Page 8 of The Second Sight
I let her pull me into the swarm of gyrating bodies. I was so happy we both pre-gamed before we arrived. I had two shots of honey Jack before we left my house. The music engulfed us like a physical force that made thinking impossible. That was good. It was great. I didn’t want to think tonight. I wanted to dance the night away.
At first, I moved stiffly. I was self-conscious about how my body looked when I was dancing. Hours of dancing in the mirror didn’t fix that flaw. Brooklyn had no such reservations.She threw herself into the rhythm, her short black hair staying perfectly in place as she raised her arms above her head. Several guys nearby turned to watch her, drawn by her uninhibited energy.
“Let go, Kasi!” she shouted over the music. “Nobody’s watching you!”
She was wrong, of course. We attracted attention wherever we went. There was some man that was going to bother us when we were together. It happened three times when we were out shopping earlier. In a club this packed, everyone was watching everyone. But maybe that was the point. We were all equally exposed, equally ridiculous, equally free to act a fool. Maybe I would be able to blend in without getting too much attention.
The DJ dropped a new song. The pulsing beat grew faster and more insistent. I closed my eyes, letting the vibration travel up through the soles of my feet, into my legs, and my hips. My body began to move on its own. I found the rhythm without thinking of the moves. It felt good, the mindless physical release, the heat of strangers pressing against me from all sides, the anonymity of being just another body dancing in the dark.
A song blended into another song, and then another song. I lost track of time. My hair stuck to the back of my neck with sweat, and my feet ached in my heels, but I didn’t care. For the first time in ages, I wasn’t thinking about anything deep. I was just a normal Black girl, correction, woman, dancing in a club.
A hand touched my waist, and I spun around to find a guy grinning down at me. He was tall, chocolate, with close-cropped dark hair and a jawline sharp enough to cut glass. He moved with the confidence of someone who knew exactly how good-looking he was.
“Hey gorgeous!” he shouted over the music, leaning down so I could hear him. His breath smelled like mint and tequila.
I smiled back, surprising myself. “Hey!”
He laughed, his hand still on my waist, warm through the thin fabric of my tiny dress. “Can I buy you a drink?”
“Maybe later!” I called back, not ready to leave the dance floor yet. “I’m celebrating my birthday!”
His eyes widened with delight. “No way!”
“Yeah, today?”
“How old?” He asked. “May I ask?”
“Twenty-one?” I lifted my hands mid-dance and flashed two right fingers and one left finger.
“Oh, you grown, grown.” He grinned, showing me all his perfect teeth.
I nodded, and he spun me in a playful twirl that made me laugh out loud.
“That deserves a shot, at least!” he insisted.
“In a minute,” I promised, moving my hips in time with his. “I love this song.”
He leaned closer, his lips nearly brushing my ear. “I’m Darren. Find me at the bar when you’re ready for that shot, birthday girl.”
With a wink, he disappeared back into the crowd, leaving me slightly breathless and grinning like an idiot. I liked how he did that. Brooklyn materialized at my side almost immediately.
“Look at you, working that hottie ass body!” she complimented. “That brutha was fine.”
“He was right,” I replied, still smiling. The interaction, brief as it was, had left me feeling lighter, more confident. I hadn’t flirted back with anyone in months. I was never one to initiate flirting.
As Brooklyn and I continued to dance, something shifted in the atmosphere around me. A prickling sensation crawled up my spine, the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Not the casual glances of strangers on a dance floor, but something more intense, more focused. I had a stalker once, and I was very intouch with my intuition and my senses. I wasn’t psychic. I mean, not really, but I don’t know. I just knew someone was laser-focused on me.
I scanned the club, trying to locate the source of my unease. That’s when I saw him.
Standing perfectly still amid the crowd near the far wall, a young White man stared directly at me. Even from this distance, I could tell he was dangerous. His platinum blonde hair was swept off his forehead, contrasting sharply with the black clothes that clung to his lean but muscular frame. It was his eyes that held me captive. The club strobe lights made them flash the palest shade of bright blue. I couldn’t believe I could see his eye color from such a far distance. But through the darkness of the club, his eyes were like flickering flashlights.
The moment our gazes connected, everything else seemed to fade away. There was no music, no crowd, and even Brooklyn dancing beside me seemed to diminish. For just a moment, the outside world was reduced to nothing but those pale blue eyes watching me across the room. I couldn’t read his expression, couldn’t tell if his interest was romantic or something else entirely. All I knew was that his stare hit me in my belly and the sensation was traveling downward. I had to stop it.
I blinked, breaking the strange connection. When I looked again, he had disappeared, swallowed by the shifting mass of bodies.
“Kasi? You okay?” Brooklyn’s hand on my arm pulled me back to reality.
I nodded, trying to shake off the odd feeling. “Yeah, just... thought I saw someone.”
