278 Taxi Banter
“So, how’s your day been?” Brie asked. I couldn’t believe this already. He shrugged, and chuckled right afterwards. “I’m just deciding to take over my friend today, because he was going through surgery today.”
Her eyes widened, being brainwashed by his compelling story—in her eyes at least.
“So, what do you actually do?” she asked. He moved his head around, indicating that it wasn’t much of anything.
“I’m just a junior agent for that new space program Space X created, the Enterprise,” he said.
Now that was compelling in my eyes. Enterprise is very hard to get into, and I heard they have ships and all those stuff you’d find in a sci-fi action movie.
“Oh, so you’re like… ripped,” she said and he chuckled once again. “Yeah, if you could say like that, but I don’t like to brag about myself though.”
Brie all of a sudden burst into laughter, and my amazement quickly switched to concern. “Brie,” I whispered, giving her a little shove she just ignored.
“So like, what’s your name?” Brie asked, getting a bit closer to him like some tentacles from an octopus. “Loveborn,” he said. “Hans Loveborn.”
This man is so cringy, bro, I can’t stand it with his James Bond-jalapeno-looking jaw.
.....
“Okay,” she said, finally moving back to her destined position, giving her this side-eye as if she was going to wink any second.
She turned to look at me, immediately disturbed by my disgusted expression.
“What’s your problem?” she asked. I shook my head. “Nothing,” I said, putting up a rushed smile. “Nothing at all. Just can’t wait to rest.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she said.
We continued to drive through the ordinary streets of Texas before we pulled onto the highway.
“So, how is it at the company you’re working at?” I asked her. She looked at me with confusion, but then nodded. “Oh yeah, my company, it’s actually not too exciting. It feels more like an academy than an actual company.”
“Well—I mean—that is what it is, right?” I asked. She looked at me. “What about yours?”
“Well, I’ve only been there for a few months and yet the craziest things to ever happen in life, well, happened,” I said. “I made friends who probably miss me right now, and many things have been revealed to me that not even a spark in my mind ever thought about.”
“Hmm, is that why you’re so scared?”
“What do you mean, scared? I’m perfectly fine. I still get desensitized to certain feelings.”
“Apparently not,” she hissed, punching me in the shoulder. “You’ll know when you’ve gotten over those feelings.”
“How long have you been in the game for?”
“Two, almost three years,” she said. “And a lot has happened since then. A lot.”
“Yeah, I guessed so,” I said, which she turned to me and shook her head. “Your guess was correct.”
We pulled out of the highway, heading to an exit in which we continued forward, and back onto the highway. What a waste.
“So, how have you been mademoiselle?” Hans asked, turning his head for a moment before looking back at the road.
“Could be better, you know, many things have happened today,” she said. “I can assure you, it’s worse than yours. Or maybe yours is worse than mine, it all depends,” Brie said.
He seemed a bit stunned from the pool of information. “Oh, wow,” he said, slowly nodding his head. “That must hurt, I believe.”
“Nah, it’s mostly just been funny,” she truthfully admitted. “Very funny as a matter of fact.”
He laughed this time, raising him from his level of chuckling. It was like he was laughing his pain away. “You are a unique girl you know, very unique,” he said. “In fact, you know what I realized? I never learned your name.”
“Oh,” she said, now stunned herself. “Jamie—Jamie Loft.”
“Oh, nice to meet you, Loft,” he said. Brie chuckled. “Yeah, nice to meet you too, Lovesborn,” she responded back. What kind of flirting is this? As I said before: cringy.
Sighing, I looked back to see two cars, both black, but different vehicles. In fact, one of them was a truck. It was a bit of coincidence they were black, but there are many black vehicles I could assume.
The one thing that concerned me was that they were right beside one another. Now you may be saying, how does that make any sense? Let me explain, they were maintaining speed right beside each other, although there was clearly room to move.
“Uh, Brie,” I muttered. She looked at me, then shot a look behind me. Instantly, she noticed the weird setup.
“Hey, Hans, could you drive a bit faster? I need to really use the bathroom,” she said, cracking a smile.
“Sure,” Hans responded. The speed of the car rumbled under the seats which was a bit comforting. But the cars were still close behind us.
“Alright, you’re almost to your destination,” Hans said. “This is one of my favorite hotels.”
“Can’t wait to see it,” I said nervously.
We pulled off the highway a second time, going to the left and carefully slowing down. You know the surprising thing that wasn’t too surprising: they followed us.
He pulled out to the lane that led to the right, to the sight of a hotel. I could feel the tension in the room, although I’m not sure if Hans felt it.
He pulled into the parking lot and—of course—parked. Quickly, I exited the car and closed the door quickly. “Bye!” I said. And he nodded, and gave a cunning look at Brie.
“You have fun.”
“You too,” she said in a rushed tone. Yet, he didn’t get inside his taxi. “You know, I’m on break so let me sign in you guys for ya. You guys should definitely enjoy yourselves, I’ll pay for the night.”
“Oh, thank you!” Brie said, wiping her head.
We walked inside of the hotel, which we were met with the lobby, with this breakfast section aside from this check-in one.
I looked around and I took a seat, which Brie did as well. Suddenly, two men walked inside, as the elevator opened for them.
They walked over, which one sat down on the couch. He was young—but definitely older than me—maybe seventeen.
The other was about the same age, although I think that person already graduated. They were wearing these solid t-shirts, with black pants and these newly-bought shoes.
“Maybe I was wrong,” I said, looking at Brie. She shrugged.
“At least we’re not the one making payment,” she muttered.
While Hans signed it, I tried to keep my eyes peeled on the front desk only, not paying attention to the two guys on the sofa across from us.
But they were really giving me hostile vibes. Very hostile vibes.
Brie whispered so silently it almost sounded like wind, “Don’t look at them, and if you do, do not look suspicious. We don’t want them calling for backup.”
“Alright,” I said.
Right then, Hans finished and waved at us. “Thank you!” Brie said. Hans chuckled, “See you later, Jamie.”
The person at the front desk—who had black hair and dark skin—gestured for us to come to her. We did, and a card was passed onto us. “Your room is 320, I hope you enjoy your stay,” she said.
Brie nodded as we left, and went through this hall with multiple doors on the side leading to their own respective rooms.
But that wasn’t the scary thing, not even close. The scary thing was the sound of multiple footsteps behind us.
I didn’t even peek at them, because the fear in my heart froze my head to look forward and nowhere else. We turned to this room to the side which led to the elevator. The floor changed to carpet with multiple colored hexagonal shapes painted on it.
Brie clicked the button, which the elevator to the right opened up. We entered the moving box, as well as the two teenagers.
Silence took all of us without surprise, as the elevator began to rise to the third floor.
Preview:
“So… how are you guys,” the blue t-shirt person greeted. I nodded slowly. “Good.”
He nodded, which now it blinked to the second floor. And right then and there, he lunged at me like a tiger. The amount of commotion that was shaking in this elevator was the complete opposite a few seconds ago.
“Hey!” Brie shouted, which she went after the other person, while I had to deal with this one. I hit against the wall of the elevator, feeling the ground tremble under me.
His hands were lodged on my chest, pushing me against my will. But quickly, I threw a right across his cheek, throwing him off.
He stumbled, as I tried to recover from the sudden charge. But then, he stormed at me and rammed into my stomach—and once again, I was pinned against the wall.
I needed to get him off before this elevator begins to collapse because of all this rough movement. I got my elbow and hammered it onto his back repeatedly until freedom was mine.