Meeting Daisy

going across the river

Month: Atlantic
Date: Fucking
Year: City

    "Vida.... Vida honey, wake up.", Dad whispered, waking me up. I looked over at my clock, 1:17 A.M. You've got to be kidding me, Jack. It was Friday night, or Saturday morning, & the last thing I needed right now was to get even more annoyed after my embarrassment in Edwards class earlier that day. "What do you want, Dad?", I whined. He started grabbing me by the arms, dragging me out of bed. "I don't need the attitude right now, Winters. You need to get up though, we're going on a family trip.", he explained. I groaned, finally giving in to leaving my warm mattress.

    "So what exactly did you do this time?", I questioned, following him out of the bedroom. "Nothing happened! We're just deciding to lay low this weekend, okay? Don't worry about it.", Dad assured me. I rolled my eyes. Why can't I have a normal family? "This has to do with Jared doesn't it? Because if it is, I really think it was stupid to kill him.", I stated. Dad turned around, giving me a look. "Answer this kid, do you like having a roof over your head?", he mocked. Just as I was going to answer with a smart remark, he cut me off, "-- He would have ruined that for us, Vida. Jared actually did what he was NOT supposed to do. He didn't keep his mouth shut & he ratted us out. If we didn't do anything sooner, I could've been pinched. Do you want that?!", he exclaimed. I stayed quiet.

    Realizing he was a little hard on me, Dad caved in & gave me a hug. As he let go, the front door was busted open by Cal. "Did you guys pack yet?? We wanna leave in an hour.", he demanded. Hearing that, I ran up to my room grabbing everything I needed to survive a getaway with my father's side of the family. A walkman, my rolled joints, notebook, & clothes. Arriving outside Billy's place we honked the horn, waking up the whole neighborhood. This is the city, what do they expect? Peace & quiet?? Ted ran out all grumpy with a girl right behind him. I couldn't help but laugh. "Looks like Theodore didn't get his sex therapy tonight.", Cal joked. Ted got in the car, slamming the door. I jumped. "What the fuck, Ted! Sad your lady of the night had to leave??". I mocked. His response was flipping me off, per usual.

***

    We were heading to Atlantic City in New Jersey. Growing up, we'd go a couple times a year, only making me better at learning how to play poker & blackjack at a very young age. It was around 5 A.M. when we finally got to the hotel. I went straight up to bed as well as Dad & Duke. As for Ted, Billy, & Cal though, they stayed up like morons playing cards to get prepared to win a shitload of money the next day. Cal knew all the tricks in the book about gambling which explained why he never lost.

    The next day was chaotic. My so-called smart cousin Ted was still up from the night before, already losing money before noon. "Cal, you're dumb tricks aren't working!", he'd complain. He'd then get a smack behind the head & a lecture from Billy about how he never listens. I stayed near the slot machines with Dad because there was never anything for sixteen year olds to do at a casino except watch.

"Dad?", I moaned at him. "What's up kiddo?", he responded, putting his arm around me. "Why do we always have to stay here whenever we go in hiding? Not trying to be selfish or anything but there's nothing for me to do, ever!", I complained. Dad started chuckling, pointing me near the kids store across the hall. "Oh you've got to be kidding me! We should go to the shore or something.", I sulked, walking towards the Willy Wonka slots. "And by the way, there's too many Willy Wonka's. It's not even a kids movie; his plan was to kill them the whole time!", I ran off. Dad rolled his eyes, moving towards Ted.

Throughout the night, all of us would go bar-hopping, except it's just new tables. Cal was collecting everything in sight until security guards started to notice & that's when we all moved to another table. My favorite one to watch was blackjack because that was the only one, besides poker, that made any sense to me. Duke ended up teaching me how to trick the slot machines into giving us money, body language, & stealing chips. Not a great combo for a teenager but no one said anything. By the end of the night, we ended up bringing home half a million dollars. Some of which I insisted I'd take because I helped keep everyone out of trouble. Dad ended up giving me $500. I own him.