The Creeper
Image: Unsplash, Francesco Ungaro
It’s no fun when the creep alarm is ringing.
aria was the youngest of the group. All of us had turned 21 months before her, and the only thing she wanted to do for her birthday was go to Las Vegas. How could we say no? So Stella, Maria, Lainey, and myself booked a cheap hotel, packed our bags, and made the four hour trip out into the desert.
Maria technically wasn’t going to turn 21 until midnight of the day we arrived, but that didn’t stop her from drinking once we got there. It’s easy to sneak drinks to someone, as we had already figured out back home. Every single one of us had been snuck into neighborhood bars before we were old enough; we had even snuck drinks into bars in order to save money.
The second night in Vegas got weird. During Maria’s birthday dinner, we asked our waiter which hotel bar had the best views of Vegas. The night sky was clear and we wanted to look out over the shimmery city full of debauchery.
He took a moment before he said, “The best view? Well, I would say the Polo Towers.”
None of us had ever heard of this hotel, but if a Vegas local said it had the best view, then we were going to head over there.
The Polo Towers wasn’t the tallest hotel in Vegas, not by a long shot, but when we made it to the 21st floor, we could see why the waiter had recommended it; it had a spectacular view. Three of the four walls were floor to ceiling glass, and almost every direction you looked had a different section of Vegas in view. What the waiter failed to mention is that every person in there was at least 40 or older.
Not only was every person there older than us, they were also dressed nicely. I could feel judgemental eyes through billows of cigarette smoke tracing our transition over to the bar, looking at our jeans, Vans sneakers, and casual tops as low key jazz music played in the background.
I wanted to tell Maria and the others that we needed to leave, that we didn’t belong in a bar like this, but they wanted to stay for at least one drink. What could I do? I couldn’t tell the birthday girl no, and I knew I would be outnumbered, so I kept my mouth shut.
The bartender, dressed in a tuxedo, looked at our i.d.’s. He might’ve mumbled happy birthday to Maria, but I was too busy feeling self conscious to really notice. When he asked what we wanted to drink, a voice out of nowhere said, “Drinks are on me, girls.”
I would love to say that we turned around and saw some Vegas hotshot, dressed in a nice suit who was ready to entertain us for the evening, but it was an older man in a green tracksuit and a gold chain. He had slicked back gray hair and looked like he spent too much time in the sun. Oh shit, I thought, we’re screwed. My creep alarm automatically went off in my head.
My gut instinct was to say no to this overly tan and cheesy guy, but this is because I was mostly sober. Maria, on the other hand, had been drinking for most of the evening. Without hesitating, she half shouted, “YES!”
The bartender looked annoyed as he handed over the cups of drinks to us. I eyeballed the cup I was given and noticed it was plastic. I was confused because this was a nicer spot. I looked around and saw that everyone else was drinking out of cocktail glasses. Now my senses were majorly tingling that we were definitely somewhere that we shouldn’t be.
I was still heavily aware of the gawking eyes looking at us as we made our way over to an open booth.
“You ladies mind if I join you? I’m Jack, by the way.”
“Yeah, totally!” Dumb ass Maria happily invited over the creeper, which I was worried about. I could tell by the looks on Stella and Lainey’s faces that they were also not feeling the vibe this guy was throwing out.
“Where you ladies from?”
Maria was busy sucking down her drink, so Stella said, “Uh, Los Angeles.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ve been there a couple of times. Real pretty in some areas. Whereabouts in Los Angeles?”
No one answered at first because I think we were all trying to come up with a fictitious area of the city to say that we were from, but Maria blurted out, “Pasadena,” before finishing the last of her drink.
I wished I could drag her into the bathroom by her hair to tell her to shut up, but I just grinned at her with dead eyes. Lainey and Stella looked at each other uneasily. Jack didn’t seem to care about the extra info and instead said, “Hey, let me get you ladies another round. Looks like the birthday girl will be needing a refill.”
Stella must’ve felt some panic settle in about being drugged because she jumped up and said, “Great, let me help you!”
Lighting a cigarette, I looked at Maria and could see she wasn’t feeling the same uneasiness as the rest of us. “Maria, that guy is creepy. Don’t give him anymore info,” was all I could get out before Stella and Jack returned with more plastic cups of cocktails.
“Have you seen the view from the window,” Jack asked. “Come on, let’s take a look.” Before I could refuse, he grabbed my hand and forcefully pulled me off the couch. “Bring the birthday girl, too!”
As Jack led me and Maria over to the window, I started to think of ways we could get out of this situation. My first thought was we could go to the bathroom saying that Maria was feeling sick, but I knew he’d be waiting outside for us. My second thought was that we just get up one by one and meet at the elevator to get the hell out of there. Before I could have a third idea, we were at the smooth glass.
As the city glimmered below us, I was mesmerized by the twinkling lights and had one moment of peace before Jack nudged me closer to the window. “You should put your head against the glass to get a really good look.”
“Uh, sure.” As my forehead rested on the cool glass, I suddenly felt Jack behind me as he groped my breasts from behind. “Woah, woah,” I exclaimed! I moved away from Jack’s groping hands as he laughed boisterously.
“Hey, it’s cool,” was all he said.
I rushed back to where Stella and Lainey were sitting as Jack continued to point out nearby attractions by the window to Maria. Panicked, I whispered, “He just fucking grabbed by boobs!” I was trying to keep my voice down and not draw the attention of Jack or anyone around us. “We’ve gotta get out of here.”
Stella and Lainey looked at each other, and then Stella said, “When we went to get drinks, the bartender asked Jack if we were ‘working for him’. I think he’s a pimp or dealer or something. It was really weird. Why do we have plastic cups? I made sure to watch that neither of them put anything in our drinks. Something is going on.”
Maria was giggling as Jack led her back to the booth.
“More drinks, ladies?” In my mind’s eye, he looked like the wolf from a nightmarish fairytale.
Lainey stood up and said, “No, I think we’re good. Maria, come with me to the bathroom.”
Jack cocked his head to the side, smiled, and then said, “Okay, I’ll be right back then.”
I don’t know if it was telepathy or just instinct, but Stella and I quickly made our way to the door to get out, and Lainey was already leading Maria to the same spot. Without even talking to each other, we bolted from the bar to the elevators. Luckily, we only had to wait a couple of seconds before one arrived.
On the way down, we were all talking quickly at the same time, agreeing that we needed to get away from Jack as fast as we could. When the elevator reached the ground floor, we started jogging towards the doors when we heard Jack call out, “Hey, wait!” He had been able to get an elevator that was only a couple of seconds behind us.
As we pushed ourselves out of the hotel lobby doors, Jack steadily on our heels, a taxi pulled up out of nowhere. All I could think as we piled into the cab was, There is a god! Jack’s angry face appeared outside of Maria’s window, and Stella shouted, “GO!”
The cab veered forward and Jack was left shouting on a Vegas street.