Painful Desires || COMPLETED ✔️

Chapter 2

      The late afternoon colors have long settled in the sky as I drive through a small town, it looks to be in between an old-fashioned aesthetic and plain old. The warmth of spring buzzes in my body, giving me a silent stillness.

"Mm," I motion to Lucas and he pushes a fry between my lips with the tip of his fingers. I lightly lick them as I close my mouth and his shoulders tense.

He sucks his teeth, "You eat too much."

I chew through the seasoned french fry and gulp down his lemonade. "You want me to drive? You feed me."

"Yeah, yeah."

I lower the blasting music playing my 'Fire' Playlist which usually manages to keep me awake, but for some reason, I felt extremely relaxed.

"Are you sure you don't want to visit your parents? It's on the way to my mom's--"

"No."

I open my mouth to say something but he folds his arms shifting towards the window and staring out at the darkening sky.

When I met Lucas almost six years ago I was fourteen years old. Marisol--my cousin and I had snuck out to a high schooler's party. After about twenty minutes we got drunk off a Four Loko and I was stumbling my way into my neighborhood with her on my back--despite her being bigger than me. My phone kept buzzing with my brothers' name, my heart pounded in my chest, and nausea raised in the back of my throat.

She points to a van, "Shit! Is that my mom?"

I gripped her legs and sprinted as hard and fast as I could, with each step swaying to the sides. It wasn't until my hands pricked with the concrete of the sidewalk that I realized I had fallen, my palms bled and I wanted nothing more than to sleep. I turned on my back feeling a kick on my leg, a boy stood over me with short dark hair and a bloody lip.

"Are you stupid?! Do you want to get punched?" He shouted with an accent I was too drunk to understand.

"Huh?"

He pulled me up with the hem of my shirt, "I said, do you want to get punched?"

My eye catches something a couple of feet away and I shove him off seeing Marisol's short thick hair laying face down on the grass.

"Mari! Are you okay?" I turn her around, her hand almost smacking my face as she lightly groans.

"Fuck!" I cry. Covering my face, tears clouded my vision as my phone kept buzzing. "I'm so dead." My mom was already angry with me and now she'll have a reason to hate me.

I flinched, feeling a hand on my shoulder and he stepped back. "You're Arlo, right? The kid who threw a chair at a teacher?"

I nodded, wiping my eyes, "She deserved it for calling me "another idiot Mexican" for not doing my homework." I think I remember him from gym class, he's two years older than me and started three weeks ago.

I looked up at him, "What happened to your face? Did you get into a fight or something?" He looked flushed and his eyes were puffy and red, his lip isn't the only thing bleeding.

"Are you seriously drunk?" He pulls me to my feet. "You know how many things can happen to you out here? You're short and she's passed out. You could have gotten kidnapped."

"Short? I'm your height!"

He points to my shoes inexpressibly. "Nevermind that. You shouldn't be--"

I struggle to lift Marisol as I try shifting her onto my back, Lucas raises his hand for me to stop and I frown at his uptightness.

He takes her arm over his shoulder and I do the same, we slowly make our way back in silence until I ask him about his lip again. I expected him to yell at me or roll his eyes, instead, he told me his mother had hit him for opposing her. He sighed, "...and my dad, he just stood there. Like if--" He shook his head and we kept on walking in silence.

We've been best friends since that night.

Lucas yawns, stretching his arms, the back of his hand touching my shoulder. "Should we stop for the night?"

I pulled into a three-story Motel called 'Motel' with the letter 'o' almost faded on the sign. The door chimes as we step into the front desk, an older man wearing a red shirt and glasses looks up from his phone.

"We'd like a room," I say trying not to scrunch my nose at his burning cigarette.

His mouth slightly opens looking between us. "The nights sixty for one bed," he says in a deep scratchy voice. "One-twenty for two and three-fifty for the lover's den."

Lucas and I exchange looks, "I guess we'll take the two--"

"One bed," I slap the money on the desk.

We unlock the door with the single key attached to a leather string, it creaks open and the room smelled like they tried covering up the stench of smoke and marijuana with Febreze.

"One bed? Why?" Lucas closes the door and I drop onto the small bed that creaks under my weight.

"One-twenty for two beds? For one night. We can spend the extra sixty on gas or food," I mumble.

Lucas kicks my feet as he walks by, "Go shower you're all sweaty." He places a garbage bag beside me and begins taking out pillowcases and bed covers.

"You're like a mom that brings extra bedding on every trip." I chuckle, "Remember when my mom made us carry those huge bags of blankets just for her to leave them in the car."

"Where do you think I got the idea," he stuffs the pillows into their cases.

I groaned sitting up and rubbing my temples, my body felt sore and I haven't eaten since we left three hours ago.

"Stop being so dramatic."

"It's your fault we left so late. If you hadn't spent the whole day with Li Mei we would be at my mom's right now."

He rolls his eyes, "Yeah well..." he sucks his teeth turns around, and walks into the small bathroom. I raise a brow at the closed door, he's never taken anything I've said about Li Mei seriously. I was just trying to make conversation to fill in my nervousness about sharing a bed.

I slam my fists against the door, and it rattles, earning a squeal from his side.

"C'mon' honey, I needa pee!" I bounce back and forth on my feet, cupping my lower half.

"Why do you always start talking in a country accent when you're--" The door opens and I almost slam into his shirtless body to get to the toilet.

I hold myself with one hand on the wall, lightly wincing from the pain of my bladder.

"Feels so good," I breathe out peeking to see his gaze lowering and I just hope I don't look as rough as I feel.

"A pee kink huh?" I raise a brow and his eyes snap to mine. "I never would have guessed."