"Does your dad do all of the talking for you?" The smell of a feminine fragrance that had been laced with apple and strawberry and applied far too greedily wafted up into the innermost part of my nostrils, packing quite a punch as the limousine sped up over a pothole some twenty miles or so down the road from where I had got in.
"Actually...uh...he's not my father, he's my godfather." I spoke through the violent outbursts of electronically charged music and practically screamed the answer directly into her eardrums, although even then the vixen seemed to have some difficulties discerning part of what I had said. "It's complicated, but...he's just always been like the uncle I never got to have, I guess he...uh, I guess he's a little more outgoing."
"Well...you should try and loosen up a bit, okay, sweetie?" The otherwise affectionately used term of endearment made me cringe just as quickly as the syllables rang off of her lips, a remarkably forced smile breaking through my own barren, battered and deprived face.
She had definitely taken the approach of lathering on so many different bath and body products to hide something, most likely something she had either been ashamed of or insecure about, or maybe even a piece of herself that hadn't gone well with the very ambitions which had placed her in the same car as Michael and I. People who either had lofty goals or heavily inebriated senses of self worth because of the medias own adulterated vision of true fulfillment would often find themselves feeling hopelessly stuck in their current situation in life, and so they learned that being an escort to the top one percent would yield a brighter future then slaving away at a nine to five. Most times, there would be a certain etiquette behind it all: any sort of service to those who would be willing to pay a premium would often see it prudent to have attractive members of the opposite sex on hand to make clients more inclined to spend more and do so more frequently. It's a rather ingenious way to get into the pockets and Swiss bank accounts of people who honestly don't deserve to have a dozen zeros behind their monthly statements, because as we all know in this life there are only so many constants, but whether it be feast or famine we will all be subject to the desires of the flesh. It may come on more strongly to some then it does others, and a great many of us may still be able to manage their own carnal pleasures enough so that they not see themselves become a mere ghoul given the guise of a gentleman, but it shall still haunt us whilst we continue to draw breath. Her small-talk hadn't ceased in the remainder of the car ride the rest of the way to our destination some forty minutes later, the vehicle stopping momentarily as we were awaiting clearance to move through a rod iron fence that had blocked our path at a main gate which lead upwards to a sprawling estate covered on all sides by sparse woodlands. A swirling driveway leading us further inland to the only semblance of proof that this natural biome had been disturbed by mankind's own hand, the structure came complete with four floors and housed enough space to satisfy hundreds of guests at any given time, keeping them in good spirits with an all-inclusive bar as well as an on-site movie theater and indoor waterpark.
Congratulations to the future Marco and Francesca Falcone!
The gleam cascading off of the cloth banner which had been adorned with text lovingly written by hand with a dutiful grace and care behind the penmanship, the curvature to each of the letters as they flowed into one another cleanly and without any mistakes that would have been evident had it been done by any lesser a person. Without a shred of doubt in my mind, there would be no mistaking the last name on that banner for the one known to be most synonymous with the depravity and cancerous malignancy which had strangled Gotham for decades without relief, and so I was not going to let this revelation go unnoticed as I quickened my pace upon reaching the resorts main lobby and gave Michael a tap on the arm. Two of the women from the limo had chosen to follow us as we made our way through the main entrance and checked in with a rather lively receptionist who had informed us that the activities wouldn't start until the following morning, the rest had either remained in the car or had dispersed throughout the building to find someone else to keep company for the night. He took notice of my bid for his attention only after I had done so a second and third time, by this time I had resorted to basically just slugging him to keep his eyes of the sirens in six inch heels who had forked their arms around him on either side. At first he didn't say anything, more or less mouthing the words and making a sort of marginally psychotic facial expression which displayed a mixture of blue balls and jetlag, his pupils dilating as he looked at me in disgust as if he were a dog and I had been keeping him from his toy.
"Yes...yes? I'm listening, kid, what is it?" He whimpered with a bit of an exasperated yelp at the end of it.
"You said that we were going to the wedding of a client of yours, you didn't tell me that we were going to see Tony Montana and Bonnie Parker recite their vows." My lips moving as little as possible as I closed in on his ear to prevent anyone else from knowing the context of the conversation, Michael scoffing at the nicknames I had given for the soon-to-be bride and groom.
"Brian, you're overreacting, alright. The Falcone's aren't as bad as the press make them out to be, and they invited the both of us along as a favor to me for helping them out in the past, that's what matters. Now, I don't ask you for a lot, but I need you to get outside of that little pity bubble that you put yourself in whenever you see an opportunity to have a bit of fun, get it? I know you've been through hell recently, but you have a problem realizing when something is going well for you, you always want to call it quits instead of sticking around through the good and bad. Now, that church shit you pulled, that's a start but you need to listen to that part of yourself, kid. Live a little, while you have the time. Now, I want you to take this...whenever you feel like it would do you the most good, alright?" He finished as he retrieved a small Ziploc bag from his pocket which couldn't have held more then a few watch batteries, inside of it was a single purple and teal capsule with white lettering along the sides.
"What...what the fuck is this?" I inquired, sideswiped by the sudden appearance of an unknown pharmaceutical being offered to me, and Michael being the one to hand it over to me wasn't much of a consolation.
"It's just some LSD..." He continued as his voice seemed to meander off into a low tone and a forcibly produced cough covering the rest of what he had wished to say. "This weekend is a chance for the both of us to get out of the funk we're in, get it? I'm just giving you a little something to help you relax, just make sure you eat something when you take it, though."
"Oh...it's just some LSD...you act like you're giving me some fucking Tylenol, jesus, Dr. Doolittle is looking more believable as a doctor then you are right now." I criticized, half laughing at the absurdity of the supposed guardian of mine being the one who was willingly giving me a potentially dangerous drug as if it were Mentos. "Wait, so then...where are we going to sleep? I mean...you did get a room for us, right? I mean, and I don't know about you, but I don't think my jeans and t-shirt are going to cut it for a wedding."
"Well...there's an old suit of mine in my bag, they'll watch our belongings so anytime you need anything from the bags just let them know. And besides, you don't need a room, alright? I'll be trying to see if I can find myself some company tonight, and if i'm successful i'll have a room to sleep in, I just figured you'd be doing the same." He reasoned.
"Great, I'll smell like bigfoots taint by the time the wedding starts, so...I guess this is where we part ways?" I asked, slightly infuriated by his lack of communication about leaving me stranded in a place completely foreign to me for the next two and a half days.
"Just relax, and go with the flow, kid. We'll run into one another before the weekends over, I've gotta a feeling." His eyes lighting up as he turned to see that the dulcet duo who were originally swaddled around his sides had now began to move on from his sight and further onward into the complex, he cast on last glance my way before taking off after them with as much feverish folly as a man having the time of his life.
"Yeah...well, then what the fuck am I supposed to do?" I posed to the air around me and the ground beneath me, not a soul giving the attention required to answer, walking a few paces to the side before sliding my back down a nearby wall and using the foundation to give myself some much needed time alone.