Out of the Morning and Into the Night

“Seventy-one miles to go! Sixty-three miles to go! Fifty-five miles to go!” Roxine screamed every time we drove past a sign that told us how many more miles it would be until we reached our destination. With each sign came more and more excitement.

As we were approaching State Line, Roxine completely flipped. “WE’RE ALMOST THERE!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. I sighed, waiting for my hearing to recover from her unnecessary screaming.

“Rox, we’re sitting RIGHT next to each other. Did you really need to scream?”

“YES!” she screamed yet again. I smacked her arm with the back of my right hand, leaving a nice big red mark on her left arm. “Oww,” she whined, “that really stung.”

“Told you not to scream,” I said as I continued staring out toward the highway as we drove through State Line. Another mile marker passed. Forty-eight miles to go. Roxine couldn’t contain herself, and screamed yet again.

I glanced over her. “Sorry, I’m just kinda excited,” she said quietly.

I continued looking at her, saying with a serious tone, “I can kick you out here and make you walk the forty-eight miles to Vegas, or you could quit screaming every time we pass a mile marker.” “NO NO NOOO!” she shrieked. “I’ll be quiet, I promise!” She gave me a funny look when I burst out laughing.

“You didn’t actually think I was serious, did you? I would never kick you out, especially when we’re gonna go have a kick ass time together tonight!”After I finished my statement, she giggled lightly as well.

“Yeah, what was I thinking, you’re not that mean…” she hesitated, “…usually.”

The next forty eight miles went by quickly. Soon enough, we could see the casinos on the horizon as be began making our way through the outskirts of Vegas. We immediately looked at each other and screamed. “WE’RE ALMOST THERE!”

As we continued driving, our pace slowed. “Well, this isn’t any different from back home,” I sighed, looking at the traffic building up in front of us. We had been lucky to have been moving for a while, but eventually came to a complete stop. I dug around in the glove compartment, searching for the GPS my parents bought me as a gift. They knew me too well, I get lost every single time I go somewhere, or so it seems.

As I finally found it hiding underneath my car registration, I handed it to Roxine, handing her a paper covered with addresses.

“I need you to set this thing up for me so it tells me how to get to The Plaza. Otherwise, we’ll be driving around this town for hours.”

She smirked, fumbling with the navigator. As I showed her how to turn it on, the traffic began slowly began moving once again. I slowly eased onto the gas pedal, jerking Roxine’s head a bit. She didn’t really notice, though-she was too busy trying to figure out the GPS, which angered her more every time she pushed a button.

“I can’t figure this stupid thing out!” she hissed at me, acting like she was going to throw it through the windshield. I continued driving at a sluggish pace, teaching her how to input addresses and such at the same time.

As I began driving faster, a smile spread across her anger stricken face. “It’s true, you learn something new every day. Maybe they should publish one of those books, GPS’s for dummies, for people just like me,” she concluded sarcastically. I simply laughed and continued on driving.

“Keep left, then merge right,” the GPS repeated, navigating us toward our destination.

“What’s that suppose to mean? Keep left, then merge right.” Roxine imitated the GPS. “I want to know how exactly you stay left, and merge right, all at the same time.” She sat there, deep in thought. I couldn’t help but to giggle-she always wondered about the most random things sometimes.

Suddenly, the GPS begun talking again, “Merge right onto I-15 in .1 miles.”

I looked at the overhead signs on the freeway, pointing to the many different freeways coming up. I quickly realized I had to merge, fast. My freeway was coming up and I didn’t want to miss it. I hurriedly clicked my blinker on, trying to move over. Nobody wanted to let me merge, so I begun driving aggressively. Many people honked their horns, probably thinking we were some dumb tourists who didn’t know where we were going.

Reality is: we didn’t.

I made it over to the last lane which merged onto the 15 freeway, relieved.

While looking in my rear view mirror, I saw Roxine out of the corner of my eye-she had a horror stricken face. “Looks like you’ve seen a ghost or something,” I said as she shook her head.

“You drive like a freaking maniac! I knew I shouldn’t have let you drive…” she grumbled under her breath.

Noticing my exit was coming up, I pulled over to the right and began to exit the freeway as the GPS spoke again. It told me exactly where to go, but of course, I got lost. The streets here are so confusing, my goodness. I wondered how the people who lived here found their way around the millions of streets.

It wasn’t a very long drive from the freeway to the hotel either, just a couple simple turns and we were there. I pulled into the covered valet lot, stopping the car to get out and unload my bags as I waited for a valet worker to assist me. I looked around; it didn’t look like anybody was working there.

Roxine and I unloaded the last of our bags from the trunk and walked inside to the check-in counter. Roxine threw her stuff down, her arms sore from holding all her heavy bags. The woman working at the desk didn’t look too thrilled to be there. When I walked up, I smiled at her, and she simply asked me for a last name in a dull, unhappy tone of voice.

“Thompson,” I replied as I saw Roxine checking herself out in one of the nearby mirrors. The lady looked even more unhappy than before, shaking her head in disgust at my best friend.

My laughing at Rox was shortly interrupted, “here’s two card keys, you’ll be staying in room in this room on the eighteenth floor,” she pointed to the number on the card holding our card keys. “Enjoy your stay at The Plaza,” she concluded dully.

I tapped Rox on the shoulder, “come on, quit checking yourself out and let’s go, our room is on the eighteenth floor,” I told her, guiding her to the elevators.

Suddenly, I heard her gulp. “Please don’t tell me we’re taking the elevator, I’d rather take the stairs.” Roxine was deathly afraid of elevators and confined spaces. She always made me hold her hand when we got into one. As I told her everything would be alright, I pushed the button, calling for the elevator. Within minutes, one of the many elevator doors opened, and a group of drunk people stumbled out as Rox and I made our way in with a couple other people staying at the hotel as well. I asked everyone which floor they needed to go to, pressing the necessary floor buttons. Roxine gave me a horrified look, so I grabbed her hand and she relaxed a little. The people in the elevator gave us a weird look.

“She’s afraid of elevators,” I said as the elevator creaked, and Roxine jumped. “Holding her hand puts her at ease, somewhat.” The others just stared at us like we were crazy, so I turned away, not wanting to look at them. As we rode higher and higher, more and more people entered the already cramped elevator. I was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic, but was soon relieved, realizing we were almost to our floor.

As the elevator dinged once more, the doors opened, and I looked up, noticing we had arrived at the eighteenth floor finally. I stepped out, still holding Roxine’s hand, as I gripped my bags and begun looking for our room.

We made our way through the narrow corridor, easily finding our room. I slid the card key into the slot, causing the green light to flash, signaling the door was unlocked. I opened the door, revealing a mid-sized suite with sea-green carpeting, a walk in closet with bathroom, a mini bar, and a coral colored comforter covering the queen sized bed.

“It’s nice and cool in here. Feels better than the heat outside,” Rox suggested.

Just then, we discovered the balcony hidden behind the window curtain. We rushed over, shoving the curtains aside as we unlocked the sliding door and stepped out onto the balcony. We peered over the railing, which made me dizzy, on account I’m deathly afraid of heights. I backed away from the edge of the balcony, gazing out over the city.

“What a view,” I mumbled.

“Wait until it gets dark, it’ll be the best view of all!” Rox exclaimed, opening her arms to the sky as she turned back around and headed into the room. I stepped in behind her, stopping at the AC to turn it down so it wouldn’t be as cold.

“We’ve got a few hours to kill before the concert, what do you wanna do now?” I questioned, trying to come up with a plan.

“I know, let’s go to Circus Circus! It’s only a few minutes from here!” Roxine smiled excitedly.

“Alrighty! Let me go use the restroom real quick, and then we’ll head back down and call for a taxi.” I walked over to the bathroom, flicking on the light switch. At first, I thought the light was broken, but it took a few moments for it to finally flicker on. I looked around the bathroom, noticing the tiny shower. That’s what I’ll do when we get back from Circus Circus, I thought. I’ll take a shower. That way, I’ll be all clean for the concert tonight.
I finished up using the restroom, and walked out to wash my hands, grabbing a hand towel once I was done. Roxine was sitting at a small table by the sliding glass door, trying to figure out my laptop.

“You ready to go?” I asked as I walked out, putting some extra money and a card key in my pocket. She shook her head and stood up from the table, quickly slipping her flip flops back on. As we made our way out of the room, she freaked out.

“We have to take the elevator again, don’t we?!” she sighed as I shook my head. This time, the elevator took longer than the first time to reach our floor. When the elevator arrived at our floor, it was full of people, so we decided to catch the next one, hoping it was free of people. We waited silently for the next elevator, listening for the ding of the elevator as it reached our floor. This time when the elevator doors slid open, there was a bellboy in the elevator.

“Which floor will you ladies be going to?” He asked politely as we stepped into the elevator and Roxine grasped my hand.

“First floor, please.” I looked at him and asked. He nodded, putting his employee key into the slot and pushed the button labeled ‘one.’ Roxine cocked her head.

“What’s the key for? IS THE ELEVATOR BROKEN?!” I looked at the bellboy, explaining her fear of elevators.

“No,” he chucked, “it’s so the elevator doesn’t stop at each floor.”

“You’re my lifesaver!” Rox gasped, thanking the bellboy.

“No problem, stopping at each floor gets annoying after a while,” he explained. After a minute or so, we reached the bottom level, stepping out and thanking the bellboy once again. He smiled and waved, wishing us a good time. We walked out the casino doors, heading toward the taxi lineup.