Apartment Fivers: Adventures at Guavaween, pt. 1

Candace closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of Ybor City: cigarette smoke, beer and fried food. She opened her eyes and tried to get lost in the assortment of Halloween costumes all around her: pimps decked from head to toe in leopard print, sexy maids, nurses and she-devils and, of course, the traditional ghouls and goblins. Normally this scene would have excited and amused her. Normally she would have been content just to people-watch. But this wasn’t "normally." It was Halloween. It was her 21st birthday. Her roommate was mad at her. And she was low on cash.

Candace was hoping that her birthday celebration would provide a much-needed rest from her hectic weekend moving in with Margaret, Mike and Scott, but it just added to the stress. She originally planned to have it at the Angry Shark, a bar near her new apartment, but it wasn’t open to people under 21. Since some of the girls she was celebrating with had not yet turned that magic age, she had to come up with an alternative. That alternative was Ybor City.

Ybor City was the heart of Tampa’s nightlife. The nightclubs, bars, pubs, eateries and shops which lined Seventh Avenue went non-stop from Thursday through Sunday. And since it happened to be Halloween, Ybor upped the ante by hosting its annual Guavaween celebration. Although it was her second choice, Candace was interested in seeing what the spectacle was all about, and it seemed like a good deal: she was told that twenty dollars could get her into all of the clubs, without an additional cover charge.

As Candace took a seat on a set of steps directly across from a makeshift stage where a local band was doing a crappy rendition of "Don’t Fear the Reaper," the last thing on her mind was enjoying the spectacle. None of her new roommates wanted to come celebrate her birthday with her, and the one who agreed to drop her off at Ybor City, Mike, got mad at her when she couldn’t tell him how to get back to the interstate. Well, she could, but she could only do it by pointing out markers, as she had no idea what the road names around Ybor City were.

"Okay, so you go back the way you came, down Seventh," she began, standing on the sidewalk of Seventh Avenue, talking through the car window.

"Okay."

"Then, at that road that intersects Seventh, turn right." She pointed at the road behind them.

"Okaaay," Mike said slowly.

"You’re going to take that road until you reach the #HCC campus. It’ll be on your right."

"Wait, what is the name of the road?"

"Uh, I’m not exactly sure…" Candace trailed off. She had never had to give directions to the interstate from Ybor City before. Everybody she knew knew how to get back.

"You have no idea what any of the road names are around here?"

"No, not exactly…"

"Candace, how do you expect me to know how to get back to the interstate if you don’t know any of the road names?"

"Well, why did you offer to drive me if you didn’t know how to get back home?" Candace fired back, aggravated.

"I didn’t offer," Mike spat. "Margaret volunteered me."

"Didn’t you pay attention to how we got here?" Candace asked. "You go back the exact same way!"

"It’s dark and I’m not good with directions!"

"Then how are you able to navigate through the woods when you go on your Army trips?"

"Okay, they’re not ‘Army trips’ and--you know what, never mind. I’ll find my way back. See you whenever." Mike did a haphazard three-point turn, and, tires squealing, drove back down Seventh Avenue and turned left.

"God help Margaret!" Candace yelled after the retreating taillights. "She has no idea what she’s getting herself into by agreeing to marry you!" Fighting back tears, she hurried down Seventh Avenue to see if her friends had arrived.