Reverie

Prologue

2 YEARS AGO

G I U L I A

It was late June and the gentle breeze combined with the salty smell of the ocean was one of my favorite scents in the whole world.

The seagulls going after everyone's food that they they brought from their homes, children making sandcastles using a worn out bucket they found beneath the sand, left by previous kids.
Teenage girls taking selfies and sun tanning on their beach towel and girls my age playing in the water with their friends to see who could swim the farthest.

Most people come here for vacations with their family or friends, or because they need a lively escape from their 9 to 5 jobs.

But me?

I come here to fulfill my mothers never ending addiction. The moment I knew that my mother had absolutely no lines drawn to cross with her addiction and me was 25 minutes ago when she told me to go down to the pier and wait behind the Ferris Wheel for a "nice man" to come by and give me something.

I knew my mother enough to know that they weren't prescribed and that the "nice man" was a dealer that, in the words of my mother, probably wouldn't do something stupid around a 13 year old.

So there I was, standing behind the Ferris Wheel looking out on the pier at the large waves that crashed against the Santa Monica beach.

I was wearing my denim shorts and a large light blue t-shirt with my white and brown beach sandals eating a bag of pink cotton candy I got using the $5 my mom gave me.

I looked over the pier onto the beach to see people enjoying themselves while playing games, racing each other, some people even brought full on tents and were having a barbecue.

This one dad had his arm around his wife's waist while smiling and laughing with her, their kids were running around near them while playing with their water guns and building sandcastles.

Jealousy took over me and I found myself longing to be apart of their family and as selfish as that sounds, it was the truth.

I turned my head and noticed a dark figure wandering his way around the Ferris Wheel and into my direction. He's holding a small brown paper bag just like the ones parents give to their children to hold their lunch on field trips or to school.

He approached me and asked with a raspy demanding voice "you Isabel's kid?".

I nodded, not knowing what to say since I was absolutely terrified. He had dark bags under his eyes like he hasn't slept in a long time, his eyes were a deep shade of brown and almost reflected my mothers. His face and his arms were littered with tattoos which looked wrinkled like they had been there for a long time.

I felt extremely self-conscious when he was looking me up and down and at that moment, I doubted my mothers words when she said he wouldn't try anything.

It was like he snapped out of a trance when he saw me take out the money out of my pocket that my mom had given me. I held the money out to him to which he snatched out of my hands without a second thought. He dropped the paper bag on the ground and turned around, heading back to the same way he arrived but not before looking over his shoulder and saying "tell Isabel, I'm leaving, ok kid? I'm done with her".