“Seriously?!” I screamed. Darn it! It was my fault after all, even Uncle Solomon had teamed up with me to make him get out of his cave of a room for once. We had to chase him all around the house, the garden, the pool, the cat cave(he had 17 cats) and in the end we caught him hiding in the chicken coop. God! I take him to a party once! and he almost gets raped by Vanessa Gresonbach ! I thought she was my friend, that snake .She might have been my friend, inviting us to her party and all, but I will not let anyone steal my Joshy . Wait. What? When did I get so possessive ?
barf! “Ewwwww! Josh, My clothes!” Great Just fudging great! We didn’t even have an extra pair. As I began to think of a solution, Josh just finished puking on himself while I had to keep checking him to sure that he doesn’t drown in his own vomit.
Boy 17 dies of Suffocating on his own vomit. Irresponsible Girlfriend, Possible Murderess? I shuddered at the thought.
The best thing to do was to call Natalie. If Mom finds out , She’ll get all worried and sick ,filing up my phone with voice mails and texts. We were still 17 after all . Dad was cool with it though, even he had a hand at convincing Josh to attend the party with me. Josh was his favourite now. Like the son he never had to inherit the multibillionaire Sapphire Inc that we were the proud owners of. He even sponsored his education for that matter. Solomon and him were child hood friends after all.
“Hello? Nat? Can you hear me?”
I could hear only static from that end .....
Redial
“Hello! Natalie Sapphire! Can you hear me?!”
I looked over to Josh who was looking at the moon above singing “Oh look at the moon, She shines so high! Oh mother she looks like a lamp in the sky....” followed by gibberish.
I just huffed and looked for his phone, I checked the pockets of his shirt to which he giggled . They were empty ,I put my hands in the pockets of his pants and he screeched in my ear “Go away! I am still virgin!” pfft! I just rolled my eyes and pulled out the phone which fortunately was the only thing that was vomit free. I up Natalie and She picked up. “Hey Joshy boyy! How’s the party? Let me know if my Little sister’s getting into some mischief! “
I groaned .He was everybody’s favourite. The little demon..
”Nat! It’s me! Why is your phone not working?”
“Oh it’s perfectly fine..I just decided to ignore you for a while” she chuckled “Is there a problem Clar?”
“Major”
“What?! Is someone hurt?!”
“Trust me, this is worse”
“Will you tell me what happened before I alert the Police?!”
“Josh got drunk and he puked all inside his car , his clothes, MY clothes, I don’t know what to do! And no. Don’t call the police”
She laughed ”Ahh..Just stay at a hotel room for the night and text me the address along with the room number, Take a shower, clean yourself and have a good night’s rest. I’ll come by in the morning with fresh clothes. “
“But what about now Nat?! We don’t have any extra clothes!!”
“Hey! Don’t you dare yell at me young lady! I am doing all I can here and I just altered my busy schedule to save your careless arse!”
Gulp “Sorry Nat” Did she just turn into mom mode back there?
“Good girl. Now go find a place and send me the location. Good Night” The air started to become strange..gales started blowing and lightening struck, almost roasting a tree that stood idle in the field, followed by a clap of thunder. Josh just tugged my shirt and buried his face on my arm like he always did.scaredy cat It began to pour cats and dogs on us. The car’s roof sounded like it was being pelted by stones.
I restarted the engine and drove to the nearest hotel that the map indicated with a “home” symbol. It was a dull, shabby looking place, not very hygienic but we didn’t have a choice. I got out of the car and waked over to Josh’s end and proceeded to lift him up and put his arm over my shoulder. Boy had I underestimated momma nature! It felt like bullet shots on my head..It was a hail storm! CRASH! The windshield shattered “What in the world?!” I bought this car for his birthday! He’ll be so heart broken... But I was glad I was able to pull him out of the car before the glass could cause any harm to his pretty face. My legs shook with the weight I was supporting on my shoulders. I knocked on the door that seemed like it was on the verge of breaking apart. I was greeted by a very annoyed looking lady who wore a night cap and had a gas lamp in her hand. There was no electricity here. “Were you the ones who threw them rotten tomatoes at me?” She barked with an accent I had never heard in my life. Lightening struck , illuminating the interiors and giving us a glimpse of the woman’s hideously scarred face in the process. This was immediately followed by a clap of thunder.
“Umm No?” I felt my voice shaking. I cleared my throat “NO”
Her eyes drifted over to Josh and stayed there for a while. Why does this idiot have to have this effect every time he enters a bloody room?
“Come in then!” She winked with an evil grin stretching from ear to ear.
“Boyfriend?”She asks, eyebrows raised “Or a friend with benefits?”She chuckled
She was getting on my nerves now; but we didn’t have a choice.Beads of sweat were forming on my forehead. “Come on Clarine! It’s just a little white lie.You can do this” I told myself.
“Yes. Boyfriend.We would like a room for two please “ I huffed
“Sure,Sure darling” She said,still eyeing Josh ”Follow me”
As I dragged my “boyfriend’s” sorry arse with me while following her , the smell of rotting wood hit my nostrils. Eerie paintings covered the walls and my mind was thinking of everything that could possibly go wrong. The place looked spooky with the added power outage and a dangerous storm. The woman could be an escaped murderer,who might have taken shelter at such a place ,waiting to ambush clueless teenagers like us. Was I just being paranoid? I hope so.
“Here!” she shoved the keys in my face “If you see anything unusual in here” she glanced around nervously before coming close to my ear “run for your lives” Boom! Another clap of thunder . She turned her heel towards the direction we had come from, leaving the faint glow of the gas lamp behind her. As I watched her disappear into the darkness I realized that she had left us with nothing but an old kerosene lamp and the keys to the room. I gently put the lamp on the ground and began to unlock the room. Josh’s head was still resting on my shoulders. The rusty lock clicked open and I unbolted the door. Had it not been opened since many years on end or was I that drained of energy? When it finally opened, I pushed the door which groaned and screeched till it hit the wall.
The room was not as bad as I thought it would be, It seemed pretty well maintained except for a few bits of wallpaper missing and the smell of moist wood. I walked over to one of the beds and plopped Josh on it. My limp shoulders thanked me as I stretched my aching body. The electricity came back. Thank goodness! I looked for the bathroom door and found two nice. I headed towards one of them as I needed to clean myself really bad. I went in and opened the cabinets to find everything I needed, Soap, Shampoo , towels ,Shaving blades, all unopened of course. The water seemed to wash away discomfort from every inch of my skin despite of being freezing because of the hail storm. I moaned with relief every time a wave of relaxation hit me. Lights off I shrieked before blinking my eyes rapidly, the water still hitting my body. Outside the door, I heard footsteps and the gas lamp being turned off, followed by ghostly silence.
Photo credit: pexels.com