a thread on the time i got robbed *tw*

when i went to DR last year i got robbed with this person i had met that same night. 4 guys pulled up with a machete and a bat, they took alllll of our shit - keys, phone, money etc. so we had no way of communicating or getting home.

me and this person stayed at a mutual friends house that night (thankfully she lived near by) but we had to leave at 6am bc our friends roommate was not ok w her having ppl over, aka we were there secretly. our friend gave us 100 pesos (~$2 dollars) to troubleshoot n said bye.

might i mention tho that the person who we had stayed w was an undocu venezuelan friend, n if u know whats going on in venezuela... let's just say shawty has lived through some wild shit. to her, we needed to be grateful to be alive, so she wasn't too pressed n just sent us off.

we had to ask random ppl to let us use their phones so we could contact our friends/fam, which was pretty difficult bc everyone is afraid of getting robbed in DR (surprise surprise) so ppl will barely trust strangers much less with their electronics. eventually, we had to speak

to the police bc the ppl whose phone we were using basically forced us to, even tho we knew they weren't gonna do anything lol. well they arrived and spoke to me super condescendingly, trying to embarrass me in front of all the ppl in the park, since ppl in DR can be v

homogeneous in the way they dress, and with my braids and flamboyant clothes its like i was screaming "im black and gay" - enough reasons for them to feel contempt for me on the spot. then they started gaslighting us, saying they wouldn't have gotten robbed with a machete

(implying we just weren't brave enough to defend ourselves). they drove us around in their car trying to get us to point out the exact spot we got robbed at, even tho we couldn't remember bc WE WERE TRAUMATIZED, n eventually i had to yell at them bc they wouldn't let us go.

ofc once we arrived at the precinct they informed the other men filing the report that they wouldn't be speaking to me bc i had an attitude problem, as if they hadn't just repeatedly disregarded our needs/boundaries.

after this wild ass incident me and the person i got robbed w spent like 3 days together - going to their job to get money, taking out another pair of keys to be able to get back into my room etc. we spent time together in the park, made sure each other ate. and eventually

once everything was sorted out, we cyphed and i introduced them to my best friend. its so funny bc, altho they just identified as dominican they were straight up TAINO like not mixed, one of the few people ive ever seen in the more recent generations who looks this way.

the days we spent together felt like a portal. in the moments we were high, i saw the feminine spirit in this "male" bodied person, and its like we broke so many societal norms caring for each other and existin while trans. i think about things like that a lot.

the unnamed moments, beyond labels, beyond what ppl know how to identify as. bc i know i was trans since before i began to claim that shit. the spirits have always been there. and when "guys" like me in DR its usually a sign, bc im always genderfluid, so they meet my masc.

we were briefly enamored n the love spell had an expiration date. bc to accept the implications of queerness, for this person, was to accept even more violence that i dont blame them for dodging. but im nostalgic sometimes.

its 3am n i doubt many ppl r gonna read this lol, but i wrote this thread for my heart.