GAMBLING QUEEN GINA

After the incident with Meg, Gina stormed out the house with rage with no intention of return, she didn’t want to be abandoned once Meg got blinded by the Hollywood lights, she refused to feel miserable for someone who had chosen an oath she wouldn´t be able to follow. She swore to herself that she would never feel as sad and lonely as she felt when her dad disappeared for two years. It took the cops two years to find his dead body and by then, she was already a misfit. Her mom was always absent, making money for them and she had to stay with some relatives that never stopped reminded her that she was living with them out of charity.

She hopped into her Chevrolet and drove away from the house as fast as she could. She was often victim of uncontrollable outburst of rage that blinded her judgement, but it seemed that those outbursts had dissipated since she had started her adventure with Meg. She was strongly convinced that she was the remedy for her dissatisfaction, and the idea of losing her just awakened her fears.

She needed to pull over in a shoulder of the road in Mulholland Drive and calm her rage by hitting the steering wheel until her eyes couldn´t hod up her tears.

She needed a time to calm down, to return of being herself.

“I need no one, I need no one!” -She repeated to herself dissipating her impulses to return with Meg.

She was about to enter the movie business, how she was going to be able to top that offer?

With those thoughts contaminating her mind, she started the car engine and drove away having nowhere to go.

She found a room in the first cheap motel that shared with meg when they got town.

There were some messages from Meg in her phone that she decided not to read, she threw her SIM card through the window with the idea of leaving the past behind, once again, she was a start a new life. That same night, she violated one of the rules that she had imposed to herself, never visit that dangerous gambling joint in downtown from which she had heard horrible stories of paybacks, but she thought that was just one-time thing just to get enough cash to leave that filthy city.

With 500 bucks she had in her pocket, she sat in one of the tables, there was an Eastern Europe guy with bad looks gambling successfully earning some cash, Gina saw her opportunity to make business.

The guy accepted the bet, unaware of the skills of Gina in the poker table. At the end of the evening, she had taken five grand from his pockets.

He didn´t seem ready to forfeit and wanted to keep playing, but Gina thought it was enough and leave the place as fast as she could with the money in her pockets.

She was driving back to the motel, when unexpectedly a van hit her off the road causing her crash into a light pole.

Before she could react, she was assaulted by a bunch of men who dragged her out of the car.

The Eastern Europe who she had beaten, appeared hitting her with fist until make her bleed.

“You thought you could make fun of me, bitch?” -He told her pulling her from the ground by grabbing her long curly red-haired long hair.

“I´m going to die just like my father.” -she was thinking while her teras were blinding the vision of that ugly and ruthless man. – “A miserable and meaningless way of dying.”

His companions searched the car until finding the money and stole some bucks more that she had in the glove compartment.

But that sadistic evil man didn´t have enough and wanted to punish her for his humiliation.

He grabbed her right hand, and posed it over the car´s trunk, stabbing it with a big knife in the most cruel and unthinkable merciless way.

“You won´t play anymore, bitch.

Gina screamed in pain, while he continued twisting the knife destroying her skillful hand, while the man´s companions were laughing.

The knife penetrated her hand damaging her tendons and cartilage, ensuring that the hand would longer not be usable. Fortunately for her, a van stopped, and some kids get down firing shots against those thugs scaring them away. Her saviors were five Afro-American kids in their early 20´s,

members of a Hip-Hop band on the rise that were returning from a midnight gig somewhere around the area. They called themselves “The Gunning Souls” and some time later became kind of popular.

They rushed to assist Gina, who passed out before they took her to the hospital.

In their way to the hospital, Joseph, one of the kids, hold her on his arms trying to reassure her before reaching their destiny.

She was taken into the hospital badly injured and with her hand awfully injured. They didn´t dare to take out the knife and the doctors rapidly took care of her.

The kids stood by herself until they were informed that she was out of danger, however, that hand will never recover her full potential.

They tried to contact someone who could take of her, but she said that she had no one in town.

The kids saw themselves in the responsibility of taking care of her, she moved with them to a house in Southeast LA where they were living with their girlfriends.

Joseph was the only one in the group that was single, and Gina soon started a relationship with him.

Her hand was damaged and that made her think that probably, she will never be able to play poker again. That saddened her and was considering leaving Los Angeles for good, nonetheless, Joseph was doing everything he could to keep her by his side.

She became part of their crew, and helped them in their concerts, but she that didn´t filled her void, and as soon as she could, she broke with Joseph and move to Davenport, Iowa, Iowa, the place in which her mom was enjoying her retirement after marrying the honest owner of an Italian restaurant.

Her mom embraced her giving her a warm welcome and feeling sorry for what it happened to her.

“You´re just like your father.” -Her mom told her with sorrow.

She moved with her mom and her husband, in a cozy house in the suburbs of town. She found a decent job in a cleaning company that helped to recover financially.

She walked away from her past, closing all her social networks, changing her phone number and sedating her will to ever hit the road again.

Her hand had recovered, but didn´t function as before. A big scar in the center reminded her how the gambling life almost took her life.

For the first time in years, she was living the life of an adult responsible person. With her salary, she rented a small apartment near downtown. Her mother wanted her to stay, but she refused to be a burden for them.

The past was distant now, her life with Meg, felt like a sweet dream from which she woke up, however, the past sometimes finds the way to haunt the present.

Driving back home from job, Gina saw her again, it was in a traffic light stop, in a big billboard in the back of a bus stopped in front of her.

Her pale blue eyes were staring at her again with the brightest shine that they ever had. It was the billboard for an upcoming film called “Barcelona Dreams”. Meg was posing looking at the camera with two actors that were eclipsed by her. Gina´s heart pumped to the point that needed to pull over to recover from shock.

Hollywood took her away from her, and now brought her back. She shouldn´t be surprised, but she was.

She felt happy and sad at the same time. Her bestie had one it, she fulfilled her promise of getting into the movies… She returned home and hurried to her PC to look for the trailer of the film, she watched it over and over, and went to sleep crying, holding her pillow believing it was Meg, at the next day she bought the perfume she used to war and impregnated her bed with it.

The opening weekend Gina assisted to Davenport Theatre for the midnight screening of “Barcelona Dreams”. She sat alone with a popcorn bowl to finally support her friend on her movie screen dreams.

Her pale blue eyes were brighter than ever in the darkness of that screening room. The film brought her back memories, and when the credits were rolling and the lights were on, she was a sea of tears.

A man who was seated some rows before him approached her handing her a tissue to wipe her tears.

“Don´t be sad, the guy of the film was a jerk, he didn´t deserve to be loved by those beautiful girls.” -He jokingly told her handing her the tissue- “Specially the blue eyes one.”

Gina stared at him, finding a pair of irresistible blue eyes that reminded her to Meg.

“Sorry, I´m just a drama queen.” -She apologized getting up from her seat.

“Don´t worry, I also often cry with romantic movies.”

She felt a chill running through her spine that got her froze from seconds. It was the first time she had that feeling since she had left Meg, and instantly tried to protect herself from that feeling.

“But I tell you, this one wasn´t that good as for making me cry.” -He said trying to keep the conversation going.

“It was good.” -She said after wiping her tears, getting up from her seat,

“Steve” -He went straight to the point offering his hand for her to shake it.

For a second, she looked at his hand, to then look at his eyes hesitating on shaking his hand. She finally agreed to do it.

“I´m Gina.”

“Gina, that´s a beautiful name. Sounds as Geena Davies, but is probably spelled different, isn´t it?”

“I don´t know what are you talking about.” -She chuckled

 “She´s an actress.”

“I´m not really that into movies.”

“Who would say?”

They left the cinema together, once in the door, she tried to find excuses to leave, but Steve was trying to hold her, he was not going to lose that opportunity.

“You know, Gina, I don´t want you to think that I´m a creep or something like that, but there´s a bar around the corner, would you like to have a drink while we keep discussing about the movie?”

“I told you, I´m not that into cinema.”

“We can discuss about any other thing. Tell me, what you like?

“She was looking for an excuse to gently refuse his invitation.

“Look, Steve, is late and I´m a bit tired, we can do it any other time.”

“Oh, okay…” -He exclaimed, unable to disguise his disappointment. -My car is near; do you want me to give you a lift?”

“I got my car, there.”

“Okay, fine. We can do it some other time.” -He resigned himself. -Would you give me your number?”

“My number?”

She hesitated, but finally agreed to give him her phone number before hopping into her car and drive away from the man who was destined to be her final destination.

Despite of that first encounter, Steve kept pursuing her. They started chatting getting acquainted of one to each other.

She told him her story, hiding no facts, he loved that fragility that she hided under the façade of strong person. He fell for her flaws and virtues and wanted to enter her world. He also didn´t hide nothing from her. He had married his high school sweetheart but they couldn´t have kids.

Three years after their marriage, she was diagnosed with a terminal disease that took her to the grave. He hadn´t love anyone since then. He was a humble workshop worker with not much money on the bank but was optimistic on improving and find a better life.

Their first date was something special, he took her of what he thought it was a special place, taking her, without knowing, to Gina´s stepfather restaurant.

She couldn´t stop laughing looking at the embarrassment of his face, when he found out his mistake.

“What didn´t you tell me?” -He said while they were having dinner.

“You told me you were going to take me to a special place, and I didn´t want to miss that cute face of embarrassment.”

Her mom and stepfather loved Steve and gave them the go-ahead.

Three months into the relation they moved together into Steve apartment. Gina felt that she was in love for the first time in her life and was enjoying every single of the ride.

However, their biggest joy came in a terrible situation, the same week that Steve had lost her job, she found out that she was pregnant. They were determined that nothing could ruin her happiness, they were together in adversity, and nothing could get in the path of happiness. At least is what they thought…