The Freaks

chapter twenty-two

"Thanks," I say, sliding the glass closer to me as I study the strange colour and the smell emanating from the container. The brown liquid has a weird kind of nutty smell to it. There's not much in here, but it's probably enough to cloud my mind should I have too much. I hesitantly take a sip and try not to cough as the alcohol burns my throat and I taste what I smell.

"Sorry about it being warm," she says, wiping down a glass with a faded white cloth. "There's no way for the drinks to be on the rocks."

I shake my head and smile, taking another sip. "That's fine," I reply, wondering what she meant by on the rocks. "It tastes great."

I continue to sip my glass as I stare into the crowd again. I hear the girl behind the bar ask what the person to my left would like, but I don't pay attention to them as my mind wanders. If I'm to save at least some of the Freaks still in the prison, I need to be careful with how much I drink. I can't be drunk on this mission tonight, because I could reveal anything to the Soldiers by accident.

Be careful, Luca. Always be careful.

"Refill?" the girl behind me says, and I turn to see her staring at me with her head tilted, a lock of her dark hair brushing against her sweaty shoulder.

I look down at my almost-empty glass and back up at her with a smirk. "I'm still working on mine," I say, taking another sip to emphasise my point. "But thank you anyway."

She doesn't say anything; she just smiles at me and leans against the counter. "You're the new guy, aren't you?" She squints her eyes at me. "Timothy Hayes, right?"

I laugh but my heartbeat won't slow down. "That's my friend." I hold my hand for her to take. She does. "I'm Jackson Parker."

"Jackson Parker," she repeats, dropping my hand. She says my name slowly, like she's trying to figure out whether it's really my name or not. Maybe that's why my heartbeat isn't going back to normal. "It's nice to meet you."

"And you too..." I drag out the last word, raising my brow as I wait for her to get what I mean.

"Mia." It takes until she gives me an actual smile to notice how beautiful she is.

I lean against the bar and smile back. "Why are you behind here if it's our night off, Mia?" I ask, genuinely curious.

She starts wiping down another glass. "Because if someone wasn't in charge of serving the drinks, chaos would happen." She shakes her head but her smile is still on her lips. "We all take it in turns. Someone should be taking me off soon."

"Fair enough, I guess." I shrug slowly, taking a sip from my glass. "At least you'll be able to enjoy the night at some point."

I won't enjoy the night in the same way as the Soldiers, though. Once I've finished this drink, I'm out of here. I'm tempted to swing the glass back and swallow the rest in one go, but I refrain from that thought. I've never had a drink before in my eighteen years of living. I've heard stories about what too much alcohol does to the mind, and I don't want the same to happen to me. Especially not tonight.

So I smile once at Mia and take a sip from the glass, turning around to face the dancing crowd again. A plan swirls around in my head, then more and more come up, overwhelming me. I don't know which one would be the best way to slip out of here unnoticed and back within X amount of minutes or even hours.

But there is one thing I know I need to do: I need to stop starting up conversations. I just need to be the guy in the background, someone no one will take notice of. Here, in this run-down club, Jackson Parker is a nobody.