Danger, murder, drugs, it's all just sunglasses and paycheques... for someone, why not live on the edge a little? A wild, hot mess. That's what it was, and that's what I had become.
If you've yet to read the series, here is Part 1
Trying to make sense of everything going wrong in Part 2
My confusion and panic in Part 3
My favourite, the reveal of the terrifying secret Part 4.
An intro to Kat Part 4.5
And most recently, the more you know Part 5
Confessions of a Vagabond:
The Next Chapter: "Remember the Time I Worked for a Drug Runner in Punta Cana PT 6"
A gypsy life bought to you by @heart-to-heart
From January 2014- June 2017 I have been what you would call a vagabond, a nomad, even a gypsy by definition of the words. I had what they all have in common: no fixed home...and no fixed income but the wildest stories.
Startled awake, I heard someone come crashing into the apartment, the door slammed against the wall as it flung open.
Moaning and sounds of struggle⌠the couch shrieking as it slid across the floor.
I could imagine it in my head like a dream. Someone⌠well two someones had come into the apartment, raging full of lust for one another, they leaned to the sofa for support. Their aggression, too forceful, caused them to roll over the back of the sofa and onto the other side in their heated passion.
A glass smashed, it must have fallen from the coffee table⌠giggling, sighing, panting, screaming⌠yelping. It sounded like something youâd only ever hear in 50 Shades...
Well this was awkward because now, I was painfully awake and unable to leave my room as in order to do that, I would need to cross the sultry sex scene outside of my door.
For a few minutes there was no talking but thenâŚI heard faint whispering⌠listening as hard as I could, I tip-toed over to the wall and put my ear to the crack of the door.
ââŚellaâŚâ I heard them saying something about âshe.â
âNo, no, nooo-oh.â Hmmm, that sounded like a no, in between some adult tickling.
Then I heard my name and I am positive it translated out to something along the lines of them thinking I wasnât there. Why do I think that? Well what ensued next, never would have happened if they thought I was there.
First of all, letâs make sure youâre caught up. Amy, my roommate, a Dominican girl had only ever spoken very broken English to me a handful of times since I met her. I know she works for my boss Kyle, because I was able to get that much out of her. She also referred to herself as Kyleâs girl but we had been interrupted by an enthusiastic Adam during that conversation. Luckily, Adam spoke enough Spanish to solve that riddle for me. Amy had told Adam that she and Kyle were in some sort of complicated, messed up relationship. That was all we knew because Amy got really antsy when asked more about it and ended up leaving in a hurry.
Could this be Kyle then? In my house, on the sofa? Cringe. I hope not. That thought was enough to make me throw up in my mouth. I had developed such a sour taste for him, something didnât rub me the right way and I wasn't trying to find out why. (I already knew too much!)
Earphones in, music on full blast did not block that R rated number out. I think maybe the screaming was amplified because it was in Spanish. It sounded a lot like Spanish singing, high notes, a lot of high notes... All I know is that I wish I could have scaled the window or climbed down a sheet to get out of there⌠those bars on my window made it a difficult feat to escape.
I guess this was as good a time as any to reflect on my life.
Lying in bed, my body rejecting my recent activities and choices. How did I end up here?
I scrolled back in my memories to when I was deciding to take this job. This was nothing at all like I would have expected. I thought it was going to be a party (OK, it was) but I thought it was going to be âgirls gone wild, spring break editionâ (OK, it was) but I didnât feel better, I wasnât having fun and I was genuinely afraid I was going to end up in a %$#@ load of trouble.
You know how they always say if you canât beat them join them? Well, I started to wonder if that was the course I should take. I had no friends, seemingly no options. Obviously fighting against them wasnât working. I had just started to gain their trust when things started looking up. Maybe I should just stop being such a damn princess and live a little. I wasnât doing anything wrong, wasnât harming anyone and all I wanted was to just let loose. Mend my heart⌠bathe in rum⌠what was the harm in all that?
Cue Kat.
Kat was passed out, drugged silly from late. She barely heard me calling her name, half off her head, in a distant slumber. Never one to disappoint, she shook off her feathers and swam to the surface. Assuming her position, with no resistance from me, she took over control.
By the time those two had finally settled down and I heard the door slam shut again signaling someone leaving, Kat was raring to go. Into the shower, music on blast, hot water rinsing off the nights before. Then the door openedâŚ
âI am so sorry, I did not know you were here!â
âWT*, you speak English Amy?â
âA little, I am sorry.â Her eyes were pacing around the room, obviously unsure of what to do.
âHang on a minute⌠why havenât you been talking to me in English then?â
âI am afraid. I canât. Iâm sorry. I will go now.â
âWAIT! What is going on Amy?â
She backed up out of the door and was gone before I could even get a towel on to try to catch her.
I thought about caring for a minute, but Kat was fired up and well, there wasnât much I could do about it at that point except put that little red dress on and march on over to grab Adam.
âYo, ADAM!â
I screamed from the courtyard up to their room⌠luckily, he was sitting on the balcony at the time.
âGet down here right ME-OW. Katâs here!â
Adamâs eyes grew at least double in size as his million dollar smile crossed over his lips.
âI am coming RIGHT NOW! Literally right, right now!â He got up and I could hear the door slam, followed by his feet carrying him as fast as they could down the staircase.
âHey dollface, whatâs going on?â
âThought you said you wanted to âlive it upâ remember? I called in reinforcementsâŚâ
âOH hell yes! Wait! I canât go like this⌠I wanna look good if Iâm going to be standing with you, give me a second to go put something else on. Iâll be so fast, just wait, OK?â
I just rolled my eyes like a teenager to their mother at him. Kat hates waiting.
âIf you have to, hurry up. Iâve got like 5 minutes before I decide this isnât a good idea anymore.â
He turned on his heel and was back before I even had a chance to get annoyed. He grabbed my arm on his way down and started dragging me into the alley. Once we rounded the corner, he threw me against the wall and grabbed my mouth with his palm.
âShhhh! Kyle is looking for you!â
I tried to ask reasonable questions like âwhyâ but my voice came out muffled from his pressure on my lips.
âListen to me⌠you have to pretend you donât know about him and Amy, it gets him all riled up. Heâs out of his mind pissed that you were home whenever they came over earlier⌠tell him you were passed out, drugged, whatever, but donât tell him you heard them.â
I nodded my head which cued Adam to release his grip and then I immediately opened my mouth again.
âHow do you know I know they were there?â
âAmy came over crying her face off, apologizing and losing her shit saying she saw you in the shower just after. After that, Kyle flipped out, broke the glass table⌠you know the one in the living room? He smashed it to pieces while the baby was on the ground⌠now everyoneâs all pissed off. Anyways you better just make sure he thinks you donât know anything about it.â
Seriously? This stuff was too intense for me. I was too tired, too confused, too angry, too stressed, too scared to even care about anything anymore. I remember I looked at it all as a lost cause, I was trapped, I accepted it and just wanted to release Kat into the world. At least Kat knew how to have fun.
Adam grabbed my wrist and pulled me around another corned and into a hole in the wall.
âRum senorita?â
âSi, cuatro, porfa.â
âReally?
âYep, why the hell not?â
âWell, alrighty then!â He flashed me his most enthusiastic smile and winked. âLetâs get into trouble!â
The rum whistled through the night, like the breeze of the wind, stroking my face gently, then picking up speed, starting to feel like nipping, then slapping⌠then nothing.
We stumbled down the street into an alley then down a sand dock to the beach. Spinning, we began falling into souvenir stalls, laughing, howling, yelling obscenities at each other⌠we had managed to get very rowdy when a large man approached us from one of the huts.
âYou two seem like youâre trouble. Are you up to trouble?â
He stared down at me, one eye much bigger than the other and put his sweaty face much too close to mine. I wouldnât have said anything but aggravated, aggressive Kat⌠well sheâs another story. A mouthy, feisty temptress can get you into all kinds of trouble⌠turns out in this case, thatâs exactly what we were after.
A few minutes later we were in a dark basement, some sort of sand cave that had all kinds of crazy bottles on the walls. Inside the bottles were sticks of some kind and there were dried leaves all over the ground.
âAre you feeling brave Miss Sunshine?â He asked me.
I was flattered to be called such a name and happily accepted his challenge. He sat me down in a chair, told me to take a deep breath, then he lit a shot glass filled with the stuff from the bottles and handed it to me.
âShoot it back hot-shot!â Adam cooed.
The fire felt like hell going down.
I was sure I had scorched my throat. I waited, expecting to feel something happen immediately but after the fire had soothed, that was the extent of the ohâsoâdaring exercise we just played out.
âI donât feel a thing!â I boasted. âYour stuff isnât even strong. Look at me, Iâm like 115 pounds, and this stuff isnât even affecting me! You need some stronger stuff my friend! Letâs go Adam!â
I saw him wink at Adam then grabbed another bottle and handed it to me.
âSmell it.â He ordered. I didnât like his tone but I was being cocky so I realized I probably deserved it. âIf you drink this, youâll have a baby in 9 months.â
âHA!â I nearly choked on my own tongue! âThatâs literally the most unlikely thing you could ever prophesize. I donât believe you!â
âIf you donât believe me, why donât you taste it?â
Adam looked at me, eyes challenging me. Down went the shot.
OK. Now things were a bit different. I believe that everything I had drank in the last hour hit me all at this very point and I literally felt a wave come over me and it threatened to push me over. My body fell forward and Adam and our new friend both started to laugh.
âThere ya are child, maybe you should take a bottle for the road. Itâs going to be a bumpy ride.â
I bought a bottle from him and carried it in one hand as I stumbled back and forth across the sand in an attempt to walk straight.
âAdam, take some of this from the bottle. Straight shot. Money shot. To the mouth!â I teased and teased, falling down into the sand with the bottle in hand, tormenting him to take some of this mystery liquid. Eventually he gave in and took a mighty gulp of it.
âMore! More!â I encouraged. He drank half of the bottle and now we were both flying in some wild wonderland.
We had made our way down the beach to a bar that was crawling with kids on spring break. The music seemed to be morphing into my mind. With each breath in a new tone sounded. My heart had attached itself to the DJ! I began floating into the sounds, mind dancing in the waves of the songs.
Everyone was wild, there was foam covering what appeared to be every inch of the building. Slippery floors, with piles of people gathered round on it, moving their bodies to the beat of my heart... the music. We were all in sync, everyone was this whole collected glob of love and sunshine.
Groups of them were screaming university chants at each other, testing their rival schools, battling each other over which school was better, which was more crazy, which was having more fun.
They were dancing on top of everything, on top of the bars, on top of each other... it was exactly what you see on TV. I broke into the crowd, face first into the foam, getting lost in the moment, getting lost in the sound. I flung my head back and was just about to surrender control when my eyes fixated on someone across the room. Some bold, magnetizing eyes. Some familiar eyes. That's when I realized, to whom those eyes belonged. I was staring straight into the eyes of the tiger, the predator, and he was on the hunt for his prey.
%$#@.
Due to the intensity of the scene coming up, I have to save it for it's own 'chapter' to even hope to do it justice. I'm clearing my conscience so stick around for more of where this came from ;)
XO,
XO,