She’s always been more family than my own.
“Yeah, okay,” I say. I’ll tell her about my dad and my mom later when we’re alone, and maybe she’ll have more sympathy than she had when I’d told her about Franklin.
And hopefully she won’t try to set my dad on fire.
Even though I can’t say I’d mind.
12
BLAZE
I drive up to Asch’s house and honk. It takes about two seconds before the door flies open and Asch runs out.
He was probably waiting by the door, wedged between all the junk in his mother’s house. He thinks I don’t know about the state of the house, but I can see through the windows.
Or rather, I can see how blocked the windows are.
Asch slides into the passenger seat. “Neon’s got a good lineup tonight,” he says by way of greeting.
“Sounds good.” I start driving. “Wait, do you mean music, or the other stuff?”
He gives me a sidelong look. “I mean music. I mean, the kink stuff is fun to watch, but that’s something I’d rather do with Pandora along. We need to drag her here on spring break, really show her the sights.”
Pandora would love Neon, I’m sure of it. It’s one of the older nightclubs in NewVa, and part of the appeal is the ironic posters warning that all kink is banned from the premises—except the interior is entirely kink themed. Dancers in cages, staff wearing collars, and private workshops in the VIP areas.
“Just watch, we drag her here and she’ll tell us there’s a bigger, better version of it in NB.”
I navigate us to the downtown area of New Valence. Traffic isn’t too bad, but there are stoplights at every intersection.
I drum my fingers on the steering wheel.
I’m surprised my dad didn’t sell the car while I was gone.
I glance out my side window and see the water in the distance. The city lights reflect off of it. The buildings block most of the view, but I can see one of the tourist tour boats coming into the harbor.
Asch nudges me. “It’s green.”
I turn my attention back to traffic, and on a whim I make a left turn.
“Uh. Where are you going? Neon’s the other way,” Asch says.
“I know.” I drive us closer to the riverfront. “It’ll be packed, and full of women who want to fuck us, or get mad that we danced with them, or whatever. Unless youreallywant to go dancing.”
“Not really,” Asch says. “It wouldn’t feel the same without Pandora.” He gazes out of the window. “Plus, I really don’t want to get my balls cut off because I danced with another woman.”
“She wouldn’t really.” I grin. “She’d joke about it though.”
I find parking on a lot that’s almost full, and I pretend not to notice Asch wincing when he looks at the per-hour parking rate.
“Let’s do one of those tourist boat rides,” I say. “I haven’t done one of those in ages. Y’know, where they tell you about all the famous people who lived and/or died here.”
Asch makes a face. “Pass. If we’re going to do anything, we should do one of the ghost tours. We can take pictures of the places and tell Pandora all about the spooky stuff she’s missing out on.”
“Does she like spooky things?” I ask as we walk toward the shops. It’s packed, with everybody doing their last-minute shopping or going out for drinks. The tourists are out in full force too, several large groups already blocking the sidewalks.
“She likes snakes. Those are spooky, I guess.” Asch pulls out his phone and types a text to somebody.
While he does that, I buy us some beignets at the street vendor locals know is the best but that tourists avoid because they don’t trust street food.
