Neon Nights Chapter 1

Superman had nothing on him.

In his hand, he held the key, the key that unlocked the door to a brave new world—a neon-striped nugget of hardenedpowder, with the power to forget the past and obliterate the future. It was the perfect delivery system for insanity. It made him insatiable … invincible even.

More money. More women. More, more, more.

Excess embedded in his soul. Greed his constant companion.

The lights around him were manic in their interaction with the sky. They didn’t try to co-exist with the night.

They tried to own it. Darkness be damned.

Everything here tried to dominate the thing around it.

And the music?

The music was a relentless and uncomfortable assault, not just on the ears but the very fiber of your being, merciless and fulfilling at the same time. Lyrics flew through the air like verbal arrows, hurled out to the ravenous crowd, andfired back to the demon that lived on the stage from bloodthirsty lungs, and Avery Bass loved every second of it. With his white t-shirt, pink shorts, and stylish sneakers that cost more than what many of the attendees in the crowd made ina week, it might not have made him look like a gangster, but that’s exactly what he was.

A real-life gangster.

He sold because they wanted to buy. He used because he wanted the madness.

Medleys of beautiful humans compacted like sardines as they danced unencumbered by fear or judgment. Their bodies undulated and slithered across one another’s; inhibitions gone the moment they got into their car to start their journey here. Youth wasn’t wasted on the young. Youth knew exactly what it was doing. This was the very essence of youth. It was fiery and destructive, filled with angst and venom. 

Woodstock.

Lollapalooza.

Burning Man.

The damn cavemen probably had some guy who figured out how to bang a few rocks together in a rhythm, and the cavewomen around him would throw off their bear skins and dance the night away under a moonlit sky.

This world was sex. It was drugs.

It was music that left an imprint on the soul, the melodies forever embedded, carrying with them the memories of anuninhibited past, when you were chained by a limited future.

And youth looked good on him. He had it all … and the Prisms.

And this pill … this pill crept up on your nervous system and zapped you like a cattle prod when it kicked in. Everything about it was so intense, he could barely breathe, and he walked as far out from the crowd as he could to try to take in some more air.

He saw a group of guys he knew from school who slapped him five as he walked by and grabbed his arm like theyhad been best friends their whole lives, just happy to tell the others they were with that they knew him. Four girls he recognized from a party they had thrown at the house the weekend before followed them up the walkway. One of thegirls grinded up next to him, her skintight neon spandex rubbing against his body. She pulled him in for a kiss and then fluttered away without a care in the world.

Everyone wanted a piece of him, and he was happy to sell them each a slice of his soul.

It wasn’t like he needed the money. His family had plenty of money.

When he turned sixteen, he got a brand-new Corvette, which he promptly wrapped around a telephone pole on the second day. His parents, who immediately after having him realized they hated one another, replaced the car with abrand-new truck, subscribing to the logic that a bigger vehicle was safer for their little boy, no matter how dangerous it was for every other schmo on the road.

That money, though, came with nothing else.

No dudes wanted to be him, and no chicks wanted to be with him just because of it.

The pill though.

That made him special. It made him unique.

The sweat poured from his temples, and he tore the t-shirt from his body to wipe his face with it. His muscles were still solid, even though he had started to skip the gym over the last few months in favor of any substance that found its way to his door.

He’d go back soon, after the summer. For now, his abs were well enough defined to still get glances from the ladies, and his features were sculpted enough to pass for someone that came from a Hollywood casting call for a rich, good-looking frat boy.

Neon Jungle was his life now, and it wouldn’t relent until Labor Day weekend sent it packing. Then another year of frat parties would kick into overdrive, bringing with it hurricane-force winds of stupidity, debauchery, and destruction.

He found a vendor with a cylindrical ice bin branded by a designer bottled water company and plunged his hand deep into the frozen bath, trying to extract the deepest bottle he could find. He pulled a twenty-dollar bill from his shorts with his dry hand and threw it at the man. Avery waved away the change, cracked the bottle, and mainlined it down his throat, looking for a dose of relief from the intense heat he felt welling up inside of him.

Momentarily satiated, he tried to fix his blurry eyes on the scene in front of him. The bodies in the crowd werehypnotizing, rolling and swaying together in unison to the beat. Two massive fireballs leapt from the corners of the stage jolting him back to reality. He looked around and suddenly felt like he was in the jungle; the neon beasts that lined the walkways seemed to be moving into attack position. The man behind the DJ booth on a stage draped in palm fronds moved in wild gyrations, as his fingers seemed to locate the right buttons to hit magically, his intensity fueling the crowd, each giving the other life.

He watched as two girls approached him, and he tried to pull his shit together.

It was an odd pair.

One was angelic in her beauty and poise, an anachronism to this entire gathering, dressed in white cut-off shorts, ayellow tank top,

and white Vans, like she had just left an Abercrombie photo shoot. Her straight blond hair fell gently to the side of her neck, and her face was petite and pretty without a single imperfection. The other looked like someone who had attended every one of these events since their inception and wore a leopard print bikini with green body paint streaked across her midsection, arms, and legs. She wasn't as strikingly beautiful as her friend, but she was dressed to play.

He knew right away that she was a better fit for tonight. The wild one spoke first.

“Hey, hey, good looking.”

Her smile was wide and welcoming, her teeth not quite perfect, but even enough.

“Your boy J sent us over here to see if you had anything fun to play with.”

He fought the shockwave running through him and tried to focus on business again.

“Did he now?”

The leopard took her place next to him while the angel stayed back at a safe distance.

Avery looked at the angel.

“I won’t bite, you know. In case you didn’t notice, it’s a little loud here.”

The leopard spoke for her.

“It’s her first show, and she’s a little jumpy. I’m trying like crazy to get her to loosen up.” She smiled at him. “That’s where you come in.”

“It’s not cheap,” he said. The leopard rolled her eyes. “How not cheap?” sheasked. “Fifty a pop.”

“Is it any good?” she asked.

His lips curled up at the corners and he nodded. The angel tried to reciprocate a smile, but the best she could muster was a timid movement at the corner of her mouth. He could tell she had never been around someone like him or a place like this.

It was called the jungle for a reason. Maybe she was worth the effort?

The leopard was easy.

She required nothing special.

The angel though …

“Okay, virgin discount,” he said.

The angel took offense at the shot to her maturity. “I’m not a virgin!” she yelled.

His laugh was easy and smooth, and he knew women ate it up. His father, even though he was a piece of shit in every other way, had a great laugh. In fact, it was probably his only redeeming quality.

“I meant your first time at a festival … and just taking a wild guess here, your first time with something like this.”

He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small, brightly colored hexagonal pill.

The leopard reached into her bikini top, pulled out a fifty-dollar bill from the small stack of bills, and nestled the restof the money back over her breast.

“Two for fifty?” she asked with a wink.

He sized her up, consumed by the power that he held in his hands. “Deal.”

He pulled out another pill and handed one to each of them.

The leopard gave him the money and came in to kiss him on the cheek. He could feel the light print that her lip glossleft. She smelled like cherries and sunscreen, a picnic at the beach.

“Where you gonna be later tonight?” she whispered in his ear.

Damn, this girl is sexy.

“At the campground next door. We got the spot right on the water.” “We … tell me there is another one as cute as you there?”

He smiled at her and felt a stir inside him.

“Two more. We've got the big Airstream. You can’t miss it. Come through when you leave the show, and we'll have a drink.”

“It's a date.”

The leopard grinned at him, then grabbed the angel by the arm and they waved goodbye.

What a night it was going to be.

The girls walked down the hill hand in hand to “The Oasis,” the festival’s Main Street, where vendors of everythingfrom glow sticks to hamburgers sat alongside henna tattoo artists and Fortune 500 companies peddling credit cards. At the end of the street was a massive white tent with hundreds of tables and chairs for attendees to sit down and take a momentary break from the beat. Along the outside ring of tables sat a wall of animal-shaped couches that contained people in various states of entanglement across them.

The girls found a rhino to sit on and looked at each other.

Blaire Porter with more than a little shake in her voice asked, “You ready for this?”

Kerry Baker shook her head.

“I don’t know about this. We don’t know that guy at all.”

“Not true. He goes to my school. He’s in one of the Sigma frats, he’s a total screw-up, but he’s hot, and, like a million of my friends buy this stuff from him for shows.”

“I can’t do it, Blaire. This is like going skiing for the first time and deciding to go down the biggest mountain you canfind,” Kerry said.

Blaire took a deep breath. Their friendship had been rocky lately, and it made Blaire sad. They had been friends foryears, but now

with the real world ahead, she started to get the feeling that Kerry was too good for her. She had a real career coming up, and Blaire was stuck in a holding pattern with no idea what to do next.

“Why can’t we just have fun with some more drinks? I’m all about grabbing, like, a dozen more and dancing the restof the night away.”

Kerry poked her on the arm trying to ease some of the tension. Blaire pulled away, still upset.

“You’re killing my good time here, just so you know. How many more times will there be to do something crazy?You’re off to the big city and your fancy corporate job, leaving me here in the middle of nowhere.”

The bite was there in her voice, and she could tell that Kerry felt it sting.

“I told you to move to the city with me; that’s not fair,” Kerry said. Blaire hung her head now, Kerry’s blow finding its mark.

“You know what, screw it, let’s do it,” Kerry said. “Wait, you just said no?!”

Blaire laughed.

“I changed my mind. YOLO and all that nonsense.” Blaire let out an uncomfortable laugh.

“I’m sorry, Ker. I shouldn't have been pushy. I just wanted to do it because Becky told me it was the best she had everdone. It was dumb of me.”

Without another word, Kerry popped the pill in her mouth and washed it down with the water. She handed the bottleback to Blaire and tapped her watch with a devilish grin.

Blaire’s jaw dropped, and she grabbed the water from her friend’s hand.

“You bitch!”

Then Blaire swallowed her pill, threw her arms up in the air, and they hugged each other.

Kerry felt the music race through her bones as the final act of the night, DJ Solitude, burst into his first song, and thecrowd of 50,000 strong screamed back at the stage with unbridled ferocity, the chorus spreading throughout the crowd;“One life to live … One life to give

… We've only got this one life tonight!”

Sweat rolled down Kerry’s face as Blaire’s body moved in unison with hers. Boys came up to dance with her, but she wanted no part of it, moving unimpeded to her own beat. She belonged to Logan, and she wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize that, even if the distance between New York and Boston proved to be too much for them at thestart. That would be for the universe to decide, not from something stupid she did.

Right now, though, she felt free … and hot. Too hot.

Colors popped around her as fireworks exploded overhead. Neon- painted people in animal costumes danced by, andthe bass, the bass coursed through her, shaking her to her core.

The sweat came faster now.

She asked Blaire for the water and finished it in three gulps.

“I have to go out there,” she said, pointing at nowhere specific beyond the crowd.

Blaire continued to dance, but shouted out, “What’s wrong?” “I need some air!” Kerry yelled.

She clawed her way through the maze of bodies, hands ricocheting off her skin, sending shocks of pleasure through her. She found it harder to breathe and tugged on Blaire’s arm to hurry up. They pushed through the crowd and saw the goal, a pocket of space not constrained by bodies.

“I don’t feel good Blaire!”

She felt Blaire pull her hand harder and lead the charge until they reached the clearing.

Kerry crashed onto a bench and put her head between her hands. Her brain felt like someone had removed it from itsstem and shaken it around inside her skull. Her nose started to bleed, a condition she’d had since childhood when she got stressed out. Panic set in, and she lay down on the bench, her eyes gazing toward the hazy, smoke-filled heavens. She tried to speak, but she couldn’t. She fought for breath against the pain in her chest, and after giving it all she had,felt her dream of a tiny apartment in a big city, dinners with

friends that ended at bars with no closing times, and eight million people trying to find their way through the racket, slip away like a taxi on Madison Avenue.

Blaire took her phone out of the small backpack slung over her shoulder and tried to call 911.

No signal.

At the bottom of the small hill, she saw the medical tent. She begged two couples walking past to stay with Kerry, and they jumped into action. Blaire took off down the hill as fast as she could. She was a runner in high school and adamn good one. The pill had made her legs unstable and shaky, though, and she tripped on something that sent her rolling down the last section. She dusted herself off, woozy from the tumble, and exploded through the tent, begging anyone around for help.

Three EMTs jumped up from the plastic folding table they had been eating dinner at and sprang into action. They racedup the hill, Blaire trying her best to keep up, willing her legs to move faster.

“What did she take?!” the female EMT shouted at Blaire over the music.

Blaire looked at her shell-shocked as the three strangers went to work on her friend.

I told her to take this. I did this to her.

“Miss, what did she take?” the EMT asked, snapping her fingers in Blaire’s face to get her to focus.

“Some sort of rainbow-colored pill,” Blaire stammered. “No pulse!” shouted the shorter male EMT.

Blaire burst into tears as her legs caved out from under her.

In the background, she heard a final thunderous chorus across the night sky.

“One life to live … One life to give … We've only got this one life tonight.”