Free Flirting With Chaos by Kenya Wright Page B

number am I on?”
    “I’m not doing it. You know how I feel about mixing drugs.”
    “Just trust me. I’ll be with you the whole time. I have several more surprises in store. We’re leaving here and going somewhere sort of private. It’ll mainly be just you and me.”
    “Jude, I’ll be in the hospital by the end of the night. I’m not doing E and weed together.”
    “You’re being over-dramatic. We’ll drink some more water and head out.”
    T-Bone stepped out on stage and gestured for us. I snatched the joint and walked off. “You’re like the bad guy on a ‘don’t do drugs’ commercial.”
    “I try.”

Chapter 7
    Dildos, Penis Art, and Raping Swans! Oh My!
    “T HAT W AS J UST A T INY H IT , Rain.”
    “You’re the one that is always doing this stuff. I can’t hang.” I passed the joint back to Jude as we moseyed through a crowded Ocean Drive. T-Bone ambled behind us with a frown plastered on his face. The only thing he hated more than our drug use was our public drug use.
    I’d only had a tiny smoke, nervous that I would pass out if I smoked more. Jude had started drugs at a young age with the help of his dad. Kaden had kept drugs and done them around us all the time and so his actions had made it seem like doing drugs was awesome. Luckily, my dad’s actions had shown me just how badly drugs could destroy a person’s life and the people around them. Usually, I was severely cautious with my drug usage, limiting it to a joint or two a month.
    “Maybe you’re right.” Jude coughed after he inhaled. “Most don’t mix this and E. I just came up with the idea one night hanging with these rappers. I’ve never looked back since.”
    “Spoken like a true addict.”
    A few people whispered as they passed us on the sidewalk. Most paid us no mind. The couple people that did stare at us focused all their attention on Jude’s face, probably trying to figure out why they recognized him. Jude attempted to blow a smoke circle. A messy cloud of smoke fled his lips, and filled the air with that pungent, earthy fragrance of “the most blessed leaf” as my mom used to say.
    “Tonight is beautiful.”
    “It’s always beautiful here, Rain. You should never leave.”
    The moon never glowed as bright as Ocean Drive. The buildings gleamed with life. One building had thousands of lights on its surface that blinked off and on in the form of a woman’s body as she danced back and forth to her own song. Another swirled with fluorescent pink. Others shined in blue. As a child, I had thought bright lights and vivid colors adorned all buildings in the world until I’d traveled with my parents and spotted the dreary bricked structures and dull glass towers littering other cities.
    “Miamians would riot and tear the building down if it wasn’t painted in a bright color.” I giggled.
    “Ugly buildings are bloody against the law.”
    “Bloody against the law,” I mocked Jude. His mom was from England and had been a big porn star in Europe. He’d grown up there until he was six years old. His mom had then moved them to LA, where her adult film career slowly dwindled. She’d stopped raising Jude in his pre-teens, claiming that a growing boy should be with his dad to learn how to be a man. The few times I’d met his mom, her accent had colored every word. Every now and then, Jude slipped into his own Americanized British drawl without even realizing it. He didn’t have an accent like his mom, of course, but he certainly used a few Britishisms at times.
    I loved to pick on him about it. “Bloody Parliament!”
    “You’re definitely not getting this back. The moment you begin doing bad Mary Poppins impressions, I pretty much know you’re blown out of your mind.” He took a long hit. “You’re done.”
    “Oy, me won’t bat-ill wif ya, guv’nor.”
    “I don’t even understand what language that is.” He scrunched his face up in confusion. “It’s like you enjoy butchering words. You’re definitely