Page 20 of Firecracker

Gus has a water, and I cheers him back.

Izzy motions for me to come stand next to her and when I do, she leans into me. “Seems you have quite a list of admirers already.” She looks over her shoulder at Mac.

“Shut up,” I say.

“Seriously, there’s a line, girl.”

I snap my head to Izzy. “What?”

“Well for one, Quick, my boy hasn’t stopped talking about you from what I hear. I think he’s scared of me though and keeping his distance. To be honest, I can’t believe he’s letting Mac fuck with him this long.”

I turn around to see Mac and Gus watching the crowd on the dance floor.

“So you’re saying Quick wants to get with me but won’t come near me. And Mac is egging him on by flirting with me?” I ask puzzled.

“Oh, Mac started out wanting to push Quick’s buttons, but now that he’s gotten to know you, he’s in line as well.” Izzy laughs, moving to switch songs, leaving me shocked as shit.

There’s no way these two gorgeous guys want me. Excitement erupts throughout my body, feeling wanted again is exhilarating.

“Speaking of our little lover boy. You want to see why I love Quick so much? Watch this,” Izzy states, lifting her headphones up to mix in a new song.

I turn to look out into the crowd in search of Quick.

I don’t see him. Izzy pauses for a second. “Okay, you have to understand this song’s our girl’s anthem anywhere we go. It’s a rule if any of us are DJing when the others arrive we have to play it. It gets us all crazy hyper, and well, Quick has become our ringleader. It’s just classic.”

I nod my head letting her know I understand, but I’m still looking out into the crowd. I see a big group walking in, mostly men and that’s when I see Ginger walking in with Shy.

I turn to Izzy who’s bouncing around getting the crowd hyped. Excitement swirls through me, and I start to move to the music, and then I hear, “You're going to love this.” I smile knowing the song and can just see Izzy singing this song. It totally is her song. “Bitch, I’m Madonna” by Madonna featuring Nicki Minaj, echoes through the club, and the crowd goes crazy.

Looking out, I see Ginger, who’s pointing her finger at Izzy, who’s pointing right back at her. Ginger makes her way to the dance floor with about five girls, including Eva in tow. The girls form a circle and start jumping up and down pointing at each other, singing the lyrics to one another.

Izzy bounces next to me singing. She points to me. “Bitch, you’re going to have fun tonight.”

I laugh, moving to the music watching the girls dance around. When a sick beat hits, the girls start smashing around, and I notice Izzy’s doing the same dance. I have to laugh they are so silly and watching the crowd do similar moves I smile, and that’s when I see him. Quick’s jumping up and down as a hype man does at concerts to get the crowd hyped up. He dances toward the girls who’re now clapping in sync with the song. A Nicki Minaj solo drops in, and Quick pounces into the middle of the circle of girls, acting out the words singing to each one of them. He’s bouncing around getting hyped, bobbing his head up and down. All the girls start to move in crowding him. They all have their arms up in the air pointing to each other for the last part of the song.

Quick turns, looking up to the stage at Izzy, but when he sees me, he smiles big and starts to mouth the words over and over again, “Who do you think you are?” pointing at me, he throws his head back laughing. My heart skips a beat.

He’s spellbinding with his beautiful smile and energy radiating off of him. God, I want to be near him.

My clutch vibrates under my arm, I break eye contact and turn away moving toward the back of the stage only to come face to face with Mac and Gus.

“I need to use the bathroom. Where is it at?” Gus moves first pointing to the bottom of the stairs.

“Use that one. It's for DJs and performers. I’ll wait for you.”

“It’s okay. I’ll be right back,” I reply.

Gus gives me a ‘not going to happen look’ so I just walk away, grabbing my phone out of my clutch I see three missed calls from Brody.

Shit. Fuck. Shit.

My first instinct is something happened to Isabella, but I know better. He got home today sometime, and he’s pissed off. Isabella should be in bed by now it’s almost ten o'clock back home. Which means it’s time for him to unleash his fury on me.

I start to panic, pacing around in the bathroom only making my anxiety rise. I start talking out loud to myself freaking out. “I don’t know what to do. I need to call him back but what do I say. Jesus Christ. I need to get it together.”

I move into a stall and sit down looking at my phone. I say to myself, “I can do this.”

He doesn’t have control over me. I can do this. He’s just a man. I can do this.

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