I hung up the phone, staring down at the grief dispensing object in my hand. My life had just changed, like dramatically. I put the phone down, wiping away the tears pooling in my eyes trying my best to make them stop. No one saw Jellybean Jones -or Jb as I prefer - cry. Not even my mother Gladys Jones, who now, I know is dead.
"Where's the closest place where I get can get a cheap room for the night?" I tiredly asked the ticket administrator at the Riverdale bus station, fresh off the bus from Toledo. It was after midnight, and I had barely gotten any sleep on the stuttering machine they called a bus here in Riverdale. My original plan had been to search around town for any information on my brother and father, but I needed at least two hours of sleep tonight to even function tomorrow. Well, that's what I kept telling myself.
Truth was, I was delaying the invertible. I knew I had to see my family sooner or later and tell them the heartbreaking news – for me at least. It's not like they would even care; Mom left them, not the other way around.
"Well, there's the Whyte Wyrm, but I don't think a respectable young lady like yourself should be going there, especially at this hour of the night." The old lady sat behind the counter warned her.
"I'm hardly a respectable lady," I scoffed, "and don't you worry about me. I can take care of myself. Always have."
After prying the directions to the so-called 'Whyte Wyrm' out of the still reluctant, lady, I headed off the building which was not too far from the bus station. I hugged my jacket threadbare jacket closer to my body, seeking much-wanted warmth from the brisk breeze that haunted Riverdale late at night. Looking up, I saw the building which could only be the place the old lady warned me about going to.
Memories flooded back to me as I remembered the times where my brother and I would sit in the car in front of that building, waiting as our mother went into the bar and tried to convince our father that it was time for him to come home for the night. I shook my head back to the present. No, I mustn't think of those painful times.
I kept walking until I reached the entrance to the dangerous building, too tired to even care about what could happen to young 17-year-old me.
I reached out to open the door, but before I could it flung open in my face, causing me to react instantly on my instincts to stay vertical. I walked past the obviously drunk pair as they stumbled into the parking lot. The air in the bar was stale, and it reeked of alcohol. As I looked around I noticed there were quite a few people here for a Saturday night, or technically Sunday morning, with some people crowded around a pool table cheering or booing whenever someone made a shoot, and some sitting the bar or hanging around wherever they could find space. There were lots of guys, and a few girls, ranging in age from what looked like 15 to 70. The one thing they all seemed to have in common though was the leather jackets they all wore, with a symbol of a double-headed snake on the back with the words 'Southside Serpent' embroidered in the leather.
After glancing around the room, I headed towards the main bar, and up to the man who looked the least scary behind the counter.
"Excuse me, but do you know who I should ask about getting a room to stay in tonight?" I asked the man warily.
"I'm your guy," the man replied, not even looking up from his job of wiping some shot glasses with a dirty white cloth like how all the bartenders do in the movies. "Come with me."
Quickly mentally debating following the stranger across the room, I decided to. Hurriedly following the oldish man, I wasn't that much surprised when I ran into someone, after all, it was pretty crowded in there. I looked up to apologize, expecting to see an ugly looking middle age man whom I had seen many of as I surveyed the room earlier. Instead, as I tip my head up, staring down at me is a boy around my age, and pretty cute to be honest- not that anyone would ever get me to admit I thought a guy was cute- with his dark hair and striking blue eyes.
"Sorry," I mumbled averting my gaze, so I didn't look like I was staring at his gorgeous face. Not that I didn't want to…
"Not, sorry, it was my fault, It wasn't looking where I was going," the boy apologized, who now I could tell had a deep voice. "I'm Ryder, what's your name? I don't think I've seen you before."
Maybe it was the tone of his voice, or maybe just how tired she was, and how in a weird way, she trusted this guy, but she told him her name.
"I'm Jb," I replied. "And yes, I haven't been here before, at least not in a while."
"And what does that stand for, Jb?" Ryder asked with a smile.
"Um, I'd rather not say," I answered self-consciously.
"I don't suppose you'll explain what you mean by not being here in while either?"
"Yeah, I'd rather not go into the details," I replied, slightly embarrassed. I suddenly remembered the reason she bumped into Ryder in the first place. I started in the direction the man was leading me. "Oh, dang it, I'm sorry, I have to go. This guy was taking me to a room…"
Ryder grabbed my arm before I could get too far. "Wait, are you saying that a random guy is taking you to a room, like…"
I looked up at him, confused for a second, then I understood what I said must have sounded like. "Oh, god, no! Not like that, never," it disgusted me even thinking about the idea.
"Oh, that's a relief." Ryder looked at me as if what he said had more than one meaning. My face flushed, and I looked down.
"What I meant was that this old guy is, or was, renting me a room for the night, but I've lost him now, and I don't know if I'll be able to find him again in this crowd."
"Oh, you're probably talking about my uncle, he runs this place. But don't worry, I can get you a key for a room." Ryder smiled kindly and gently took hold of my arm to lead me through the rowdy crowd. Once again, I found myself completely trusting this stranger. On the other side of the room, there was a little office, which I waited outside of while Ryder went inside to grab a key to one of the two rooms they had available. He showed me to the closest door on my right, explaining that this was there best room they had, and apologizing for "the- well, everything". As I looked inside the expanse, I concluded that I had slept in worse, and it was for only for what, three, four hours until dawn?
"Well, thanks Ryder," I said conclusively to the kind boy, after I took in the ragged bed, topped with highly likely dirty sheets, the musty carpet and the threadbare curtains. Ryder apologized once more, for mainly the lack of a bathroom this time.
"It's alright," I assured him. "I've slept in worse places."
"Well, I find that surprising, I couldn't picture any place worse than this," he said, motioning to the stained wallpaper and the broken window, in which the light source for the room streamed in from a flickering street lamp across the road. "Anyway, good night," he said, then glanced at his watch. "Well actually 'good morning' but yeah. See yah."
I closed the door and shrugged off my backpack which I had been carrying for the past while and placed it on the bed. Concluding that the clothes I was wearing were the comfiest I owned, forwent changing and slid under the covers, which I could now definitely tell were unwashed.