Dancer's Body

Chapter 5

They swiped their keycards at the pool entry, and a tired looking young woman handed them towels. "You're in the Lakeview?" she asked, as her screen lit up.

"Uh, yeah," Hannah said.

"Give me your hand. You get these wristbands. And access to the VIP deck," she said, pointing them to a separate, private stairwell.

The heat pounded down on the desert, but even in the middle of the day the rap music blared and drunken screams roared all around them.

"Who needs a wet tee-shirt contest?" an emcee roared into the microphone. "Ladies, get your asses to the DJ booth and sign up for the wet twerking contest!" The VIP deck was stuffed with mostly middle-aged and elderly fat people, all tucked safely under sprawling fans or hidden away in private cabanas where not a touch of sunlight would graze them.

Waitstaff zipped, silent, through the throngs with trays of oysters on the halfshell drenched in pink champagne and decadent frozen drinks crested with an entire fruit cocktail. The only thing missing was the feathered fans to cool the patrons.

A shrill yell pierced her brain as a girl in the pool below fell into the sea of splashing drunks. "This is gonna sound bougie," Olivia said, "but I'm glad we're not down there."

Hannah nodded. "How can we be twenty years old and too old for this MTV party shit? There they are." She pointed to the group of girls spread across linen lounge chairs. A few were in the private pool, drinks in hand.

"Well, well, look who's finally up," Ava said as Olivia and Hannah sat down on the white chaises by the pool. Ava with her black bikini was smothered in sunblock, hidden behind a massive black straw hat and oversized glasses.

"Don't start," Olivia said with a groan. "I feel like hell."

"Look it, too. But I'm not surprised, after how you behaved last night."

"How I behaved?" One of the seniors giggled behind her, but when she turned around they all had stoic expressions plastered across their face.

"I know we're not wearing our letters here. For obvious reasons," Ava said. "But I still expect all of you to behave with some sense of decorum."

She thought she heard "slut" whispered by one of the girls in the pool, but she couldn't be certain. The sun bore sharp claws into her eye sockets. Olivia opened her mouth to say something, defend herself, but no words came. She snapped her mouth shut and walked to the bar.

"Virgin daiquiri," she said to the bartender.

"Are you sure?" The young girl with a flawless body, microbladed brows and eyelash extensions that must have weighed a pound cocked her head. "Cocktails are free in VIP."

"I'm sure," she said. "Just ... make it look like it's swimming in booze, please."

"You got it." The girl gave her a sympathetic smile. It wasn't the first time she'd seen a guest hungover and trying to fake the ability to go hard.

She pulled an Advil out of her little poolside purse and chased it with the sweet, frozen fruit.

The staff had brought additional chaise lounges for Hannah and her, along with a little table with a call button where she could balance her drink. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ava asked, eyeing the hurricane glass with its explosion of strawberries, cherries and umbrellas.

Olivia shrugged and pointedly sipped her frozen fruit juice.

"Hardcore," Justine said, impressed.