Last Friday was very vivid to me. I remember everything like it happened last night. The sun was setting and it was a beautiful sight. I looked out the window and saw white puffy clouds covering the bright orange sun in the distance. Hints of red and orange lit up the blue sky. I was on the plane to Las Vegas alone without my parents watching me. I had just turned 18 Thursday and being 18 felt good. I could now buy cigarettes, drive a car with no restrictions, ignore my parents, move out of my house, and the best of all, gamble. I celebrated my birthday with my friends Thursday and they got me the best present ever, a ticket to Las Vegas. It was too bad they couldn’t come with me because they are still 17. I didn’t think they would have a good time in Vegas anyway. They sucked at poker and I would take a lot of money from them when we played. I plugged in my iPod and decided to take a nap. The flight was two and a half hours and I needed all my energy to play in Vegas.
I even remember what the pilot said over the intercom, “Welcome to Las Vegas, Nevada. Current temperature is 90 degrees with clear skies. We will be arriving in 10 minutes. I hope you enjoyed your flight and we will see you soon.” I had a nice nap but my legs were sore from the flight and I was anxious to finally stand up. All the passengers were talking now and I pointed out to my neighbor that there was a big light out in the distance.
It was Las Vegas. As we got closer and closer the light turned to hundreds, then thousands and we could see every light from each house. As the plane flew along the outskirts of Las Vegas the gigantic hotels on the Vegas strip illuminated the surroundings. I was thinking that this was the strip I was going to get rich on. This was it. The Las Vegas Strip was this magnificent and spectacular place while the houses away from the Strip looked plain and insipid. Things raced past, as we were about to land. The plane hit the ground smoothly; there was a loud screeching sound of the wheels hitting the ground. The plane soon came to a complete stop and we all got out of our seats.
As I walked out of the plane I heard fast footsteps behind me. Who was even more anxious to gamble than I was? It was like someone was running out of the plane being chased by a cop. I looked back and see this fairly tall white man; he was a bit taller than me probably around 6 feet tall. He wore a fitted black suit with a white dress shirt and a dark solid blue tie. He was carrying this black duffel bag and yelled, “Get out of my way.” He came knocking into me and I dropped my black laptop bag and my luggage. At that time I thought he had to catch a show or meet someone since there was no one following him.
I walked out the taxi area of the McCarran International Airport and the hot air hit me. Even at 9 PM at night it was still hot. I caught the next taxi and asked to go the Venetian Hotel. The Las Vegas strip looked even more spectacular in person. Each hotel was like a pillar of lights and happiness with the possibility of striking rich in Vegas. I arrived at the hotel a few minutes later and my parent’s present was a two-night stay at the Venetian. $450 was pretty expensive but I knew I was going to win so much more money than that.
I dropped off my luggage and laptop in my room and looked out the window. The Treasure Island Hotel was directly in front of me. There was a ship performance in front of the hotel. Two ships had pirates on them and pretended to attack each other. It was pretty entertaining but it was time to head downstairs to gamble. I checked myself in the mirror to make sure I was looking good and sprayed on some cologne. I decided to go join a Texas hold ‘em table first. There were seven other people on the table. The woman sitting next to me was hot and attractive. She was wearing a blood red dress and rested as if she were an hourglass. I introduced myself to her and she smiled and said her name was Alexis.
My first hand was double Aces and easily won the first pot. My luck was good the rest of the night and won $100,000. It was 2 AM and Alexis next to me didn’t have the same luck and I asked if she wanted to have dinner with me. She said yes and we ate at the Valentino. We then went to the Tao Nightclub and danced there until 5 AM and we went to a room.
I woke up the next day at 2 pm and she was gone already. I didn’t even get her number. I got up outside to take the “do not disturb sign” off the door when I saw the tall white man again. He stayed right next-door and had bags under his brown eyes and was wearing a white t-shirt that said Las Vegas on it and jeans. He offered me to drink and do drugs with him and I accepted because I had the cash to burn.
A few hours later I decided to go downstairs and gamble knowing I’d make even more money today. I chose the same table I did the previous night but it didn’t turn out that well though. I lost all the money I made from yesterday and even more. I kept saying to myself, “It is just a string of bad luck.” Soon my credit cards wouldn’t accept any more money.
I called my parents so they could pay for my hotel. They were extremely mad and were yelling in the phone, lecturing me about gambling. I had the phone away from my ears. I didn’t really wanted to hear them yell at me. They eventually did wire some money for me to pay for the hotel though. My flight back to Seattle was still five hours away so I wandered around Las Vegas not knowing what to do next. I walked into the Fashion Show mall. To my luck I found a $50 bill on the ground. “Why couldn’t I get this luck earlier,” I thought. I felt the urge to take my next hit and decided that was what I was going to do next. I got that guys number last time so I called and met him at his room. He said he was busy and couldn’t let me in but he still sold me $30 worth of drugs. I was like “F it,” and took the hit in the hallway.
It was about time to leave Las Vegas. I look at my plane ticket back to airport and thought to myself that next time I would have better luck. Time to get out of this place. There was only 3 hours until my flight so I used my remaining $20 I had to get catch the taxi to the airport. “Next time I’ll win money and leave before losing,” I remember saying to myself.
Police were standing outside the airport and when I stepped out of the taxi they came up and questioned me. The taxi driver was allowed to drive away but they asked me if I knew anything about Alexis. She was killed earlier that day and they wanted to know if I knew anything about it. Well I thought I had nothing to do with it so I felt like I was going to be safe. I was so messed up though; I couldn’t answer them so they put handcuffs on me. I was arrested as a suspect of her murder. How did I get myself into that mess? My life came crashing down on me that day. I am addicted to drugs; I have no money and got arrested for murder just because I wanted to have fun in Las Vegas. A week later I’m still in prison and I heard from my parents that it doesn’t look good for me. My DNA is all over her.