I WAS AWKWARDLY TRYING to reread old messages on my phone as I waited for Aries to book us a room in the motel right beside the store we just ate at. Even though I was the one who suggested it, I couldn't help but feel a bit anxious about it.
"A regular garage room and an extra bed," Aries casually says to the receptionist, not even batting an eye as the receptionist stares at the two of us with that mischievous look she has on.
"Alright, we'll call for you when your room is ready. While waiting, you can stay at the lounge," the receptionist then says, and Aries nods his head and looks back at me.
"I'll ask the staff if they can push my car to the garage. Just wait here until they call for you," Aries says, and before I can even answer him, he heads out, leaving me alone in the lobby.
It was pretty late, but I still texted my mom first to tell her I was staying at Aries's house. I obviously can't tell her we're at a motel, but at least I can tell her I'm with Aries. My mom likes him, so I'm confident she won't get mad about this.
After sending the message, I hid my phone back inside my pocket and looked back at the receptionist with a smile. "Uhm...where do I have to wait again?" I ask her, and the receptionist smiles back at me before pointing at the waiting area on the right.
I bow my head to thank her and walk there in silence. As soon as I sat down, I grabbed my phone again and started looking through my gallery this time, even though I barely had any pictures in it except for a dozen photos of my classmate's notes and a formula my professor wrote on the whiteboard.
When I could no longer pretend like I was doing something, I turned my phone off and started looking around the waiting area instead to humor myself. I know I'm the one who suggested all this, but why on earth am I acting so shy? We're only here to stay for the night and sleep, nothing more. I'm not going to betray Aries's trust and suddenly attack him. I shouldn't even be thinking about sex at all. We're starting to mend our somehow broken relationship, if we even had a relationship, to begin with. I don't want to fuck it up just because of something like this.
I like Aries, and that like isn't the same as the like I feel about the customers I get in the bar. The like I have for him stems deeper. It's as big as the universe I can't seem to fully grasp. I want to know more about him, I want to know what he's thinking, what he likes and dislikes, as well as his true feelings for me.
Does the like I have for him the same like that he has for me? That's what I want to know.
"Sir, your room is ready," a male employee now standing in front of me says, immediately making me stand from my seat.
"Please follow me," he then says, and then the two of us walk to the back where the garage rooms can be found. The employee gestures at the garage room where we'll be staying, and inside, Aries's car is already parked.
"Here's your key, sir. If you need anything else, just let us know."
"Okay. Thank you."
"Enjoy your stay," the employee says before leaving.
As soon as he was gone, I looked inside Aries's car and checked if he was inside, but he wasn't. So I just went up to our room and opened the door.
The motel that Aries and I went to before was very different from this motel because that looked a lot more expensive. Well, I didn't really care about it that much since everything was dark, and I was pretty much drunk the entire time, but why on earth am I comparing motels now?! I have honestly lost my mind. This is just ridiculous.
"Relax, Dom, you're just here to sleep. You're just here to sleep," I repeatedly say like it was some sort of spell.
I walk around the room that has a double bed and another extra bed on the floor. Aries still wasn't in the room, so I decided to just wash up to cool my head down.
The bathroom had everything for a cheap motel. They had soap, shampoo, clean towels, and even a robe.
I removed my uniform and folded it neatly to the counter before taking a cold shower. I let the water fall on my face and then contemplated for a while like those guys in movies because I don't get to do that on a regular since we don't have a shower at home. Mama believes that showers waste water, and for someone who pays the water bill, I can't complain.
After contemplating—which surprisingly worked because I felt calmer now—I took a towel and dried myself off. And then I washed my underwear and hung it to dry so I could use it again tomorrow.
I wore the robe and walked outside, whistling a tune I heard from the club. But as soon as I got out of the bathroom, I suddenly saw Aries quietly sitting on the edge of the bed, making me gasp. The room was dimmer now, so seeing him there almost made me jump.
"You act like you saw a ghost," Aries says while staring at the screen of his phone.
I awkwardly laughed and continued drying my hair with the towel around my neck, and then I immediately sat on the bed on the floor so we wouldn't have to argue about it later.
"The staff told me they'll call a mechanic to fix my car early in the morning. Hopefully, we'll be ready to leave by six. You'll a least have time to attend your second class at nine," Aries explains to me.
"Wow, so you still remember my schedule after all," I tease, and Aries just rolls his eyes in annoyance.
"Anyway, if we're gonna leave early then I'm gonna sleep early. Besides, I think the booze is getting on me because I'm starting to get a little headache even though I already ate and took a bath," I tell him, but Aries doesn't really look interested enough to reply to that.
"Dry your hair before going to bed," Aries suddenly replies instead as he stands from the bed and puts his phone back in his pants.
I continue to dry my hair with a towel as I watch Aries walk toward the bathroom. "Wanna help me dry it?" I jokingly ask because that's what my mom usually does after I take a bath. I was expecting Aries to just ignore what I said since that would be the less awkward route, but this fucker suddenly snatched the towel from me.
"W-What are you—"
"Shut the fuck up."
Aries sits back on the edge of the bed, positioning his legs in between me so he can properly dry my hair with the towel he forcefully stole from me. My body stiffens as Aries starts to rub the towel against my head, but after a while, I just relax and close my eyes, a bit embarrassed but still grateful that he wanted to even do such a ridiculous thing for me.
"You know, Aries, despite how hard you try to act all tough, you're pretty kind," I honestly tell him, making him chuckle.
"Kind? I'm not kind."
"You are to me."
"It's because you're annoying."
"Shouldn't you be mean to me instead if that were the case?" I ask him next, and Aries no longer answers that question.
"This might sound a little weird coming from me, but aren't you tired of pretending like you're the perfect student? Come on, you're a senior. You're rich, handsome, and smart. You don't always have to be smiling at everyone and being a yes man. You don't always have to be kind," I explain to him, and Aries ends up laughing this time.
"Why are you desperately trying to make me mean?" He asks me, and I bend my head over so I can look at him, making him stop drying my hair with the towel.
"That's not what I'm trying to say," I defend, and Aries looks down at my face. The moment our eyes met, everything around me suddenly stopped again. Despite the dim light, he still managed to mesmerize me like this.
"I'm not entirely pretending. I'm just being decent, and nothing's wrong with that. Just because I'm in a bad mood or just because I'm a little annoyed, it doesn't mean I should show it. They don't have to see all that. Because if they can't see, they can't ask questions."
"So you keep it bottled in and get frustrated alone?" I ask him, and Aries lets go of my head and shrugs his shoulder.
"Well, I get frustrated with you easily, and I'm sometimes mean to you with no issue. So I guess that balances it out," he jokingly replies, making me pout like a kid.
"But I don't like it," I say out loud before I can even stop myself.
"You don't like it when I'm mean to you? You just said I shouldn't be kind all the time," he continues to say, and I can tell that he's still joking around.
"It's because you're mean to her too," I finally tell him.
"Her?"
"It feels like you're treating me like her, and I don't like how that plays out. She even told me that I should talk to you about her, and...shit...why am I even saying this to you? I guess I really did drink too much earlier," I say in shame. I thought Aries would definitely be mad at me now for even opening this up, but he doesn't. Instead, he decides to joke about it further.
"So that's what this is about. You're jealous," Aries teases, making me look back at him again, only to see him grinning at me.
"I don't have the right to be jealous of someone who isn't mine," I seriously tell him, and the grin on Aries's face instantly disappears. He then bends over and leans his lips toward my face. My heart skipped a beat because I thought he was going to give me a kiss, but he stopped just inches away from me and gently pushed me away so he could stand from the bed.
"You're being mean," Aries tells me, making me furrow my brows.
"Why, are you?" I ask him, referring to the last statement I made.
Aries looked like he was about to answer, but then, I swear to it, he looked guilty for a quick second.
"I'm gonna use the bathroom. You can go to bed," he tells me instead before heading inside the bathroom.
As soon as he closed the door, I leaned my back against the bed and rested my head on it, staring at the ceiling and lifting my hand out to cast a shadow. "Now I'm the mean one?" I ask myself while staring at the shapes I'm making with my hands. And then, like some kind of psychopath, I remember what Aries said just seconds ago.
"You're being mean," I repeated, remembering the look he had on his face. He looked like a kid whose lollipop got stolen by a bully, and the thought of it made me chuckle. Now I understand why guys sometimes like to pick on the people they like, and that realization made me hate myself even more.
"I should really go to bed. I'm turning into a real asshole little by little," I say to myself, standing from the floor and hanging the towel on the side before finally getting to bed.
I could hear the shower inside the bathroom and used it to imagine rain falling outside. It worked like a relaxing ambiance because my eyes eventually felt heavy, and then I finally got to sleep.
I don't exactly know how long I've been out, but when I opened my eyes back, it was already morning. Bright lights peeked through the curtains, and I instantly got hit by what we all call...hangover.
My head ached like crazy, and my body felt hot. I slowly got up from the bed, and lo and behold, Aries was no longer in his bed. I was honestly suspecting to see another note like the last time we went to a motel, but there weren't any.
"Wow, I just slept at a hotel with the guy I like and didn't think of doing anything crazy. Congratulations, Dom, you just did the bare minimum," I sarcastically tell myself before brushing my hair back with my fingers.
I continued to look around the room to check if Aries was there, but the guy was nowhere to be found.
"Wait, did he seriously leave me?" I ask before heading to the bathroom to put my clean underwear and uniform back on. When I got out of the bathroom, I suddenly heard people talking in the garage, so I went out to check what it was. And there I saw Aries talking to the mechanic.
"You're all set, sir," the mechanic tells Aries as I approach them.
"Thanks. I really appreciate it," Aries then answers before handing him the money. The mechanic smiles and thanks him before grabbing his toolbox. He then looks at me and smiles at me too, before finally taking his leave.
"You slept well?" Aries asks, now turning to look at me.
"Yeah. And you?" I ask, which was supposed to be a pretty normal question, but Aries somehow decides to ignore it, almost like I had just invaded his personal space.
"Anyway, I already paid for the room, so we can head out now. I'll drive you to your house," Aries suddenly tells me as he walks his way to the car door. He opened it and got ready to head inside, but I immediately stopped him.
"No, it's fine. There are jeeps and buses outside at this hour, so I think I can go home myself," I say, but Aries looked at me with that annoyed expression of his, so I just gave up and went inside the car with him.
The two of us got in, and then Aries turned the car on and started driving off, leaving the motel that should have left me with so many memories, but it didn't. In fact, I had more memories at that rice porridge store than I did here, and I don't hate that one bit.
"Mama didn't reply," I whisper as I check my phone again. I sent her another text saying that I'm heading home, and then I hid it back inside my pocket before glancing at Aries, who was concentrating on driving me back home.
"You know, my head is clearer now compared to yesterday, so I want to apologize for being rude last night. I know I crossed the line by mentioning your ex out of nowhere, so—"
"It's fine," Aries suddenly says, making me stop midsentence. "It's not really important. Diane...she's just...she deserves better. She deserves a guy who doesn't like..." Aries pauses and clenches the steering wheel.
I look at him and suddenly end up pitying him, even though that's the last thing he wants from me.
"Last night, you told me that I was mean to her. Believe me, Dom, if I were mean to her, I wouldn't have broken up with her. For a time, I liked her, and I believed I liked her, but...it's just complicated," Aries continues to explain, which surprised me because he didn't have to share this with me at all. But then again, I'm not going to stop him either. This might be the only time he's going to open up about this with anyone. I should be able to be here and listen.
"I loved the idea of liking a woman, so I got lured by her. The idea of being normal and falling in love like everyone else. It was so easy for me to hold her hand in public and introduce her to my friends. And god, my parents loved her. I loved that life, the idea of having that life. It was painfully easy," Aries says with a much more serious expression.
"But you didn't love...her. And that was supposed to be the easiest part, but it wasn't," I say back, and Aries sighs and nods his head.
"I didn't love her, and that was supposed to be the easiest part," Aries repeats with a sad expression.
"Why are you explaining this to me all of a sudden?" I then ask him.
Aries continues to stare at the road, and without looking back at me, he answers, "It's because you didn't like it when I'm mean to you."
The moment Aries said that I immediately turned my head away from him so he wouldn't be able to see the stupid smile I had on me. I didn't want him to know that that single sentence made me feel special, even just a little.
I guess this overnight stay was worth it after all.
...
"Here you are," Aries says when he gets to my street.
"You can drop me off here. A lot of cars are parked in our street at this hour, so you might get a hard time getting out," I tell him, and Aries nods his head and parks on the side.
"Thank you for driving me all the way here, as well as the food you treated me last night," I say as grab my bag and I got off the car. Aries doesn't say anything and just nods his head in reply.
"By the way, maybe you want some coffee? I can—"
"It's fine, you better get home. Your mother might be worried by now," he says instead, making me smile again. I didn't say anything anymore and got ready to close the door. But just as I was about to do so, one of my neighbors suddenly spotted me and started running in my direction.
"Dom! You're finally here!" My neighbor shouts, making me furrow my brows in confusion. Even Aries was looking at him.
"What's going on? Did something happen?" I asked, and the answer I got was an answer that I wasn't ready to hear at all.
"Y-Your mother...she collapsed again. Just this morning, Gelo found her. Thankfully he was able to bring her to the hospital in time," my neighbor explains, instantly making me drop my bag on the floor.
"What did you just say?"
end.