Savage (Daughters of the Jaguar) Read Online Free PDF

telling me this was a bad idea, but I didn’t listen. I had come to Florida for adventure and now I was getting it.
    “Yeah, my parents did not see that coming,” Heather said while the others laughed. “Apparently, that’s normal in Europe.”
    “I hear they are all topless at the beach over there,” Jim said with a goofy grin.
    “Is that right, Chris?” Regina asked. “Are the girls really topless at the beach?”
    I nodded. They all looked at me like they wanted me to elaborate. Heather put her arm on my shoulder.
    “You’ll have to excuse Chris. He doesn’t talk much,” Heather said. “He is an artist. He plays the guitar.”
    I felt a look from Jim walking next to her and immediately sensed that he disliked me. I guessed he was into Heather and I was in his way. He was clenching the flashlight in his hand like he was trying to crush it. He was almost as tall as me, his face was aristocratic with high cheek-bones and short dark brown hair that looked like Clark Kent’s in the Superman movies.
    “He looks like a wild person with that hair,” Jim said. “Is that a European thing too or is he just a faggot?”
    “Jim!” Heather said. “He understands everything.”
    “I thought you said he didn’t speak English.”
    “I said he doesn’t talk much. He understands everything. He is just a quiet type. A sensitive artist. Something you wouldn’t know about.”
    “Still a faggot in my book,” Jim continued. “He might even have the plague. Have you asked him about that? The Gay Plague? Has he been tested for that?”
    “Stop it, Jim.” Heather snorted and that made Jim stop talking immediately.
    I was happy she got him to shut up. I felt like a child when my parents would discuss me even though I was still there. It made me quite uncomfortable. I didn’t mind the gay part. I had heard that so often it was getting old. Mostly from elder people, though, but prejudice doesn’t have an age.
    “So you are an artist trying to become a doctor?” Mike said. “That’s a first.”
    I shrugged. “It’s in the family. My dad is a doctor, as well. He wants me to follow in his footsteps. I play the guitar for fun. Like a hobby.”
    “It talks!” Jim said with a laugh. “And even in entire sentences.”
    I ignored his remark while it got a lot darker the deeper we went into the forest. As a city boy I wasn’t that familiar with the sounds of nature so the longer we walked the more uncomfortable I felt. The forest was alive around us. Every step we took I heard the crackling flight of other living things that fled from us. It felt as if there were eyes in every tree and bush we passed and I knew that on each side of the trail there was nothing but swamps where all kinds of animals lived and hunted at night. The loud sound of tree frogs reminded me constantly of the swamp’s presence.
    We stopped close to the river that went through the entire area. Danielle had brought a blanket and put it on the ground for us to sit on. Her backpack also contained a couple of wine coolers for the girls while Jim had brought beers for the guys. He threw me one and I grabbed it. Drinking it made my muscles relax and my unease go away but also left me massively dizzy. The combination of jet lag and alcohol wasn’t sustainable, I soon realized.
    When Jim pulled out the joint I no longer had any resistance left in me to say no. I wanted to get drunk. I wanted to get high. I was sick and tired of being the quiet pretty boy. I wanted another image, I wanted to be different “over-there” and I knew if I got high I would start talking. That was the effect smoking had on me in the past. I was even sometimes funny when I was high. So when it was my turn, I accepted the joint and started inhaling it like a man desperate for nicotine. I kept going until I was so dizzy I could hardly take it. When I passed it on to Mike I had to lie down, so I did. The stars above us were dancing in a spectacular show that seemed to be for my