Frenzy(10)

“I just want to find my friend,” I said. “I never did E before, and I don’t want to be alone.”

He was still grinning. “Oh, don’t worry about that. You’re not going to be alone.”

“Well, I don’t know anyone,” I said.

“You know me.”

“Not really, I don’t,” I said. “I just met you.” Of course, I’d met Jill only a few hours earlier. Maybe he was right. I shivered again.

“Come back upstairs with me,” he said. “Get to know me better.”

“I thought that Guy didn’t want people up there,” I said.

“He won’t care if it’s me,” said Wyatt. He held up two crossed fingers. “Guy and me are like this.”

“Okay,” I said. I didn’t want to stay outside, and the crowded, hot basement didn’t seem so appealing right now.

He was still holding my hand. He led me up away from the basement door. There was a hill. We climbed up the driveway to get to the upper level of the house. “Your friend will turn up.”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“She’s here somewhere. Are you really worried about her?”

“Not worried,” I said. “Not exactly. I guess I’m more worried about myself.”

“Hey, I’ll take care of you.”

I shivered again.

He slung an arm around me.

Usually, having someone be so forward would bother me, but right now, it only felt comforting. “Thanks.” I smiled at him.

* * *

“You ever do whip-its?” Wyatt asked me.

“No,” I said. “I don’t even think I’ve heard of that. What is it?” I was grinning. I couldn’t stop grinning. We were back upstairs, standing in the doorway to one of the bedrooms in the house.

Inside, there were several people lounging on the bed or the floor. They all had big balloons. They were sucking on them, breathing in the air in the balloons.

I squinted, feeling confused.

“Nitrous,” said Wyatt. “It’s a gas that they use in, uh, whip cream cartridges.”

A girl was stretching a balloon onto a cylindrical piece of metal. She turned the metal, and there was a whooshing noise as gas filled the balloon.

Wyatt touched her on the shoulder. “Hey Lisa. You think my new friend Molly can have a balloon?”

Lisa looked up. “I don’t know, Wyatt. I only have so many cartridges, you know?”

“She’s never done nitrous before.”

Lisa peered around Wyatt at me. “Seriously? You’re a whip-its virgin?”

I giggled. “Yeah.”

“Come on,” said Wyatt. “Help me pop her whip-its cherry.”

“Eww,” I said, shoving him. But I wasn’t really mad. I thought he was kind of charming and kind of funny and more than a little cute. I kind of didn’t care if I found Jill at all. I was feeling really good.

“Well, let me get the balloon off the cracker.” Lisa pulled the now swollen balloon off the metal piece. Pinching the opening together, she handed it to me.

“Cracker?” I was confused.

“This.” Lisa held up the metal. “It cracks open the whip cream cartridges and lets out the nitrous. Enjoy.”

I held up the balloon. I looked at Wyatt. “What do I do with it?”

“Breathe it,” he said.

I wrinkled up my brow, still confused.

“Here,” he said, “I’ll show you.” He took the balloon and put it to his mouth. He sucked air in from it. When he stopped, he handed the balloon to me with a goofy grin.

I took it from him.

“Careful,” he said. “Don’t let the nitrous out.”

I put the opening of the balloon to my lips. I breathed in. It was cold and sweet, and it invaded my lungs like a refrigerant, making everything feel fresh and cool and tingly on the inside.

Whoa.

I giggled. Everything was a little bit… stranger somehow.

“Have more,” said Wyatt, a huge smile plastered on his face.

I breathed in more. I swayed on my feet. I liked that stuff. I kept sucking on the balloon. Everything began to seem strangely distorted. The room was undulating. Wyatt’s voice seemed too high-pitched. I took one last huge lungful, letting the cold air fill me up.

And then…

The world was a spinning wheel, moved around by tiny bears that labored over and over in a circle, climbing and striving, spinning everything together, mixing colors, turning the rainbow into nothing but swirls and whispers. I was caught up in it, spinning too, everything spinning. Faster and faster and faster and—

“Whoa,” I murmured.

Wyatt was holding me upright. The balloon I’d been breathing out of was limp in my hand. The world was not a spinning wheel. It had actually been a poster on the wall of Grateful Dead bears. But before, it had looked all weird and move-y.