Alone Together (VIII)

Ronnie and I entered the room. There was only one bed. Oh dear. "Looks like there's only one bed," he says, "You'll be sleeping on the floor tonight," he winks, poking out a tongue. "Hey, how come you get to sleep on the bed and I on the floor?!" I asked violently. "You got us lost, dummy. We don't even have chargers to charge our phones with. This night is so boring," Ronnie whines before throwing himself at the bed, "So soft." I rolled my eyes, "Crybaby."

"There's a television here," I pointed out. "Yeah smartypants, it's been there since we came," Ronnie states while his body is still submerge in the blankets. "Wow, you're really mad at me, aren't you?" I crossed my arms. "Totally," Ronnie brings a thumb up. "How about we watch some television or something for that hot head of yours?" I offered a somewhat peace treaty. "If the show's bad, I'm going to strangle you, got it?" he answers. This bitch.

I plugged the TV on, "Where's the remote?" I searched at the area of the TV. "Hey, Ronnie, get up. The remote must be here," I tapped on Ronnie's leg, trying to get him up. No response. Looks like he's asleep already. "Damn it," I cursed. I grabbed the edge of the flat-screen TV and inserted my hand on its back. My fingers are trying hardly to look for the power button since I can't find the remote. I felt buttons and my fingers just pressed a lot of them multiple times. I saw the red LED light of the TV go to yellow, signaling that it's powered on. Not sure which button did it but okay.

It took a second for the black screen to fade open. When it did, my eyes widened badly. It's porn. I rushed to the bed and shook Ronnie, "Ronnie! Ronnie! Wake up, is the remote there?" I asked. "Shut up, go away," he mumbling response. "Hey, I'm not watching porn, okay? Now get up and lend me that remote."

"Don't have it. Shut up, Jeiro, I'm going to sleep," Ronnie faced the other way, turning his back on me. "This bitch," I glanced at the TV to see the porn still playing. I realized that it had no sound. Seems like its muted or something. Maybe blocking it with a blanket would do the trick since it didn't have sound anyways.

Ronnie sat up. "What the fuck?" he says upon seeing the TV. "I know, now help me find the remote," I said. "Why are you watching porn at this time, you pervert?" he crosses his arms, an eyebrow raised. "I-I… when I opened the TV, it was already at that channel, okay?!" I defended myself. "Don't believe you, pervert. I'm going to brush my teeth," he got up and walked towards the bathroom. I went to the bed to look for the remote. Ah, found it.

I switched the channel upwards to find only porn. Downwards to find the same. "Does this TV only have porn in it?!" I groaned. "Seems like it," Ronnie answers after going out of the bathroom, a towel hung from his neck, "This place is like a hotel for lovers, maybe?" I facepalmed. "Why did you choose this inn, Ronnie, for goodness' sake." He shrugged, "Didn't knew at first, beside, it was near a convenience store so I found it… well… convenient."

He made his way towards the door. "Where are you going?" I asked. "Buying something for food. You have anything in mind?" I thought for anything I'd like to eat. Because of the people that are fucking in the television, I seemed to have lost my appetite. "I'm good, thank you. I lost my appetite cause of this," I pointed at the television. He rolled his eyes with a smile, "Okay. Just don't jack off while I'm gone. I'll know if you do," He winked before leaving. Why the hell would I do that in a place like this?

It was about twenty minutes before Ronnie returned, holding a big paper bag up on his arm. I shut the TV down and made the bed to entertain myself. "Finally you're back," I welcomed him, "It's too boring in here. What did you buy?" He placed the bag on the kitchen counter and popped everything out. It's all junk foods, instant noodles, microwave popcorns, and ice cream? "Why buy so much?"

"Oh, this? I can finish all of these for tonight," he answered. "All of that? It's already 11:30pm, dummy. You'll have difficulty sleeping if you eat that all," I warned him. "Then I guess I won't sleep," he answers while putting the ice cream tub on the freezer. I looked at his food and said, "You bought so much snacks as if you'll be watching a movie. You eat chips while watching porn?"

"I remembered that I had my flash drive in my pocket that has a lot of movies. We can put it on the TV and have a movie marathon. What do you think?" He smiles. "Oh, nice. What are we watching?" I asked. "How about horror? Or anything thriller? It's fun to watch those stuff at night." I can't handle those stuff at night. "No thanks, I'm not watching ghosts fucking with idiots," I claimed. "Looks like someone's scared," Ronnie teases while organizing his chips and noodles.

"I am not. I'm just sick of the fact that characters in horror movies are idiots who look for their own doom. Don't you think?" I lied. "Say that to the beheaded woman behind you." I flinched, "What?! Where?" I've been fooled. With furrowed eyebrows, I looked at Ronnie who's currently setting the microwave up for the popcorn. "Yup, you're a brave soul alright. I'm proud of you," he says. "Damn you."

I sat on the floor in front of the TV and plugged Ronnie's flash drive into the TV and I'm currently browsing his movies. It's a lot. "You're a pirate yourself, aren't you?" I said. "I didn't download that. It was Vicky, my sister. Every time she lose a bet that we make, I have her download a movie that I like." I continued browsing the contents of Ronnie's flash drive and found a folder named 'Pics of me' "Oh, I wonder what's in this folder named 'Pics of me' hmm, I really wonder," I raised my volume to call Ronnie's attention.

"Hey don't open that!" Ronnie shouted. "I'm about to open it!" I teased. "No!" He shouted, running towards me, leaving his popcorn on the microwave. With his best, he tries to get the remote from me. He tries to tackle me, making me lay down on the floor along with him, he tries to reach the remote that I keep away from him. "Try harder, Ronnie!" I teased. "Stop it. Give me that!" We suddenly stopped.

He was on top of me.

We gazed into each other's eyes before Ronnie quickly takes the remote from my hand. "Ha, got it!" He says before pointing at the TV and exiting from the folder which contained his childhood pics. Sadly I only got to see a few. He was still on top of me until we smell something… burnt. "Shit," he mumbles. "The popcorn!" I realized. He immediately gets up and runs toward the kitchen. "Great, Jeiro, look what you made me do."

I giggled, "Taylor Swift?"

Ronnie sadly pours the slightly black popcorn on a large, brown bowl before making his way beside me. "At least it's not fully burnt," I tried to lighten him up. He hissed at me, "Shut up." We sat at the bed with our backs laid comfortable at the headboard. "As punishment for the popcorn, we're watching horror first," he says. "What?!" I whined. "Your fault. We're watching The Nun. I'll go easy on you so I chose a not so scary one." I heard others saying it was very scary or something. Oh dear.

I screamed every time Valak appeared on screen. Almost ninety percent of the movie, I had my face buried under the pillow or having burnt popcorn fall on the floor because of flinching. Ronnie just laughed at me every time that happened. This bitch. "Well, looks like black popcorn's out. I'll get the chips," Ronnie says before getting up, "You should choose the next movie since you're such a scaredy-cat." I rolled my eyes before grabbing the remote, choosing Moana.

"Is that Moana?" Ronnie asked excitedly. "Yeah, you like this?" I asked. "Of course I do!" He hurried towards the bed, as the movie had its introduction scene. We sang our hearts out at every song. It seemed funny to know that both of us knew almost every song in the movie except Shiny. Only Ronnie memorized Shiny, I didn't. As we sang along the songs of Moana, I had another chance to listen to Ronnie's beautiful voice. He sang "I am Moana" the best. I'm amazed.

"Next movie?" He asked. "I don't know, Ronnie. It's 3:40am. We really aren't going to sleep?" I asked. "Boring. But you're right. We still have to find our way tomorrow since you lost the both of us with no phone battery," He says. "You know what? Let's continue. I'm not feeling sleepy just yet. Besides, it's Saturday, we don't have school." Ronnie smiled, "I'll get the chips," before getting up. I'm still scared of The Nun that's why I wasn't feeling sleepy, to be honest.

We watched The Greatest Showman next. As much as we wanted to sing every song, we didn't had the energy to sing along. I already heard Ronnie sing Never Enough already, so it's kinda okay, I guess. At the end of the movie, I found the both of us, lying on the bed. Ronnie was already asleep on my shoulder. I smiled and ruffled his hair before shutting the TV down with the remote and went to sleep. "Good night, Ronnie."

My eyes felt heavy as I woke up. I opened my eyes and saw Ronnie's hair below my chin. We we're hugging each other. The arm that Ronnie was resting on felt numb. I tried very carefully to remove my arm from his head but I ended up waking him up. "What time is it?" he asks. "Don't know," I saw sunrays at the gaps of the curtain on the window, "but it's already morning, let's get up, hurry." Ronnie turned his back on me, not wanting to get up yet. This lazy cat.

I got up and took the instant noodles that he bought last night and started cooking them. This should suffice for our breakfast I guess? I went over to Ronnie and said, "Hey, I'm going to go outside, lazy shit. I'll look for bread or something." He mumbles, "Yeah whatever. Key is on the desk." I took the key and proceeded outside. As I exited the inn, I am greeted by a lively morning atmosphere that looked so bland and dead last night.

Home owners are walking their dogs, kids are either playing or riding bikes, some are cleaning their windows, and cars are passing the street. "This was so empty last night," I said. I glanced to my left to see an open bakery. How lucky. I bought bread and went back to the inn.

"Hey Ronnie, wake up. The noodles are done and I have bread, come on, we have to go home already," I said, poking his leg. "Fine," he groans before getting up and massaging his eyes. We ate at the kitchen counter since the room didn't have any place to eat at. "Don't you think that Vicky's worried about you?" I asked. "Not really," he answered, "She's too busy taking care of Truffles to even realize that I'm not home."

"Who's Truffles?" I asked before slurping my soup. "Our pet cat. She's so adorable if you saw her," he says, stuffing his mouth with bread. "It's sad that I didn't saw her when I went to your house." Ronnie and I finished eating and fixed our stuff. We fixed the room and cleaned it slightly as we prepare to leave the inn. We went out the room and returned the keys to the inn lady. We thanked her for our stay.

"Okay, how about we take the taxi instead?" Ronnie suggests as we exited the inn. "That's alright I guess? Let's just have the taxi drop us at the train—." My eyes widened. My hand started to shiver along with my lips. My mouth hung agape due to the sight I'm seeing.

"Hey, Jeiro are you alright?" Ronnie kept asking me but I paid no attention. Tears started running down my cheeks as my chest ached with so much sadness while staring at a woman, arms linked with a foreign man. She was laughing as they entered the inn.

Mom? What are you doing?