28

Morgan's POV

"No!" I said to both the receptionist and Dante. "No way in hell, am I going to spend the night in the same room with this." I pointed at Dante. The receptionist looked confused and shocked, her gaze travelling from Dante to me and back to Dante.

"Okay..." She started. "Are you going to take the room, or not..."

"We will."

"Not."

Dante and I said at the same time.

The receptionist looked confused and a bit scared. "Which one of the answers should I take?"

"Mine." Dante replied. He handed her his card. "We'll take the room."

"Excuse me." I scoffed, glaring at him darkly. "I'm not sharing a room with you. How many times do I have to say that?"

"From what I recall, you've already done that, so this time would make it the second time."

I drew a breath, shooting the receptionist a cold glare signifying her to take her eyes off of me and get back to work. I turned around, heading for the door. Dante blocks my path. I glared at him, wanting to throw a heart felt punch at his face.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"If you're so curious, figure it out yourself." I took two steps towards him, shifting him out of the way. Gratefully, he shifted.

"It's late Morgan. Just..." But I was already out of the hotel lobby before he could get a chance to finish what he was saying. A couple walked past me into the hotel lobby looking for a room. I watched as they walked hand in hand, holding each other for warmth against the cold night and I felt my eyes tear up. If Dante and I had come to this hotel four years ago, a room would have been what we would need.

But that life was over, that fantasy destroyed. There was no way in hell, on earth, or in heaven I was going to spend a night with him in the same room. Never!

Pulling the sleeves of my second skin down to shield my hands from the cold of the night was more like a war.

"Here." I heard Dante say, placing a hoodie I've my shoulders. The first then thought that came to me was to throw the hoodie at him, claiming that I didn't need it. "Shove it." I spat at him, flinging the hoodie back at him.

I stormed off to look for another place to spend the night.

****

"I'm sorry ma'am, all rooms have been booked."

"We really wish we could help you, but we are fully booked."

"We are fully booked miss, try somewhere else."

Four hotels into my search for a room, nothing. All fully booked.

Clenching my teeth, I made an empty can my companion, kicking it around as I moved on to look for the fifth hotel praying to make there luck that it would be at least, all but one room booked. I walked on and on, searching for anything that might look like a hotel sign, or a very big building with a hotel name plastered on the face of the topmost floor.

All around me, people passed, giving me weird looks. Women, men, high schoolers. I clicked my tongue continuing with my journey. My legs were killing me; thanks to the feels I still wore from the date I had with Winston. The ruined date. I kicked them off my feet, picking them up. I had blisters on both my heels, my left little toe together with the skin above my right ankle bruised.

I drew in deep breaths five times, recalling when my dad would tell me to do that whenever everything around me was trying to frustrated the shit out of me. It always worked but not today.

It didn't help.

I kicked the can as hard as I could, landing it on a nearby car, turning on its alarm. The sound jolted me but I stood were I was, listening to the blaring alarm. Someone poked his head out of the window of a building, yelling cursed at me. I flashed him the finger. That was when I saw it "Flannel Hotel and Suites."

Hail mother luck!

"You're just in time ma'am." The receptionist at the lobby sad with a smile. "We have just one room left." I smiled back at him, reaching into the pockets of the hoodie I was putting on. Empty.

I ran my hands around my body. I had come out with nothing. No! Shit no! I looked at the young man at the desk, giving him a weak smile. "One second." Perhaps I could just call... I froze. Who was I even going to call with no phone?

"Excuse me." Someone said, slightly shoving me aside. "Can I get a room, or are you fully booked?"

"You've come right in time sir." The young man said. "Here's the room number." And just like that, the room was booked. I looked at the receptionist who quickly looked away from me immediately my eyes met his.

"Traitor." I spat coldly.

I turned around with heavy shoulders and steeped out of the lobby, back into the cold night. Dragging myself, I hadn't taken twelve steps when droplets of water began to touch me till it became a downpour.

"Really?!" I screamed at the sky. "What the hell is wrong with everything around... Ahhh!" A passing car had just zoomed past me, splashing a pool a dirty water on me. "Fuck you! " I screamed at the car as it kept zooming. I looked at the puddle of water that had been splashed on me, spat at it and kicked it, only to lost my footing and fall into it.

I pished myself up, screaming at everything and nothing in particular. I looked around me and realized that in my bid to find a hotel to lodge in, I had lost my way. I didn't know where I was or how to even find my way back.

The rain became heavier and I began to look around for anything that could provide me with shelter.

The bus stop!

I walked over to the bus stop, with my shoes still in my hand. I sat down on the bench provided for passengers. I was drenched from head to toe, shivering. The cold engulfed me, rattling my teeth. Where was I going to go this night? There was only the room Dante and I were to share and I had lost my way to that place. I clenched my teeth, trying to control it's rattling.

"Oooh..." Someone cooed. "What do we have here?"

A man.

"A beautiful lady, cold and all alone at night." Another remarked.

I looked you to see three men dressed in baggy jeans trousers and baggie cotton hoodies, each holding an umbrella. I rubbed my upper arm, trying to keep myself warm.

"You seem cold." One of them said.

"I'll leave me alone if I were you." I shot him a cold look.

"Turns out, we are not you, and you don't treat men like that, sweetheart. We're just being kind to a damsel." The third one who had not spoken all these while, tried to lift my face up. I moved my head away from his hand, wiping my jaw he had touched.

They scoffed. He grabbed my by my waist, pulling me up just as a car came to a halt close to us.

"Morgan!"

"Morgan..." The one holding me repeated. "That must be your name ehh? You've got some nerve I must say."

"You ain't seen nerve." This was it. Time to let all my frustration out.

Snatching the umbrella from him, I head-butted him, hitting him by the side with the umbrella. The other two looked shocked, watching as the forehead of one of them bled.

"I told you to leave me alone didn't I?!"

With their umbrellas, the other two came at me. "Fools." I spat, easily dodging their attacks, that were empty of skills, kicking them in the gut. I slammed their heads into the bus stop panel. One was barely conscious, while the other lay in the floor groaning in pain.

"You bitch!" The one that had been on the floor the entire time held my bare foot. I kicked his nose, a crack of satisfaction ringing through the night. I pulled him up and threw him on top of his companions making them groan louder.

"My leg... My leg.." One was saying to the other who was on his leg.

"What?" I turned to Dante who stood at a distance watching me with awe. "Did you...?"

"Just beat up three men twice my size?" I walked past him, getting into the back seat of the car. I sighed with pleasure as the heat inside the car hit me. I closed the door, winding up the glass as my drenched self transferring some of it's water to the car seat. After some seconds of no sign of Dante entering the car, I wind down the glass.

"I thought we were leaving."

He snapped out of his gaze of surprise. "We are." He responded, walking towards the car.