Dancing with Molly - Lena Horowitz Page 0,46
too, and Carson rescued me with some gum of his own. He grabbed my hand and we followed Reid and Sara, who were headed to get some water at the old pool snack bar. I yelled for Jess to come too, and I’ll never forget the look on her face. There was sweat pouring down her cheeks from dancing, but she had this huge grin and was staring up into the lights as she and Kelly danced like they were on a different plane of existence.
After we waded through the lines, Carson slapped down a twenty and we all had waters. Then he led us through a hole in the chain-link fence to the picnic tables near where we’d parked. We all sat down on one of the tables and he and Reid passed around a pack of cigarettes. I hate the smell of smoke, and I’ve only smoked a cigarette a couple times, but the gum, the water, and the waves of feeling that were pouring over me made me think that a smoke would be the PERFECT thing. Carson looked surprised when I took a cigarette, but then he leaned toward me with his lighter and sparked it to life.
The first inhale made me cough a little, but then the buzz of the nicotine hit me and made the lights from the pool flash in my eyes like a starburst. I started giggling as I blew out my second drag of smoke, and Carson and I talked with Reid and Sara about how amazing this all was. The pool seemed to be alive—like it was a giant creature with all these limbs, flailing and bouncing in time to the music. We all agreed that we were rolling like crazy. Reid said that the second hit had sent him over the moon, and Sara and I agreed.
After we finished our cigarettes and talked for a little while longer, we slipped back through the fence. It was a lot cooler on the deck around the pool than it was being down in the crush of bodies, so we started dancing by an abandoned lifeguard stand where this girl in a bikini was standing twirling glow sticks. The lights from the party were dancing off Carson’s chest and abs, and I hooked a finger into the waistband of his jeans next to where he’d hung his T-shirt and pulled him close to me. I think he is the most handsome creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. Even with all the fear in my stomach right now, and feeling dazed while I write this all down, the memory of his smile makes me get goose bumps down my spine and makes my breath a little short. I want him here right now to touch me, to kiss me, to run his hands across my chest and down my stomach. I want to feel his fingers pulling off my underwear and tugging me toward him.
Jeez. I’m blushing while I write this, but I don’t care. That’s how I felt dancing next to Carson at the pool—like everything was plugged into a socket and I wanted him plugged into me. There was fire in my legs and ice down my arms. I reached up to throw my arms around his neck, and as I did, I saw him look over my shoulder. The pupils of his eyes were like big black olives—you could barely see any of the color of his irises. As I looked into his eyes I saw lights flashing from behind us, and saw chasers of red and blue squiggles, but there was something else, too: a sound wailing over the music.
I whirled around and Carson started pushing through the crowd. There was an ambulance and it was so overwhelming—the visuals and the sounds and the people—I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with Carson if he hadn’t reached back and grabbed my hand. He was tall enough to see over everybody else and glimpse what was happening at the bottom of the pool before I did. As we got to the edge I saw three paramedics. One was holding a light and an IV bag up in the air. The other two were bent over a rolling stretcher that they had carried into the pool. There was a circle of people around them, clearing space as the rest of the party danced, completely unaware that there was something happening in the other end of the pool.
My eyes followed the