Free Love Thy Neighbor by Janna Dellwood Page A

together, they entered.
    The place was jam-packed with well-dressed twenty-somethings dancing,
drinking, making out, shouting, laughing. Lights of every color lit
the room in rapid succession from all directions. It reminded Janna
of the funhouse she once walked through as a teen. The techno music
could be felt as well as heard. Assault on the ears; constant
thumping in the chest. Nothing about the entire scene was anything
like she'd expected. There were no drunks causing trouble, no public
fornication, no couples arguing. Everybody was happy, joyous,
celebrating life. And she'd spent the majority of hers by herself,
quietly, miserable?
    What have I done?
    Tonight, now, she swore she would
shed her old skin. Join in where she did belong.
    “ Ever
dance before?” Baron had to shout to make himself be heard.
    “ No!”
    “ No?!
Are you serious? Come on, let's try it.”
    Baron took her by the hand and led her out into the sea of thrashing
bodies. You couldn't move an inch without bumping into someone. A
woman to her left screamed in laughter. A guy to her right danced
dirty with a scantly-clad red head with bad acne. The music raged on.
The lights ignited the room.
    “ Okay,”
Baron said, coming to a stop.
    “ How
do we dance?”
    “ You
let go, let your body move and express itself any way it wants to.
Here.”
    He grabbed her hands, and they started their dance. She didn't know
what she was doing, how well or how poorly she was doing it, but she
let go and did it. He guided her, twirled her, brought her close and
back out again, made her laugh without cracking a joke or doing
anything that funny. Janna forgot about her impositions and problems.
This was what she needed. For a while, the only thing that bothered
her was one simple fact: that she hadn't done this sooner.
    “ Having
fun?” Baron shouted through the noise.
    “ Can't
remember when I had so much fun. Thank you!” Her eyes
glittered.
    “ It's
my pleasure, Janna. I'm just glad you got out and tried something
new.”
    “ We
should come here every night.”
    He tilted his head back and laughed. His Adam's apple bobbed.
“Anytime.”
    ***
    The night went on. They danced themselves out of breath and into a
sweat. Baron asked her if she wanted a water; she decided she'd have
her first beer. The thought of drinking alcohol scared her, but so
had coming to this club. Lordy, what didn't scare the woman?
    “ I'll
be back in one sec.” He walked away from her, fought his way
through the crowd and to the bar.
    Janna remained on the dance floor, closed her eyes, and, for a
moment, danced by herself. For herself. She owed it to that
hurt little girl inside. That girl needed freed.
    The music stopped, restarted, and swelled. The lights began flashing
like strobes. People bumped into her, knocking her around. Her
thoughts went askew. They all got too close to her. A shoulder made
her stumble. An elbow brushed against her upper arm. “Sorry!”
    She suddenly felt overwhelmed, smothered, lost again. This kind of
environment was too much for her too soon. These people were
strangers, and who knew what their real intentions were? The lights
were too hard on the eyes, the music and noise too hard on the ears.
It all caught up with her, engulfed her like an evil shadow. It's
when somebody's hand—she knew it wasn't Baron's—grabbed
her ass and squeezed it for a quick, cheap thrill.
    Janna turned and pushed through the herd, shoving people out of the
way, knocking beers out of people's hands, the EXIT door the
prevailing thing on her mind. Soon enough, she reached it, opened it,
stepped out into the crisp cool air. Some of the panic went away.
What she wanted more than anything was to go home—her ultimate
security blanket.
    “ What
the hell happened?” Baron said, coming up behind her with two
beers in either hand. “Why are you crying?”
    She wasn't aware she'd started to do so. “I gotta go back home.
I don't feel well.”
    “ Why?
Did something happen? Did