Yes, I have come back. Thank you for the kind reviews! Lovely, beautiful people!
Well, I think you need to be warned, this chapter does contain some BIG drug refs. I personally do not do drugs, but I have heard things about it from others. I am not supporting the use of drugs AT ALL...in fact, I am strictly AGAINST it. I am just using 'weed' as a symbol of corruption in the story, nothing more, nothing less.
Not Even Human—Just For Fun
If this was Ken's Heaven, then this was Edward's Hell. This was a place where innocence was shed off like snakeskin, and all good reason was thrown away for the moment. That's what a club was all about, living for the moment—but what you do one moment, could affect the next—and how quickly those moments turn to hours, days, weeks, months...even years, even whole lives.
It made Edward ashamed of the human race.
The streets were black and populated with people. Silver puddles glittered on the concrete, as the people slowly squeezed into the small club's door. Club 9 the sign said, flickering its electric crimson red light, irritatedly, as it softly illuminated the legions of party-goers with a cherry-red light.
Colleen Maxwell, Isabel's friend, turned out to be the mirror image of Isabel, in body, soul, and mind. She pushed herself close to Edward's side, making his spine tingle, and she held his hand, forcefully pulling him along. Kennedy had his arm over Isabel's shoulders and he was puffing his thirtieth cigarette of the evening, and Isabel was practically draped all over Kennedy, kissing him and touching him and God knows what else.
The people were withering to the music, drinking brown glass bottles of slick booze, making waves of ghostly cigarette smoke, sniffing this sugary looking dust, people were laughing hysterically at nothing, and collapsing on the floor, unconscious.
It daunted Edward, and the fact that Miss Maxwell was inching closer and closer to his side wasn't helping much. At the moment, the music was too loud for anyone to talk and actually be heard, so Edward just smiled politely at Miss Maxwell, in a weak attempt to make friends.
Miss Maxwell just kept inching her way closer to Edward, smirking, with her ruby red mouth and hornet-gold hair.
Edward tried to keep up with Kennedy and Isabel, but with all the people going in different directions at the same time, it was as hard as to track a twig in a rapid.
Miss Maxwell kept pulling him along, insistently, as if she were pulling in a fish from a lake, and as he was being dragged along, Edward tripped over a young boy, probably only in his late teens, lying on the floor, his mouth filled with oozing drool.
Is he resting? Sleeping?' Edward thought, bending down to the young man, curiously, 'Maybe...he fainted like Lucy does.'
The booming music paused momentarily, and Kennedy broke away from Isabel and walked over to Edward, frustratedly.
"Come on Edward." Kennedy grabbed Edward's arm and pushed him forward.
"Is he okay?" Ed asked, while looking back at the boy.
Kennedy shrugged, impassively, "What am I, a doctor?"
"Yes." Edward said. Kennedy was a doctor, actually, he had a Ph.D. in mechanics or something of the like.
"Shut up, Edward." Kennedy snapped, angrily. "Just walk."
Edward did what he was told, silently.
Suddenly, out came from the loud crowd a weasel-like, slender little man with glassy green eyes and a freckle-spotted face. The weasel-man smiled, obligingly, to Edward, and Edward did his best to smile back.
"Hey, buddy," The green-eyed man said, in a cocky tone of voice, "See that kid over there?" Weasel-man jerked his head over to the boy on the floor.
Edward glanced back at the teenage boy on the floor and nodded, still looking at the boy.
"Well, that's how good you'll feel after taking some of this." The weasel-man took out some chopped up green, parsley looking leaves, all crumpled up in a tiny plastic bag. "Thirty-nine bucks and you're gonna be higher than the Empire State Building."
"...Excuse me?" Edward said, very confused. How can I be higher than a building?
"Weed, man, weed." The weasel-man said, laughing, quite amused "C'mon, man...This your first time? That's cool. The first time's always the best, believe me. C'mon, man, I'll make it thirty bucks for you, just because it's your first. Huh? C'mon, how does that sound?"
"No tha—"
"I'll buy for both of us." Miss Maxwell interrupted as she pulled out some green money for some green weed. She leaned closer to the drug dealer, "It's his first time with drugs, give him something mild, kay?"
"Kay." Said the weasel, shuffling the money, quickly, in his hands. He smiled, a thin, sneaky smile as he tossed the bag over to Miss Maxwell, and the weasel-man sank back into the infinite crowd.
"Thank you." Edward said, knowing that it was polite to thank someone who just bought something for you.
Miss Maxwell raised an eyebrow and smirked a blood-red smile. "No problem, Ed. So... where do you want to try this out?"
"Try..." Edward asked, a little lost, "try what?"
"Try this, stupid." Miss Maxwell held up the plastic bag with the 'weed' in it. "Here, one minute."
Miss Maxwell hurried up to Isabel and the two young women started chatting excitedly, giggling and laughing, and pointing towards a nervous Edward. Isabel said something Edward couldn't quite make out but Miss Maxwell laughed and nodded, while looking at him.
A girl, scantily clad, brushed past Edward, making him topple slightly. The girl stopped and said, "Oh. Sorry." And the girl looked Edward from top to bottom. A few other girls started to do the same thing, and Edward started to wonder if these clumsy bumps were really of an accidental nature.
"Ed." Kennedy said, his eyes sliding up and down the curves of one young woman, "God, man. Do you see that? Ed, you're like some sort of...magnet thing. I gotta bring you around more often..."
Kennedy stood dazed, eyes narrowed, as he continued to look the pretty girls swarming around Edward up and down, and then down and up.
"Hey..." One of the blond-haired girls said, wooingly, "My name's—"
Miss Maxwell purred, competitively, as she sashayed her short red skirt over to Edward's side, and put her arms around his waist and smiled, sourly, back at the flirtatious girl.
"Bitch..." the blond-haired girl muttered, jealously.
"At least I don't look like Barbie, fucker." Miss Maxwell hissed, sweetly, as she tightened her grasp on Edward's waist.
Edward, frankly, was shocked senseless. He didn't know how cruel city women could be to each other, how competitive they were. The words they used were horrible—Edward had never been taught how to deal with swearing people, and he was little worried about how tight Miss Maxwell was holding onto his waist.
The girls, seeing that the territory was already claimed, migrated to another part of the busy club.
Miss Maxwell sighed, slowly, and looked up at Edward. "C'mon, Edward. Follow me, we'll catch up with Isabel and Ken later, kay?"
"Okay..." Edward said, a little concerned but he followed Miss Maxwell's lead anyway, despite his common sense.
"Have you ever tried weed, hon?" Miss Maxwell asked, slyly.
"N-no." Edward said, feeling his palms get sweaty and his stomach grumble, nervously.
Miss Maxwell laughed a little and then looked at Edward, "Go in there." She said, pointing to a red door and Edward obeyed, silently.
The room was melting hot and smoke seeped and swirled around in it. People were either lying open-eyed and limp on the floor or having sex in the corner. The whole room reeked of something dark and old, and Edward could hardly walk, out of both shock and horror.
"Hey, Edward, come on, sit down..." Miss Maxwell said, calmly, as she crossed her legs and sat down on the cushioned floor.
Edward didn't know what to do. He wanted to run out the door and keep running until he reached Suburbia, and, then again, he didn't mind finding out what this parsley stuff was like. To his eternal regret, he sat down.
"All right," Miss Maxwell brought out the plastic bag and put the green stuff in a pipe. She lit it with her lighter. "Here..."
He reached out for the pipe and gulped, terrified, as he brought the pipe to his lips and inhaled. Edward didn't even know why he was doing this, he was curious, maybe, but also, sort of because he had been looked at by some of the girls—and even impressed Kennedy. He didn't want to be alone anymore; he wanted friends.
The smoke blew up to his nose and he sneezed, loudly, and choked out the smoke and the taste, violently. He gagged over and over again, until he handed the pipe back to Miss Maxwell, and then he started to wheeze and cough, hoarsely.
To Edward's shame, Miss Maxwell was laughing at him and shaking her head, finding the loss of innocence very entertaining.
"Jesus, Ed...you're so cute." She chuckled, as she casually took a puff of the stuff.
Edward felt his chest ache from all the smoke, and he told Miss Maxwell that he wanted to leave.
"Oh, no. You've gotta stay here with me..." Miss Maxwell said, smiling broadly. Edward noticed that the weeds were doing something to her. "We...we just started having fun, right, Ed?"
"I...don't think..."
Miss Maxwell nudged up to Edward and she put her head on his shoulder and dragged him down to the floor. She moved her smooth hand under Edward's shirt, and started to hug him that way. Edward flinched, shocked, as he saw that she was taking off his jacket and shirt. Not that he would be cold without them, the room was steamy and humid, making Edward's brow become tender and melty.
She kept rubbing his chest, which only made Edward's heart freeze with a sort of confused terror. Edward started shaking his head, slowly, as he tried to catch Miss Maxwell's attention and tell her this wasn't right.
He didn't even know her; he had hardly just met her, and she was doing these things already? Edward was tense with fear, but he thought that maybe this was just something young women did sometimes when they meet people. Edward stopped himself; Kim had never done this, any of the few young women he did know had never been so bold—not even Isabel had taken off his shirt and...did things.
Joyce had done this, and Edward's emotions immediately rocketed up from confusion to dread.
Edward pleaded out a small, "No..."
"C'mon, sweetie," cooed the young woman, wickedly, "It's just for fun."
Just for fun? I'm not having fun. Edward thought, terrified, as Miss Maxwell came practically on top of him.
He had practically just met Miss Maxwell...! This wasn't proper, and it wasn't right, and Edward knew how much his father would disapprove.
He started to push her away, gradually, as she swooped forward, supposedly trying to kiss him. Edward's hands were trembling and he quickly closed his eyes, startled. He was panic-stricken, as he politely tried to peel the woman off him.
. She jolted, her ruby-red lips pouted, and Miss Maxwell glared frustratedly at the man below her.
"What?" She barked, furiously, as she shot two toxin eyes at Edward's outstretched, rejecting hands.
Edward only kept gently pushing her away, but the woman slapped his hands out of her way and tried to stoop towards his mouth again. He turned his face away, horrified, and her mouth left a stamp of red lips on his cheek. Miss Maxell bent closer to Edward, and she tried pinning him down, in a very forceful, unkind sort of way.
Edward felt sick, as his plastic stomach flamed with worry, as he felt Miss Maxwell's sharp pink-painted nails dig painfully into his arms. She was getting too close to him now, and Edward's tickled all over, disgustingly.
He lifted his arms up again and continued to push the Miss Maxwell off his chest.
This time, Miss Colleen Maxwell leaned away from Edward, but her eyes were burning with anger. She frowned, her makeup slanting and twisting, making pretty symbols and lines.
"What?" Miss Maxwell growled, as rage shot up from her heart to her mouth, "What is it? What the fuck is it? Are you gay or something? What is it?"
Just get off me, please!
"Do you find me repulsive or something?" She snapped, showing her snow-white teeth underneath her rose-petal lips. Miss Maxwell loosened her grip on Edward, and the man earnestly climbed out from under her.
Edward put his shirt on backwards, as he ran out of the room, tripping over couples kissing and touching each other all over. He began to push his way through the thick crowd of drunken, dancing people, and he eventually was able to squeeze his way out of the mass. The music still pounded in his ears, and Edward could feel his head split with headache.
Edward ran passed a darkly lit corner, populated with a dozen girls and guys gathered together. A thick, grey smoke was floating up from their small group.
"Hey...Ed..." Kennedy said, as he slowly toppled out of the circle. He looked strange; his oak wood brown eyes were staring at Edward, but something about Ken looked...out of place. "Hey, man. How's it going? Hey..."
"Kennedy?" Edward asked, his heart going a mile a minute. "Please, take me home—"
Kennedy Boggs started sniggering, then crying, then he was laughing so hard he could hardly grasp out for breath.
"This is a great party, isn't it?" Kennedy laughed, loudly, as if he was telling a joke. "How was Colleen, eh?...Huh? What did you...say, Ed? Heh...yeah... I know!"
Kennedy laughed some more at nothing, while Edward slowly backed away. Kennedy had lost his mind. In fact, everyone in that corner was acting odd...laughing, stumbling, gasping, giggling, and sucking in that small sugar-like stuff wrapped up in the white paper.
Edward didn't care were he went—he just wanted to be out of the thumping music, the red lights, the smell---Edward's stomach became floppy and he wished more than anything to be back in Suburbia. The boy slid his way around the crowd, like a desert snake in the sand, and then, in one glorious moment, he saw the one thing that gave him all the comfort in the world.
The Exit sign, shining like a beacon of lime green hope.
He charged through the screeching crowd, watching the sign come closer and closer to him in the darkness. When he got to the sign, Edward pushed the door wide open and ran out into the wet alleyway.
Edward was curled up in a corner, pulling his damp shirt closer to him, with his hands hiding his face, sadly. He didn't care if the floor of the alleyway was muddy, trashy, and wet—he was just glad that the air was fresher than inside the club and that he was outside the club.
Edward wished Kim was with him; she would've known what to do right now. Mrs. Boggs would've known what to do, too. Peg always knew the answer, and so did Mr. Boggs, he was always telling about right and wrong, and morals and ethics. Edward had really liked Mr. Boggs, because he had reminded him of his real father. The Walters family were wonderful, too, after all, they had already branded Edward as "one of the family", but the kind little clan was not the same as the Boggses. He missed his old family...they would've told him what was right or wrong.
He looked up at the sky and waited for the stars to appear. After waiting for what seemed to be decades, not one diamond-sized star dared to glitter harmoniously in the heavens, and sky was as black as ink, staring judgmentally down at poor, trembling little Edward.
I want to go home. Edward thought, feeling the freeze stiffen his skin, How can I go home?
Edward kept looking for stars to appear. None appeared, but Edward looked anyway, hoping to be comforted by something, anything out there in the world.