Meeting Daisy

i'm growing up with gangsters

Month: November.
Date: Doesn't matter.
Year: Grudge movement.

I have a hispanic name. I'm not even hispanic. V-eye-duh, Vada, Vi-DAY, Vi-AYE-duh, most Caucasian teachers would say. "It's VEE-DA, spelled V-I-D-A.", I'd always respond. Fucking uncultured morons. My upbringing was like most babies of this millennial generation, a happy little accident as Bob Ross would say. It happened in a bathroom; that's right I was conceived in a bar & restaurant type of bathroom. Two high school sophomores, hours of underaged drinking, & the disco classic "Boogie Wonderland". When Dad found out Mom was pregnant, he went to some voodoo lady who claimed to tell the future. He was told that if I was a girl, I'd be named Vida; it means "life" & she went on about how my life matters & other bullshit like that. Sixteen years later & life seems pretty worthless at this point.

***

It's 10 pm on a Tuesday night in downtown Manhattan. Dad & his friends would go to Billy's bar almost 5 days a week. Billy's my uncle, Dad's older brother. He bought the bar right after Mom & Dad split up. That was thirteen years ago. When my cousin Ted & I got old enough, we started working there along with everyone else. Ted's mom, Liz, is my Dad's late sister. I've always found it kind of fucked up when Dad went out drinking & had sex with younger girls whenever it was his week with me. He does that every week, but you would've thought he would be home more often when I'm around. Whenever Mom was with her co-workers, she'd always talk nonstop about how heartless & arrogant he was. I saw where she was coming from, but I wouldn't say he's heartless; & he's only arrogant with his work. It always annoyed her that I look more like him than her. Curly brown hair, blue eyes, & a disturbing sense of humor; just like every other relative from the Winters' family.

On this particular night, Cal, Billy's best friend, was playing his own original rock song with his band. He had this very orgasmic sound to his voice that made a lot of women tend to show up whenever he was playing. Including my best friend, Kim. She's always been the type for older men. "What'd I miss?", she exclaimed, approaching me from behind. I passed her a pop, "Nothing really. Cal's hair is still pretty greasy.", I screamed. The bar was extra loud that night which explained my raspy voice the next day.

***

"All-in", said Duke. Everyone moaned & rolled their eyes, throwing their playing cards on the table. Duke was some kind of distant cousin of Cal except he was removed multiple times. "This is why your mother doesn't like you, fuckup", Billy said harshly. "No, it's because he's still living with her that makes her pissed", Cal suggested. Cal is Billy's best friend from childhood. Growing up, they were assholes to everybody. They were the types of bullies that dunk your head into toilets & weren't on the football team because their grades were shit.

"JACCCKKKKK! What do you think about Duke's mommy?", Billy asked. Dad smirked. "Don't know. I personally think it's a combination of him playing shitty poker or not being capable of making a grilled cheese sandwich", Dad stated with laughter. "The name is the fucking recipe itself!", Duke jumped out of his chair & left, giving them the bird. The rest of the group continued to laugh, filling their lungs with tobacco. They called their group Daisy, it stood for something but I could care less about their illegal shit. Dad & his friends sold drugs, stole cash, & basically fucked up anyone that Billy told them to. You could've said they're part of a gang. They'd never admit it in front of me, but I knew it was true. It's like what Ray Liotta says in "Goodfellas", they're like the police department for wise guys

I'm not one to admit this kind of thing, but why not. Gangs are usually divided into 4 parties. First, you have the top dogs, also known as the boss. For our group, the boss used to be my grandfather Tom; he's now the boss for the Silicians. We considered our boss to be Vinnie. I never saw him much. Below the boss is our underboss; that's Billy. The Silician's underboss was Yakob. Yakob used to beat the shit out of our Brooklyn cousins when they were all growing up. It's very hard to get a hold of the boss or underboss, which is where the captains come in. Dad & Cal are our main captains. Lastly, we have Daisy's soldiers which include Ted, Duke, Kyle, etc. They're the ones who usually got their hands dirty first.

"Okay so I want you to watch very carefully. You're gonna be doing this soon.", Billy informed me, teaching my sixteen year old self how to make an alcoholic beverage. "You're gonna start with 1 ½ ounces of vodka; if you wanna get extra spicy, do citrus vodka. Then you'll add an ounce of cointreau orange liqueur, giving it the fruity flavor. Next, you get ½ ounce of lime juice, ¼ ounce cranberry juice, & then you shake it with ice.", he instructed, shaking the cocktail in the shaker very fast. He then grabbed a glass, pouring the liquid out all fancy. "I want you to keep this in mind. We'll continue tomorrow, alright kid?", he asked. I nodded my head, smiling. Dad was very much against this, but Billy didn't care.

***

"I'm not saying that finance is unreasonable, I'm just saying people who work in finance aren't reasonable", a tipsy Dad had stated to some chick he just met. She laughed in a very sexy way. "Do you even know anyone in finance?", she asked, biting her lip. Dad grinned. "Well yes, kinda. My ex father-in-law's in finance. He's a douche though. Whenever I'd come over, all he'd ever talk about is how his team is secretly trying to screw over all of his clients. Stealing their money, shit like that". He took a sip of his Heineken. Dad tends to do that whenever he gives away his personal information to an attractive stranger. "Father-in-law huh?", she said with disappointment. "What?", Dad asked. "You were married?" He just nodded his head. All he thought about when she said that was his & Mom's wedding song, "Unchained Melody". Usually when this happened there was this tension that came between them, making them want to fuck each others' brains out. "So.. you wanna get out of here?", my arrogant father asked.

***

The only things I cared about were Matthew Perry & smoking. I had just started smoking recently; it was okay. Watching Dad & Billy & everyone else smoke made it easy to pick up. It smelled like ass, but it felt relieving I guess. 1:09 am & my lady killing father, Jack Winters, still isn't home. But like I just said, as long as I had a tobacco filled pencil in my hand with a "Friends" rerun on television, I couldn't care less. There's a bang at the door. It's Billy. I don't get why he knocked, the door's never locked. "VIDAAA.....", Billy chanted with a cigarette between his fingers. I ran to the garbage can & threw mine out. He came into the T.V room just as I sat back on the couch. "You're uhh.. DAD is coming home a little later, he's working", he lied. Obviously. Just then, Dad busted through the door, along with Duke & Cal.

"Red-head like the ex-wife huh, you know I heard they have no soul",Duke stated. "Oh my, shut the FUCK up Duke", Cal yelled. "They're Satan's child douchebag", Duke fired back. Cal pins him to the floor, pulling his shoulder length, brown hair. "Jack! Did you at least get a good fuck outta her?", Duke asked with his choked up voice. My father's a womanizing asshole. "Will you both shut the hell up! Vida's still awake", Billy stated as he joined in the fight. He said it like I couldn't hear them anyway, which always annoyed the fuck out of me. Dad came towards me. "Alright V, bedtime", he said smelling like puke.