What a nice hotel. I thought to myself as I started down the long, elegant hallway, room key jingling in my hand. I would be eternally indebted to Jessica Stark, owner and operator of The Hotel, for letting me stay as long as I liked, and not asking questions. Of course, the deal was that she asked no questions, so I couldn’t ask any either. Trust me, I had plenty. For example, why didn’t the hotel have a swanky name or something? It was always just The Hotel, as if it were some kind of secret, but it was anything but. Paid for and run by Tony Stark’s daughter? It was front-page news when it opened a year ago. But, there I was, walking down the hallway to room 923, with some stripper girl running down the hall in my direction...
Wait, a stripper girl? I thought. Sure, the hotel is a bit off, but I can’t imagine Jess being okay with strippers…. Alas, the girl was in quite a sprint, and as she got closer I saw a gigantic, mischievous grin on her young face. Huh. She doesn’t think I’m interested… Does she? She couldn’t have been older than 18, with long and disheveled brown hair as if she’d just been changing. In my line of thought, I hadn’t realized her getting closer… and closer… and closer… and THUNK. She ran straight into me, knocking us both down onto the newly carpeted floor.
“Hey, watch out, bozo.” She said as she sat up, holding her head and looking down at me. Up close I could see she had moon-blue eyes, and had obviously just woken up. She had bags under her eyes, but not the overworked kind I was used to seeing on my mother. They were more like “I stayed up all night laughing with my friends” bags. On another note, her breath was pretty damn terrible. Her eyes scanned and searched my face, and her head tilted to the right. “Um, sorry.” I apologized awkwardly, because her breasts were in my direct line of sight and not six inches from my nose. “Right.” she said, adjusting herself. “I’m gonna get up now.” She climbed off of me, the thrill in her eyes gone, and her face now reflecting a bit of the embarrassment I’d been feeling. She offered me a hand, and I took it.
“This isn’t a real proper introduction, but this isn’t a real proper hotel, so hey. I’m Cath.” I shook my head out of bewilderment and introduced myself, desperately trying to avoid looking anywhere but her face, because this Cath girl didn’t seem the type to shave every day. “Oh, uh, I’m Marx.” She smiled, and then remembered that she was wearing only a bra and underwear.
“Oh, shit. I forgot.” Cath looked around desperately for something to cover up with. “It’s fine.” I told her, trying not to sound creepy. “I have an older sister, and a mom with no sense of personal space, so…” She laughed. “I usually wear clothes, I swear. It’s just that my roommate is a total and absolute dork, and he’s stolen all of my clothes as a practical joke.” He? I thought. But hey, no questions. This Cath seemed like a pretty cool person. “Wow. That’s a dramatic practical joke.” Was all that I could think of to say. She grinned, evilly this time. “It’s okay, I got him back. You should know he’s running around this hotel in his boxers looking for me the same way I’m looking for him. We’re even now.” Cath said with a laugh. I smiled back, hoping the conversation would be over soon. “Well, you’ve got a room to get to, I believe. What’s the number?” she asked, suddenly in full-blown employee mode. “Nine-hundred and twenty-three.” Her eyes lit up. “That’s a great room! There may be a few scratch marks though, but it’s fine. Down the hall, on your left.” Cath pointed at a room down the hall, and on my left before smiling and handing me my key. “Thanks, nice meeting you.” I said, as normally as I could. “Same to you!” she called as I left. I could hear her break into running again, yelling “JAMES HOWARD STARK!!!” angrily as she went. God, whoever James was sure was gonna get it.
What a… nice hotel. I thought to myself as I turned the key and entered room 923.
