eight ✚

Gas stations at night always oddly calmed you. The fluorescent lights with the hint of green, the whirr of the freezers on the wall, and the faint radio playing.

You walked through the aisles, trying to figure out which chip brand you felt like eating at the moment. Tonight, you had a motel room booked to stay in for fun with Hollis. It was between that and camping, which you said no to because the amount of bugs this year was atrocious.

Hollis was pacing outside talking to someone on the phone while putting gas into the car. Without even hearing it, you could tell he was talking to that girl you kept hearing him talk to over the last few weeks.

You and Hollis have separate jobs now. You both tried your hardest to get a new one together, but ultimately ended up getting a job at two different places. At first, you were really upset. You’ve admittedly gotten codependent with him, so the idea of working without him being there too was disappointing. Over time, you realized that maybe it would be good for Hollis to meet new people without you. And it was.

Hollis had met a group of people at work that were like him. You were so glad to see that he made friends without your help. But you quickly realized that one of the friends was a girl. 

That’s who you think he kept talking to. It didn’t sound like his mom, you knew what his mom sounded like. It had to be a girl from his job. But every time you asked, he gave a different answer. 

When he was done with his call, he waved to you from the outside, signaling that he was ready to go. 

You grabbed a bag of Lays sour cream and onion chips, gummy worms, and went up to the register.

“Will that be all?”

“One pack of Marlboros and one pack of Newports too, please.” You pointed behind the cashier. 

Hollis was waiting for you by the car when you walked back outside. “They didn’t have any Trolli gummy worms, so I just got you these knock off ones.” You held up the bag.

“That’s okay, I like those too. C’mon.” 

You both got in the car, and drove away from the gas station. The way to the motel was pretty dark at this time of night. Nothing but flat land on both sides of the road, and the only light coming from the car’s headlights.

It was quiet for the first few minutes. Nothing but the sound of the car and Hollis’ music on the stereo.

“Hollis?”

“Yeah?”

“Who…who were you talking to? At the gas station?” You asked.

He clicked his tongue. “Eh, it was nobody. Work related.”

“You always say that. Aren’t we supposed to tell each other everything?”

“Look. It’s nothing. Why are you worried about that, and not the cool motel I’m about to take you to?” He tried to change the subject. “Reviews said it’s one of the nicest motels out there. No bedbugs, a hot tub, complimentary free drinks.”

You sighed. You weren’t gonna get an answer out of him. At least right now. And you were still excited to go. The whole thing just bothered you, it has for weeks.

You saw him look at you in the corner of your eye. “We’re almost there. Hang tight, I know you’re hungry.”

You turned up the volume on the stereo, staring out of the window and trying to move on from the conversation for now.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

The motel’s sign was aggressively neon pink. 

Both of your faces were covered in the light of it getting out of the car. It read ‘Motel of Love.’ 

Hollis and you walked into the lobby. It was already really nice, way nicer than any of the other motels you’ve been to. 

“Hi, I have a room booked.” He walked up to the receptionist.

“What’s the name?” The receptionist was clearly tired. She was older, with a cigarette in the corner of her mouth, and a manicure nearly chipped off.

“Hollis.”

“Room number 130. Here’s your key, on the back of it is the Wi-Fi password and a QR code to the room service menu. We had to switch from physical menus to virtual since more than a few guests found it amusing to put their body fluids on them.”

“Oh.” Hollis laughed awkwardly, grabbing the key. “Let’s go.” He nodded his head towards you.

You walked with him to the room. “It’s really nice here, Hollis.”

“I’m glad you like it.” He smiled. “I was worried for a second there that you didn’t.”

“No, it’s great. Really fancy lookin’.”

“Just wait until you see the room.”

110…120…130. Hollis almost missed it. He stopped in front of the door, and got the key out.

“Ladies first.” He put his hand out in the doorway. 

“Thank you.” You giggled. You looked around the room. There was one bed. The sheets were red, with white pillows. The bathroom was average, but pretty nice for a motel.

Hollis put his jacket on the back of the door. “I don’t know about you, but I really want to shower.”

“Oh, I’ll let you go first.” 

“Alright, thanks. I was gonna let you go first if you wanted to but…well, yeah. Thank you!” 

You snickered at his awkward speech. He was so endearing and adorable all the time. 

That’s why you felt a bit bad for what you were about to do when he was in the shower. Your eyes glanced at his phone near his suitcase. 

Since he wasn’t telling you, you were going to figure it out yourself. It was going to bother you for the whole night if you didn’t.

When you were certain he was in the shower, you grabbed the phone and unlocked it. You both had the password to each other’s phones, because you were that close. 

Immediately, you clicked on the Phone app and went to the recent calls. And lo and behold, a female name was within the recent ones. Mandy. With ‘Work’ beside it.

And it wasn’t just one call, it was multiple. You remember some of these. All of the different answers, and it was the same girl every time. Your heart dropped. You were scared to open their text messages. You wanted to see what she looked like first.

You got out of the Phone app and went to his instagram. You clicked on his following and searched for a Mandy. You clicked on the only account that showed up. It was a girl with blonde hair, piercings, and eyeliner.

Each scroll through her profile sent sparks of anger up your spine. He was talking to this girl behind your back. And lying about it.

His face dropped coming out of the bathroom when he saw you standing up with his phone in your hand. 

“(Y/n)—”

“Who is Mandy?” You spat immediately.

“Why are you going through my phone?”

“Answer me first. Why are you talking to a whole other girl behind my back?”

Hollis sighed and face-palmed. “It’s just a friend from work. I didn’t think it was that important.”

“Hollis, we tell each other everything. You’ve been lying about it. You said you were on the phone with so many different people, but it has always been this girl.”

Hollis wiped himself off with his towel and dropped it in front of you. He kneeled down to grab clean clothes from his suitcase. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d freak out and assume the worst.”

“How can I not freak out with how suspicious you’re moving about it?! I’m just confused why you didn’t tell me. I feel like you’re hiding a lot of stuff from me, and I just don’t want that. I don’t want to be with a man I don’t know.”

He scoffed. “I feel the same way.” 

“What?” 

He stood up, now fully in his pajamas. “You know how insane it is to find out that your girlfriend was hanging out with multiple men behind your back via an instagram post?” 

Your face contorted in confusion, until you realized he meant the coworker from your new job’s party that you went to. “Hollis, that was nothing. It was for work.”

His eyebrows raised in disbelief. “You couldn’t have given me a heads up? You don’t think I'm that dumb, I can’t see the look in those men’s eyes when they talk to you? And you not only go to a party with them, but not tell me about it?”

“I…I just didn’t think it was that important. And come the fuck on, that is nothing compared to literally talking to someone one on one on multiple occasions. And lying about it!” You shouted, flailing your arms around in disbelief.

Hollis laughed coldly, not replying. 

“You’re deflecting.” You teared up. You always did whenever you argued. “I just want you to tell me things…when I ask. Like you always used to. It seems like ever since we’ve gotten these new jobs, you haven’t been honest with me.”

“You know how I feel about you hanging out with other dudes like that. It’s already annoying that I couldn’t get the same job as you, now I have to hear the stories about how much the men there flirt with you from your coworkers Instagram’s on my recommended.” Hollis leaned on the wall. “Why couldn’t you tell me about that?”

“I just…” Your voice croaked. “Thought it would be better if you didn’t know about it.”

Hollis walked over, sitting next to you. “Guess we both feel the same.”

You felt bad. What was supposed to be a romantic night together, turned into this. Your mouth hung open, trying to find the right words to say, but nothing came out.

“Look. I’m gonna go smoke. The bathroom’s free.” He quickly put his jacket on, and left the room. 

Tears fell from your face. The only sound in the room was your sniffles from you sobbing. After a while, you got up from the bed and went to bathe.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

When you came out of the bathroom, he still wasn’t back. In another timeline, you would be telling him how nice the bathtub was and how nice the soap smelt.

Instead, you got dressed in your pajamas and sat on the bed alone. You turned the TV on to break the silence.

You scanned the QR code on the wall with the room service menu. You forgot about the free complimentary drinks, you contemplated taking them up on that offer.

When Hollis got back, you would apologize. You were the one to bring the whole thing up, and it spiraled into what it was. It seemed like both of you just wanted the other to be more honest and open. 

After an hour of watching Family Guy reruns and looking at the room service menu still, you heard the door being unlocked. 

It was Hollis. The silence was deafening, even with the TV on. He put his jacket on the door. 

“I’m sorry.” You immediately blurted out. He looked at you, not saying a word yet. “I’m sorry for going through your phone, and I’m sorry for not telling you about the guys at work, I-I—” 

He walked over and sat next to you on the bed. He grabbed your face and smushed your lips together. Your eyes were wide open. His mouth tasted like cigarettes. But you reciprocated it anyway.

It was almost scary. He was silent, but moving so quickly. He climbed on the bed and towered over you, kissing you roughly. You couldn’t tell if he was still mad or not. 

His hand groped your breast through your shirt. You felt his crotch. He was rock hard already. He quickly pulled his shorts and boxers down and got his cock out.

You jerked him off with his tongue still in your mouth. His hands pulled your pajama bottoms down with your panties too. He pulled off of the kiss and wasted no time. He grabbed his dick, spread your legs and thrusted inside.

You moaned loudly at how quickly he stretched you. He started going at a fast pace as well.

He panted above you, thrusting away. You laid there and took all of it. Sex was a great stress reliever, it would probably do some good to fuck it out. You had no problem with testing that theory, it had been a few days since you both got the chance to do this.

He leaned in to give you a kiss on the cheek, that was actually meant for your lips. You giggled at that and grabbed his face, connecting your lips again.

The sex was so desperate. He was going so fast, just wanting to cum. The bed squeaked loudly. It seemed like it had been used in this way many times. You trailed your fingers down and rubbed yourself. The way he was acting right now was turning you on so much. It was like a whole different side of him. All of that anger was being put into how hard he was fucking you.

His moans got whinier and messier. He was about to cum, you could tell.

“You gonna cum?” You whispered, looking into his eyes.

“Yeah.” He answered breathlessly. He pulled out at the right time, and jerked himself off on your belly. “Fuck.” He groaned while rubbing himself. You watched all of his cum land on your stomach. 

He noticed you didn’t cum yet. He quickly got in between your legs and put his mouth on your pussy. He made his tongue flat and licked up and down. Your hands played with his dirty blonde hair as he licked you to completion. Your face was burning looking at him between your legs. 

He looked so focused on making you cum. His tongue swirled around your clit and darted in and out below. You moaned loud when he moved his tongue really fast. 

Your head leaned back and your back arched. When he noticed you were about to cum, he went even faster, his eyes watching you the entire time. You gripped the sheets with your right hand as it wracked through your whole body.

You both laid on the bed afterwards, covered in sweat and both trying to catch your breath. The quickie did make you feel a lot better.

“I’m sorry too.” Hollis broke the silence. “I can’t stay mad at you.” He chuckled into a face palm. “I’m supposed to, but I can’t.”

You turned over to look at him.

“Listen. I’m sorry for lying to you. I should’ve just told you in the first place. But I swear to God (y/n), it is nothing like that. At all. She’s…”

You listened intently, resting your hand on your cheek on the pillow.

“She’s my friend. I mean it. And I’ve been meaning to introduce you to her and all the other friends I’ve made, but our schedules keep clashing.” He sighed, and turned over to look in your eyes. “I wish you were there too. But if you want me to stop talking to her, I will.”

“Can we just…promise to keep telling each other everything? No more secrets?” That was really the main issue.

“Yeah.” Hollis pulled you into a hug. “No more secrets.” 

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

For the rest of the night, things finally went as planned. You and Hollis ordered from the room service menu. The free drinks certainly tasted free. You clinked both of your drinks together as a toast on the bed. 

“Blagh.” You stuck your tongue out after a sip. “Why does, like, every alcoholic drink kind of taste like shit?”

“I don’t think people drink it for the taste.” He chuckled. “This does suck, though. Probably why it was free.” 

After having a drink, you followed Hollis to where the hot tub was. The hotel didn’t seem like it had a lot of residents tonight. Maybe they were all in their rooms. 

The tub itself was outside by the pool. The lights inside of it were pink. You took your robe off. You both brought your swimsuits just to do this. You winced a bit, sticking a leg in. “It’s hot.”

“Kinda in the name, babe.” He smiled, taking his robe off too. Something about seeing him shirtless outside like this made you blush. You always forgot how built he was. He was skinny, but still had a bit of muscle. He got in the tub beside you and sighed happily, putting his arm around you. “Isn’t this nice?”

“Yeah.” You snuggled into him in the water. “Isn’t this motel a little eerie though? It feels like we’re the only ones here.”

“Yeah, I like it. Don’t you? Since when are you freaked out by scary places?” He smirked. “Man, we gotta start going out exploring again. We’re gettin’ rusty.”

“It’s our dang jobs taking up all the time. It is cool though. We’re all alone.” You said in a suggestive tone, nuzzled your face in his neck.

He let out a small laugh and leaned his head down, kissing you. “Don’t get any funny ideas, though. I feel like that lady at the front desk would kill us.”

“She looked dead inside.” You chortled. “What if she was, and we feel like we’re alone because all of the residents are ghosts?”

Hollis laughed. “That would be cool. Scary, but cool.”

Back at the hotel room, you changed back into your pajamas and laid in bed with Hollis once again. You were having so much fun, you both almost forgot about the argument from before.

Hollis promised to introduce you to his friends from work as soon as he could when you both got back home. You promised to not go to a party like that without telling him. Overall, you both promised to stop hiding things from each other entirely.

You dozed off in his arms, being lulled to sleep by his heartbeat right below you. The night at the motel went so quick, you thought about asking him to stay for longer in the morning.

ᯓᰔ