15 Reasons To Live

Chapter Six

15 Reasons to Live © Copyright Brianna Howell 2013

I wanted to get out of the car as soon as I could. This was more than I could had dreamed, it was beautiful and I needed to explore it.

"Where are we going?" I asked, leaning into the gap between the driver and passenger seats.

Thad turned his head a fraction of an inch before turning back a map to his phone. "To find a room" he said.

The car pulled to a stop in front of a white old looking building. The sign at the top read YMCA.

I'd heard about these before. They had cheap rooms for people traveling on a budget, but I'd heard bad things about these places too.

I looked at Thad warily as we got out of the car and walked up to the building.

His expression was unreadable as he opened the door for me and followed in after.

It wasn't much nicer looking on the inside, but there were so many teens and younger adults. The walls seemed to breathe as of they were alive, and somehow - oddly enough - that settled my nerves.

Ben scratched the back of his neck unsure, as Thaddeus walked up to the front desk.

He rung the bell twice and a goth looking girl walked out from one of the hallways on her cellphone.

She pointed to herself and then to the desk, indicating that she was who we should talk to about getting a room.

"Yeah. No- I have to go. Yeah, alright. Bye." She hung up with a giggle, which shocked me in a way, because the way she dressed made her seem scarier than she was.

She walked around behind the counter and picked up a clipboard with a sign in sheet on it.

"Welcome to the Brooklyn Y, my name's Ruth." She said pointing to her shiny name tag. "Here's the sign in sheet, and room keys are in the cabinet over there." She pointed to a tall wooden box by the door as she handed Thad the clipboard.

"Call me when you've filled these out, I'll be in the third room on the right."

She waved quickly and walked back down the hall she had come from.

The three of us stood stunned for a moment, not quite sure what we were getting ourselves into, but Thad filled out the papers anyways and rang the bell for Ruth.

We waited for ten minutes or so before Ben huffed frustratedly and walked over to the key cabinet.

I looked over at Thad, but his expression was still unreadable. He noticed me watching him and smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. What's going on with him?

"Uh, guys" Ben started, looking dumbfounded he held a room key in his hand. The keychain was an unbelievably long piece of metal pipe, and it looked pretty heavy.

"There's only one key." He finished.

Well this is awkward.

Thad ran a hand through his hair, and walked over to Ben, I followed after him.

"It's true" he said "That's the last one."

I shrugged grabbing the hundred pound key from Ben. "Come on then roomies." I said and walked down one of the hall in search of room 206.

I found it almost right away, noticing that we were close to where Ruth had gone, and tried the key in the door. It clicked a few times, then turned once and I was able to shove it open.

There was only one king sized bed in the small, closet-like room. There wasn't much else in the room, save for small lamp and a desk with a chair. Ben bumped into me from behind shoving me into the room, I tripped over the rug and fell on the ground.