Crazy In Love | Buggy

f i f t e e n

That night, I slept better than I ever had in my entire life. Usually, I was the type of person who tossed and turned, waking up multiple times throughout the night. But I managed to sleep soundly, until the light outside began shining through the small port style window in Buggy's room.

For the first minute or so of being awake, I did not realise where I was. I hadn't scanned my surrounding, my mind automatically assuming that I was back in my own bedroom. The events of the previous day and night now seemed like some odd nightmare that I had.

As my eyes adjusted to the light, I began to take in my surroundings finally. The bedroom that I was in was foreign to me, definitely not my own bedroom. Had I slept over at a friend's? Or at a man's place? Neither seemed like me.

And that's when reality washed back over me, and I remembered where I was. Well, settled over me is the wrong phrasing. Crashed over me was more accurate. It felt like the weight of the memorkes were crushing me, suffocating me.

The last thing I remembered from the night previous was being handcuffed, and tucked into bed. Now, I had no handcuffs on. Buggy must have taken them off.

I rolled over, eyeing up the small clock by the bed. I was absolutely shocked when I saw that it was somehow already four in the afternoon.

Since it was daytime, he probably felt no need to handcuff me. There wasn't much that I could do during the daytime, especially against an entire crew of pirates.

My next thoughts were all of my family. It hadn't been that long, but I missed them in that moment more than I had ever missed anything else in my life. I would have given absolutely anything to see them one last time.

I debated asking for a second chance at a goodbye - perhaps, if I let Buggy be there, he might let me. But the second I stepped out onto the deck, I saw that couldn't happen.

We had already sailed off. As I peered over the edge of the ship, I saw nothing but ocean. I couldn't even see the land of my town. There was definitely no chance of getting a second goodbye, nor would there be any more escape attempts.

I felt oddly devastated that I hadn't been able to say goodbye to my town. Seeing it as we sailed off would have been soothing, I wanted my goodbye.

It didn't matter. That's what I tried to tell myself. But it wasn't true. It mattered, to me, for some reason. It really did.

The next three weeks went by quickly. I spent my days explaining where on the map to go, drawing the route as well as I could remember it. It was a lot harder to do it when you were surrounded by pirates, who were only keeping you alive for this one purpose.

Buggy was only there on the first day, I guess to make sure that I actually remembered the route like I said I could.

"You're a natural," Buggy had said to me. "I think you were born to be a pirate."

That made me blush slightly. That was a good compliment to receive, but part of me didn't want to be called a pirate. I mean, I knew there were good pirates, but most that I had met had been pretty awful. I did not want to be put in the same box as them.

"I'm not really a pirate. I'm just a map."

"If you say so."

After that first day, I hardly saw Buggy except when it was time for bed. At first, it was awkward sharing a bed, and it was even more awkward being cuffed to the bed. Multiple times, I had to wake Buggy up so that I could go to the bathroom.

He was a busy man during the day, always off doing something important while I stayed in the navigation room, giving directions. I missed him, I realised.

The rest of the crew had accepted me surprisingly well. They even invited me to eat with them, which I always took them up on. They had some interesting stories to tell, and seemed to enjoy my big reaction to them.

We sat, eating our broth and bread, as a clown called Dilly told me an insane story of how, at age eleven, she robbed a towns bank without them even realising.

"Then, I sneaked out, bags packed to the brim with money, and nobody even saw me. It wasn't until the next day that they had realised what I had done! I even left a note in the vault! They were so mad."

It was a cool story but I couldn't help feel bad for the town. "So what did they do afterwards?"

She tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"The town, after you took their money... were they okay? Did they print more or -"

"Why would I care about that? I left before I found out anyway."

My lips formed into a tight line. I kept making this mistake. I'd befriend a pirate and forget that they were, in fact, a pirate and not a good person. If I wanted to make friends and allies on this adventure, I had to leave my judgement behind.

"It's a great story. Do you still have some of the money?"

"I spent it all in like three days," she told me, laughing.

"She's judging you," a male voice suddenly said.

At first, I struggled to see who had said it but, once I had, my stomach dropped. It was Bozo, the clown that I had beaten up back in my town.

He had a vendetta against me. Which, I guess, I couldn't really blame him for. I noticed he was always watching me. It seemed he was also listening in to my conversation.

Dilly turned. "What did you say, Bozo?"

Unfortunately, my nickname for him had stuck and now everyone exclusively called him Bozo. That didn't help him hating me.

"She didn't like your story. Can you really not tell? Look at her face, she's judging you."

I scowled at him. Genuinely, I said to Dilly, "I'm sorry. I do like your stories, but this lifestyle is a big adjustment."

To my relief, she smiled at me. "I don't particularly care if you judge me. I'm not thinned skinned, unlike Bozo."

That made him stand and head towards us. My stomach dropped and I just wanted to curl into a ball and disappear.

"She's not one of us. You shouldn't treat her as such. She's just a fucking hostage."

Now I was mad. "And you're just a fucking discount Buggy."

He slammed his fists down on the table, sending a couple of bowls of broth flying.

"You should have been killed for your crimes! You tried to kill our captain and me!"

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't try to kill you, I hit you with a bag. Calm down. Plus, Buggy has already forgiven what I tried to do for him. So how can you be mad at me when he's not?"

"The only reason he's forgiven you is because of what you've been giving him."

I was confused. "You mean the directions?"

This time, he rolled his eyes at me. "Don't play dumb. Everyone here knows that you two are fucking."

He said it so loud that everyone heard. I became super aware of the fact that all eyes were on us.

My cheeks flushed red. "That's not true! I've never even kissed him, never mind...doing that."

"Come on, Betty, it's okay. Everyone already knows," Dilly told me, as if she was trying to be nice.

I couldn't believe it. Everyone genuinely thought we were sleeping with each other when, in reality, I hardly even spoke to him right now.

"Why on Earth would you even think that?" I asked, feeling like I was losing my mind.

"It's obvious."

"It isn't true! I'd never sleep with a pir  - I mean, I'd never sleep with Buggy. He literally kidnapped me."

Dilly shrugged. "Some women like that sort of thing."

There wasn't anything I could say, I realised. I just stormed out of the hall, back into Buggy's bedroom, where I crawled into bed to cry.

🤡

Published 27th September 2023