Scene 2

The door reverberated as someone's knuckles connected over and over again. The knocking sounded like a construction crew's jackhammer. Gabe really didn't want to get out of bed, it was comfortable, it was warm and cozy in the cold hotel room. At first he moved the pillow over his face. Hoping whoever it was would just go away, but it persisted. With frustration, anger and a massive headache he trudged to the door, pulling it fully open to give the moron on the other end a piece of his mind. Standing there looking at him nonplussed was his older and taller than his five-foot five height by three inches sister. "I brought you coffee, here." She said handing over a paper cup from Dunkin before she walked past him into the room. He was not happy to see her, that meant he had to deal with kids again and her…

Maria looked over the hotel room with a double bed and then back to her brother. She wrinkled her nose looking him over and easily able to smell him. He was standing there in a pair of boxers, a white button up shirt that was half undone, covered in dark stains and wrinkled like he slept in it. His dark trousers and jacket were nowhere to be seen, but his shoes were scattered at the foot of the bed. "You look and smell awful. When was the last time you bathed and…" She smelled the air near him before making a face.

Before she could lay into him Gabe locked eyes with his sister and slammed the door closed. An action he wished he hadn't done as the headache flared in sudden pain making him lose that staring contest right away. "Gah! Damn my head!” Trying to shake it off he pointed his index finger at her. "I don't need to hear anything from you! I'm a grown man, and can do what I want in my free time." He looked at the cup of liquid energy in his hand and took a sip, enjoying the flavor as it gave its unspoken promise to invigorate him. "Also thank you for the coffee."

Maria smoothed her dress as she sat down on the made and clean bed. "You are welcome, so I take it you went out and had fun with your friend. How was your interview?" She saw that he didn't look happy with the question, and figured it went poorly.

Gabe sat on the other bed across from his sister and let out a long sigh and held his face in his hand for a few seconds, not looking up before he answered. "I didn't make it." Maria tilted her head as she leaned a little closer. "What was that?"

Gabe closed his eyes, wishing he didn't have to have this conversation, wishing the events played out differently. "I didn't make it to the interview." He said looking up at her as his face left his hand. "Clint and I stayed out pretty late, and then I woke up late. Got my suit on and rushed to get there, but it didn't matter. When you are over an hour late for an interview you would be lucky to get seen, and I wasn't lucky."

Narrowing her eyes at her brother, she was shocked. He went on and on about how this job was going to get him out of the state and then he went and pissed it away because he drank. She took a second to consider his appearance again, deciding he had done so yesterday too. "Tonto (stupid), why didn't you just call them to say you were running late?"

Taking another sip of the coffee Gabe took a second to savore one of the only good things to happen, that drink. "When I said I wasn't lucky, I actually meant I have had a lot of bad luck. The day I arrived Clint took us out and we met up with some girls." Maria held up a finger for him to stop.

"Wait, didn't you mention that your friend was married, or was that a different friend?" Gabe shrugged like it didn't matter.

"That is him, but his home life is his business. Well as the night went on I was telling Jasmine." Maria interrupted him again. "Who is Jasmine?"

Gabe glared at her and let out a huff before continuing. "A girl we met there, stop interrupting. I was telling her about my new phone and she took it to play with and well, she umm she put it in a glass of water as she said something along the lines of Oh this is that one that is waterproof. No phone is waterproof, she was just as air headed as some of my students, and she destroyed my phone. No phone, no alarm, no way to look up my contact to call." Gabe held his arms out as he shrugged in a what are you going to do motion.

"The hotel can call the room to wake you up, and I guess you went out drinking again after that by the way your shirt looks." Gabe opened his mouth and closed it, then bit into his index finger as he thought.

"Yeah, drunk me didn't consider that option, and yes I did. Clint did not, he was a little upset about me not making it. Saying it made his wife look bad, and he didn't care for my retort of him having a tongue down the throat of another woman doing that on his own. Think I burned that bridge, see like I said. Bad luck this entire trip."

He glanced towards the door and smirked back to his sister at her having some of the same luck. "Looks like the airline lost your bag too." Maria thought about that for a second, she hadn't noticed his suitcase when she came in. "No, the bellhop is bringing everyone's bags up all at once. I figured I would come up and talk with you before Sam, sorry Mr Banks got to see you, and wow it is a good thing I did. You are a mess, change into whatever you wore when you arrived because that shirt needs to be thrown out and… take a shower please."

He had completely forgotten about meeting his new boss, the man couldn't be happy with him taking a few days off and meeting them in DC instead of helping corral the kids on the flight. He hoped to win points by watching over the kids with him, but he didn't have anything to change into. "Ah yeah, about that. I gave my clothes to the maid or something late last night, literally gave her the pants I was wearing and asked to have them washed. She argued with me about it being too late for a pickup, but she took them all the same when I was done. So I can take a shower but I need to call down about my clothes. Oh but don't worry, I got vouchers for three hundred dollars at the local mall so I can just run out real fast while everyone gets situated, well once they give me my clothes back." Maria rightly closed her eyes for a second. "Por el amor de Dios..." (By the love of God) She said as she stood up.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You don't have to talk to me like I'm a kid, you are not my fucking mother." Maria turned on him and pointed her French nail tipped finger at him.

"Don't you start, just get this taken care of and I will tell Sam that I haven't seen you yet if he asks." Gabe gave her a mocking smile and picked up the hotel's phone. "Yes Mom." He said mockingly to give her a verbal poke that seemed to work enough for her to glare at him like she was going to kill him.

Before she could say a word he was connected to the front desk with a shit eating grin on his face as he held the phone to his ear. "Yes, I wanted to tell you room 1206 is ready to have it's laundry returned." Maria wished he was a child so she could spank some manners into him. Growing up their Madre was so much stricter with her, saying it was her job to do the laundry, her job to clean the house. It was Gabe's job to take out the trash, and take care of the lawn, but she also had to look her best and have an earlier curfew, because she was a girl. Old world mentality that she carried on, she loved her Madre so much. She was strong and one of the hardest working people she knew, working for low wages and never being upset at the rich folk that treated her like dirt, all because one of them, just once gave her a large amount of money, but that was from their kid and only after they had fired her for making friends with him.

She gave Gabriel extra privileges because he was a boy, and extra attention due to guilt. When she was between jobs when they were younger he had become malnourished and even now as an adult the effects were clear with his height and small build, but still some swats with the wooden spoon might have kept his attitude from escalating to this point. Thoughts of growing up faded as she saw that stupid grin of his fade as he hung up the phone.

"The uh, maid I spoke to last night. She quit and they don't know where she placed my clothes. They are going to look and apologize. Saying they will call her to find out, but when she quit she said she was done dealing with entitled guests… I think they won't find my clothes unless they look in the trash. I thought she got it through her head that it was important my clothes were taken care of and she smiled saying she would do just that." Gabe bit down on his index finder for a second as he stood there in silence with his sister trying to figure out what to do. "Joder, esto es malo" (Fuck this is bad) Maria watched as he panicked moving about the room saying "¡Mierda!" or "¡Joder!" (Shit, Fuck) she shook her head considering the problem. He could be bad under pressure at times and it looked like this was one of those times.

An idea struck her, one to bring him down a peg or two and solve the problem at hand. "I have an idea." She said, but he didn't seem to be listening as he paced. "Gabe, I know how to fix this." He kept moving about, without so much as looking in her direction dismissed her.

"Shhh I'm thinking." Maria channeled the best imitation of her mother she could. The kind of look she would give her when she dared to talk back. "¡Gabriel, detén eso ahora y escucha!" (Gabriel, stop that now and listen!) Gabe stopped his pacing looking over to his bossy sister.

"What?" With a large smile she patted him on the shoulder as she moved to the door. "You know what, you just go take a shower. A nice long one, you need it and I will get you some clothes." Finally some good news, he thought. "That's great, I was afraid I would have to hide out here and tell Mr. Banks I got sick and couldn't make it, after I was already supposed to be here. Oh and can you get me some more shampoo, I used all the little ones they give out."

Maria nodded and left the room, she would just get him to use her shampoo. It would be that much more embarrassing than seeing what he had to wear when he went off to the mall to use the vouchers. He was going to Volverse loca (feminine: Go crazy) when he saw she borrowed clothes from some of the girls that were around his size.