Do You Want Me Dead? (Jalex) HIATUS

Chapter 5

After the whole place was set up, I waited in my tent, excited to get my first questioner. We were still in Baltimore, because there were 2 shows here. After tonight, I was gone from this town. Hopefully, that would be permanent. 15 minutes later, a young woman walked in, smiling nervously.

"Welcome, take a seat." I smiled, motioning towards the chair. She let the curtain fall over the entrance of the tent, so the whole place was darker, and quiet. As she sat, she handed me a 10 dollar bill, and I did my best to make her comfortable.

"What's your name?" I asked. She actually looked pretty scared.

"Uh, Gianna." She answered in a small voice. I chuckled.

"Alright, Gianna, relax. My name's Jack. Have you ever been to a tarot card reader before?" I asked. She shook her head profusely.

"No."

"Okay, well, don't be nervous. This is a place about energy reflection. You won't get any clear, direct resolutions, but I can try and help guide you." I explained, pulling out my cards.

"So, how about we start with something easy?" I asked.

"Okay, sure." She nodded.

"We'll do a Past, Present, Future spread, okay? I'm going to hand you the deck, and ask you to shuffle and cut it. Then you'll give it back to me, and I'll let you pick three cards. Any questions so far?" I asked.

"No, I think I've got it." She replied.

"Okay, great. So, when you pick each card, I want you to meditate on either the past, the present, or the future. You've really got to try and reach deep, because that'll help out with energy flow." She nodded in understanding, and I handed her the deck. Her eyes grew wide like I'd handed her some sort of dead thing.

"Go ahead, shuffle it." I directed. She did, then cut the deck and handed it back to me. "Great. Now, think really calm and deep about your past. Think about what things were like for you." I directed. "Sometimes it helps to close your eyes."

She sighed, and closed her eyes. After a while, they opened again. I held the deck out to her, and she picked one from the middle.

"Hand it to me." I directed. She did, and I flipped it over. It was The Fool, and I smiled. A lot of people picked that card for their pasts.

"The Fool. This card means pure, unmolded potential, with neither positive nor negative energy. It has the possibility of both. It means, also that your approach to many things may have been strange and unconventional." I explained. She nodded, like this wasn't news to her.

The rest of the session went much like this, and she seemed pretty pleased with all of her answers. I liked doing it, because it felt real. I mean, I'm not a priest or whatever, but there was an amount of trust that people put into me, and I was having a good time with this.

For the rest of the day, I was in that tent, pretty much just helping people figure their shit out. Of course, I left for lunch and stuff, and people stopped coming in around 7, so that's when I closed down. Fuck yeah, Jack Barakat, working man, I thought stupidly as I headed to my trailer. Daniel was already in there, and smiled when he saw me.

"How was your first real day, newbie?" He asked.

"It was awesome." I replied honestly, yawning. "But I'm really tired."

"Get to bed, then. I'm driving us to the next location, which is," He looked down at a map, "Philly."

"Cool." I mumbled, and curled up in my bunk. It was so cozy, I fell asleep almost immediately.

•••

All week had gone mostly like my second day in Baltimore. Most places, we stayed 2 or 3 days, then picked up our shit and left. My parents hadn't called, texted, wrote, or done anything to get into contact with me. I tried to pretend that it didn't bother me, which wasn't difficult, because they really were keeping me busy. Every new location, I helped set up, or clean up when we packed up and left. It was hard work, but I honestly enjoyed it. The only bad thing was Alex. He was such a dick, it didn't even make sense. Everyday, it was more hazing, more rude comments, more fuckery that I just didn't want to deal with. What made it okay for him to act like such a total douche? I had no idea. I didn't want to know. I wanted him to disappear forever. Of course, though, that would never happen.

So, I avoided him as best as I could. But that was difficult. While I was packing my stuff up earlier that day, he came by and pulled the plug on any of the electrical stuff that was attached to an electrical strip right outside the tent. I was shrouded in darkness, trying to find my way outside. Stupid fucking 'calm' vibe and all your dim light. Stumbling outside, he actually fucking tripped me, and I faceplanted into the ground. Alex was just a dick. That's all he knew how to do. Well, that and be a gorgeously sexy fantastic trapeze artist. Why do horrible people always get the great talents? I grabbed the box of decorations and stalked away to my trailer, but he fucking followed me! Oh, my god, just go away.

I was beginning to think that all he wanted was to bother me. If so, congratulations to him. I was fucking bothered. Turning around, I faced his confident smile.

"Go fuck yourself." I said sweetly.

"I'd rather fuck you." He said back in the same tone. Groaning in frustration, I kept walking, but he just got in front of me.

"Come on, Jack, don't be so uptight." He said easily, smiling at me.

"I'm uptight? You're an asshole. Go away!" I yelled, pushing him to the side.

"Did you just push me?" He scoffed.

"You pushed me on my first day." I reminded him, walking quicker. He sped up, trying to get my attention.

"Yeah, because I'm me. I'm allowed to push people. But no one fucking pushes me back." He said angrily. What a fucking brat, I thought. This kid has some serious issues.

"What, mommy never said 'no' to you?" I asked harshly. He stopped in his tracks, which alarmed me. I stopped too, watching him. His whole face was the picture of fury, and I felt myself become terrified. How had he gone from annoying to pissed in a second flat? I had no idea, but it turned my insides to mush as he slowly got closer. Whatever I said pissed him the fuck off, obviously, because he looked at me like I was the scum of the earth.

"You shut your fucking mouth." He growled, latching his hand around my wrist. "You just got here and you act like you own the fucking place, saying whatever pops into your stupid fucking head. Well, I've got a tip for you: just shut the fuck up. You don't know anything about me, so don't go running your mouth." His tone practically had me pissing my pants, so as soon as he let go, I noped the fuck out of there as quickly as I could. My legs burned as I ran all the way across the fair grounds to my trailer, which I hoped would be empty. I'd thought Alex was just an idiot, an annoying idiot. But he was mean, too, and scared the shit out of me. My whole body was shaking so hard from the run-in that once I got inside, I had to lean up against the wall. My legs were quivering, so I slid down and sat to pull them into my chest. What could have possibly angered one person so much? It was a mystery to me, and I decided that I would never, ever talk to him again if I didn't have to. He was not someone that I wanted to be around. He'd managed to kill my good vibes every single time we spoke, and it pissed me off.