I moaned from the tapping sun-light against my face, wondering where I was. I blinked, shut my eyes, blinked again. I yawned, managed to fully open both eyes. I sat up and looked around. I was in a bedroom, one I have never laid eyes on before. I searched for my phone, only to find it not only dead, but shattered as well. My clothes were next to a familiar bag of mine and all I was wearing was a big t-shirt. I opened the bag and realized it was mine and everything in it belonged to me. I grabbed my phone charger and plugged in my lovely cracked phone. As I waited for it to turn on this tall, good looking, tan guy walked into the room smiling. He approached me asking, "How'd you sleep?"


I glared at him with a confused look. I replied, "I slept fine. How did I end up here? What happened last night?"


He smiled again at me and just laughed. "You don't remember anything?", he confusingly asked.
I thought to myself and went over step by step of all I remembered. My night began with getting ready at my best friend, Ashely's boyfriends house, Jackson. We played drinking games, and took about six or seven shots to start off the night. After that we all drove to Nash's for his 'Blackout' party. Everyone had to wear all black and you were supposed to get blacked out. As soon as we showed up alcohol was everywhere. I started taking some more shots with my senior friends and ended up smoking with some freshmen guys in college who graduated last year. That's when I realized that this guy standing in front of me was with us while we smoked. That's the absolutely last thing I can remember. I stopped and looked back at him and nervously asked him again, "What happened last night? Who are you and where am I?"

































He came and sat next to me and said "Well first off, I'm Adlis and you are sitting in my bedroom.." he kind of hesitated and finished saying, "Do you really not remember me?"


All I could do was laugh at the situation I got myself into. I then noticed my phone turning on and so I went to check it. I first looked at my text messages and phone calls, there were so many. I saw that I had text messages from Adlis, so I looked through them. He had texted me at 2:30am last night asking where I was and if I was okay. I also had a bunch of calls from him. I asked if he could explain to me what happened. He said, "Okay, it may take awhile."
Apparently we met each other at the party. We started talking and introducing our friends to each other and that's when we all smoked together. After that, we hung out the whole night... until the cops busted the party. Adlis told me he grabbed my hand and we ran off together to his friends car. We waited there until all of his friends arrived back to the car. He said he asked if I wanted to go with them back to his house and supposedly I really wanted to. Adlis and his friends brought me to my house, so I could pack my bags for a few nights worth. I left my mom a note saying I was going to Ashley's Dad's hunting camp. My mom doesn't really worry about where I am during the summer because we always take random trips to Ashley's camp. We went back to Adlis' friends house and we ended up staying awake just talking until five in the morning. He told me that we slept together but he explained that he asked me multiple times and that he made sure I was okay with it. After he told me everything that happened he asked, "Do you know where we are?"


I looked at him confused and hoped he would reply yes to my question, "We're in Albuquerque, New Mexico right?"


He came and sat down next to me and told me,"I'm Adlis Ortiz, I live in Mexico and that's where we are."


I thought to myself of what I had gotten myself into, but then again I thought of how great of story this is going to be in the future. "Do you want me to bring you home or would you want to stick to our plan?" Adlis questioned me.


Without hesitations I blurred out, "Yes! Of course I do, maybe we could spend today to get to know each other better."


After a day of getting to know him, I decided to give it a couple of days and if I wanted to go home he said he would bring me back. I discovered that he actually grew up in California, but moved to Mexico for business. Adlis is in the international business and makes a lot of money quickly. The days went by and they were the best days of my life. I knew I had to go home though, just to check in with everyone. Adlis brought me home after the fifth day, so that my mom wouldn't sketch. We came up with a plan to go on vacation down in Mexico. I told my mom I was going with Ashley and her cousins to Cozumel, Mexico. I invited Ashely to come with her boyfriend, Jackson. Adlis agreed to pay for everything in Mexico, since he knew some guys down there. We went for two weeks and it was the best trip I've ever been on. Ashley and Jackson went back home after a week, but I stayed at Adlis' place for a couple of days. I only had two more weeks of summer left then senior year would be starting up. Adlis talked to me about what would happen, he told me not to worry. He brought me back home and crashed at his coworkers house, which is only a twenty minute drive from where I live. I wanted to meet Adlis' coworkers, but he always told me I wouldn't want to. Adlis came over before he went back home and I asked him "Do your friends know about me? What do they think of you dating a seventeen year old senior while you're twenty-five?"


He replied "It's complicated, things would go bad if they knew about you. I'm doing this to protect you, I love you so much, Carmen."


I looked at him in agony, I had no clue what to say or what he could possibly be protecting me from. He leaned over and kissed me then said, "Carmen, don't worry, everything's okay."


I kissed him goodbye and knew I wouldn't be able to see him for a few months or whenever he came back to stay at his coworkers house. School started up, it was rough not being able to see him. August went by fast, I didn't realize how much I would miss him. We text everyday and talk on the phone a couple times during the week, but he's always busy with work. Adlis travels all over the world doing business. I'm not exactly sure what it is for, but it must be something good for all the money he makes. Adlis gets back from Paris right before Labor Day, and as soon as he comes back we're spending the whole three-day weekend together. It gets hard not being able to see him, but I guess that's my consequence for dating an older guy. My friends didn't understand why I was dating him. I tried to explain, but they just thought it was irrelevant for me to be dating someone so old.

The other night I was on the phone with Adlis and I asked him, "Are we something serious?" He didn't understand what I meant by that, so I asked again explaining it better, "Are we officially dating or is this just a little fling going on?"

He immediately replied with saying, "Of course we are Carmen. You mean so much to me. I have never felt like this with anyone else, I love you."


Hearing that brought a smile to my face and made me feel like I was actually worth something. I told him, "I love you too. I'm so lucky to have you in my life. Would it be okay if I introduced my friends to you? They've been skeptical about the whole thing and have been dyeing to meet you, plus Ashley and Jackson miss ya!"

"I'd love to do that, maybe this weekend for Labor Day I can take all of us out on my friends boat and we can stay at their camp for the weekend, if y'all would be down for that?" Adlis asked me.



I eagerly replied, "Yes! That would be such a fun weekend. I'll talk to them about it tomorrow and see if they can all go!"


"Alright cool, I've got to go discuss some work with my coworker, but I'll see you Friday. Let me know what your friends say. Goodnight, love you." he said.
"Okay I will. Goodnight! Love you too." After I said that, I realized that I really do love him.


All throughout these past days I couldn't stop thinking about him. I asked my friends if they'd want to go and they seemed pretty excited for it. We were leaving tomorrow after school to go to his coworkers camp. It was me, Adlis, Ashley, Jackson, Paul, Marisa, Marshall, Jonah, Emily, and Lauren. We all went up in two different cars, it was about a five to six hour trip. As we arrived we unloaded all of the bags. This house looked like a mansion. The backyard was on the lake with a pier, two jet skis, and a huge boat. For the first night we just had a bonfire in the backyard and had a small party. Waking up Saturday morning was rough. Everyone slept in late, but we were all ready to go boating by noon. We packed up food and the ice chests, and went on the boat. We went tubing and water skiing. By the time we got back to the house I was ready to shower, eat dinner, and go to sleep. We all took a part with making dinner. I wanted to make the dessert, so I went to the bookshelf to get a dessert recipe book. As I looked for one, I leaned against the bookshelf, it swung open and a long dark hallway appeared. Everyone was either showering or cooking in the kitchen, so I got my phone flashlight and walked down the hallway hoping to find something interesting. What I found sure was interesting, along with shocking.


There was a board with pictures of girls drugged out and on each picture there was a price on it. I looked in the to find all the people and countries they sold to. All of these thoughts were going through my head, I realized that Adlis' job was to sell girls as sex slaves. All of a sudden I felt someone's hand grab my shoulder, my heart dropped. It was Adlis. I looked at him with tears in my eyes. He told me, "Please let me explain, it's not what it seems."


I anxiously asked him to tell me the truth. He looked into my eyes and started explaining everything to me and how he got brought into this business. "I had no other way out. They were going to kill me after they already tortured me."

He paused for a moment and lifted up the right side of his shirt. "You've probably felt this before, but just didn't know what it was. This is the scar they stabbed me at with the knife they had just killed my best friend with. I was kidnapped for two weeks. They came after me and my best friend because of business. We sold drugs from the Mexican cartel. Very bad choice. If you don't do what they want you to do, there's a problem. And that problem happened to me and my best bud, Franco. They kidnapped us and held us hostage, our only way out was taking part in sex slavery. Franco just couldn't do it so they killed him right in front of me."

The tone in Adlis voice broke my heart. I started crying out of sorrow for him. I hugged him tightly saying everything's going to be alright.

He looked at me and said back, "Nothing is ever going to be alright. They practically control everything I do."


All of a sudden we heard screaming coming from the kitchen. Adlis looked at me and told me to stay here. He ran to go check it out and closed the secret bookshelf as he left. A few minutes later he came back. I asked him what was wrong and if everything was alright. He was right, nothing is alright. Adlis then explained to me that his friend, Tony, is actually his partner, he's the one who kidnaps and drugs the girls. I yelled at Adlis to keep telling me what was going on in the kitchen. He grabbed me and looked at me saying, "Paul, Marshall, and Jonah are dead. Tony killed them. I think he has taken Emily, Lauren, and Marisa. I'm not too sure where Jackson and Ashley are. I'm sorry Carmen, I should've never gotten you involved with me. I just want you to know how much I love you."


At this moment I had no idea what to think, do, or say. Adlis grabbed my hand and told me to stay here and that if I didn't here a knock on the bookshelf to hide immediately. I could here nothing from being back there, I wanted to know what was happening. I quietly crept out of the bookshelf and snuck into a bedroom. I heard people talking in Spanish, I knew it was them. I hid under the bed and tried to slow down my breathing. I saw their footsteps walk on by, I didn't hear Adlis voice. Out of no where I got pulled from under the bed, I was in shock that I passed out. I woke up to sitting in a chair in the secret room behind the bookshelf. Adlis was standing in front of me and behind him were three Mexicans. He had tears going down his face while holding a gun. "He has a choice" one of the Mexican men said.


The choice was to shoot me and get out of the business and be set free or to shoot himself and I'd be set free. Adlis looked at me and gripped the gun and held it up. Next thing I know there was a gun shot. I opened my eyes and looked around, Adlis was laying in a puddle of blood. His own blood. I looked around at the three Mexican men, they grabbed me and put a bag over my head. I woke up in my bed, not knowing how I got there. I wished and hoped it was a dream, it just was too hard to handle.


I've been in therapy for about a year now, but it still feels like a nightmare. I wake up every morning thinking its a dream. I've had panic attacks before from being too overwhelmed with knowing the truth. Sometimes I wish Adlis chose to kill me than him. He would've finally been set free and gotten to live his own life. I always wonder where my friends would be in life. Ashley and I were supposed to be roommates together in college. It just doesn't feel the same without her. Life's a struggle now. I always think of what Adlis had told me, and he was right. Nothing is ever going to be alright again.