Flashback to the Early Morning Hours
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It was barely six in the morning when the quiet outside Room 501 was shattered.
Ashton had stumbled out of Room 503, looking deathly pale, his throat tight and his stomach violently turning as he fought down a wave of pure nausea.
He had gone straight to Room 501, desperately trying to find Chloe.
But when he pushed the door open, expecting to find her, he found Jace and Kira instead.
They weren’t completely naked, but they were tangled together on the bed, caught entirely off guard in an intimate moment.
Ashton froze in the doorway, his skin clammy, looking so hollow and physically sick he couldn’t even process what he was looking at.
His hand trembled violently on the brass doorknob, his mouth opening to stutter out an apology and pull the door shut—
Then heavy, careless footsteps echoed down the hallway from Room 502.
Before Ashton could even step back to excuse himself, Marcus and Reid appeared right behind him.
Marcus didn’t just stop in the hallway—he stepped up, put his palm against the wood, and shoved the door fully open, sending it crashing against the wall.
A long, filthy whistle sliced through the quiet room.
“Well, well, well…
what do we have here?” Marcus drawled, a cruel, ugly smirk spreading across his face as he pushed past Ashton’s frozen frame.
“I actually thought our team didn’t have any fucking maggots.”
Reid snickered from the threshold, crossing his arms and watching, while Marcus stepped right into the room, eyeing Kira and Jace with absolute malice.
“Why didn’t you tell us to come join, Jace?”
Marcus sneered, his tone dripping with foul condescension as his eyes locked onto Kira.
“I’ve never actually seen what a surgical pussy looks like.”
Marcus took another slow, menacing step toward the bed.
But before he could get anywhere near her, Jace snapped.
In one fluid, furious movement, Jace threw his legs over the side of the mattress.
Barely taking time to zip his jeans, he planted his broad frame directly in front of Kira, shielding her completely from view.
Marcus paused, a smug, filthy grin twisting his lips as he looked Jace up and down.
“What, trying to protect your slut?” He flicked his eyes back to Reid in the hallway with a dark, mocking laugh.
“Hell, wish I’d known our team’s cheerleading captain was this easy.
I’d have gladly given you a taste of what a real dick feels like—or wait, didn’t you used to have a fucking—”
A wet, brutal CRACK echoed down the corridor before Marcus could even finish the sentence.
Jace’s fist connected straight with Marcus’s jaw with terrifying force.
Marcus’s head snapped back hard, his body stumbling violently into the wall as blood instantly welled from his split lip.
“Keep her name out of your fucking mouth, you piece of shit!” Jace roared, stepping forward and driving another sharp jab directly into Marcus’s chest.
On the bed behind them, Kira yanked the heavy duvet all the way up to her collarbone, her hands trembling violently as she squeezed her eyes shut and turned her face away, choking back a sob.
Marcus snarled, thrashing wildly to swing back, but Jace was visibly broader and heavier, easily deflecting Marcus’s desperate, sloppy swings.
Jace pinned him against the wall, landing another hard blow to Marcus’s stomach that left the guy gasping for air.
You fucking bastard!” Marcus spat, wiping blood from his lip as he lunged back with a wild, clumsy swing.
He threw out every vile insult and slur he could think of, his face red with anger.
Reid cursed, stepping into the room to try to pull them apart.
“Jace, stop!
Hey, break it up!”
Because Jace was significantly more built and taller than Marcus, Marcus couldn’t land a single hit.
Jace effortlessly dodged the clumsy swing and drove a brutal punch into Marcus’s ribs, doubling him over with a breathless groan.
“Stop!
Fucking stop it, both of you—”
Fuck!” Reid cursed, clutching his bruising cheek.
Before the brawl could escalate any further, a sharp, frantic scream shattered through the noise.
“ASH!”
The entire room froze instantly.
Jace’s raised fist stayed poised in the air.
Marcus wiped the blood from his lip, and Reid turned sharply toward the door.
Standing at the threshold, Ashton’s knees had completely buckled.
His glazed hazel eyes rolled into the back of his head, his face a ghostly, deathly white, and his tall, athletic frame collapsed forward, hitting the floor with a heavy, sickening thud.
Just as his body struck the carpet, Chloe rounded the corner of the hallway holding a warm cardboard cappuccino cup.
She stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening in sheer, unadulterated horror at the scene before her—Ashton lying completely unconscious on the floor, Marcus bleeding, and Kira wrapped tightly in a bedsheet.
The cup slipped straight from her numb fingers, hitting the floor and splattering hot coffee across the carpet.
.
End Of Flashback
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Present Time
The silence in the cab returned, but this time it was suffocating for a completely different reason.
Keegan sat motionless in the backseat, his blood roaring like thunder in his ears.
Every single muscle in his broad frame coiled tight as his knuckles turned stark white, his fists clenching so hard against his knees that his hands visibly shook.
Pure, unfiltered rage burned through his veins—rage at Marcus for his disgusting words, at Reid for standing by, and at the sheer chaos that had folded while he lay asleep right next door.
“Why…” Keegan gritted his teeth, his jaw working violently as a dark, dangerous growl ripped from his throat.
He turned sharply toward Jace, his eyes blazing with a mix of fury.
“Why the fuck didn’t either of you wake me up?!”
“Keegan—” Kira started from the front, her voice tight and trembling.
“I…
I don’t see any problem with you two dating,” Keegan admitted, his voice softening slightly, shifting from raw rage into a wounded, utterly bewildered murmur as he looked between them.
“I just…
I don’t get why you never bothered to tell me.
We’re BestFriends.”
“Keegs, it’s not that,” Kira said softly, turning further around in her seat.
“It’s…
we were going to tell you.
I promise we were.”
“We literally just started dating,” Jace added, running a heavy palm over his jaw before looking over at Keegan.
“It’s brand new, Keegs.”
“And I’m the one who told him not to tell you yet,” Kira confessed quietly, her eyes searching Keegan’s face with genuine guilt.
Jace’s fists clenched tightly on his knees, his jaw working as anger flickered back into his eyes.
“Because of bastards like Marcus and Reid.
I wanted to keep her safe from their fucking mouths for as long as I could.”
Keegan looked down at his hands, the suffocating anger in his chest slowly ebbing into a quiet, heavy silence.
For a second, he just stared at his lap.
Then, a low, breathy exhale escaped his chest, and a small, genuine smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
He looked up, shaking his head slightly.
“You idiots,” Keegan whispered, his eyes warm despite the exhaustion etched into his face.
“You should have just told me.
I’m…
I’m really happy for you guys.
Seriously.”
Kira’s breath hitched, a soft, warm smile breaking across her pale face as she wiped away the lingering moisture around her eyes.
The heavy, ugly tension in the car finally began to thaw.
“Thank you, Keegs,” Kira murmured softly.
She reached across the console to give his knee a gentle, reassuring squeeze before sitting back.
She paused, looking at him with gentle, comforting eyes to ease the remaining worry line on his forehead.
“And listen…
everyone else really just left because Ash still wasn’t looking too good when he gained consciousness again.
He was completely drained and wanted to head back, so don’t be too worried, okay?
I’m pretty sure he’s back at his dad’s house.”
Keegan let out a soft, genuine laugh, the last lingering threads of suffocating tension in the car completely evaporating into the cool air of the AC.
“Mn,” Keegan murmured, a warm, relaxed smile settling onto his face as he looked at Kira.
“Fair enough.”
Up front, Kira let out a quiet, weary sigh of relief, shifting in her seat and resting her head back against the headrest.
“I’m completely running on empty,” Kira muttered softly, her voice heavy with lingering exhaustion as she closed her eyes.
“I think I’m going to sleep off for a while…
wake me if we stop.”
“Yeah,” Keegan chuckled softly, the emotional rollercoaster of the morning finally catching up to his own body.
He shifted against the backseat, leaning his shoulder and temple against the cool glass of the car window.
“I’ll probably doze off a bit too.”
Jace gave him a silent, supportive nod from the other side of the seat, slipping his headphones on as the cab continued its smooth, steady rhythm down the open highway.
Keegan closed his eyes, letting the hum of the engine and the gentle vibration of the road lull him into the quiet darkness.
The heavy dread that had gripped his chest all morning had settled into a dull, numb ache, cushioned by Kira’s comforting words.
He’s just at his dad’s house resting.
He was just drained.
After all taht we did last night.
Yet, right at the fragile edge of sleep, as the warmth of the memory of last night began to blur with the reality of the morning, a quiet, terrifying whisper crept through the silence of his mind.
Ash…
were you really just sick…
or were you sick because of me?
VOTE for me!