ೃ⁀➷ In the year 1994,
Maya Bennet travels to New York to attend a famous music festival, Woodstock. After stumbling into the wrong tent when searching for her lost boyfriend, she has an odd interaction with a handsome mysterious stranger. A year l...
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"So are we going? I bet Dean will lend us the truck. C'mon, it'll be fun." Rizzo begs as she follows behind me like a lost puppy through the record store; watching me stock the shelves as she continues rambling about the town's annual carnival.
Every year the weekend before kids go back to school, the town has one last party to celebrate the end of the summer. Some kids even come out of town to take a ride on the carousels while digging their sticky fingers into a cheap bag of blue and pink cotton candy with their lips wrapped around their colorful snow cone cups.
I got high for the first time at the carnival when I was going into my sophomore year. I was with Rizzo, my first ever boyfriend, Jesse, and the boy she was obsessed with at the time, Tommy. I was completely out of it after I finally learned how to inhale after nine tokes. I then made a mistake and got on one of those spinning rides without the seatbelts; when you rest your back against the wall. I ended up vomiting all over Jesse's shoes.
It was a nightmare.
"I still can't believe they didn't cancel it." I say, placing another Pink Floyd record on the shelf that reminds me of Harry; I haven't seen him in a few days. "You'd think maybe people could hold off on celebrating considering there's a family at home with no clue where their daughter is." I place it down forcefully, taking my frustrations out as the topic comes from a personal place.
When Rizzo told me she saw the trucks pulling into town with all of the equipment to set things up, I was surprised. I figured after what happened to Mary the police department would've suggested the mayor cancel the entire shindig for the year. But I was clearly wrong, and I'm not sure what I was thinking. They did the same thing when my mom went missing.
Rizzo rests her back against the shelf and folds her arms over her chest as she watches me work. "I'm not surprised. You know how this town works. Something happens, everybody discusses it for a few days, and when it's no longer new people forget about it." She rants, her voice steady with no lies in her words. "I heard the police are getting lazy and sitting on their asses at the station instead of looking around. My gramps told me."
I can't help but sigh, shaking my head at all of it. "You know, you'd think because this shit doesn't happen often they'd try a little harder." I slam another record down, grabbing the last one from the box. "This town's a joke. I mean seriously, it's a sick and twisted joke." I jump up from my own movements as I slam the last one down, listening to the wooden shelf rattle as the other records clash and fall into each other. "Shit."
Rizzo walks over and drops down to her knees, placing one hand on my shoulder as she catches my tired eyes. "Maya, I love you and you know I would never pressure you into anything, but you're going to the carnival."
