Page 36 of The Fall

Glowing almost as brightly in the black lights as her skin, Kerr’s blue eyes gave off fireworks. “You like dancing?”

“I… don’t know?” Lusa admitted. “I’ve never been anywhere like this.” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt like this either. She was the responsible one. The one in control. The person who always knew what to do. This was disorienting.

Kerr didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she looked happy to take the lead. Lusa found herself following before she could decide whether she should.

By the time they made it to the dance floor, Lusa realised their fingers were interlaced. Dropping her hand abruptly, Kerr sprang to life, her small frame flinging whatever she had been worried about away. She became a work of art, coloured lights cascading across her glowing skin and slight curves as it sped across her body. Lusa stared.

“You’re not dancing,” Kerr yelled.

“I don’t know how,” she yelled back. It wasn’t a complete lie. She danced occasionally at Cam’s bar, though it was nothing like this.

Refusing to accept her feeble excuse, Kerr shook her head. Strands of slicked-back hair came loose and followed in time. “There’s nothing to know,” she said as if it were the easiest thing in the world. “Just move.”

Several beats behind, Lusa begrudgingly copied Kerr. Graceless, like her skill with pistols. Pinga could pick up any firearm like she was born with her finger around its trigger, while Lusa hated them. They mocked her inability to hit anything smaller than a MobilePod. Knives were much simpler.

“You suck at dancing.” Kerr did not pull punches. Lusa frowned, but that only made Kerr laugh harder.

“It’s okay.” Kerr grabbed a couple of shots from a nearby tray and made a gesture to pay the server. “You need to let go, yeah?”

Lusa had to focus on her lips to make out what she said. Her mouth watered. Swallowing, she shoved those thoughts into the closet and slammed the door.

“Listen to whatever your body wants to do.”

Absolutely not, Lusa thought. She needed to be in control at all times. Especially here, without anyone who knew how to ground her if she failed.

Kerr held out a shot. “Drink this. It’ll help quiet the voices in your head.”

“What voices?” Lusa panicked. She couldn’t possibly know about those.

“The ones that keep you from listening to your body. You can’t dance if there’s a voice in your head telling you that you look stupid.”

Lusa knew that wasn’t it, but she was happy to let Kerr think she was self-conscious. It was better than the truth. “But I do look stupid.”

“Look at everyone else, yeah?” Kerr swept her arm over the crowd. People jumped and twisted and darted arms and legs in time to the steady hum of bass like a unified organism. “Do they look stupid?”

“No, but they know how.”

Kerr laughed. “I don’t know what happens in your city, but dance lessons don’t exist here.”

“Then…”

Kerr interrupted. “They shut off their brains and let the music tell them what to do.” She thrust out the shot again.

Lusa took it. She could do this. There were too many people here for her to get into trouble. She lifted the glass, waiting to see what Kerr would do.

Kerr smiled, teeth glowing white, then pink, then green as the lights flew like Valkyries over the writhing crowd. “Ready?” Kerr downed the shot. Lusa followed – and then coughed. Kerr slapped her back. “Have you never had alcohol before?”

Lusa cleared her throat, vapour burning her nose. “No, I have. It just doesn’t taste like this.”

“Right.” Obviously, Kerr didn’t believe her. Lusa tried to defend herself, but Kerr had already moved on. Grinning stupidly, Kerr shimmied backward onto the dance floor, as if that would tempt Lusa to come with her. It did.

Swearing she could feel them, the eyes and Optis of every person in the crowd, Lusa tried to catch them staring. She couldn’t find a single person watching her. If anything, she stood out by not moving. Kerr grabbed her hand, moving it for her, synthetic fingers surprisingly warm – not cold or utilitarian like Pinga’s. A more modern piece of tech, probably.

Kerr jerked her hand above her head, snapping her back to the present. “You’re supposed to twirl, dammit.”

“But I’m taller than you. By a lot.”

Kerr snorted. “You can twirl me when you know what you’re doing, yeah?”