UNO TIME
Moonlight pours into the car as I speed down the east coast. I didn't know how long I was driving for until I reached North Carolina. We had stopped only four times to pee and get something to snack on. Those breaks were only five minutes at the most before I was rushing Alana back into the car. I wanted to get to the destination as fast as possible. There was a safe house that no one knew about out in the middle of nowhere, no one would come looking for us, but it was going to take another day of driving until I got there. Alana is sleeping soundly in the passenger seat; she is curled into a ball with her hair hiding her face from me. My phone buzzes but I let it go to voicemail because I couldn't be distracted until I pulled into a safe place.
It had been a stressful day, so far. Alana wasn't too happy that I left everyone behind but she had came to terms with my decision later on. My head pounded from the frustration of everything and trying to make split second decision. I was good at them but it didn't make it any less stressful to have to do them. Especially when I was so extremely tired. I could barely see the road in the darkness as I drove under a series of trees.
I could've headed to Chicago. But the idea of bringing this drama down on everyone's heads was something I didn't want to do. It was my problem and my problem only therefore I needed to deal with it. I needed to face Scotty Fraiser on my own. It was my mafia that he threatened, my fiancée that he threatened, regardless of the fact that he threatened me.
"I want a bed, Francesca." Alana groaned as she shifted in her seat. "This seat is not meant for sleeping."
I laugh softly before rubbing circles on her knee with my thumb, "The snoring you've been doing says otherwise."
"Shut up." She grumbles before shoving my hand away.
"Alright, Angel, you want a bed? You got it."
Alana murmured something unkind about me calling her Angel but I couldn't quite make it out. Instead she pulled out her phone to type in something. I watched the empty road for a sign but it was pretty vacant of anything. "The next hotel is an hour away!"
"We are in the middle of nowhere." I deadpanned.
She crosses her arms. "Don't be rude."
"Go back to sleep and before you know it, we'll be there." I sigh before rubbing at my eyes. They were burning from the lack of sleep.
Alana looked at me in concern. I could see it in even when there was practically no lights other than my high beams and the moonlight. "I can drive the last hour."
"And risk getting there tomorrow? No I'm good."
"I don't even drive slow, butthole."
"You most definitely give off the impression that you go under the speed limit."
"Do not!" She laughed with a roll of her eyes. "I go the speed limit."
"Ugh! The speed limit is a suggestion, not final." I argue with her logic of going the speed limit.
Alana pushed my arm as she scoffed. "It is the law to go what the sign says, is that what you're going to tell the cops when you get pulled over?"
"I'm not getting pulled over." I boast. "Clean record, thank you very much."
"Just because you don't get caught, doesn't mean you haven't broken the law."
"Whatever, that's literally the logic that I live by." I hold up five fingers. "Five rules: don't get caught, drive fast, be gay, break every rule, and have a shit ton of sex. That's it, that's all I care about."
There's a smirk on her lips as she shakes her messy hair. "Of course those are the rules you live by."
"What are yours? Hm, do you think you can top mine?"
Alana shrugs. "I only have one."
"One?"
"There's only one," she answers with a nod.
I watch her as her face changes at the thought of her only rule. I relax into the seat and look at the road. I give her a second to see if she's going to tell me on her own or am I going to ask. From my peripheral, I can see her hands fidgeting.
"Die accomplished."
Of all the things I expected her to say, I don't think that's anywhere close what I thought it would be. "Why is that the one rule you live by?"
"There's no room for disappointment, there's not room for failure. There's a lot I will accomplish in life, I live by my rule every single day. My most recent accomplishment? Surviving through the day." She plays with her necklace. "There was a time before everything, that I don't think surviving another day would've been possible."
I nod, "it's a dangerous world we live in."
Alana doesn't respond right away, she watches me for a moment. "It's worse when the danger is yourself."
My eyes snap to hers. The road becomes nonexistent at that point as realization settles onto my chest like a fifty pound weight. She didn't need to say anything more because I understood in that moment. I understood more than she probably knew.
I smile, "I'm glad you survived another day, Angel."
"Thank you," she looks to the outside, "me too."
————————
The hotel was disgusting.
Okay, anything below four stars is disgusting to me but this one kind of took the cake for the most uncomfortable hotel to ever exist. The sweet front desk woman grinned at me and talked to me like I was her very own granddaughter. I felt very loved in that moment but the thing is, she had a total of eight teeth and a bad habit of not checking if those eight teeth of hers had her lunch stuck in them. I support all those without teeth, but they have to at least be cleaned.
"This is...nice." Alana grumbles as we walk away from the counter and saddle up beside each other. There was a man carrying a bag of ice staring at her as we passed the vending machines.
There was an out of order sign on the elevator doors, "Well, it's great that we had to pack light."
"Eighth floor." I groan before pushing open the door leading to the staircase. "After you."
I won't lie as we reached the second set of stairs, my chest kind of stuttered. There were two set of like fifteen stairs per floor and they were very steep; if I wasn't me, I most definitely would've slipped and busted my face open. I mean, going up the stairs felt a lot more brutal than usual. I was dying when Alana and I pushed the door open.
"I need to workout, I haven't done that in awhile." I suck in a breath and resist the urge to drop my suitcase from completely exhaustion. Personally, I'm going to say that it was from the dust in the air because these hotels had never dusted a vent in their lives, I just know it.
Alana perked an eyebrow up. "I feel like we've worked out a lot recently."
"When- oh!" I swipe the card against the reader. "You're right about that."
Shoving the door open, I was delighted to see the one bed. We had already gotten past the we need to sleep in separate beds stage of our situationship. That was over the first night we met and a couple of nights ago. Regardless, I could still tell from the way Alana's face suddenly turned up in confusion and offense that she wasn't ready for the awkwardness again.
I sigh, "I'll sleep on the floor."
Alana sat on the bed after she sat her bag on the table. "No, it's fine. We can sleep together."
"Are you sure about that?" She didn't look very thrilled about the idea.
"We've done it before." Alana said with a shrug before plugging in her charger and setting her phone down.
"We've done a lot of things before."
She raised her eyebrow. "All the things we'll be doing tonight is sleeping, okay?"
I grin as I take off my t-shirt. "Yeah, yeah, I got you."
"I'm not joking, Francesca."
"Sleeping, no fucking." I kick off my shoes.
"Yup." Alana popped the P with force and a cheery smile.
"So you're okay with my nearly naked body next to yours all night? That's fine?"
Alana's eyes ran down my body as I dropped my pants. I was just in my sports bra and bright green briefs. I could see her eyes linger at the hickeys that she had left behind. Alana conveniently turned away. "We've done it before. So, yeah, I guess it's fine."
"Your face says otherwise."
"Are you saying I'm ugly?" Alana questions. I was putting my hair into a better bun when she asks that and I instantly freeze.
"No-" I tried to analyze when in that little span of conversation could I have possibly even implied it. "That's- what?"
Alana rolled her eyes, "I'm joking, you can breathe."
"That wasn't funny." I groaned.
She sat down on the bed and smirked. "Maybe not to you."
I open the small closet door. "Hey, look at this."
I flash her UNO cards and a chessboard game. An evil smile appears on my face as I toss them to her. Alana raises her eyebrows in amusement as she relaxes against the headboard of the bed.
"You want to play a game?"
"You know I love a good game, Angel."
She grins as she opens the UNO package and pulls out the cards. "Are there going to be prizes?"
"Of course, it's not truly a game if there's no reward." I slip onto the bed after grabbing a notepad and pen from the nightstand. "If I win, I want you to have to answer all the wedding questions I want."
Her eyes roll, "And if I win, I get one peaceful night without you terrorizing me with wedding questions."
"Okay." I say with a casual shrug as she finishes shuffling the cards. "We're using the stacking method, though."
"No, no, no absolutely not." Alana wiggles her finger in my face. "We don't stack in my household."
"It's a hotel, therefore not your household." I say as I swat her finger away.
"Haha, you're hilarious, no stacking." Alana pushes away from the headboard as I rest into it and sits opposite of me with her legs crisscrossed.
I pout at the thought of not doing the rule. "Stacking is fuuuuun."
It was my favorite thing to do when I played UNO. I mean it was the best when the person across from you thinks that you have nothing to win. You have them in the palm of your hand and then you pull out four draw twos, all different colors of course, and you watch their face fall in defeat. Brooklyn almost beat me to death once because I had six draw twos and then my final card was a draw four. It wasn't my fault though, that was pure luck that I've been trying to get back ever since.
"I don't care, nope."
"You're the rudest." I pout, again, but deeper this time and I know Alana can't help but smile at me as she rolls her eyes. "Fine, I'm going to win anyways so it doesn't really matter."
"Oh, is that right?" She hands me the cards and I do a bridge trick with the cards.
I smirk, "My dad taught me all the card games a person can imagine by the age of six."
Alana chuckles, "My dad taught me how to count cards by the age of four."
"Poker is my favorite." Taking a swig of the room temperature water I can't help but remember all the fun times at my old school.
"Strip poker, right?" Alana deadpanned but I could see the light of amusement in her eyes. She was trying hard not to enjoy this conversation.
"You can never go wrong with strip poker, Angel, never." My grin is annoyingly big and I can tell that the idea of me playing strip poker bothers her by the way she shakes her hair into her face and turns slightly away from me. "But no, I used to be the poker champion at the Gillian Casino."
Alana takes the cards from me playfully. "We'll, good thing this isn't poker, sweetheart."
My stomach flips at the use of sweetheart. "I'm still going to win, so it doesn't really matter, sweetheart."
"We'll see about that."
Alana cuts the deck before placing one of the decks down and flipping over a red seven. She places seven cards face down in front of me and seven face down in front of her. Alana takes the other deck and mixes them together randomly before handing them to me to cut. I then place the two new decks on both sides of the red seven.
We take our pile of seven and look at them. I had a pretty good hand but sadly no special cards. I divided them into groups of the card's color. I had three blues, one red, and two greens.
"I go first because I'm younger, old lady." Alana says as she looks at her cards.
"I'm pretty sure oldest goes first."
"I'm pretty sure you're wrong."
I scoff and roll my eyes. "Whatever, fine."
"That's what I thought, loser." She says happily before placing a red two onto the red seven.
"You know, you're so competitive for no reason." I say casually as I place down my red five. "Especially when you know you're going to lose, I admire it."
Alana laughs and I can't help but feel warm at the sound of her genuine laughter. "Okay, loser."
"I'll show you what it's like to be a loser." I don't know why but the need to beat her was exceptionally strong. After a lot of yelling and slight anger issues, it finally gets to the last card for me. Alana looks stressed at my one card and her three cards. It was a nice distraction for the both of us to be playing this game because I can tell that Alana's mind is focused solely on beating me.
"You're cheating, there's no way."
"I knew you were going to be a sore loser, Angel, but goodness I didn't think you would accuse me of cheating."
"Oh shut up, you have to be!"
"Or I'm just better at it than you." I say with a smirk as I rest my card onto my stomach. I'm leaning against the headboard and she is sitting diagonal from me.
"Not possible." She puts down a green six and I place my yellow six immediately on top.
"Uno, out. I win." I say as Alana groans and tosses the rest of her cards at me. "Hey, no abuse."
"One more time." She demands and I shake my head.
"I'm tired, plus I get to ask all the questions I want and you have to answer."
"Come on, just one more round, pretty please?" Alana pleads with her bottom lip sticking out and a look of pure innocence on her face. What an amazing ploy that is because I only hesitate for a second before relenting.
I act as if it didn't affect me as much as she wanted it to. I shrug, "Sure, we can play as long as you like, Angel. I'll still win."
"Nope, you won't." She sounds so sure of that.
I almost feel bad when it gets down to it and I'm winning again. It seems luck is in more corner because I've drawn a lot of special cards this round and Alana is getting visibly more upset as I make her draw another four cards. She mumbles something under her breath that I don't hear but I can tell its rude by the death glare she gives me.
We play for thirty minutes before I win the second game. It was a very heated game. Alana looks at me in complete defeat with a slightly annoyed glint in her eyes. "You suck."
I raise my eyebrows. "Because I won fair and square?"
"Yup." She says simply.
"Okay, Angel, whatever you say." I sink into the bed as sleep tries to take its hold on me.
"Wake up, one more round and then we can sleep."
I sigh and pry my eyes open. "One and that's it."
Alana smiles, "Okay."
Three and half more rounds go by and I'm exhausted to the point my eyes burn. I'm half asleep when Alana realizes that I won't make it to the end of this round. I can tell she wants to continue playing but she admits defeat instead.
Alana starts gathering the cards back into the box when she sighs. "Go ahead, ask me your questions."
"I'm surprised you're not trying to convince me to play another round." I chuckle as I close my eyes, again.
"Yeah, well, I'm also tired." She grumbles before turning off the lights and slipping under the covers. "But ask a couple of questions."
"I'll sit on my victory for now and ask you them tomorrow." I say tiredly. My eyes were barely able to be kept open as I blinked slowly at her. "We have a couple hours until our next destination."
"Okay." Alana murmurs. There's a second of silence that almost pulls me into sleep before she shifts in the bed. "Are you cold?"
"No," The word comes out so soft I don't even know if she can hear it.
"Are you sure?"I peak one eye open to see her looking at me curiously. I nod stiffly as my body got heavier and heavier by the second. "Okay, just checking."
With everything in me, I roll over to face her. "Go to sleep, Angel."
"Francesca-" Alana starts her sentence before stopping. I can sense that she's mulling over the words in her head, deciding if she wants to say them or not. "I don't want you to die."
"Who says I'm going to?"
"What I mean is, kill them both." She whispers. "Survive."
I sigh, "You and I both know that it is not that simple."
Alana's hand grips mine and I can feel it shaking. My eyes fly open as I see her staring at me, full on, and I can see the fear in them. "Please, don't die."
In that moment all I wanted to do was make her fear go away. I just wanted to make her feel better. I didn't know if my words were even a promise that I could make, but I was willing to do it if it gave her peace of mind. I was willing to say and do anything if it meant that she could sleep. "I won't, I promise."
"That better not be a lie, Francesca."
"It's not, would I ever lie to you, Angel?" I say with a half smile.
Before I can hear her response, sleep finally falls over me. The world transform into shadows and darkness and without another thought I sink into the darkness and finally fall asleep.