Hotel California

"This just cant be" I said in a low voice.
"Calm down" said Mikey taking my hand in his.
Seconds later Tom caught up with us.
"Alex" he gave a short pause "you look beautiful"
"What do you want Tom?” I asked raising my voice.
"I haven’t seen you in almost a month, since we broke up… since you broke up with me. And in this time you haven’t given me the chance to talk to you, to get over this. "
"Get over what? Us? Are you an idiot? "
"I know I am. And I know you’re mad at me. But this doesn’t have to be like this"
"i think it does"
Tom didn’t look like himself. His hair was matted and all over his clothes wrinkled and his FACE, like he hadn’t eaten in days.

"Please Alex give me another chance" he said trying to take my hand. This made me shy away from him.
"Don’t touch me, don’t ever touch me again"
"But Alex" he didn’t finish when he wandered his eyes towards my hand that was clouching Mikey’s.
Finally his head realized the rest.
"It because of him isn’t it? You are together? "
"Yeah"
"You can’t do this Alexandra! You can’t do this to me"
"I can do whatever the fuck I want. Leave me alone"
I looked at his FACE that was full of anger. Like a mad man. He suddenly took something out of his belt. When I looked at what he held I stopped breathing. A gun.

"All right I think things are about to change here. Let her go Michael" he said pointing at him with the gun.
"Of course not" said Mikey
"Oh really?”
"Tom gets that damn gun away from us" I said scared.
"I don’t think so love"
Tom looked at me in the eyes and I count move. It was like he had some kind of power over me. Suddenly he took my wrist in his hand roughly.
"Time to go"
"Let her go" Mikey said thinking quickly and hitting Tom leaving him unconscious on the floor.
"Let’s go" he yelled.
We jumped inside his car. Maybe the punch Mikey gave him would keep him at bay for a while…or not. When the car was pulling back I saw Tom opening his eyes and starting to regain his balance, but it was already too late and our car was out of the parking lot.

"Oh my god" I said.
"Calm down Alex. It’s going to be alright" Mikey took my hand. He was driving fast. I guess he wanted to get to the police station or something. We didn’t know if he would try anything again so we had to be prepared.
"This isn’t possible" he said surprised.
"What?”
"He is right behind us"
I turned around and there was Tom chasing behind us.
This was a nightmare.
I wished more than anything that I could be sleeping at that moment and that this wasn’t happening. But it was. It was reality. We where trying to get away from a mad man, with a gun.
"What are we going to do?”
"Run away from him"
Mikey was driving as fast as he could, but we still couldn’t get away from him.
Minutes later we where at the end of the city limits. A little after we lost Tom.
"We have to hide" I said worried.
"Where?
"I don’t know" while the car was advancing I could see a neon sign from a hotel. The Hotel California. Our only chance. "There! In the hotel"

We where sitting down on the hotel room. We still couldn’t believe that this was happening to us. It was so scary.
"What are we going to do?”
"I don’t know"
"What if he goes to out houses? My mom? "
"I don’t think so. Calm down" Mikey hugged me tight.

I could not believe that what had begun as a wonderful evening had finished like this. But he had already finished?
We were the only guests in the hotel. Apparently it was not very popular. So the friendly receptionist, who was unable to remove the headphones for a moment, said we could choose any room. As if that mattered.
I felt bad. With nausea. The only thing that made me feel better was being with Mikey, in his arms. And even though I was always in his arms I felt safe. Now, I had a bad feeling.

DANCE WITH THE DEVIL – BREAKING BENJAMIN [on the player]

Someone beat the door. Our nerves on the edge.
"Who is it?" I asked, nervous.
There was no response. They beat once again. Stronger.
"I'm scared…" I said, in a hushed voice. My heart beating very fast. It was as if I was having a heart attack.
They kept pounding the door. Even Stronger.
"I know you are inside…"
It was. It was Tom. We had been found.
Suddenly, he opened the door. How?
"I knew you couldn’t hide for long…"
"Get out of here Tom!"
"I don’t think so Alex…"
"Don’t do this please…"
"what? Killing your new boyfriend? Of course I will! Are you blind? Don’t you see that I love you? That you're what I think about every second? He is pulling us apart! I have to fix this!"
"Don’t you dare!"
I lifted from the bed and I got in front of Tom. If he wanted to hurt Mikey, I would not allow it.
"Move Alexandra…"
"No!"
"I will not hurt you. Not you"
I started to fight with him. Trying to remove the weapon.
"I told you to stop!" said Tom, furious, hitting me with the gun. I fell to the floor, and listened as Mikey stood up and began to fight with Tom, but shortly thereafter, I lost consciousness.

"Don’t you understand everything I did for her? Of course, when it started, everything was a game. I just wanted to make a joke out of her. But I got to know her, and I realized that she was wonderful, that she is the woman of my life"
"Then. Everything was a lie?"
"Yes. But until that fight the first time, I realized that I loved her. That could not be without her"
"You’re sick"
"Of course not. I even had to ask Greta to flirt with you and kiss you. It was the only way that she would hate you and run to my arms. But everything went wrong"

What was all that? Someone was arguing. But who?
Then I recognized the voices were Tom and Mikey. I remembered everything that had happened, and I realized the words he had just said. Tom had played with me. All the time, even caused my fight with Mikey. I was furious. I opened my eyes, and I saw Tom, beating Mikey. Who was on the floor. The bastard didn’t just want to kill him; he wanted to see him suffer. And I wouldn’t allow it.

"You bastard!" I yelled, and lifted myself from the ground.
"Quiet Alex… everything will be fine," said Tom, with a cynical smile on his face. I could not bear hearing him say that.
Mikey looked really tired, injured. I could not see him like that one minute more.
Tom was going to hit him again, and I had a fit of anger. I looked at the floor, and there was Tom’s gun. I took it in my hands and didn’t hesitate one second to just… fire.

Everything seemed to happen so slowly. I saw Tom falling to the ground, lifeless. I had killed him.

I felt my strength go, and my legs double, dropping to my knees to the floor. I could not believe it.
The floor began to get covered by his blood; Mikey looked at me not believing what he had just seen. I don’t know how he lifted himself off the floor and ran to me hugging me to his chest.

"Alex…"
"… h-he wanted to kill you… and and I couldn’t allow that Mikey and now I killed him."
I was in shock. I could not move. Just felt the tears spring from my eyes.
Mikey held me in his arms. Now what?

"Lets get out of here"
"What?!"
"lets leave the city. Now!"
That was he saying? Run away or something like that? But how could I leave 18 years of memories behind?
"Okay"
We Where leaving, we where going to go away.

And back to reality. Here I am, sitting in bed in the hotel room, where I just killed someone. Wishing that Mikey would get here soon. He had to get rid of Tom’s body. He said that he would drop it on a lake, to make it more difficult that someone could find him. .
Cleaning the room had been the worst. I had to touch the blood, which had been spread on floor and it had reached some of the wall.
When I finished, Mikey returned.
"We must leave now"
Even if I thought that I was the person with the worst luck in the world, it was lucky that the only person within miles of us had her earphones on, blasting heavy metal music, she never heard the shot.

We left the hotel, and we went to our respective homes. We took some things, only the most important things. Nevertheless, it hurt to go, but it was necessary.
We both had already taken everything that we needed, we got in the car and we left.
"I know you as I have said this a thousand times tonight. But everything is going to be okay Alex"
"I know"

Even if he didn’t know that it was the millionth time he had said that to me, this was the moment I needed it most, he took my hand and held it tight. We were going to build our own future.

EPILOGUE.

FRANKLIN - PARAMORE [on the player]

Two years had passed since prom night. Things had changed a lot. We moved away, we change our names and began new lives.
It was possible that we could have done that?
Before going away, Mikey emptied the account that their parents had done in his name. That money was enough to survive a very good time, pay school and rent an apartment for two. Yes, there was enough money, if you were wondering.

A lot of things happened after we left.

People thought that Tom had run away, by the disappointment of love. Yeah right.
Mom spent months looking for me, and by failing to find me, she thought that the only person by her side had died, and she lost all reason.

I don’t feel bad for her, she now thinks that my father is still alive and in her madness she is happy once again.

Mikey's parents simply thought we had escaped, so they gave it no importance.

Despite everything that had happened, Mikey and I were trying to have normal lives. We had married. We changed our appearance just in case someone comes to recognize us. But look at the positive side I’m a red head now! OK, there isn’t great excitement about that. Mikey didn’t want to change his hair, but now he buys contact lenses. He looks even better than before.
The people at our apartment building think that we are a newly married couple of Canadians, or so I heard. As if I looked Canadian.

Everything because of a joke. Someone trying to be funny.

And lately, we thought of something else. Not a dog because we are allergic. Despite of being so young, Mikey has thought of a baby and meanwhile it arrives, every night, in our room after turning off the light, we say 'I love you' sometimes and kissing each other, we take care of our little Michael like he was out little baby bunny, until the real baby arrives.