The Haunted Hotel

Bus Ride

The bus was small and nice enough. It had fabric, comfy seats in two rows of two. There were only about five rows, so like twenty seats. Jonah headed straight for the back, holding his head high cockily, like he knew he was bad. I rolled my eyes and took a seat in the middle of the bus, in the third row from the front. I sat on the inside, relaxing. I pulled my hood over my head and closed my eyes.

"Um, hey. Can I sit here?" A feminine voice asked.

I reopened my eyes to see Adley standing over me. She had a little smile on her face.

I nodded. "Go ahead." I smiled back at her, honestly happy for the company.

When she sat, it sent a small wave of her flowery perfume toward me. I breathed it in, and it smelled really good. I stole another glance at her, as she settled in. Pretty, I thought. Maybe something could come out of this trip.

Trey took the seat behind us, Kelley across from him. Shay tentatively took the seat across from us, cowering in the window seat, looking like she wanted to dissolve into the bus wall. She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

Mrs. Rodman took the aisle seat in the first row. She smiled back at us, her eyes gleaming with fake enthusiasm. "Who's excited?" She cheered.

Nobody raised their hands. Her smile wavered, but relentlessly did not fall.

"Okay, so here's how the trip is going to go. It's a ten hour bus ride, so prepare yourselves. We will arrive at the hotel at around five this afternoon. We will hang out there today, then do some sight seeing tomorrow. We have three nights there, in case you didn't previously know, but you should, since I sent out an informational packet. I love packets. They're like extra friendly sheets! I digress. Anyways, enjoy yourselves and relax! This is going to be so much fun!" Mrs. Rodman poured out the pep, trying way too hard. She turned to the front, but quickly turned back to us. "Not too much fun though. Controlled fun." She pointed a long finger at each of us and narrowed her eyes, before facing the front once more.

"Help," Adley whispered to me. I glanced over at her in confusion. "I'm drowning in pep," she explained seriously, with her brown eyes intense. She suddenly slumped down in her seat, draping a hand across her forehead, her tongue sticking out of her mouth. I suppressed a laugh, by pushing my knuckle into my mouth.

I tuned out of whatever the hell Mrs Rodman was saying, but I could still hear her excited tone. "Oh, no," I said softly, whipping my head to the side to look I at Adley.

     "What? What?" She whispered back, in a faux panic. Her hands roamed my arm, as if searching for wounds. I took a deep breath, then pretended to exaggeratedly gag on Adley. She let out a little giggle, throwing her hands up and her head back to block the pretend spew. However, we immediately dropped the act, when Mrs. Rodman shot us a nasty look. She covered her mouth and coughed, trying to cover up her laughter.

Mrs. Rodman cleared her throat and looked away, slapping the sickly sweet smile back onto her face. "So, we have a long ride ahead of us. Who wants to play a game?"

Nobody said anything, but slowly, Shay raised her hand. "Yes, Shay?"

"I-I wouldn't mind playing a game," she spoke quietly. We all groaned, while Mrs. Rodman grinned, and Shay shrunk back even more.

"Excellent! Does anyone have a game?"

"Seven minutes in heaven!" Jonah called out. Someone laughed. Probably Trey.

"I think that's a little bit inappropriate! Anyone else? No? How about would you rather?" The teacher said, wiggling her eyebrows. She paused, waiting for us to express some admiration for her hipness. We did not. "Perfect! I'll start!"

We all looked at each other in annoyance. This was going to be a long, long ride.

"Okay, Trey, would you rather get an F on your report card, or have a teacher yell at you?" Mrs. Rodman said, her eyes widening and her mouth in an open smile.

"This is the stupidest thing ever," Kelley said, rolling her eyes and picking at her cuticles.

"I guess get yelled at, but I'm pretty used to both. Adley, would you rather eat a whole bottle of ketchup or lick a shark?" Trey answered.

"Obviously, lick a shark. I think that'd be sick. Kelley, would you rather have a bad hair day or die?" Adley asked, sarcastically.

"Hm, probably die, but I wouldn't know, since I've never had a bad hair day. Jonah, would you rather have no hair product or no makeup?"

"Don't care. Tucker, would you rather touch a hottie's ti-" Jonah started, but Mrs. Rodman cut him off.

"Okay, new game!"

Mrs. Rodman fell asleep, less than an hour later. She probably wasn't supposed to do that, leaving six teenagers pretty much unsupervised on a bus, but that didn't stop her.

"Now the real fun starts," Trey said, after we were sure she was asleep.

"Can we play spin the bottle?" Kelley asked, excitedly.

"Does anyone have a bottle?" Trey asked.

"Of course I do," Jonah said, pulling a beer bottle out of his bag. The supervisor probably should have checked us for drugs, but you know teachers aren't that smart. He took a few swigs, then poured the rest out of the window. "Waste of a good beer, so it better be worth it."

We got out of our seats and sat on the floor at the back of the bus, in a tight circle. I hoped that the bus wouldn't crash and that Mrs. Rodman wouldn't wake up. The bus driver didn't even glance back. Jonah placed the bottle in the middle, then looked around the circle, eyeing the girl's hungrily. "I'll go first," he said.

Jonah spun the bottle. It swirled, then landed on Adley. Adley groaned and scrunched up her nose. Jonah smirked and leaned across the circle to her. He slammed his lips onto hers, immediately moving his hand to her boob. As soon as his lips were on, Adley shoved him off. She wiped her mouth off on her sleeve, and Jonah smirked.

Adley made a point to wipe the sleeve on my leg. I glared at her. "Great, now we both have herpes."

"My turn," Adley said. She gave the bottle a spin. It landed on Kelley. "New amendment, if the person it lands on is not a member of your preferred gender, a kiss on the cheek is plenty."

Everyone agreed, so Adley kissed Kelley on the cheek. They both quickly turned away in disgust and rubbed their cheeks. "That was something I never want to do again," Adley mumbled.

"At least you got to kiss me," Kelly replied. She spun the bottle. It landed on me. She smiled and crawled over to me. I rolled my eyes, as she tried too hard. She slung her arms around my neck, practically planting herself between my legs. She leaned in and planted her lips on mine. I had to admit, she was a pretty good kisser, but I didn't feel anything. She tried to deepen it, but I removed her hands from my body and gave her a little shove.

I looked at Adley. She looked at me with wide eyes and a sort of grimace. "Yikes," she mouthed.

"You want me, everyone always does," Kelley drawled, returning to her seat. I rolled my eyes again and tapped Adley's leg, so she could see that I didn't like it. She scrunched her nose up.

It was my turn to spin. Unfortunately, I landed on Trey. I awkwardly touched my lips to his cheek. Then Trey spun and landed on me. We had to do it again. At least we were secure in our masculinity.

Then, it seemed as though fate had a change of heart, as I watched my spin land on Adley. My eyes shone, as I leaned in. Explosion, as my lips touched hers. I slid my hand to her hips and up her back. She touched my cheek. I didn't want to pull away, and I forgot we had an audience.

"Okay, okay, that's enough!" Jonah said.

We broke apart. Adley avoided my eyes. I couldn't help but wonder if she felt it too, but she had to spin again.

She got Trey, and they shared a half a second kiss. Trey got Shay, and she did not look happy to be pulled into our game, but she accepted his kiss.

Shay got Jonah, Jonah tried to progress it, we saved her. Jonah got Kelley, and they made out for ten minutes, so that was the end of that game.

The picture above is of Kelley, played by Kelsea Ballerini. Thanks for reading!