Mile Marks

I looked at the guy behind the desk of the Motel 6 and said, “We have money, and we’re willing to pay you to stay here dammit!” We’d been arguing for maybe fifteen minutes about how he couldn’t let minors stay at his motel, but we had money.

“Come on, man. You don’t want us out on the streets getting mugged or something,” Alex was saying. “Then the money wouldn’t be with you, it would be with some guy who probably isn’t looking to stay in this town much longer.”

The guy was massaging his temples. “Alright, alright fine! You kids can stay here, but for the most two nights!”

The two of us sighed, and I thanked him. He gave us the room key, and we went outside to get our bags. I pulled out my two duffle bags, and my laptop bag. There were two floors of rooms, ours was room eleven, and we had to climb up the stairs and go all the way to the end of the hallway. Alex and I had packed only sort of light, so we were somewhat tired by the time we got to the room. I fumbled with the keys while opening the door.

I walked in, set my shit on the bed, and went to take a shower. “Alex, I am in desperate need of a shower, so I get it first.”

He started whining, and I shushed him. I needed this shower. I turned the water on to let it get hot, and went out to grab a change of clothes. It was somewhat hot that day, so I chose a pair of jean shorts, an American flag shirt, and all black high-top Converse. I set them all on the counter in the bathroom, and stepped into the shower.

An hour later, I got out of the shower and put on the clothes. When I got out of the bathroom, I found Alex sitting on the queen sized bed with his computer in his lap. He was talking to someone on video chat. I jumped onto the bed and found out he was talking to Jack.

“Roman!” he yelled.

“Hey guys, what’s up? Lex, the shower’s free, but I probably used all of the hot water, so sorry about that.”

“Roman, guess what?” Jack looked excited.

“What, Jacky?”

“I have most of my classes with you!” Oh yeah. I’d forgotten today was the first day of Dulaney.

“Too bad I won’t be there for at least a month.” It felt so weird saying that I wasn’t going to be at school. I had always been one to get good grades, and now I was skipping for at least a month. I didn’t think I’d be able to get used to that.

“Yeah, about that…everyone was talking about you two. There are a billion rumors about you guys. I mean, you just didn’t come to school, and you’re not going to for a while.”

Alex jumped into the conversation, “Well, on that note, I’m going to take a shower. You two have fun talking about people talking about us.” He left and I heard the shower turn on.

“So, Jacky, what were people saying?” I’d never really been the center of attention before, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“Well, some people were saying that you two had a thing over the summer and decided to run away because you were pregnant. Then, another person was saying you got put in the witness protection program because you and Alex saw someone get murdered.”

“Oh, is that all?” I laughed. People could be so naïve to believe shit people start saying. It was actually hilarious. Some people thought I was pregnant? Ha!

“Yeah, pretty much. Though the teachers all wondered where you were. Did you tell anyone that you were leaving?”

“Nope, well, I left a note for my parents, but that was it.”

“Oh, well, I just hope you don’t have to make up senior year.”

“About that, could you find out from a teacher, preferably Mr. Dupont, if there’s some way to make up for all of the time I’d be missing? Like a report I could do about our travels?”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to him for you.”

I heard the water shut off and said, “Alex is done, and we’re going out, so I better go. Love you, Jacky boy.”

“Love you, too, Romey.” I waved goodbye and shut down the computer.

Alex came out of the bathroom in a towel and grabbed his skinny jeans and a white v-neck. I held up a jean vest and asked, “Vest or no vest?”

“Vest, definitely.”

“Alrighty, Lex. Go get changed and we can explore the windy city.”