The Electric Souls of Edgewood Hotel

I smack my hand on the hotel registration counter, stopping myself from collapsing. 

“I’m here.” I breathlessly pant.

“Mr. Sharpe, correct?” The lady checked to make sure. I get why they do it: they don’t want random people walking in unannounced to make appointments, but on the other hand, I’ve been here so many times that they should recognize me.

“Yes ma’am.” 

“Alright, let me get your room for-” The lady was interrupted by another woman. This one appeared to be much older. Her hair was shiny and silver, her hooded eyes were penny-colored, and her tan skin was so wrinkled that she looked a little bit like a pug. Now don’t get me wrong, I like pugs, but DOG FACES on a HUMAN HEAD? Yeah no. This girl was all up in her ear. I didn’t hear anything, but yeah.

“So… We have your room…” The lady from before told me.

“Great! Who am I staying with?” And now, the story takes a turn…

“That’s the issue…”

“You didn’t put me in a room with Chase, did you?” I hate, and when I say hate, I mean HATE Chase. He makes me so mad that I end up starting yelling at him and making a scene. 

“No-”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The person who your staying with doesn’t work at your place…” I was taken aback by this. How could someone who doesn’t even work in the same building- or even STATE as me be STAYING with me here?! I’ll keep my calm, I don’t want to come off as a male Karen.

“Well, things could have been worse, I guess.” I optimistically sigh.

“Yeah… Hehe…” She gave me my key and led me to my room. The door was a dark, almost black-colored wood with a fancy silver knob. I turn the key in the keyhole to unlock the door, and I’m welcomed by a soft, yellow light. The girl who I was staying with was playing Super Mario Bros on her Nintendo console, which was hooked up to the rather small, flat screen TV. She didn’t even bother to look up at me when I came in. 

“Hey there!” I call, she put her game on paused and looked over at me.

“...Can I help you?” The girl asked in a slightly cross tone. Either she thinks I’m a hotel worker, or she just doesn’t like strangers, which is understandable, I’m the same way.

“I’m your roomate for now.” I vaguely introduced myself.

“Neat.” The girl put a tub of snack between us. “Have some. You look like your starving. You can have anything but the edible cookie dough.” 

“Alrighty.” I grabbed a family-sized bag of Sour Skittles. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” The girl was hesitant at first, but after seeing that I wasn’t as concerning as she thought, she opened up.

“The name’s Serena Hood, I’m 29,  a youtube gamer, but I study sociology on the side,  and a Gemini. And you?” She hopped back onto her game. I can already tell that her and I won’t get along. I don’t believe in astrology.”

“I’m Aaron Sharpe, 31, a marine biologist, and I was born October 21st.” I reply. 

“Ahah… A Scorpio, I see…” She says this as if it’s a bad thing, but I could care less. 

“I guess, hehe…” 

“Oh, if you wanna play games, I have some consoles you can play on.” Serena pulled a DS, a 3DS, and a GameBoy out of her drawstring bag.

“What all games-” As if she could read my mind, she pulled out 3 seperate baggies, one for each console to hold their specific games. I found myself interested in Pokemon Yellow on the GameBoy. I took it out and started playing. 

We spent all night at that hotel: no sleep, just gaming, snacks, talking about ourselves, more snacks, and the comfort of being with each other. As the cold moon passed and took the night with it, little did I know that it would be an unexpectedly depressing day. I caught her packing up her stuff.

“Wait, what are you doing?” I ask, tilting my head.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Silence passed between us. “I’m packing to leave.”

“W-What?! Why?!” I stammer.

“Well, I have to head back to Mississippi for college. I was only staying here for Spring Break because I didn’t have anywhere to go.” She admits to me. My heart sunk. Poor girl…

“You don’t have any family…?” I daringly ask.

“They want nothing to do with me. They were extremely religious and wanted me to become a religious teacher or professor, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to be a sociologist. I wanted to see how humans work. Humans always fascinated me, you know…” She sorrowfully explained, pushing her platinum blonde hair out of her face, revealing her hazel eyes. 

“Fair enough… But I’m gonna miss you. It was so much fun hanging out with you.” I tell her, putting my hand on her shoulder. 

“Which is why I…” She pulled a sheet of paper with her phone number out of her gray pocket hoodie. Her hoodie had a cat-like design. “I got you this.” She gave me the slip of paper with my number. It looks like she ripped it from her notebook. There were pen imprints on the back from notes from her class. I looked down at the paper, briefly reading the number, looked back up ap her, and smiled. 

“Well, I’ve really got to get going… It was nice meeting you, sir.” Sir… Nobody calls me sir, not even the people below me in studies, or my kids. She outstretched her hand for a handshake. Reluctantly, I took her offer. She grabbed her suitcase and left the room. It was painful to see her go, but at least I knew she was going to a safe place. 

What am I to do when she’s gone? She told me that she had one more day until her school started back up, so we facetimed the whole day.