Carnival Nights: Carnival #2 Read Online Free Page B

and push her hair behind her ear, caressing her face with the edge of my thumb. She’s smooth. She’s perfect. She’s Charlie fucking Scott and every time I touch her, I feel as if I could melt. “Can you stay put? I’m going to go find something and I’ll be right back.”
    She nods and gives me a simple peck on the lips. It’s not much, but it’s enough to get me fired up. My cock twitches against the tightness of my jeans. I bite into my lip, then turn and walk away. As I head into the crowd to find the least-shady looking drug dealer, I rub my palm against the hardness in my jeans, adjusting myself.
    Neon lights scan the crowd, lighting up the softness of a collage of faces all at once, then leaving them hiding in the darkness within a flash as they move on to light up the next. The floor shakes as if it’s dancing to the same beat as the crowd above it. Above me, through the noise and confusion, you can make out the rattling of the ancient rafters. This entire building could collapse, and I’m not even sure if anyone would notice.
    Toward the center of the building, the crowds grow thicker. People bleed into each other, their porous bodies melting into one another like a scene from an experimental flick. Here, in this place and in this moment, everyone might as well be a dealer. If for one night only, these people have traded their shoes of conformity in for a new shoe, the kind that’s able to dance along the edge of society.
    Some of these people should invest in some actual dancing shoes. A guy beside me dances to the beat of his own, lucid drum. He draws circles in the air with two glow-sticks. I imagine that he sees something revolutionary in the tracks of the lights, but I just see an opportunistic blur.
    I snatch one of the neon lights from his hand and he’s too high to notice. Or at least to care. I use the glowing red stick to highlight faces in the crowd as I push my way through the abyss. Everyone’s a complete stranger, but I’m not looking for just anyone. I’m looking for a specific someone, the guy or gal that’s going to be my ticket to escape tonight.
    In a corner, I see a girl against a wall with one foot kicked out. She’s fully clothed with a red flannel shirt draped loosely over tight jeans. She’s too dressed to be taking an active part in the nights discourse. I’ve got a good feeling that she’s just who I’m looking for.
    As I approach, a man wads something in his fist then walks away. She’s definitely who I’m looking for. Before I can close the distance between us, she kicks herself off the wall and struts toward me. She mouths something to me, but I can’t hear a word. So she smirks and wraps an arm around my neck and whispers into my ear, “You’ve got that fire in your eyes.”
    “Is that so?”
    Her hand trails down the crease of my back, pulling me in closer. “You’re probably from out of town and you’ve heard about my fix.”
    “I am from out of town.” I reach behind me and scrape her hand off. “But tell me more about this fix.”
    She tilts her head, causing bleach-blonde hair to drape across her face. “Well, it’s rare. And it’s the quickest, cheapest way to heaven.”
    “How much?” I ask, opting to skip straight to the business and bypassing any sort of pleasure.
    “For you?” she asks pointedly, and then sizes me up, taking in every atom of my being. “Give me your best offer.”
    “I don’t even know what you’re offering.”
    She grabs me by the head and shifts my head to the left. “See that?” Then she turns my head to the right. “See them? See those people lost in a sea of ecstasy?” She places a hand on my chin and turns me back to face her. Her fingernails tap on the edge of my skin. “That’s what I’m offering.”
    “You supplied for everyone here?”
    “More or less.” She smirks. “But my time is precious, so are you in or out?”
    I barely hear that last part over the gears in my mind trying to process the