Love and Conspiracy

For the next half an hour, we questioned every motel/hotel that we came by, unsure which one to choose. Finally, we got fed up and chose a Motel 6 about five miles away from my house. After paying for the room and receiving dirty looks from the clerk, we hauled all the alcohol up to the second floor and were ready to party. Tre was already starting up on his second drink by the time Mike and I were barely opening up our first. It felt good to drink that familiar taste again.

An hour had passed by the time I was finishing the last of my third one, Tre was twirling around the room while singing to random songs on the radio, and Mike just continued to laugh his ass off. Tre made his way over to me, pulling me up to dance around with him. Normally, I wouldn’t except that kind of behavior, but hell, I was out of mind for doing that much, so why not? Who knows how long I was up there singing to “What is Love” before I noticed that Tre had passed out on the floor and Mike was holding me to keep me from falling.

“You know, you are a really nice guy for letting me hang with you guys!” I yelled, trying to make some sort of sense over the music playing. He quickly turned it off once he realized how loud it was. He tumbled down to the ground, while pulling me with him causing me to fall in his lap.

“Ahhhhh, sorry!” I yelled in a whisper, not wanting to wake up the sleeping Tre right next to us since the radio was now off. I clumsily slid off his lap to sit right next to him, but in that small movement my shirt slid up.

“Whoa, what happened?” He asked, before placing a cool hand on my waist where my bruises were being exposed. For the moment, I had totally forgotten that I had them. I quickly pulled my shirt back down.

“I ran into a counter,” I lied once again, not making eye contact with him. He continued to stare at me with his bright, blue eyes until I finally interrupted the silence. “I’m actually pretty exhausted. I think I’m gonna crash.” He nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, we should probably get some sleep while we can,” he suggested, looking over at Tre. I giggled. “You can have the bed if you want, I don’t mind the floor,” he whispered, looking over at me. I shrugged.

“I don’t mind sharing,” I said. His smile grew.

~~~

I was abruptly wakened up by a body jumping on me.

“Wakey-wakey!” Tre yelled, bouncing me up and down. I pushed him off of me with all the strength I had, which wasn’t much, however, he got the point. My head was already pounding.

“Well, I am going to take a shower! Would anyone like to join me?” Tre announced. There was no answer except a small chuckle from whom I could only assume was Mike. I couldn’t bear how loud he was, but it didn’t take long for the room to silence once the shower had started.

After lying in bed a little longer, I figured I had better get up before the demon came and tortured me again. I slowly sat up, trying to contain myself from throwing up.

“Coffee?” I heard Mike ask from the other side of the room. I opened my eyes and looked in his direction. He was fully dressed and looked as if he hadn’t even been drinking the night before. I got up and walked over to him.

“How come you guys aren’t feeling like shit?” I mumbled, still half asleep.

“Oh, we do. We’ve just gotten used to it,” He laughed, handing me a cup of coffee. I sat at the small table, rubbing my head in agony from the throbbing pain. After a quick sip from my coffee, Mike broke the silence once again.

“You wanna go for a walk?” He questioned. I gave him a blank expression.

“Seriously?” I asked in a flat tone, causing him to chuckle.

“Aw, come on. It’ll help with that,” he said, pointing towards my head. I sighed, not wanting to agree, but I knew that it would be good for me. I dropped my head in defeat.

“Fine, but I’m taking the coffee with me!” I argued. He laughed a little more.

“Well, we should probably go before Tre gets out of the shower, unless you want to take the dog along, too!” he joked. My head shot up.

“That’s alright. I’d prefer a peaceful walk,” I said, quickly getting my shoes on. In less than a minute I got ready, grabbed my coffee, and we were out the door.

As we walked out the doors of the hotel, I quickly recognized the area we were in. My skin soaked up the warm sun, causing my body to relax a bit. I looked over at Mike and he had his hands shoved in his pockets and was looking at the ground.

“I know just the place we can walk to,” I said with a smile.