AN: Thank you so much for clicking on and hopefully reading this story. The cover was made by the lovely
I feel the sound echo through me, pound around my bones, dance in my blood. Bringing up my hand to my chest, I can sense the vibrations rushing through the open air in my lungs as I inhale.
The inhale leads to the sweet but poisonous smell of smoke filling my nose. I can't look anywhere without seeing the bright pinpoint of red light indicating a lit cigarette held between nicotine stained fingers. Tilting my head up, my eyes skim past the swaying mass of people around me and up towards the night sky.
The clouds that had threatened to ruin the night earlier in the day had lost their menacing glares and moved on, to drop their sadness on some other place. Even if it had rained, I doubt that it would have done much of anything.
This crowd seems determined to enjoy themselves and they are doing quite a good job achieving that goal. There's enough alcohol running in the collective veins of these people, and if I'm being honest mine as well, to make bad decisions seem like good ones and good choices seem like no fun.
The sound of clapping echoes around the hill and back into the amphitheater as the final notes of the song die out and are engulfed by the tones of celebration coming from the crowd. The base line of another song quickly rises up the forefront and begins pounding inside of me once again.
I feel energized by the sheer number of people surrounding me and the constant flow of music.
Cami's hip bumps into mine as she dances, and I look over at her to see her eyes closed, her lips curled up slightly. It was her idea to come to this concert.
I smile and turn back towards the stage, raising my hands above me and moving in rhythm with Cami. I'm glad she dragged me along.
...............
"That was fantastic. Like seriously life changing. Jess, don't you agree?" Cami's voice breaks through the noise coming from the sea of people exiting the amphitheatre. At the moment we're walking along the city street, letting the crowd push and jostle us in whatever direction it chooses. Our arms are linked at the elbows to keep us from being torn apart.
I wait until we take a left turn into an ally, leaving the flow of bodies behind, before I answer.
"I wouldn't necessarily call it life changing, but yeah I enjoyed it. I'm glad you forced me to come." I smile as I see the smug look on her face.
"Now will you admit my taste in music isn't awful?"
"Oh no, I will never say you were right. And a majority of the time you're choice for music is lacking something... I'm not sure of the exact word but I'm aiming for something similar to 'bearable,'"
She responds with shoving her hip into me, causing me to almost lose my balance.
"Hey, watch it. If I fall, I take you down with me," I laugh, gesturing to our still linked arms. Cami untangles her arm from mine and uses both hands and a whole lot of her own body weight to push into me once again.
I'm able to catch myself before I faceplant into the grimy concert of the ally and send a glare in Cami's direction after righting myself. She responds with a gleeful look plastered to her face accompanied by a laugh.
I continue my glare aimed in her direction until we step out of the alley onto the sidewalk of a busy street. There's bright, neon signs hanging above large windows that reflect the lights in colorful streaks on their surface. Every once and awhile a car will pass us as we walk along the road, but the main feeling of commotion comes from the large amount of people moving around us.
