“It’s probably not like that. If it is some kid, they probably just wanted to see what the villas look like. I mean, they’re probably a lot nicer than wherever the workers are staying,” Cassidy said, picking up her fork.
James thought about the buildings on the north side of the island again. Was the figure he saw also a wandering child? A very, very quick moving wandering child?
What else would it be?he asked himself. He also picked his own fork back up but still felt uneasy.
EdieandRosegotclose to the stage without being swarmed by other people and both got clear videos of the musicians in the first show to post to their Instagram stories. Edie got videos of Rose dancing in her cutout bodysuit that allowed the bottom of her breasts to jiggle and bounce as she danced, her fringe skirt swaying around her legs. Between the first and second act, night fell completely, and fire torches and string lights illuminated the crowd. The women took selfies together and took the drugs given to them by a Portuguese man with a strong jaw and a pompadour.
The LED lighting show of the second artist shone brighter and more hypnotizing than the first. Edie could feel the bassline in her chest, and she recognized it as the bassline of her heartbeat.
“I love this song,” she shouted to Rose during every song.
“I know!”
“I love you!” Edie shouted. They hugged and danced. Edie took more videos, but even in her altered state she knew better than to take videos of either of them that might reveal to sponsors or employers how high they were. She took shaky videos of the lights and the lead singer. During her favorite song, she closed her eyes and moved her body the way the music demanded. She felt light, like she might float away.
“Edie!” Rose shouted, tapping Edie on the shoulder. Edie opened her eyes and Rose pointed up toward the sky. Beyond the dim lights of the torch and the bulbs strung across the audience, the stars filled the sky. Everything became blackness except for the hundreds of thousands of millions of flickering white lights above them. Edie held her breath and slowly let it out, allowing part of herself to join the vastness of the cosmos. If she focused very hard on only the stars, she thought maybe the weightlessness of her body would let her float up and join them.
Then, the crowd erupted and Edie came slowly back down to the sandy earth. She and Rose screamed and clapped for the music, and one more song played.
“No, keep going!” Rose shouted. “Don’t stop, I love you!”
Everyone knew the last song because it went viral for a huge TikTok dance trend over the last three months. The entire crowd sang along, and Edie felt like floating again, like the combined singing of everyone in the audience propelled her upwards toward the stage to sing and become part of the music—no, beyond that. She was again being pushed up toward the stars to be part of everything. Everyone was the music and the stars.
A gentle hand touched Edie’s shoulder and she slowly rolled her head, expecting to see Rose, but it was the DJ.
“You want more music?” he asked them. Both women nodded and followed him away from the dispersing crowd.
Edie gazed up at the stars as they walked, feeling comforted by having Rose there with her. Everything was well-lit by the string lights spanning across the paved foot paths and connecting adjacent buildings. It darkened as soon as they reached the place where the grass met the sand. Rose tripped over a discarded bike that neither woman saw until it was underneath them.
The sand felt cool as it spilled into Edie’s sandals. In front of her the world fell into almost total darkness as the ocean reflected the impossible chasm of the sky. The DJ led them toward a warm glow on the beach. Edie made them stop so that she could take off her sandals and took Rosie’s arm in her own as they led themselves toward the bonfire, with the DJ walking behind them.
The DJ’s villa stood on the edge of the little town made up of the raised houses and, as promised, there were six hot tubs near the sand bubbling vigorously. People sat in the water and on the rim of the tubs drinking champagne, while others stood near the raging fire that spit embers high up into the air to mix with the stars and disappear.
A throaty laugh broke Edie’s attention away from the sky once again and toward a bleach-blond woman sitting two hot tubs away. Her hair bounced in a high ponytail, and a hot pink micro bikini top covered her nipples and almost nothing else. She held a champagne glass in one hand and a bottle in the other as she let out a fake Valley Girl laugh. Edie recognized her immediately, even from the distance in the low light: Missy Lauder, a 40-something socialite whose claim to fame was as the heiress of an empire and having ‘accidentally’ leaked a sex tape at 19.
Edie didn’t like to judge people—really, she didn’t—but she never liked socialites and influencers the likes of Missy. In her experience, they were all cut-throat and fake.
Rose led Edie past the first few hot tubs with their arms wrapped around one another. As they passed Missy, Edie overheard Missy’s conversation since the soakers shouted to be heard over one another.
“She did!” two women cried.
“No!” returned the others.
“She did!” the women insisted, and the group burst out laughing.
The DJ followed Edie and Rose to an empty hot tub and asked if they wanted anything.
“Can we get a bottle of what everyone else is drinking?” Rose asked as she lifted a leg over the rim of the tub.
“Of course.” The DJ clapped his hands together and left.
Edie dropped her sandals next to the steps and climbed in next to Rose. Although they hadn’t anticipated an invite to a hot tub party after the main show, they’d dressed themselves with island versatility in mind. They stripped down to the bikinis they wore beneath their outfits and climbed in.
The heat of the pool felt amazing as the night air blew off the ocean, but by the time the DJ returned with a bottle and two glasses, Edie and Rose were already sitting on the rim of the tub again to cool down. Rose took the champagne, popped the cork, and drank directly from the neck. Edie laughed and Rose lifted the bottle over Edie’s head.
“No! No!” Edie protested with a laugh but tilted her head back to catch the champagne that flowed from the bottle. It ran down her neck and chest, sweet and sticky, and her mouth filled with bubbles. She rinsed off by sitting down in the tub again, and her head rolled loosely on the cushy headrest as she closed her eyes.
Edie and Rose had the tub to themselves for some time, and they talked and drank and laughed almost privately. People slowly filled the beach without them even noticing until the DJ’s voice came over the standing speakers, loudly asking how everyone was doing in his thick accent. The beachgoers gave him obligatory ‘woos’ but Edie and Rose just smiled as they floated.
