All Chapters of Toxic Paradise : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

"I can't believe he didn't reply," Ryan said, popping some pineapple into his mouth. I agreed, shaking my head in disbelief as I let the evening sun toast my face.We had rented a speed boat that was fairly large. Well, Ryan rented it. I knew at this point I was probably deep in a debt hole with what I owed him. But I also assumed Ryan and I would be friends for a long while after all this, and knew I'd pay him back once I found a job— at least partially and in increments.It wasn't a private boat, but it was spacious with cushioned seats all around and 2 seats in the middle. The boat was white, with bright red accents and the word "PARASAILING" printed on the side. On the boat was Ryan, Alec, and I, along with 2 male crew members—a driver and someone to help with parasailing—and 2 other girls who appeared to be around our age, if not slightly older. They were sitting at the bow of the boat, flirting with Alec while Ryan and I sat in the back near the motor.Currently, the boat was an

Dan already had our drinks when I returned, and I hopped up on the bar stool beside him. We clinked our drinks together, and I took a sip. This rum and coke tasted different, but I hadn't specified what type of rum I wanted, so I just brushed it off.For the first 10 minutes or so, everything was going well, but that's when I noticed my body start to feel funny. Dan kept trying to get me to drink more and was watching me intently as I was trying to speak to him. Before this drink, I had only had 2 piña colada's and half a rum and coke, along with a bunch of food, so I knew something was wrong when I started feeling impaired— really impaired.I was getting scared, and knew I needed to get away from this man, because I had a strong feeling he put something in my drink when I was in the bathroom. I had been stupid to blindly trust a stranger and leave him alone with my drink. I grabbed my phone and purse off the bar, telling Dan I had to go to the bathroom again. He gave me a weird look,

“Ouch," I said, pushing myself up into a sitting position. "Fuck... are you okay?" Alec asked, crouching in front of me to look at my eyes. "Yeah; that was weird. My body feels strange today, like weak," I said. "Yeah; the doctors said that could happen. I was trying to tell you... I don't know how much of last night you remember, but you were drugged." He explained. I held onto his hard biceps as he lifted me from the floor, supporting my weight as he helped me to sit back on the couch."WHAT!?" I exclaimed. It made sense considering how terrible I felt. I also didn't think I would drink that much to where I wouldn't remember anything at all; that's never happened to me before. The last thing I remembered, I was having dinner with Ryan, Alec, and his stupid date.My exclamation must have been loud enough to wake Ryan, because he was now sitting up, looking at me with concern. "Oh good! You're up! How are you feeling?" "Like shit. And I really need to pee, but my legs don't seem

"Oh my god, Ryan, why did you pick this movie?" I said, cuddling further into his side.When Alec had mentioned doing a movie outdoors, I was hoping for a nice comedy. Instead, Ryan had decided to bring home The Conjuring, which was shaping out to be just about the scariest movie I'd ever seen, and it had just barely started."Oh come on, don't be such a wienie," he teased.I scoffed, turning my attention to our surroundings rather than looking at the screen. It was a clear night with a starry sky. The guys had set up the projector so that the movie was playing onto a large white sheet. I was seated on the patio couch beside Ryan while Alec hung out in an arm chair to my left. The blue and orange flames danced wildly across the glass stones as the wind began to pick up around us.I shivered and pulled the blanket up so that it covered my shoulders. It had been warm earlier with the fire, but now that the wind started up, I regretted not bringing a sweatshirt out here with me. Ryan had

"Do you want to know the reason I left my family?" Alec asked, his voice a whisper in the darkness. "You're willing to tell me?" I questioned. This was definitely something I'd been dying to know, but I didn't think Alec would ever open up about it. Even Ryan wasn't sure why Alec left."I know how you feel about abandonment, and I don't want you to think I just abandoned my family without good cause," he explained."If you want to share, I'm definitely here to listen," I encouraged.He took a breath. "Okay. Well, I'm not sure what you all know about my family, but we're pretty well off. My dad is a CEO and a total hard ass. But, he was always way harder on me than he was on Ryan. Nothing I did would ever please him; in fact, he would go out of his way to degrade me. I didn't get it at first. I would try so hard to make him proud, and he just turned his back on me every chance he got. I'm not sure Ryan ever even noticed."I squeezed Alec's hand in mine, trying to provide him with a li