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- 9. macey -

     Oh you've got to be kidding me. That ass of a clerk gave us a room with only one bed. Ron looked at me and narrowed his eyes.

       "I don't care what you say, you're sleeping on the bed."

        "What? No I'm not, you are. You've been driving all day and since you won't let me drive the truck, you're driving all day tomorrow. I'm taking the couch over there," I pointed towards the couch on the opposite side of the small room, right next to the desk, "plus, I have work to do still, so I'm going to need the desk. If you're taking the couch, then I'm going to keep you up all night while I work."

       "Like I said earlier, Exner, you're sleeping on the bed. I'm taking the couch," he took a step towards me, I took one back.

      "No, I'm not sleeping on the bed. I'm sleeping on the couch. I'm smaller anyway, you wouldn't even fit on the couch comfortably," I raised an eyebrow, proud in the point that I'd just made. He took two more steps towards me, I took three back this time.

       "Then I guess I'm sleeping on the floor. You're getting that bed." Another step towards me for him, another step back for me.

       "No." Another step.

       "Yes." Another step.

       Right now, I was against the wall, Ron nearly two feet away from me. I could feel his hard stare on my eyes. That's the only place he was looking, thankfully. Only my eyes as if there was nothing else to look at. I looked down at the floor, not liking how close he was to me, but I didn't want him to step away.

       "I'm not going to win this, am I?" He asked, letting out a small sigh.

       "No, you're not." By this point, I looked back up to Ron's face. We just stared at each other for what seemed like years, trying to see who would give up first.

        "Fine then. I'll take the bed. You'll take the couch. I hope you're happy," well someone's pouty.

        "Yes, actually I am now. thank you very much, Ron."

        "Yeah, yeah, Exner."

        I gave him an innocent smile, beyond joyed that I had won, not that anyone was counting.

•••

       It was a few hours since Ron and I last spoke. He was on his phone, doing something for the base. At least, that's what he told me. I was working on my speech for the longest time, but it just wasn't coming to me, so I moved to my work for the classes that I taught.

        Currently, I was grading essays my older students had written about The Great Gatsby. There were some that had been pretty rough to grade, obviously written an hour before they were due, but not all of them. There had been a handful of essays that were amazing. Some of these students had potential talent in writing.

         "Okay, I can't grade anymore. I'm going to take a shower."

          I almost expected the normal answer you'd hear for a guy, 'without me?', but luckily those words did not come out of Ron's mouth, frankly, no words came out. I stood up from the desk and walked over to my duffle bag to grab some comfortable clothes and my shower things.

       "Well he better not care about me singing Beyoncé in the shower, if he does, we're going to have some real problems here," I muttered to myself while pulling out my phone, starting to play "Pray You Catch Me" as the water warmed up.

        I hummed to the opening notes as I got undressed, tested the water and got in. I continued humming as I took my hair out of its bun, letting it fall down my back and get soaked with water. My hair reached my lower back, making it weight a lot when it's wet. Plus, it took a lot of time to shampoo.

        "Pray to catch you whispering. I pray you catch me listening. I'm prayin' to catch you whispering. I pray you catch me. I'm prayin' to catch you whispering. I pray you catch me listening. I pray you catch me," I sang along with the song, completely forgetting that there was basically a stranger on the other side of the door, hearing me sing for the first time.

        I just continued to let the song take over, letting all of my feelings out in it. As I washed my hair, the song changed to "Someone New" by Hozier, I loved him music so much, the way he allowed gm for hidden themes to be placed in his music was just amazing.

       I sang along with the joyful tone of the song as I went along in my shower. Two more songs had gone by by the time I'd finished the the shower.

      I stepped out, feeling clean and refreshed. I quickly tried myself off. After attempting to dry my hair, failing miserably, I just put it into a high messy bun once again.

    I put on a clean pair of sweat pants, a sports bra, and I went to reach for my shirt until I saw, it wasn't there. Damnit, I must've left it on the bed.

        I peeked my head out of the bathroom door, seeing if Ron was there possible to grab my shirt for me, but he wasn't. I could hear is voice coming from the other side of the door, he was on the phone. I'm guessing it was Will since he was saying things such as 'calm down, I know I didn't follow her schedule' and 'yes, for the fifth time, I'm sure we're safe here'.

       Deciding it was now or never, I snuck out of the bathroom, trying not to make a noise and attract attention. I tip-toed my way over to the bed.

      I haven't even heard the door open, but there stood Ron, staring at my shirtless back, and when he saw it, he dropped his phone onto the ground, all I could hear was Will's frantic voice from the other side of the phone. And all Ron said something that repeated in my head for hours:

        "Primus, why the pit is that on your back?!"

•••
There's a reason why I picked the songs I did :)