday," I said, my voice trembling. 

Zahra's brief squeeze of my shoulder had my voice even once again.

"Then stay with us," Sebastian whined. 

If he continued to whine, I wouldn't be surprised if Zahra threw a punch at his face. Noah seemed to realize this, or perhaps he was just mature enough to understand the gravity of what just happened and quickly intervened to prevent a fight.

"Sebastian maybe it's best that they leave." 

Sebastian looked at him like he'd just stabbed him in the back with a knife. Since he was a drama queen, he went the extra mile by placing a hand over his chest and pretending to choke in shock. Something about that image was disturbing and I quickly looked away.

"Dude come on not you too," he said, shaking his head with disappointment at Noah.

"Their friend died man. Leave them alone." 

Noah was firm and Sebastian knew better than to argue with him so he just sulked like a child. I mouthed a 'thank you' to Noah who gave me a sad smile. He knew none of us were doing well and he also knew better than to try to make me feel better about it. Time was needed to mourn. We hadn't discussed what we'd admitted to each other by the beach, what with everything that had happened afterwards. Did he even feel the same way after I completely lost it right in front of him?

"That is why you don't go to beaches at 12 in the night," Michel said gravely.  

Zahra fixed the guy with a glare as his words registered. It was too little, too late.

"Michel, you're not helping," Noah snapped with anger I didn't know he had. 

Michel immediately shut up. Rosaline stuck her head into the room after a few moments of slightly tense silence between the five of us. Naturally, she was packed and ready to go, looking so fresh and pristine it sparked jealousy within me as I saw my raccoon eyes reflected in the circular mirror of our hotel room. Words I'd spoken came screaming back to me. Are those tears even real or are you just obligated to shed them?

"Are you guys packed? I'm going to go check out," she called out. 

Zahra nodded and the girl went scurrying off. Pulling the zipper shut on my suitcase and hopefully to this entire disastrous vacation, I then proceeded to sit on it while waiting for Rosaline to return. That was when Zahra sidled up to me ever so slyly and whispered in my ear. I'd missed that spark about her, afraid she'd lost it with what happened.

"Talk to Noah before we leave," she said. 

My head snapped up to hers, full of incredulity. She just wore a devious smile on her face as she pointedly glanced between Noah and I.

"Now. Are you serious," I asked, bewildered.

"Yes. Now. Boys have little patience. Trust me I know," she said softly. 

Sometimes I forgot she had 4 elder brothers who'd instilled the boyish rebelliousness that always surrounded her.

"Zahra we need to leave," I said. 

Besides what was I even supposed to say to him? I'd told him I'd liked him, and he'd pretty much admitted the same to me. Was I supposed to ask him out or something? With everything that had happened, with the chaos that was my emotional state, could I even handle a boyfriend?

"Not for another five minutes we don't. Talk to him or you'll be sorry," Zahra said. 

She then shoved me towards Noah. I shot her a glare. I was going to rip her throat out for that.

"Noah can I talk to you in the hall for a second," I asked timidly. 

He nodded before following me outside. Sebastian wolf whistled and I shot him the finger as I followed Noah out. He was already talking before I could start on the speech I'd prepared while walking.

"Davina we don't have to do this right now. We'll be flying out to Brooklyn in five days and we can discuss this then," he said calmly. 

He took my hands in his. Cue my heart rate going up by a thousand. I quickly let his hands go, to get my mind in order.

"Yeah but just to be clear. You like me right?" 

I blushed at how blunt that was but how else was I supposed to know? Reading between the lines had never really been my thing. Noah laughed before replying.

"Yes I do. I thought that was implied," he said. 

I couldn't even look him in the eye. Why was I so awkward when it came to him?

"Yeah just clearing things up," I muttered, knowing my cheeks were flaming red.

"I wish you'd stayed but I get that you have to go. I'm sorry about all of this," he said apologetically. 

Instantly, my mood dampened. Before drowning in another mountain of tears over her, I quickly snapped back. I hadn't reached a level of maturity to be able to talk about what had happened yesterday without crying. Maybe I never would but for now, I was hoping that with time, I'd get there.

"Can we not talk about that right now," I asked in a harsher tone than I'd meant to. .

"Okay sorry," he said. 

He didn't seem offended by the fact that I'd just snapped at him. He really was kind of perfect and it was honestly a miracle that he was still standing here in front of me after all that had happened. He could have any girl he wanted but he was with me. Granted, he hadn't come to the police station but he was here now.

"Noah thank you for not judging me for the crap I said yesterday," I said. 

He just shrugged like things like that happened all the time.

"You were upset. It happens," he replied coolly.

"But thank you, anyway," I said and pulled him into a hug. 

His arms cam around my waist and I let myself close my eyes and relax for just one second as I buried my head in the nook of his shoulder.

"No problem. Should we head back inside now before Zahra kills Sebastian for saying something ridiculous," he asked as he drew back. 

I laughed and he pulled my hand to follow him inside. In that moment, some crazy thought entered my mind that I wanted to act on. I couldn't deny that those thoughts were in part due to the attraction I felt for him, but also were in part due to what he represented, something normal and something that could cheer me up.

"Yeah right but before that I just, I wanted to do this." 

He turned back in surprise just as I leaned forward to place my lips on his. It wasn't my first kiss but I was still fumbling slightly. A small gasp echoed from him before his arms twined around my body to hold me more firmly against him. I kept my hands on his chest as I kissed him harder, willing myself to forget about anything but him for just a moment. One of his hands twined in my dark hair while the other one remained at my waist and finally, I got lost, in the feel of him, in the feel of kissing him and knowing that he wanted me to kiss him. A silent hurray for my ability to act on my instincts without thinking. For once they'd done me good.

He pulled back to rest his forehead against mine as we both struggled to catch our breaths. To my absolute embarrassment, my hand was tightly fisted in his ironed out shirt. I released it, trying to smooth out the wrinkles but he caught my hands before I could try.

"It's alright. I'll fix it later," he said. 

Before I could respond with something mortifying like oh my god you just kissed me, Rosaline reappeared looking slightly stressed out. Her luggage was behind her, key card still in hand.

"Rose what's the matter," I asked. 

 On closer inspection, she also looked slightly pale.

"They aren't letting us leave. They said we have to stay for the time we'd booked. " 

Zahra and the others had come out by now and looked just about as confused as I was. What was the hotel's problem? We were paying them for 5 nights when we'd only spent 2. Technically, we were making their jobs easier.

"That's bullshit. Here let me go knock some sense into his head," Zahra exclaimed angrily. 

She grabbed the key card out of Rose's hand.

"Zahra wait I think there's something else behind this," Rose appealed. 

Zahra froze in her footsteps. The note from yesterday ran through their heads but the word the policeman had muttered at the station was what came to mine. He'd wanted us to stay. Leave. Stay. What were we supposed to do?

It meant one thing though. They was more than one person who wanted to have a say on what we did on this island and they were clearly both very dangerous and very opposing in their views. Sadly, we could only listen to one.

"What's going on," Noah asked. 

What kind of answer was I supposed to give him? Hey Noah apparently people on this island want us to leave and stay at the same time and they're killing people to make their point. He'd look at me like I'd lost all sense. Let him find that out on his own.

"Weren't you guys supposed to be gone by now," Michel asked in confusion.

"Guys could you give us a moment alone please," I asked softly. 

Noah raised an eyebrow at me but I just shook my head. Boyfriend or not, he wasn't a part of this and I didn't want him to be. Normal, he was normal. I needed him to remain that for the sake of my sanity.

"Okay but if you have any problems don't hesitate to call us," he said. 

He clutched my hand briefly in his before following Michel down the hall to their room.

"Yes ladies Sebastian's door is always open," Sebastian said. 

He planted a kiss on my forehead before following the boys down the hall. As soon as they were out of sight, Rosaline dragged us into the room and shut the door behind us with a slam.

"What do you mean they aren't letting us leave," Zahra asked as soon as the door shut.

"The receptionist guy kept saying we couldn't leave no matter how many times I asked," Rose replied with a roll of her eyes like that had been obvious.

"Details Rose," I pushed as the three of us sat on the bed.

"He looked scared Davina. I don't know why," she said. 

How many people were terrified of this unknown identity? It was first the police and now the hotel staff. They really did have this whole island under their control and for some insane reason, we found ourselves on this island as well. Why couldn't we have just gone to the Bahamas or something like normal people?

"Okay so if we can't leave we're just going to have to sneak out," Zahra suggested. 

Perhaps our shared knowledge of spy-thriller movies would come in handy right now.

"Without paying," Rose asked. 

I resisted the urge to slap her across the face. Leave it to her to pay these people that weren't even letting us leave the hotel. Talk about poor service.

"Not now Rose. We need a plan," Zahra said, her mind already racing no doubt.

"We should tell the guys," Rose suggested. 

Zahra was quick to shut the idea down before I could.

"No we'd just be dragging them into this problem. They don't need that." 

It would be better if they left this island as well though. Something was very wrong here, something that could possibly get us all killed. We needed to warn the guys at some point. As of now however, this unknown entity only seemed to be targeting us and I'd rather keep it that way.

"Fine so what's our plan? We need to leave in thirty minutes if we want to catch that flight," I said. 

So began the brainstorming. I couldn't really deny the thrill in my veins. This was the most exciting thing I'd done in a while, maybe even my whole life. I was fairly certain it wasn't going to be the last, not as long as we remained on this mysterious island.      

Sorry for the delay! Hope you like this chapter. If you did, don't forget to vote and comment down below. 

Question: Do you guys like Noah and Davina together? Comment down below. 

Also, the picture above is the lovely Noah played by Logan Lerman. 

Love

-ASH