Explorers Club

Explorers Club Ch. 6: The Hotel Room

The room was huge, filled with white upholstered furniture, and tropical plants which dotted the room. Sunlight streamed through large open windows, and French doors led to a little balcony outside. I took off my shoes, letting my toes feel the thick rug under my feet.

I looked around and realized we were just in the little living room. There was a large couch and a few comfortable chairs ringed in front of a television.

"Where's the bed?" I asked.

"We have a suite, apparently," Hale said, looking around. "Didn't expect that."

I opened the door to peek into the bedroom. It had two queen beds, plump and white, waiting in front of yet another television. More little plants and flowers were tastefully placed around the room, adding little pops of green and color.

"Gracie, are you here?" Hale asked.

"Hi guys! Give me a few minutes! I'm still getting ready!" Gracie's voice called from the bathroom. I could hear an electric razor going from behind the door, and the shower was on.

"No problem, Gracie, we'll check out the balcony," Hale said and pulled open the glass balcony door. She stepped outside, and I joined her.

I took in a deep breath of the sweet-smelling air as I walked onto the balcony. The pool area stretched below us, filled with guests splashing, drinking, and meandering across the hotel grounds. In the distance, the pool area gave way to the hotel's private beach. I wondered if Frank and his friends could see us from below. Presumably, they were down there by the pool, somewhere. Hale stared out over the balcony, seemingly lost in thought.

"I still can't believe you got us in here," I said to Hale as I took in the gorgeous view.

"Well Tessa's an old friend and she owed me a favor," Hale said. She smiled and leaned on the railing. "I thought it would be nice for Gracie for her last year with us."

"Wow, I wish my teachers were that nice to me!" I said, shaking my head.

"Oh, is that so?" Hale said, turning to me. "You haven't received enough attention from your professor this trip, huh?"

"No, that's not what I meant!" I said, holding up my hands. "I just-"

Professor Hale then began miming writing a note as she spoke in a mocking tone: "Dear Assistant Dean Lansing, I would like to lodge a formal complaint against Professor Jessica Hale for ignoring my needs during our trip," she began in a fake deep voice: clearly, her bad impression of me.

"Okay first of all my voice isn't that deep-"

But Professor Hale continued: "... despite the fact that I came multiple prodigious loads inside her..."

"Okay I don't even know what that means-"

"Regardless, I feel like my needs are not being sufficiently met, and I require more favors from my professors in future school trips. Sincerely, Perkins, your dumbest student."

I waited for a moment, leaning against the railing, as I watched her. Hale stared back at me, smirking. A breeze picked up her hair and the light skirt around her waist. It reminded of our time together, on the beach. I couldn't tell if she was actually mad, or just teasing.

"Okay, it would be pretty funny if I submitted a complaint like that," I said.

"I would toss you off this balcony," Hale replied quickly. "And I'd make it look like an accident, too."

"Oh come on, you wouldn't do something like that!" I said.

"Oh no?"

"Think of the paperwork!" I insisted, hoping to get a smile from her. I was unsuccessful.

Hale only snorted and turned away, again looking out over the view. She leaned forward, resting her arms on the railing.

"I just was trying to say that I was impressed by how much you care about Gracie," I said.

Hale scrunched her face a little bit, thinking. We both stared for a long moment out the balcony, letting the breeze blow by us. I thought she was done with the conversation, but she spoke, without looking at me.

"You going to try to push me at Gracie again?" she whispered.

I sighed. I could feel her resentment in her tone, still sore from our conversation in the hall.

"No, that was stupid of me to mention that," I said.

"It was," Hale agreed.

I wondered if I should say something else, or explain myself. In the end, I really didn't know what to say.

"Sorry," I said, finally.

Hale nodded. She glanced back behind us, towards the bathroom. Gracie's voice came to us, over the sound of the shower. Hale turned back to me, and sighed. "Want a word of advice, Perkins?"

"Yes, please," I said, desperate for anything that would fix this.

"Right after making love to a girl..." she began.

I raised my eyebrows at the term. 'Making love'? She certainly had never used that term before, with us. Hale caught my look of surprise and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, fine," Hale said. "Right after making love, or having sex, or roughly fucking like an animal in an elevator, or whatever it is you're doing with a girl... once you're done, it's bad form to immediately start asking her about whether she might want to have sex with someone else. Understand? It makes it all just feel... hollow."

"Shit," I murmured, realizing what I had done.

"And that goes double if the girl didn't have time to finish in said elevator," she said, giving me a knowing glance.

"Sorry, Jessica," I said, shaking my head. "I really didn't mean to come off like that. Is there anything I can do? I'll do anything."

"Well... I did like it when you called me Professor," she said, turning back to the view.

"Of course, Professor," I said.

We watched the ocean, and heard occasional shouts and laughter that wafted up on the wind from the pool below. Not long ago, I felt like I was living in some fairytale and Professor Hale was one of the closest people to me in the world. And then I had to be a fool and now... I didn't know what we were. But I felt like I needed to break the ice, somehow.

"So what are we up to tomorrow?" I asked.

Hale shrugged. "I thought we'd just enjoy our time here first. I'd love to go on another hike, but I'm not so sure everyone will be up for it after lounging in a fancy resort all day."

"Well I promise to go with you wherever you want," I said.

Hale grinned. "You're such a suck-up, Perkins."

"I'll even get you an apple, if you want," I offered.

Hale nodded. "Well, I do like apples."

"Well, maybe I can get you one when I come to class," I suggested.

Hale looked sideways at me curiously. "What class?"

"Well, if it makes you feel better I'm considering majoring in biology now, thanks to your influence!" I said. "Looking forward to your Bio 101 lecture!"

"Oh lord!" Hale said, looking a little terrified. "You would be far too distracting to have in my class, Perkins."

"Why is that?" I asked, grinning.

Hale just looked at me with that narrow-eyed glare of hers.

"Well, I do like to sit in the front row," I said, sounding as innocent as I could. "And I often find it helps me concentrate if I can do this..."

I began tweaking my nipples dramatically and Hale screeched.

"I'm going to blacklist you from my class registration!" Hale said, as she shielded her eyes.

"It's to concentrate my focus," I said, pinching my nipples again and pretending to do elaborate twirls.

"I'm still mad at you, Perkins! Stop it!" Hale said, backing up from me.

"I'm going to do iteven hardernow," I insisted.

"Perkins! Stop!"

"Ahem." Gracie cleared her throat. We both turned to her. Gracie pointed to Hale, then me. "Is this, like, a weird sexual thing, or has Perkins finally lost his mind?"

"The latter, the latter!" Hale said, and ran behind Gracie, using her like a human shield. "Use your birthday powers to make him stop touching his nipples!"

I was staring at Gracie, and my mind went blank. Gracie was wearing only the fluffy white hotel robe and nothing else that I could tell. Her long hair was still wet from the shower. She was holding a TV remote in one hand, and a glass of champagne in the other.

Gracie cleared her throat. "Birthday Rule #1- you have to do what I say, Perkins! So now, slowly, remove your hands from your nipples, and nobody gets hurt."

"Huh?" I mumbled. It felt like my brain had shut down and was restarting. I was desperate to see the curves just barely hidden under that robe.

"Perkins, take your hands OFF your nipples!" Gracie repeated.

"Oh," I said, looking down. I removed them.

"You are completely ridiculous, minion," Gracie said to me, and chuckled.

I pointed to Hale. "It was an inside joke between us."

"No it was NOT," Hale said. "Maybe a fever dream, I don't know. Maybe the sun is getting to him."

Gracie shrugged and took a long chug of champagne.

"Well in any case you two really took your time getting here!" Gracie pointed the champagne glass at both of us. "What were you two doing?"

I shared a brief glance with Hale.

"We did order room service," I said.

"Yeah, Perkins was a hungry boy," Hale said quickly.

And if on cue, my stomach rumbled loudly.

"Perkins, was that your stomach?" Gracie said, eying my stomach as if a monster was about to burst from it.

"It was..." I stared between them and felt awkward with both women staring at my stomach. I realized I still hadn't cleaned up from the elevator, and this seemed like as good a time as any. "One moment, ladies," I said, ducking away and heading to the restroom.

The bathroom mirrors were still foggy from Gracie's shower, and the gleaming white marble was slick with steam and dripped water. I went to the bathroom and wiped myself off, taking my time to clean up and go to the bathroom. I sighed, remembering the elevator, and the beach, with Hale. It almost felt as if I could feel the memory of her on my skin as I thought about it. Finally, I shook my head and left. As I opened the bathroom door, Professor Hale came into the bathroom quickly.

"I'm going to need a minute to clean up too," Hale murmured, and gave me a knowing look as she closed the door behind her.

I wandered back into the bedroom where Gracie was waiting, lounging on one of the two beds, glass of champagne in hand. The fluffy white robe barely covered her body, and my eyes hungrily made their way over her bare legs, and the curves just tucked away under the robe. Gracie took a sip of her champagne and smirked as she watched me.

"You look very comfy," I said.

"Thank you! I was excited when I saw they had fancy robes, but..." Gracie looked down at herself. "Is it weird if I'm the only one in a robe?"

"Well I'm not complaining," I said.

Gracie's face lit up.

"Oh, I know! You can wear one, too! Then it won't be just me!" Gracie hiccupped and took another sip of champagne.

"How much champagne have you had?" I asked.

"Oh shut up, you two took forever to get here, I had to get started!" she said and yelled in the direction of the bathroom. "Jessica, can we watch Gilmore Girls while we eat lunch?"

"Uh... sure?" Hale agreed from behind the bathroom door.

"Season two?" Gracie called out.

"Of course, it's the best season!" Hale's voice came from the bathroom.

Gracie grinned wide and turned to me, pointing. "Turn on the TV, then: robe."

"So... we're just watching Gilmore Girls?" I asked.

"Why not?"

"Well... it just seems odd to be spending our afternoon here in the hotel room watching a sitcom about old women."

"Old women!?" Gracie looked at me like I was crazy.

"Yeah, I mean... I like Betty White as much as the next guy but we're in Hawaii after all-"

"Oh my god, Perkins, that'sGolden Girls, notGilmore Girls!"

"OK, what's the difference?"

"The difference is that Jessica and I watching Gilmore Girls at hotels is an Explorers Clubtradition!" Gracie said. "Also, you're dumb!"

Gracie pointed to the remote by the television, using her champagne glass like a queen's scepter. "Now go log in! I forgot my password."

I shrugged and picked up the remote. "Well you're the birthday girl."

"That's right!" Gracie agreed, with a slight drunken slur. She dangled her legs on the bed like a teenager as she watched me.

"So are you wearing anything under there?" I asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she asked with a smirk and sipped her champagne.

I turned back to the television, and logged into Netflix. I hesitated before selecting Gilmore Girls.

"Hold on, this is going to screw my algorithm completely," I said, as I hesitated.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well if I play this on my account, it's going to start recommending a bunch of crap to me like Friends, or Sex and the City, or-"

"How DARE you!" Gracie said, aghast. "Crap?!"

"Oh I know! I'll change accounts," I said.

Gracie tossed a pillow at me from the bed. "Don't you dare! Just for being a jerk, you can play it on your account, you grump! Also, you're forbidden from saying the word 'algorithm' ever again in my presence."

"Fine," I said, snickering, and turned back to the television.

Gracie leaned back on the bed, settling on a huge pile of pillows. I found Gilmore Girls and began playing it, on my account.

"Now, robe time!" Gracie commanded, pointing a the closet.

I plucked a robe and was about to go back into the other room to change, but Gracie let out a 'tsk.'

"No, change here," Gracie commanded, pointing her champagne glass to a spot beside the bed. "But don't block the TV."

I looked at Gracie suspiciously.

"And feel free to take your time with it," she added, snickering.

"So I'm just doing a striptease for you now?" I asked.

"You can call it whatever you want," she said and sipped the champagne. Then, she pointed the glass at me. "But you can't wear underwear under the robe, because that's cheating."

While changing in front of Gracie sounded great, in theory... my body did not exactly feel ready. I had just had sex with Hale about fifteen minutes ago, and I was still spent, empty, and hungry. I looked behind me to the television where a mother and daughter were arguing about something.

"This feels odd to strip with Gilmore Girls on in the background," I said, stalling.

"Oh shut up. You got Alex kicked out, so now you have an obligation to entertain me, remember?"

"I didn't get him kicked out, he got himself kicked out-"

"It doesn't matter," Gracie threw up a dismissive wave of her hand. "He liked putting on little shows for me. So now it's your turn!"

I groaned internally. Here I was in Alex's place, like I wanted... but for some reason I hadn't anticipated finding myself compared to him so directly. His smug, tanned, and admittedly handsome face came into my mind.

"What about if I give you a show after lunch? Or dinner?" I suggested. "Stripping is more of an evening activity, right?"

Gracie made a pouty face. She slid her hand up the right side of her robe and gently pushed it aside, exposing her weighty, perfect right breast. It sat proudly on her chest, round and smooth, almost defying gravity. A cute little pink nipple rested in the middle of its little pink areola. I wanted to suck it into my mouth and devour it.

"Strip or I cover it back up," Gracie said softly. She tapped the bottom of it, making it jiggle slightly, and grinned.

I began unbuttoning my shirt.

Gracie grinned wider. "Sexier! Sexier!"

"What does that even mean?" I said.

"It's a simple command!" Gracie said, swirling her glass of champagne.

I frowned and stared back at her.

"Do you have a... more specific note?" I asked.

"Fine, pretend you're a... a cowboy! With a beard!" Gracie said. She nodded, satisfied.

"Does a bearded cowboy take off a shirt... differently?" I said, thinking.

Was I over-thinking this, I thought?

"Stop delaying or I put her back," Gracie said, tapping her breast again.

"That's very distracting," I groaned.

"I know."

I tried to imagine a gruff, old school style cowboy, and exaggerated the movements as I pulled off my shirt and dropped it on the floor.

Gracie spit a frothy cloud of champagne as laughter erupted from her.

"What?" I said.

"WHY are you swaying like that?!" she said, and began laughing uproariously.

"I don't know!"

"Okay, well, shorts, now. Drop em! Sexily this time!"

I unzipped my fly, slowly, and pushed my shorts to the ground. But we were getting to problem territory: little Perkins was still taking a nap down there. But then I didn't know... were guys supposed to be hard when they did this? Maybe I should have seen Magic Mike, I thought.

"Sexier! Sexier!" Gracie commanded, laughing.

"Well I'm glad to see you two having fun," Hale said, from behind me.

We both turned to see Hale leaning against the door jamb, watching us curiously. I shared looks with Gracie, and Hale, and back. For a long moment the three of us just stood, staring, like a Mexican standoff.

"She's making me change like a bearded cowboy," I explained.

"O... okay, then," Hale said, and blinked. "Gracie, your boob's out."

"I know," Gracie said, smiling. She patted the bed beside her. "Come on, watch the Perkins show with me!"

Hale's eyes flicked to the nearly empty bottle of champagne.

"Looks like you've just about killed that bottle, huh?" Hale asked.

"Oh, I guess so," Gracie said, and looked at the bottle with a little surprise.

I used the distraction to quickly grab the robe from the closet, pulled it around myself and tied the cotton belt around my waist.

"Hey, you're cheating! I said no underwear!" Gracie said.

"I remember," I said, and reached underneath the robe. I pulled down my boxers, dropping them to the floor, but kept my dangly parts covered behind my robe. I held out my hands, as if I had just performed a magic trick.

"I suppose that technically counts," Gracie snorted and turned to Hale. "So Jessica, want to see if Perkins knows how to twerk?"

"Spoiler alert, no," I said.

Hale snickered and shook her head. She raised her hands, as if surrendering. "Alright kids I think I'm going to head out and leave you two to your fun..."

"No, JESSICA!" Gracie yelled from the bed, dejected. "Stay!"

"Seriously, you should stay and watch Gilmore Girls," I suggested.

Hale looked between the two of us, unsure how to respond. Finally, she opened her mouth, and pointed a thumb behind her. "Alright, well I guess we do have room service coming soon... how about if I go grab more champagne? I'll be back."

Hale quickly retreated into the living room.

"Jessica!" Gracie groaned, frowning deeply.

"See you in a bit, kids," Hale said, waved, and left the hotel room altogether. The door closed behind her with a loud thunk.

Gracie groaned loudly and flopped backwards onto her pile of pillows.

"Why did you DO that, Perkins?!"

"Well how else is a bearded cowboy supposed to take off their clothes? There are only so many ways to remove a pair of shorts!"

"Not THAT!" Gracie moaned as she lay sprawled back on the bed. She looked like she was speaking to the ceiling. "You told me she LIKED me, when she obviously doesn't! Now I can't stop thinking about it!"

"Oh..."

"It's ruining my birthday! I'm obsessing! And I don't like obsessing."

I watched Gracie as I stood beside the bed, and I realized her eyes were wet. I realized she was being serious. I had assumed this business with Hale was fun, or a crush, or some silly game she was playing with me. But she seemed, as far as I could tell, genuinely sad about it.

"This is really getting to you, isn't it?" I asked. "Are you like... serious about you and Hale?"

"I don't know!" Gracie groaned, and shook her head. "It's like the last four years have all been coming back to me, every trip together, every class... I've always been obsessed with her. But I hadn't really thought about... DOING anything about it. And now I'm like... why didn't I?! Every boy I've ever dated feels like a loser in comparison to her- no offense, Perkins."