Heart & Soul

Episode 62

What Happens In Vegas (Part 1)

By Allan Craig

 

Flight 2324

Oakridge – Las Vegas

 

Fidgeting nervously with her seatbelt, Megan Sterling did her best to take deep, slow breaths as the plane hovered over Nevada. Marc took her hand reassuringly and forced her to look into his eyes, telling her to calm down without even saying a word.

 

“I feel so bad.” Megan’s feet tapped impatiently on the floor of the plane as her eyes darted all over the place. “How selfish am I going on a vacation when my sister is missing?”

 

Marc chuckled as he gave Megan a calming kiss on the cheek and put his arm around her, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder. “Relax. You need a break. You’ve been driving yourself crazy for months over Kimberley, when she’s probably just gone on a vacation, got drunk and lost her cell phone.”

 

“Kimberley would never go so long without contacting me,” Megan insisted. This was the longest she’d gone without speaking to Kimberley ever since they were little girls. Even when they were living on opposite sides of the world, Megan and Kimberley still kept in regular contact. “I told you, something isn’t right about all of this.”

 

“Well as soon as we get back to Oakridge we can put every last drop of our energy into finding out where she’s gone. But for now, for this one little weekend, forget Kimberley.” Marc knew not knowing where Kimberley was had been driving Megan crazy, and all he wanted was to de-stress his girlfriend. “Let’s just enjoy ourselves, or at least try to.”

 

“How am I meant to do that?” Megan could feel the knots in her stomach tightening by the second as she wound herself up about her missing sister.

 

“Look me in the eye,” Marc ordered, Megan obliged. “And promise me that for this weekend you won’t think about Kimberley.”

 

“Okay,” Megan sighed, a rare smile appearing on her face as she relished in the knowledge that Marc was only doing his best to care about her, “For this one weekend I will try my best not to think about Kimberley.”

 

Marc smiled as his lips touched Megan’s and they began to kiss.

 

“Ladies and gentleman,” came the air hostess’ voice echoing through the plane, “Please fasten your seatbelts, we are about to land at McCarran International Airport.”

 

The Mirage Hotel

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Engrossed in her laptop, Kimberley had managed to distract herself from her current situation by looking up her favourite website, Pink Is The New Blog. Sure, it had been a few months since she herself had graced the website, but she still liked to browse it. As she lost herself for a few minutes in Mischa Barton’s latest fashion calamity, a pop up appeared on her screen alerting her to a new email.

 

She clicked open the email, and her smile dropped when she saw that it was from Lorenzo. It simply read ‘I want my money’, and had an added attachment. She clicked on it but quickly flipped her laptop shut when images of her porn film took over her screen.

 

Kimberley did her best to fight back the tears, picking up her empty glass and throwing it angrily at the wall. As shattered pieces of the glass flew all over the floor, Kimberley berated herself, wishing she’d never met Lorenzo Marquez or allowed herself to get involved in his world.

 

The Abbot House

Lounge

 

Wesley waded through his empty house, cloaked in depression. The once happy family home was now dark and silent. He took a seat on the bottom step of the staircase and buried his head in his hands, still unable to process the mess he had gotten himself into ever since he found out that he wasn’t Will’s father.

 

He glanced around the once lively home, the deafening silence was too much for him. He picked up his jacket and car keys and headed out of the house, closing the door behind him.

 

Nate & Carrie’s House

Lounge

 

Upon hearing a knock at the door, Carrie sat up from the comfort of her sofa and rested her mug and magazine on top of the coffee table. She tucked a loose strand of her long brown hair behind her ear as she approached the door, straightening out her black sweater before grabbing the brass knob and pulling the door open. She stepped back when she saw Greg standing on the porch; the sight of her estranged, soon-to-be-ex husband was the last thing she needed.

 

“Before you slam the door in my face,”  Greg began, clearly admitting that the way he had been towards Carrie in the last few months was a little over the top, although he would never come out and say that, “I just wanted to talk.”

 

“Yeah well talking hasn’t got us anywhere over the last few months, has it?” Carrie couldn’t hide her complete lack of interest in talking to Greg, and she didn’t make any effort to try.

“Well seeing as our son’s first birthday is approaching,” Greg made his way into the house without even waiting for an invite from Carrie, “I thought that maybe we should try to come to some sort of truce, even if just for now.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Think about it, Car. Our son is nearly a year old and in that year we’ve barely spoken. I just think that maybe it’s time we put our differences aside, for Adam’s sake as much as our own.”

 

“Until the next time I piss you off and then you threaten to take my son away from me?” Carrie wasn’t reassured by the legality of the joint custody arrangement, she knew all too well how easy it would be for the Sterlings to take off with Adam, especially if Diane had anything to do with it.

 

“Our son. And no, I just mean we need to sort something out for now, at least so Adam can have a happy birthday.”

 

“You know I’m not going to be giving you any drama, Greg, I just want my son to have a great day,” Carrie insisted; the last thing she needed in her life was any more drama, given her current situation.

 

“Well at least we agree on something,” Greg breathed a sigh of relief, “So I think maybe we should sit down and talk about this.”

 

“There’s nothing to really talk about, Greg. You don’t want drama, I don’t want drama. Jessica is planning the mother of all birthday parties for Adam, and…”

 

“I mean about our families.”

 

“You know how I feel about your mother, Greg, but as long as she’s as far away from me as possible…” Carrie didn’t want Diane there, but all the fighting with Nate had left her with more important things to worry about than the mother in law from hell.

 

“Well that’s big of you, I guess.”

 

“Look, I don’t mean to be rude but can we do this some other time?” Carrie perched herself on the arm of her sofa and took a deep breath; she’d tried to mask the fact that her heart was breaking more and more by the second over Nate’s inability to open up to her, “I’ve got so much to be getting on with.”

 

“Um, sure, I guess that’s fine,” Greg knew something was up with Carrie, he just couldn’t put his finger on what it was, “Give me a call and let me know when you’re free.”

 

“Will do, thanks,” Carrie walked towards the door with Greg. While she was relieved that Greg was trying to build bridges between them, she wasn’t about to fully trust him again. The Greg standing before her wasn’t the Greg she had married; Diane’s influence was becoming all too evident for her.

 

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Making her way across the stale scented bar, Kimberley did her best to keep a low profile in her hooded jacket and large sunglasses; although judging by the crowd that filled the crummy establishment, she’d have been better in a flannel shirt and carpenter jeans. At least that way she’d have blended in. She reached the back room of the bar and entered, seeing Lorenzo sitting with a pretty young girl.

 

“You got my money?” Lorenzo barked, looking up from his line of coke.

 

“I’ve got as much as I can get just now,” Kimberley pulled a brown envelope out of her Chloe bag and handed it to Lorenzo, “It’s five grand.”

 

“Don’t insult me, Kimberley,” Lorenzo rolled his eyes, although he couldn’t have been that insulted as he slid the envelope into his jacket pocket, “I want the full amount.”

 

“This was all I could get just now, Lorenzo,” Kimberley insisted, her stomach churning with worry. She knew all too well that if Lorenzo was to follow through on his threat, she wouldn’t be able to show her face around her family again, “I promise I’ll get the rest to you.”

 

“Mimi, babe, can you go get me a beer?” Lorenzo turned his attention to the pretty young girl who was draped over him. Young was most certainly the key word. Kimberley couldn’t help but notice that the girl looked young enough to be Lorenzo’s daughter. The girl quickly got up and exited the room, leaving Kimberley and Lorenzo alone.

 

“Lorenzo I-“

 

“Save it,” Lorenzo stood up and walked over to Kimberley, looking her up and down, “I want three million by Friday, or your little foray into porno movies will be leaked to the press before all of next week’s tabloids hit. The National Enquirer is going to have a field day with this one…”

 

“I cant get you three million, Lorenzo,” Kimberley insisted. She knew she needed a miracle to get herself out of this one.

 

“Well then,” Lorenzo winked. Kimberley didn’t know how she’d let herself get involved with Lorenzo. Sure, he was charming, ruggedly handsome and could talk his way out of any trouble and into any girl’s bed, but it didn’t stop Kimberley wishing she’d never met Lorenzo Marquez.

 

“Lorenzo, please,” Kimberley edged closer, pouting her lips and doing her most seductive glance. Her skin was crawling at the very thought of it, but it was her only hope, “Surely we can work something out that benefits the two of us?”

 

Lorenzo flashed Kimberley a devilish smile, “I’d rather have the money. But I gotta hand it to you doll, that was truly a sterling effort. No pun intended. I want three million by Friday. Don’t disappoint me.”

 

Kimberley felt the colour drain from her face. One thing was for sure; she was going to have to come up with the money, she just didn’t know how.

 

Josh’s Apartment

 

The last thing Leo expected to be faced with when dropping Grace off at Natalie’s was the silent treatment, in fact he was sure the icy front would have melted by now. Eager to make a quick getaway before things got any more awkward; Leo glanced at the time on his cellphone and slid it back into his jeans pocket.

 

“Well I better head.” Leo crouched down and kissed his baby daughter, who was still sat in her pushchair, before standing back up again and facing an unimpressed Natalie.

 

“Yeah I wouldn’t want to keep you from one of your sluts.” Natalie growled as she stood with her arms folded. “Just remember you have a daughter to look after now. Your child support payment’s due pretty soon.”

 

“Natalie, I’m hardly going to see you go without. You know that.” Leo rolled his eyes. “See you later.”

 

Leo opened the door to the apartment and began to walk out, just as Kyle approached the door. “Well, well, well. Look who it is. I was beginning to think you went back to the doll house with Barbie, Ken.”

 

“Bite me.” Kyle’s eyes narrowed as he approached Leo.

 

“I don’t think there’s much to bite a hold of, Kylie boy.”

 

“If you don’t get the hell out of my way you’ll have nothing to bite with because your teeth will be all over this floor.” Kyle squared up to Leo, his fist clenched.

 

“Kyle!” Natalie gasped from the doorway. “What the hell are you doing?”

 

“Yeah, Kyle, what are you doing?” Leo grinned, loving that he’d got a reaction out of Kyle, especially in front of Natalie. “And in front of my daughter? What kind of example is that, man?”

 

“That’s enough, Leo, just go.” The last thing Natalie wanted was Leo’s attitude ruining things for her and Kyle, his presence just wasn’t a good thing whenever Kyle was there, and she wasn’t about to put up with it. Leo swaggered down the corridor, laughing under his breath at the mess he had caused.

 

Kyle turned to Natalie and sighed. “I really can’t believe…”

 

“Don’t!” Natalie interrupted her boyfriend. “You played right into his hands there. How could you have been so stupid?”

 

Brentwood Place

Oakridge

 

Swirling the keys to his new apartment around his fingers, Will strolled along the perfectly manicured street with music blaring from his iPod in his ears. After all of the stress he’d undergone over the last few months, he couldn’t think of anything better than getting settled in his new place and just chilling out. He knew that would probably never happen, but just the thought of it was enough to make Will happy.

 

He turned the corner into his street, only for a dark cloud to settle over his sunny disposition. Standing at the doorway to his new apartment was the one man he just didn’t want to see; Wesley. Will took a deep breath and psyched himself up; he couldn’t face dealing with Wesley at all. It was inevitable he would have to at some point, but did it have to be now? Will picked up his pace and stormed towards the tall glass doors to his trendy, warehouse style apartment block, hoping that he could charge past Wesley without even having to exchange any sort of contact.

 

“Will, son, I just want to…” Wesley reached out and grabbed Will’s arm, hoping to slow his son down and yanking out his headphones in the process.

 

“Get your hands off of me you sick fuck,” Will shook Wesley’s grip off. Wesley may have been able to physically render Alex totally powerless, but that wasn’t the case for his athletic, muscular son, “I told you I never wanted to see you again.”

 

“I just want to talk to you, two minutes, that’s all I ask.”

 

“I have nothing to say to you that I haven’t said already. And I don’t want to waste another second of my time having to deal with you.”

 

“But I just…” Wesley was growing increasingly frustrated. If there was one thing he hated, it was being ignored.

 

“I don’t give a fuck what you have to say, Wesley,” Will shot the man he thought was his father a look that could send him six feet under, his eyes boiling over with rage and hatred, “So why don’t you just do us all a favour and disappear?”

 

Before Wesley could say another word, Will charged past him and entered his apartment block, slamming the door shut behind him before Wesley could make his way in. Deflated, Wesley sighed, his stomach churning as he tried to calm himself down. He began to well up with anger, trying to comprehend why he was so stupid as to get himself in such a situation. But what happened wasn’t his fault, not in his mind, it was Alex’s, and she was going to pay for it.

 

The Bellagio Hotel

Las Vegas

 

Marc and Megan stood in the elevator on their way back downstairs to take a look around the hotel. Their suite was so luxurious that they couldn’t wait to see what the rest of the hotel had to offer.

 

“This is just what I needed.” Megan had been hesitant about going away whilst so much was going on with her family, but the prospect of a break from all the stress was becoming more and more appealing as she adapted to her new surroundings.

 

“I told you so.” Marc smiled, kissing Megan on the cheek. “All you needed was to get away from everything going on in Oakridge and concentrate on relaxing. And that’s just what we’re going to do this weekend; no stress, no drama, just you and me.”

 

As their lift reached the ground floor, the doors opened, reuniting Marc and Megan with a very familiar face standing waiting for the elevator.

 

“Kimberley!” Megan was overcome with a mixture of emotions; while she was relieved beyond belief that her sister was okay, she could kill Kimberley for leaving her so worried while she lived it up in Las Vegas. “What the hell?”

 

Kimberley could feel the colour drain from her face as she struggled to find the right words…for the first time in her life, she was speechless.

 

“Well?” Megan asked as she and Marc exited the elevator and stood next to Kimberley in the foyer. “Aren’t you going to tell me where the hell you’ve been?”

 

Kristen’s Apartment

 

Unravelling themselves from one another as they lay atop the bed, Greg and Kristen basked in the afterglow of a passionate love making session. Kristen swept her thick blonde hair out of her face as she turned and gently kissed Greg’s smooth, muscular chest while he ran his fingers up her arm.

 

“You know….” Kristen began, starting down a path that she had tried, and failed, many times to tread on. “I was thinking…”

 

Greg could feel knots begin to tighten in his stomach, knowing far too well what Kristen was about to say. He took a deep breath, bracing himself for what was about to come.

 

“Maybe it’s about time we went public about our relationship.” Kristen could feel Greg stirring next to her, but that wasn’t about to deter her from her mission. She had been quiet about it all for too long, and she wanted a man who she could show off in public, not one who she had to keep quiet about and sneak around like high school children. “I mean, we’ve been together for a good few months now and there’s not really anything stopping, is there?”

 

“I dunno, Kristen, I mean, this could be just what it takes for Carrie to tear up the custody agreement and then I’m back to square one.” Greg couldn’t risk losing Adam after working so hard to get custody, albeit joint, of his son.

 

“But it’s a legally binding document, Greg, she can’t just forget about it.” Kristen insisted, eager not to let Greg pawn her off with another excuse, but as she became more and more desperate to win him over, she couldn’t help but begin to wonder just why Greg was so eager to keep their relationship a secret. “And even if she did…”

 

“Look, can we just not talk about this just now, Kristen?” Greg asked as he leaned in for a kiss, only for Kristen to pull away and roll over in bed, turning her back to Greg in the process.

 

 

Josh’s Apartment

 

“I cannot believe you’re taking his side here.” Kyle spoke through gritted teeth as he entered the apartment, followed by Natalie, who pushed Grace in her pushchair.

 

“I’m not taking his side, Kyle.” Natalie insisted, growing tired of the constant fighting between her boyfriend and Leo. “You know what Leo’s like, Kyle, and yet you always rise to the bait. You’re making it easy for him to cause drama.”

 

“Well we wouldn’t have any drama if you didn’t continually invite him into our lives.”

 

“He’s the father of my child, Kyle, what do you want me to do? Refuse all contact from him? That’s not going to happen, even if I wanted it to.” Natalie couldn’t believe how unrealistic Kyle was being about the situation. Granted, it wasn’t one she wanted to be in herself, but it was reality and it couldn’t be ignored. She was tied to Leo for life now, and there was nothing she could do about it.

 

“But you don’t want it to, do you?” Kyle turned around to face Natalie. “How am I meant to put up with this when you’re constantly taking his side?”

 

“Kyle, I’m not taking Leo’s side, you just have to realize that things you say and do make this situation even more uncomfortable than it needs to be.”

 

“Well here’s me making it less uncomfortable.” Kyle headed towards the door. “It’s over.”

 

Before Natalie could get another word in, Kyle had slammed the door behind her, leaving her alone in the apartment, confused as to what had just happened.

 

The Bellagio Hotel

Las Vegas

 

“A porno movie?” Megan leapt up from the sofa that she was sitting on in Kimberley’s suite, barely able to enjoy the lavish surroundings she had found herself in as her sister’s latest troubles emerged. “How could you be so stupid?”

 

“I don’t know…I…” Kimberley could barely even finish her sentence with Megan in the room; this was the first time Kimberley had seen Megan so angry since they were little girls and Kimberley cut Megan’s ponytail off. Something Diane had never let either daughter forget, especially when they were getting a little too troublesome.

 

“I mean a porno movie? What could have possibly possessed you? You had to know people would find out about this eventually, I mean did you really think it would be a secret forever?”

 

“Um, I guess not.” Megan’s rant was the last thing Kimberley needed. Everything her older sister was screaming at her had already been thought about over and over again in her head.

 

“But then that’s just you all over, isn’t it Kim? Don’t bother thinking about the consequences, just do it and then hope nothing major happens.”

 

“Calm down, Megan.” Marc interrupted, taking his girlfriend by the hand and looking her in the eye. “You yelling isn’t going to get anyone anywhere. We just need to figure out how to get rid of Lorenzo.”

 

“He’s not going to go away.” Kimberley insisted, looking up at Marc and Megan as her stomach began to churn at the thought of being permanently in debt to Lorenzo. “Not until he gets the money he wants. And even then, who’s to stop him asking for more? I cant get any lawyers involved…the press would have a field day.”

 

“Not as much as if your little foray into the world of movies were to be splashed over every tabloid in the country.” Megan didn’t like the situation any more than Kimberley did, but she knew no matter what action they took, Kimberley’s secret would be uncovered. “I’ll call Felicia and see what she can do to minimize the press. And when we get back to Oakridge we’ll speak to Madison about getting some sort of injunction to stop the tape being released.”

 

“It’s not going to make any difference, Meg. If Lorenzo wants to leak this tape then he will. I cant afford to give him the kind of money that releasing this tape would make him, we’re talking millions of dollars here.”

 

“How much does he want?”

 

“It doesn’t matter how much he wants. No matter what I can give him, he’ll just add more to the total. He’s holding all of the cards here.” Kimberley wiped a tear from her eye. “No matter what I do, I’m still totally fucked.”

 

TO BE CONTINUED…