"Right this way ma'am." The hotel employee says to me. I begin to follow the employee as he takes my bags. We enter an elevator and go up 20 floors. The employee exits before me and we walk down the hall. A man smiles while walking past us. I smile back. We stop at a door with the numbers '213' on a gold plate near the top of the door. "Here is your key. If you lose it, come to the front desk and we will ask you questions to prove this room is yours." The employee says while handing a key to me.
"Thanks." I say. I unlock my room and the employee sets my bags near the door. I tip the employee before he leaves. I bring my bags to the bed and begin to unpack my things. As I finish unpacking my things, I notice a clipboard on a pillow. I pick it up, and realize that I'm supposed to fill out the form. I take a few minutes to fill out the form before setting it on the dresser.
I let out a sigh of relief as I plop on the bed. I'm finally here. I spent forever trying to get here, and now, here I am. The Gardenia Hotel and Casino. I've always dreamed about coming here. I'm here now, and I've never been happier. There was a knock on the door. I get up and walk over to the door and open it. The same employee from before was standing there. "Hello again. Did you finish your registration form?" He asks.
I nod and walk over to the dresser and grab the clipboard before walking back to the door. I hand the clipboard to the employee. "Thank you. As a regular hotel offering, we would like to give you this gift basket for coming to the Gardenia Hotel and Casino." He says. I watch as he picks up a wrapped basket off of the floor and brings it into my room and sets it on the bed. "Would you like to come down to the lobby to meet some new people?" He asks.
I nod. "Very well. Follow me." I follow him through the hall until we get to the elevator. I notice he is looking at the information I put on the registration form. "I see you put down your age as 19. Is that correct?" He asks. I nod. "Okay. I will tell you now that you may enter the casino, but you are not allowed to buy or drink alcohol. Do you understand?" I nod. It was quiet after that, with the exception of the classy elevator music.
The employee lets me exit the elevator first. I walk into the lobby and see many people. I look around, trying to find someone that really catches my eye. I walk over to a chair and sit down. But as I sit down, I see something that really catches my eye. Seven females who look my age, maybe a little older, sitting down at a table, talking to each other. I notice one of them looking at me. Once I realize it, I look away.
Through the noise of the lobby, I can hear someone walking over to me. My heart begins to beat faster as I think about what could happen next. "Mind if we sit next to you?" I hear someone ask. I look to see who it is. It's the group I was looking at earlier. I shake my head. The group sits on the couch and begins to talk to each other. "So, I've never seen you before. Are you the new girl in town or something?" One of them asks.
All of them look at me. I nod. "Oh come on, don't be shy! I mean, we saw you looking at us earlier. So, you might as well begin talking." One of them says. A few seconds pass without anybody saying a word. "Wow, still nothing. Tell us your name at least. Here, I'll tell you mine. I'm Stella. These are my friends Bloom, Flora, Musa, Roxy, Tecna, and Aisha." The same girl says. I mutter something. "What was that? I couldn't hear you."
I speak louder this time. "Alexis." I got up and started to walk to the elevator. The elevator opens and it's empty. I enter and press a button. Before the elevator has a chance to close, Stella runs over and holds the door open. I see the other girls sigh as they get up and enter the elevator. Once all of us are in, the elevator doors close and goes to the 20th floor. I exit first and head to my room. I unlock the door and enter before quickly closing it.
I stay near the door to see where they are going. I hear their foorsteps stop in front of my door, and I hear a door open, but it's not mine. Once the door closes, I quickly open my door and look left and right down the hall, and I don't see anybody. 'Great.' I thought. 'They are in the room across from mine. This will be fun.' I walk over to my bed and unwrap the gift basket. I take out the goodies and put them away before sitting on the bed.
"What should I do?" I ask myself. "There are many things to do here, I just wish I could find something to do." I sigh. There was a knock at my door. I walk over to the door and look through the peephole. An employee is standing outside. I take a deep breath before unlocking the door, before opening it. The employee is holding some kind of button.
"Hello. Since you paid for the premium stay at the hotel, we will give you this button. It is used to alert us when you are in trouble. Let's say, someone broke into the hotel room while you were sleeping. If you woke up, you would press the button, and we will get an alert telling us that you are in danger. It also works when not in the room. When you press the button, we receive a GPS coordinate of the alert." The employee explains.
I take the button from him. I thank him and tell him to have a good day before he leaves. I close the door, but realize that something felt off about him. I ignore the feeling and set the button on the dresser next to the bed. I notice a flat screen TV on the wall across from the bed. "How did I not notice this?" I ask myself. I lay on my bed and get comfortable as I turn the TV on with the remote.
As I scroll through channels, I see a feature that makes me stop. Netflix. "NETFLIX!" I yell at the top of my lungs. "They have Netflix." I say while crying with tears of joy. I go into Netflix and sign in. I immediately go to Grey's Anatomy and begin watching where I left off. I haven't watched this in so long, I forgot what was happening, but I remembered everything when it shows Callie laying in a hospital bed.
After finishing the season, I turn the TV off and rub my eyes. I look at my phone. It's not even night yet. I got here in the morning, and it's only the late afternoon. I lay there for a few minutes while thinking about unimportant things. I slowly get up after a few minutes and stretch. "Might as well get something to eat today." I say.
I walk over to the door and open it. I walk out, close the door, lock it, and walk towards the elevator.