Kissing Frogs - A Tropical Fairytale

Busted

At that exact moment, Juan proceeds to throw up in the middle of the dance floor.

Harp jumps back in time to narrowly avoid being splattered. A few other people aren't so lucky and one woman shrieks in disgust. Her partner, a big guy three times the size of Juan, starts to puff up his chest and jabs a chunky finger in his face. Enrique quickly takes in the situation.

"Vamonos. Now." He grabs my arm. He gives a quick whistle to Carlos who has his arms wrapped around Kiki. Carlos taps Steven's shoulders and nods toward the door. Steven disentangles himself from Chrissy who looks around blinking, like she's just woken up. Or is about to pass out.

"What about Juan?" I say. "We can't leave him." Two burly guys with very unfriendly looks on their faces are barreling toward our group. Harp has one hand on Juan's back and looks around, panicked. In a second, Travis is by our sides.

"Come on," he says, getting one arm around Juan and steering him toward the door. Steven grabs Juan's other arm and we make a hasty retreat for the exit.

"Hey!" one of the beefy bouncers shouts after us. We don't stick around to see what he wants. We race out into the night and along the stretch of beach, sand flying up at our heels. I turn to see the security guards chasing us, out of breath and panting. Lucky for us, it looks like they indulge in a lot of the resort food.

"This way," Carlos motions, running up a path that snakes behind the kitchens. We follow, breathing hard, our faces flushed. We reach the parking lot and sprint toward the vehicles.

"See you back at my place," Enrique says to Carlos, who helps Steven and Travis get a semi-comatose Juan into the back of his Jeep.

"Don't puke in my car, amigo," Carlos says to him as the girls jump in Enrique's Jeep. We tear out of the parking lot, tires screeching in our wake.

"That was crazy," Enrique says, whizzing down the highway. Chrissy and Kiki titter nervously. Harp looks pale and fumbles for her inhaler. "Everyone okay?"

I look at Harp who nods along with Chrissy and Kiki. "What would've happened if they had caught us?"

He shrugs. "Probably would've called the cops, then kicked you out of the country."

Harp pales further and sucks back some more of whatever's in there.

"Just kidding." He grins. "Maybe nothing so serious, but best not to find out."

I sit back, my head against the seat. That was pretty risky. And it's not over. We have to sneak back in before Mr. A notices we're gone. I pray he's still on his date with Lola.

We pull into the compound and I see that those prayers are not about to be answered.

Mr. A stands there, arms folded across his chest, an agitated expression on his face. Lola is beside him, looking concerned. Enrique's parents are off to the side, seemingly unsurprised and unimpressed with their son.

"Are you going to get in trouble too?" Chrissy whispers from the back, hiccuping.

"No, I can do what I want." But he looks slightly doubtful as he turns off the Jeep. Carlos pulls in behind us. Oh God. Juan. Mr. A will see right away he's wasted. I try to think of a distraction and come up with nothing.

"Where were you?" Mr. A demands as we step out of the car to face our executioners.

"With me," Enrique says in a confident voice, his head high.

"And where was that?" Carlita says, her eyes flashing.

"A party," Enrique replies.

"It's after midnight." Mr. A's stormy gray eyes drill into the four of us. "Do you have any idea how worried we've been?"

I look around at the other girls. Their heads hang low and they stare at the ground.

"I never thought you'd do something like that." Mr. A's hand runs through his spiky hair in frustration. Lola puts a hand on his back.

"We were completely fine," I say. "Just trying to take in a bit of local color, for, um research purposes," I add lamely.

Travis has gotten out of the vehicle with Steven and Juan. Carlos, being a somewhat perceptive fellow, reverses out of the compound as quickly as possible with a brief farewell honk.

Travis speaks up. "We wanted to throw Jess a birthday party." He doesn't look in my direction and keeps his arm around Juan, who's doing his best to stand up straight but isn't having much success. I hope Mr. A doesn't smell the fumes wafting off of him.

"How thoughtful," Mr. A says, his cheeks stained red.

"At least you are all back safe," Lola says, her hand still on Mr. A's back.

"Do you know what can happen when your parents find out about this?" he says.

"We won't say anything." Kiki sniffles.

"That's not the point. They entrusted you to my care and I've done a pretty poor job of it." Mr. A deflates suddenly. The anger leaves him, replaced by disappointment, which of course, is much worse.

Hector clears his throat. "Well, they are back and, as Lola said, safe. Why don't we finish talking about this tomorrow?" He sends his son a look that says, 'This is why we told you not to mess with the tourists.'

"You know I'm going to have to call your parents," Mr. A says, reluctant.

Crap and double crap.

"Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"

"Yesss," Juan slurs, "I just want to say..." He throws up again before he can finish his thought, this time all over himself. He really does have the worst timing.

"Please, go inside. Now." Mr. A's face is drawn.

We go silently into our villas. Nobody says a word as we wash up for bed.

I lay on my mattress staring up at the ceiling, listening to Harp's snores. I think of Enrique's kiss. I touch my lips as I remember the look on Travis's face. There's a sick curdling in my stomach. I'm not sure if it's the piña coladas or guilt. I roll over and look at the ancient brown alarm clock on the nightstand beside my bed. It reads 1:04 a.m.

Happy birthday to me.

Author's Note: Hey all you incredible readers/writers! If you're enjoying the story I'd love it if you'd tell a friend :) Also, I can't figure out how to link my FB author page so I'm putting it here (and if anyone knows how to do this please let me know!) Looking forward to connecting! 

xoxo

Alisha

https://www.facebook.com/alisha.sevigny/