The right side of my face was numb and I had a pounding headache from that slap I received. I had never been slapped before, not like that. When Elliot placed an ice bag against my cheek I couldn't help but flinch. Despite how gentle he was trying to be, I still felt a sting from the contact.

"Sorry," he apologised.

"It's fine," I answered, my voice quiet.

It was just us in the room, the others had gone with Reed to tell the receptionist that we would be checking out early and to buy some food from the mini shop on the ground level.

"Hey," Elliot suddenly lowered the ice bag from my cheek and only continued speaking when I eventually looked at him. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," I dismissed, but Elliot read right through my words.

"I don't think you're fine."

"Ally just went through a horrible breakup," I stated. "It doesn't matter what I feel."

A jaw ticked in Elliot's jaw. "What you feel does matter," he said with surety. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," I said through clenched jaws.

"Talk to me, Zara," Elliot urged. "How are you?"

"I'm not okay, Elliot!" I broke, and I thought I had exhausted my store of tears on the ride back to the hotel, but I guessed not. "I got slapped by a man twice my size, I started taking a liking to someone who only wanted to sleep with me, and I already had problems with relationships but now I'm going to constantly be sceptical whenever a guy talks to me," the words tumbled out of my mouth and I couldn't stop them. I couldn't get rid of the thought that I had not only gotten hurt physically but also emotionally and mentally. "My friends got hurt because I couldn't say no to Reed quick enough. If I had we wouldn't have been at that party and—"

"It wasn't your fault," Elliot assured me. "You couldn't have known."

I opened my mouth to continue but the only sound that came out was a whimper and the next thing I knew Elliot had an arm around me, trying to calm my shaking body and uncontrollable sobs, telling me over and over again that it wasn't my fault.

By the time the others returned to the room, I had calmed down. None of us had an appetite so we didn't eat anything. Elliot and Reed left once we started packing our bags in silence, other than the occasional words of comfort. Once we had packed, we bunched onto the bed and held on to each other.

"Hey, you all still awake?" Serena asked after a long silence, and we all responded with sounds of confirmation. "Despite everything that happened today, I'm so glad I came here with you girls. I mean, I did so many things I've never done before, and that includes kicking two pricks in the balls."

We chuckled at that and I added, "yeah, same. I don't think I've ever spat in someone's face like I did today."

"Yeah, that was gross," Faizah commented with a soft laugh. "I tossed a book at someone's face."

"That was actually great accuracy," I commended.

"And I stood up for myself for the first time and fought back," Ally added. "It was quite satisfying pulling his hair. I wish I had done more though."

"Agreed," we replied simultaneously and couldn't help the laughs that followed.

"But honestly, I love you all so much," Ally said. "And Zara, I'm so sorry for trying to set you up with every guy who so much as glances at you."

"Yeah," Serena agreed. "If it wasn't for us encouraging you to go to that party—"

"Stop right there," I cut them off and repeated the words Elliot had said to me earlier. "It's not your fault, it's none of our fault, we couldn't have known what would happen."

"Zara's right," Faizah said. "If we blame ourselves, we'll only depress ourselves. Let's not give that asshole the satisfaction of depressing us."

We all remained silent.

"Did you just say 'asshole'?" Ally asked.

"I did," Faizah admitted, and she never swore. "It's actually a great adjective."

And just like that, the sombre atmosphere cleared and we found ourselves laughing through the night until we eventually fell asleep.

****

Elliot and Reed were standing in the lobby when we exited the elevator, their bags all packed and ready to leave.

"What are you guys doing?" Serena asked.

"We decided to leave with you," Reed answered her. "There's no point in staying if you guys aren't here."

The meaning of that was clear. He meant there was no point in staying if Serena wasn't here, and judging by the way Serena threw herself at Reed, her arms wrapping around him in a long, sweet embrace, she caught the meaning of it too. It was safe to say that she was no longer just flirting with Reed, he had managed to break down her walls.

"Thanks," she said, still in his arms, "for everything."

Reed wrapped his arms tighter around her and replied, "always."

"Hey," I said, grabbing their attention. I smiled slowly before saying Serena's catchphrase: "if we can't take part in what you're about to do, please don't do it in front of us."

Serena laughed at my use of her catchphrase, and I had been so focused on them that I hadn't noticed when Elliot approached me until he took my hand and pulled me aside.

"How's your cheek?" He asked.

"Better," I told him.

"Good. The swelling has died down," he analysed, raising a hand to touch my cheek. "I'm glad." There was a long pause but he kept his hand on my cheek. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I do," he said. "I should have been there earlier."

"It's not like you knew what was going to happen," I said. "But you had no intention of coming, what made you change your mind?"

"I don't know, I just had a bad gut feeling about it."

"Well, I'm glad you listened to your gut feeling and came. I don't want to think of what would have happened if you hadn't."

"Then don't," he told me. "Let's just leave that memory behind us and cherish the ones that matter."

"Oh, trust me, I'll be cherishing that moment whether I like it or not," I told him. "It's a highlight memory for all of us as a time when we all stood up for each other and had each other's backs. We all did things we would never do otherwise, but Serena is the most excited about what she did. She kicked two grown men in the balls, after all. When will she ever have another opportunity to do that?"

Elliot chuckled, "remind me never to get on her bad side."

"You don't want to get on any of our bad sides," I said. "Because if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us."

His lips slowly curved into a grin, "your friendship with them is beyond admirable."

"Mm," I agreed. "Almost all of my best memories were made with them." And I was pretty sure that after a couple of months, we would find ourselves laughing at and recounting last night's memory like it was some scene in a movie.

After having made our way to the car park, we tossed our bags into our respective vehicles and jumped in. Just like before, the boys drove behind us. They lived in another city a handful of miles away from ours, so we would reach our destination before them.

It had been what felt like two hours on the road and the heat got more unbearable as time passed. Ally and Serena fell asleep some time ago and Faizah reduced the music to allow it to play in the background. All the windows were rolled down, all but mine as I had my head stuck out the window, allowing the wind to blow against my face and cool me down. I couldn't fall asleep, nor could I stop replaying last night's events in my mind. The look on Ally's face, the way that dick dealt with all of us. Even though Jonah and Ally hadn't been official, this was still going to be the toughest break-up for her. He had treated her with kindness and had even gotten her—all of us—a discount to be able to afford that hotel, and all because he wanted her in his bed.

My eyes stung at that thought.

"Stop thinking about it," Faizah suddenly said, glancing at me through the mirror.

"I'm trying not to," I admitted.

Faizah sighed, "this was probably the best and worst holiday to date."

I softly laughed at that, "couldn't agree more."

Just then my phone vibrated and I checked it only to see a text from Elliot.

'Come out.'

It took me a second to make sense of that statement and realised that he wanted me to come out to the back of the pickup.

"I'll be back," I told Faizah before I opened the back window and squeezed through. I moved across the floor panel and closer to the tailgate so I could hear whatever Elliot wanted to say. "Yes?"

"How are you?" Elliot asked over the wind.

I gave him a look, "you couldn't have asked me that over the phone?"

"No," he said simply. "We'll be parting ways soon and I want to make sure you're okay. It's so easy for you to say 'I'm fine' and just let it go, so I want to see on your face that you're really okay."

Elliot had a way with his words that made me all jittery inside. And I hated it. I had started to take a liking to Elliot, and that was the main reason I had given Kyle a chance and allowed myself to be charmed by him, so I could get over whatever I was feeling for Elliot. In my desperation not to fall for a taken man I did something I never would have done otherwise, I gave a guy a chance. If it wasn't for Elliot, I might never have allowed Kyle to keep his arm around me for as long as he had. I never would have allowed my friends to convince me to go to the party. I usually walked away before a guy made a move on me, but I knew Elliot was never going to so to get over him I allowed Kyle to make a move on me.

None of this would have happened if I hadn't felt whatever it was that I felt for Elliot.

I didn't know where the thought came from, but once it came there was no stopping it. It was a wave surging through my mind and being, and it was because of that that I said sharply, "why do you even care?"

Elliot's expression shifted and Reed glanced at me, taken aback, but I continued.

"Aren't you engaged? The only female you should care about is your fiancé. The only female you should be kind to is your fiancé. The only female who should have feelings for you is your fiancé!" I yelled, both at him and myself. "Not only did I have a crappy night last night, but I somehow managed to take a real liking to a freaking engaged man! So no, I'm not okay, so stop asking." Without thinking, I shot to my feet but quickly managed to find my balance. "I get that you were only trying to be nice and friendly, that you didn't mean for this to happen, but it did, and I hate that it did."

I took one deep breath and turned to go through the window and back to the interior of the car. A blaring, loud hoot suddenly sounded, making me pause. I looked to the side just in time to see a truck twice our size racing toward us. My heart suddenly dropped at the sight. Faizah hit the brakes suddenly and I fell against the panel. I slid across it and hit my back against the edge of the tailgate. A sharp pain ran up my spine and only doubled when Reed and Elliot hit into us, failing to stop their car in time. The sound and smell of wheels skidding against gravel took over my senses, but we didn't stop in time. The truck smashed into us and the impact hurled me into the air.

Everything turned slow as I fell through the air and a bright light flashed behind my eyes. I saw images then. Images of memories. Memories unfolding before me. Every tear. Every laugh. Every cry. Every smile.

Everything.

My whole life flashed before my eyes in seconds and then it all just stopped when I heard a deafening thump which caused a rapid, unbearable pain to surge through my being. But I didn't scream. And the pain only lasted a second before everything suddenly went black.