Page 21 of Disco Fever

“So.” He took another hit after me. “You’re a dancer? What’s your name?” I could feel his eyes trailing up and down my near naked body.

“Yes, I am.” I smiled, acting shy and bashful. “You can call me Bubbles. What’s your name?” He grinned, exhaling a cloud of smoke.

“Charles.”

“Charles?” I shook my head. “No, you don’t look like a Charles—” We both laughed. “Charles,” I mocked. “Blech, too formal. No, you look like a Charlie!”

“Charlie it is.” He grinned, smoking the cigarette. “So, what’s your story, Bubbles?”

“My story?” I blew a raspberry, taking the cigarette from him. “You don’t want to hear that.” I leaned against the railing, tossing my head back over the railing, soaking in the moonlight.

“And why not?” Charlie asked, leaning over next to me.

“Because it’s such a sad story.” I exhaled into his face then poked out my bottom lip in an exaggerated pouty face. “And right now, I don’t want to be sad. I want to party.” I offered the cigarette back to him.

“Well, why didn’t you just say so?” Charlie placed the cigarette between his lips and reached into his pocket, pulling out a tiny baggie of colorful pills. “I got a whole bag full of fucking parties in here.” My body rose as I stood, eyeing the colorful pile of pills in his open palm.

“It’s like a rainbow,” I cooed, gazing at them.

“Yeah.” He removed the cigarette. “A rainbow that’ll make you feel so good, you’ll think you’re a flying unicorn.” My eyes shot to him, sparkling as he watched closely.

“I like the sound of that.”

“I bet you do.” Charlie took my hand, dropping the pills into them and retrieved a small flask from his coat pocket. “Bottoms up, Bubbles.” He handed me the opened flask, eagerly waiting for me to down the handful of pills.

“I don’t know if I should.” I hesitated.

“Hey, you want to party, right?” I nodded. “Well, then let’s party.” Charlie took a large swig of the flask, offering it back to me. I eyed the pills and licked my lips.

“Let’s party!” Charlie smoked the cigarette as I tossed the handful back and took a large gulp from his flask. The vodka made me cough, nearly choking on the pills as they dropped into my stomach. “Fuck,” I wheezed.

“Yes, now… ” Charlie stepped closer, blowing smoke in my face. “Let’s get this party started.”

DANTE

“We shouldn’t have let her out of our sight!” I slammed my fists into the mirror of the bathroom, shattering it as my mask bounced on the counter.

“Fuck, Dante! We just got that thing replaced!” Kat rushed to me, picking up my hand as she examined my bloodied knuckles, her mask raised and resting on her braids. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with her, but I think you’re right. We need to get her clean. That person out there, that wasn’t our angel.”

“Something is off—aside from her being high. I just?—”

“Shhh.” Kat took my face into her hands, gently stroking my cheek. “I know. I sensed it too. But breaking mirrors andbloodying your knuckles isn’t going to make things right. Take a deep breath, baby.” I closed my eyes and did as she said, trying to let my anger roll off my back. “There you go. Maybe she just needs some space right now to process whatever it is that’s getting to her?”

The bathroom door shot open as Patty peaked her head in, pretending not to see the freshly shattered bathroom mirror. “Hey guys, thought you’d like to know, but some strange guy just took Dottie out back. Alone.”

“Oh, fuck no!” I carefully brushed Kat off me, reaching under the sink to grab the hidden revolver.

“Dante.” I whirled around, fuming with an unspeakable rage.

“No one touches our girl, Kat.” I popped the cylinder casing and loaded the gun. “No one.” I slapped the cylinder back into place.

She picked up my mask, handing it to me with a sinister smile. “Let’s go save our girl.” My arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer as I kissed her with such passion. Kat kicked her leg back, melting into me. She ripped her mouth from me, placing my mask over my face and lowered her own.

“Patty.” My head tilted towards the woman still in the doorway. “Keep Eddie busy. We have business to take care of.”

“You got it.”

Kat and I held hands, rushing through the club to the back. The world was blurred, out of focus, as we aimed for the doors, focused solely on our girl. Kat kicked the door open, and we stepped outside, searching. A clattered noise caught our attention and sure enough, just off the side of the club and down the alley was Dot. Only she wasn’t exactly conscious. The man had her limp body seated on top of a trash can leaning against the wall, his pants sagging around his knees as he held her, groaning as he tried to fuck her but was failing miserably.

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