Chapter 56: Shatter, Hearts and Dreams

March is when everything started going wrong for me. Sara started getting jealous of the time I was spending at the grow op even though she was constantly going to concerts and bars with her friends. She started being nasty and rude to Leo all the time. Leo did not put up with it.

Sometimes we would spend the night in the office at the mullet after a late night at Safehaven. Leo had a habit of showing up early while Sara was trying to sleep and making a ton of noise.

I had already started to notice Leo really had a bit of a drinking problem. Leo drank beer constantly, like it was water. He started early in the morning.

I started to suspect Leo used the mullet as a place to secretly drink so his wife and son did not see him.

Sometimes Leo would get drunk and tell me to put off doing a chore at the grow op and then forget.

For example, one time I was cleaning some fans, and he begged me to stop and have drinks with him instead. The next day he had forgot and was furious I did not clean the fans, even accusing me of being lazy.

I explained to him he was the one who told me not to do it, and he did not remember at all.

I was not lazy. I was spending $500 a month on the rent and putting in all my free time at the grow op.

I had no car at the time, I would literally get off work from my normal 8am-4pm job and get dropped off at my house in Redondo after 4pm. I would take one or two bong rips, then ride my skateboard 5 minutes to the bus stop.

I would ride the bus for 30 minutes. Get off at the metro station. I rode the metro 20 minutes and got off at the LAX station. Sometimes I bought a hot dog or snack off a vendor at the station.

Then I skateboarded about a half mile from the station to the grow op. The neighborhood on the way was terrible, lots of homeless and gangsters, and the sidewalks were all cracked and uneven.

I would get to the grow op, do whatever chores or watering that needed to be done. Work on advertising the events while I smoked a bit.

Once everything was done, I would head back home the same way I came.

The only difference was I had to walk up a big ass hill on the way home. I would get home around 9pm or 10pm. Smoke a bit and then go to bed.

Wax and concentrates were just getting more and more popular. I had told Leo several times that we needed to start making wax. Anyone could see it was the future.

One day by chance Leo met someone at the grow shop who was a college chemistry professor who was trying to get into the wax business.

At the time Leo and I were both really into the television show Breaking Bad. We even watched it together in the Mullet. We were both pretty amused by the chemistry professor and called him Walter White.

If we allowed Walter to make wax in our grow op's storage area, he would let us watch and answer questions. He would even let us contribute some weed and keep some of the wax. It felt like watching Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Leo was very secretive about the whole experience. He insisted we do it at night on a week day. We waited till after 9pm when all the businesses in the parking lot were closed.

The two of them did most of the work and I just watched from a few feet away.

The chemist was sort of weird and did not want to give us too much of the wax in the end.

Leo negotiated us a bigger share, but it was awkward to say the least. I left before we could split it up.

I was actually at the mullet so late by the time I got to the metro station it was closed. I was too embarrassed to call Leo. I had to walk 12 miles home at 1 in the morning.

Sara was actually supposed to come right past where I was, on the way home from a concert around the same time. I called Sara over and over and she ignored my calls. She was mad I had stayed late in the first place, but I assumed a random series of calls from me this late would get her attention.

They did not. I made it home safely though.

The next day I ended up getting the day off from my normal job and decided to head into the grow op early to do some errands and hang out with Leo.

Leo had left some of the wax we made on my desk for me to sample. He called it cheese.

Sara had gone to the concert the night before. In the morning, we talked, and she told me she had gone to work like normal. She did not expect me to be going into the grow op till later.

When I got to the grow op, I noticed Sara's car was not in the parking lot. The mullet and Safehaven shared the same parking lot. Sara's car should have been there if she was working. Then I saw one of her coworkers Lil Stuff in the parking lot.

Sara had told me she was going to the concert with Lil Stuff and Bonnie Bondage, so I assumed Sara must have drove to work with them.

"Hey Lil Stuff, how was the concert last night?" I asked.

Lil Stuff looked at me with a confused look.

"I didn't go to any concert last night?" Lil Stuff responded.

"You didn't go with Tetra and Bonnie last night to see Copper Cougar?" I asked again.

"Bonnie and I were home last night we did not go to any concerts with Tetra!" Lil Stuff informed me.

"Is Tetra in there?" I asked referring to Safehaven Studios.

"Tetra is not on the schedule for today. She never works the day after a Copper Cougar concert." said Lil Stuff.

I could tell by the look on her face she realized she had gotten Sara into trouble by the time she finisher her sentence.

"Thanks!" I told Lil Stuff.

I went back inside the Mullet and text Sara asking where she was.

"You said you were at work, right?" I asked Sara.

"Yep, got here early today!" she replied.

"That's weird, I just got to the grow op. I didn't see your car in the parking lot." I replied.

Before she could respond I wrote:

"I also ran into Lil Stuff in the parking lot, she said she didn't go to the concert with you last night and you aren't on the schedule to work today."

"I ended up spending the night at Bonnie's last night."

"No, you didn't. Lil Stuff said Bonnie was with her last night and neither of them even knew about any concerts. You want to try again?" I told her.

"OK! I am sorry, last night I spent the night with Jared." she revealed.

"Who the fuck is Jared?" I demanded

"You know Jared! The guy who goes to all the Copper Cougar concerts and stands over in the same area I always stand in. My fellow super fan!" she text.

"Wait, that loser guy that dresses up like the band?" I asked

"Jared always told me his dream was to go up on stage and play with the band. Last night they actually did it. They called him up on stage. It was incredible. He was pretty good too. I had a few drinks and a few zannies and ended up going home with him afterwards. We had sex but he wasn't very good."

"I don't want to hear about that shit!" I text her back.

Sara must have drove 100 miles per hour to get to the grow op. She burst in the door tears in her eyes begging me for forgiveness. She offered to give me the full details but at the time I was so destroyed and depressed I didn't want to hear it.

Looking back, it was like Sara was disappointed I did not want to hear about her affair. She offered the truth without me really questioning almost like she wasn't too ashamed of it.

I thought about it and there had been some random guy named Jared sending messages to one of the Sara's social media accounts I managed for her. I didn't think much about it at the time because there was always random fans and men sending her messages and dick pics etc.

I looked him up on social media and for the record I could have easily beat the crap out of him.

I had invested so much in Sara and our life together I wasn't ready to just walk away. I loved the parties and being part of the fetish community. If we broke up that was all going to go away.

I had seen other couples in the community break up and usually the boyfriend was not welcome back.

Sara swore and promised she would never speak to Jared again. I believed her and forgave her.

My life just seemed to get worse. In the beginning of April Sara and Leo got into a shouting match in the parking lot over something stupid.

The employee parking spots for Safehaven were full so Sara parked in one designated for The Mullet. Leo showed up and had nowhere to park.

The fight resulted in Leo telling me Sara was banned from the Mullet.

At this point it was starting to feel like they were arguing over who got to boss me around the most.

Leo had recently met a new investor while working at the grow shop next door part time.

Leo was basically using our grow op as a sample to win the investor over. The investor ended up hiring Leo to build and maintain his own grow op at another location in Hollywood. Then he convinced the investor to buy into ours and fund all new state of the art equipment for the time.

Leo told me we were going to be upgrading from soil to strictly hydroponics.

Leo was able to trick the investor into covering the rent. Leo no longer needed me to pay half the rent, and our friendship seemed not as important to him anymore.

Leo started treating me less like a partner and more like an intern.

We had an upcoming harvest, and he started talking like I was only getting a small portion. He felt he was entitled to majority of it due to his seniority even though I had invested equal money and time. He started getting mean with me about it when he was drinking.

I know he was the expert and I am just the helper, I did not expect too much but I wanted a fair share that represented my commitment and contributions towards the rent.

It can be deceptive to guess out the weight on wet buds before they are properly cured and dried, but we were looking at least a few pounds from our next harvest.

I casually talked about using two ounces out of a pound we grew to make edibles. Leo laughed at me and said:

"Do you think the work you have done is worth two ounces?"

For those who don’t know there are 16 ounces in a pound. I had been at the grow op every day for six months. I spent three hours a day, five days a week there. Leo and I did all the remodeling together. I was worth at least two ounces out of 16. That's bullshit. If you added up all the man hours I spent there and paid me minimum wage, that was still way more than two ounces worth of money.

One night Leo started lecturing me.

"Sometimes in a man's life he needs to make a decision if he is on the right path and making the right decisions. I think Tetra and Club Anarchy are becoming too much of a distraction for you. You need to consider if the grow op is the place you want to be."

I did not respond. I just nodded my head and kept doing my tasks. I felt pretty offended by him saying that. Why would I break up with Sara, quit Club Anarchy and change my life, if he wasn't even paying me a fair share?

It was starting to become clear he was just using me to pay half the rent and do free labor. Now with the investor he didn't need my money anymore. I felt like he was intentionally making me want to quit.

That night I waited for Leo to go home. Then I packed all my shit from the grow op and never came back. I did not even say goodbye to Leo, he came inside, saw my stuff gone and knew.

Leo never said a word to me about it. He even had the landlord for the mullet ask me for my key to the front gate of the building.

I walked away from a decent sized harvest and a career I considered my dream. I could have been working at a grow op with state-of-the-art new equipment. I guess I chose self-respect and Sara.

I did not have a place to grow my own weed, so I was forced to leave behind my Charlie Sheen plant. I pictured Leo killing it out of spite.

Young men desperate to work in the cannabis industry are dime a dozen in California and Leo quickly replaced me with a new helper.

Leo did not take my leaving well though. He seemed to be dedicated to fucking with me at every Safehaven event after that.

For some reason that remains unknown to me, Mistress Azule came up with a few new policies for the events. Leo was now in charge of approving whether the dungeon was cleaned enough after every party. Parties typically ended at 2am and clean up began thereafter.

Leo would scrutinize everything. I would literally be scrubbing the floors for hours after the party while Sara hid in Azule's office "discussing money". I was cleaning random things we didn't even use or touch. He was a complete asshole.

Leo told Azule I was selling edibles and shut down my edible business during the events. Suddenly outside food and drinks were prohibited. Leo still sold his own edibles to my customers.

Friends would come up to me at events looking for the edibles. I had to tell them I no longer had them. Leo would see them or overhear us talking and swoop in from the shadows. I would see them eating his edibles despite them swearing up and down they would not buy off Leo out of loyalty to me.

Leo also made it difficult to go outside to the car to smoke when he convinced Mistress Azule to no longer allow guests or staff to go in and out of the events.

We would still see him going in and out of the mullet throughout the night.

It felt like every one of these new rules were created to fuck with me. The timing definitely supported the theory.

Chapter 56: Bondcon II Attack of the Anarchists