Roadkill

Chapter 8- GumChewer

“We don’t have any rooms available.”

The girl working the night shift looked at us with a bored, tired expression on her face as she unwrapped another pack of gum and began to chew it loudly. She couldn’t have been older than 16.

“Please, he’s injured, we can’t get him to a hospital right now because - look, all we need is a place where I can bandage him up, and he can rest. We’ll leave at first light. Please, it’s an emergency, I think he might be dying.”

My pleading had very little effect on the girl, it seemed. She stared at Lowell with an expression of slight disgust, like fully showing that she was uncomfortable was even too much effort for her. Slowly, she began to thumb through the pages of the giant sign-in book in front of her.

“Please hurry, I seriously need to get him some help!”

The girl stopped her leisurely page turning and stared straight at me with a glare in her eyes and was about to say something when she set eyes on Lowell standing behind me like she was seeing him for the first time. She immediately stood up straight and smiled widely, all traces of indifference and boredom vanished without a trace.

“We do have one room available. It’s the only one left tonight and there’s only one bed, but should it do right?” She didn’t wait for me to respond and continued immediately, twirling a lock of her blonde hair in her finger. “Your friend is really hot, he doesn’t look so good though. Want me to call the police? They could get him to a hospital in time.”

She clearly didn’t see all the blood and black sizzling ooze from the angle she was standing at.

I had half a mind to tell her off or smack her across the face, but I didn’t have time.

“We’ll take it!” I said, snatching the keys out of her hands. She didn’t even mind, she was too busy ogling Lowell.

I just sighed and put his arm around my shoulder and my right hand on his waist, gripping tight to help him up the staircase. He was beginning to groan now, gritting his teeth as wave after wave of pain would hit, and he’d stumble from the impact and sheer exhaustion. He was dying.