jj maybank one shots

hotel california

The fire.

Starts slow, spreads fast, like a disease, drowns you till you can't breathe.

That's what their love was like.

And that was what ended it.

★★★★★★

Hotel California.

It's a place where you feel safe, warm, and loved. For some, it's like home, heaven even. Everyone is always smiling, and they're always kind, but they all have different reasons to stay here.

Hotel California is for the fugitives.

It's for people like me. People who never felt truly happy, never felt loved, and never felt like they belonged somewhere.

Even though I have parents, and they have enough money to buy an entire island, they never seem to care about their daughter's life.

They just left me to deal with it.

So I ran away. That was how I found Hotel California.

The first night that I escaped, I had plans of traveling the world with the money I had taken before I left. My first spot was California, where I got drunk in a bar.

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air. Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light. My head grew heavy, and my sight grew dim. I had to stop for the night.

That's how I stopped at the Hotel California. And I couldn't leave it since then.
★★★★★

I am sitting at the lobby, reading a book that I really don't pay attention to, when a young man comes in, asking for a room.

The lovely receptionist Mariana gives him a kind smile while she hands him the keys of his room.

He thanks her and starts going to the exact opposite way of the rooms.

I don't usually jump at opportunities to speak with complete strangers, but this stranger gave me the feeling of recognizing a lost soul.

So I went after him.

"Um, excuse me, sir!" I yell after him in hopes of getting his attention.

He turns around and waits for me so I can catch up to him.

"I just saw you going the wrong way. The rooms are at the other end of the hotel. I can show you the way, if you want." I say.

"Uh, sure, thanks!" He says.

I start leading us towards the rooms, a silence between us lingering in the air.

I am the first to break it. "So, what brings you here?"

"Not a specific reason, it was on my way, and I thought a rest would be good for me."

He seems uncomfortable when he answers, which makes me understand that there is more than he tells me about, and I make it my mission to learn the truth.

"I'm Augustine, by the way."

"I'm JJ." He says as we reach his door and stop in front of it, JJ's hand on the door handle, neither of us so sure about what to do next.

"So, I'll see you at dinner then. It starts at seven thirty." I say.

"Thanks for showing me the way, Augustine."

"You're welcome, JJ."

And with that, he gets in his room and closes the door.

★★★★★★