Get her back for a chat

"Chloe!" Zack called out after her again, while cursing under his breath and jumping out of the bed. He still wasn't entirely sure of what was going on here, but decided to not let her get away just yet.

A moment later he dashed into the hallway and caught up with her before she had a chance of leaving the building.

"Chloe...?" He started again as he grabbed onto her arm, but cut himself short as she turned back to look at him. There was something in her eyes then that allowed him to understand, and the two of them just stood there staring at one another for the briefest moment.

And then he realized that they weren't alone, and looked up to find Ashley glancing back at him with a curious smile on her pretty face.

"You've been sharing the same room for only twenty minutes and you're already in a fight with eachother...?" She asked them jokingly, as she could see it wasn't fighting that was the actual problem. "Is there reason for me to stay and keep an eye on you, or should I just leave you alone for a while...?"

"I... think we're fine." Said Zack in a stiff voice, while his eyes returned back to Chloe's again. "Just need a little talk, right?"

"Yeah, fine." She managed a smile back at him, as if nothing had really happened between them, and then let him drag her back to their room again while they could feel Ashley's smiling at their backs. Hopefully she wouldn't say anything about the incident to the others at least, but for once be nice and just keep it to herself.

"Look..." Zack tried to say as he was all on his own with Chloe again, but didn't have a clue about how to approach the subject. "I've never, ever, wanted to hurt you in my whole life..."

"But you only got eyes for someone else." She finished the sentence for him, with a sober look in her lovely blue eyes. "I already know that, you know."

"That's not... the whole truth to it." He tried to explain himself, but again couldn't quite find the words. "I mean... I actually like you Chloe! I like you a lot...!"

"And I'll be your best friend, always!" She interrupted him again, and hushed him as he kept trying to object. "But you need to set some boundaries, or you'll never have Vicky see it the same way!"

"She actually thinks we're making a great couple, Zack!" She continued, now with a little laughter escaping her lips. "I've tried my best to get you two together... Only to find that she and Ashley seem to be thinking the same way about you and me!"

"What...?" Zack just stared at her for a moment before he managed to catch up with what she said. When he finally did he could just barely keep from laughing himself though. The idea of his secret crush trying to set him up with his own best friend was actually bordering to hilarious - in it's own, tragic kind of way.

"Yeah!" Chloe was even laughing out loud now, and Zack had a hard time not to join her. But there was also a taint of bitterness to their laughter, as they'd still just been circling around the main problem here - where they were actually standing in relation to eachother...

"That's quite a mess." They finally agreed on, and they found themselves smiling fondly at one another for a couple of moments.

"So, what's it gonna be...?" Chloe eventually asked him, sounding as casual as ever, while in fact it may well have been the most important question of his life. "You don't need to answer right now, but just think of it, ok? We're on a vacation after all, and we're not gonna ruin it on the first day!"

"Yeah, ok." He nodded slowly, with a whole lot of things set in motion inside of his head.

One thing was for sure however. It had suddenly become a whole lot more complicated to spend the nights in the same bed as his childhood friend...