It was late June, and we were graduates. Finally. We were still living in Santa Cruz, the few that were left. Conor was living with a girl in a guest house down in Laguna. She was a friend of Matty's from high school. And Matty was on his way to Chile for some adventuring. Dylan and Kameron had both moved to the city recently. San Francisco living and working on salary or commission or both. Grant and BB were inseparable. So were Monster and Max until Monst went off on her own three week mother-daughter trip to Switzerland. She'd be over there when we were for a little, but we wouldn't be able to see her. Callan was in Africa at the World Cup, and then she'd be volunteering over there somewhere. Mike had broken up with Kathleen. Those precious rest of us were just living, some waiting for summer session, some waiting for a plane.
But in the meantime, why not another rave? "All right, who's coming?" asked Mike. He was still bummed because he didn't get to go to Coachella.
"I'm in, I guess," said Max. I was too. We already had our plane tickets to London locked down, and I'd been saving up, and I wanted to celebrate. We all did. Except BB and Grant whose relationship was a celebration within itself. So Max, Mike, Boom, and I, along with the girls from the Bay Street house bought our tickets to the Electric Daisy Carnival. And in no time we were there.
Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum downtown. Jeans and flip-flops and a tank top. And of course, my white sunnies. Max brought a box of glow-sticks for good measure, and we make glow-stick bracelets and crowns to be safe. We weren't on the floor that time, but in the rafters, midway up the collossal stadium seating steps. It wasn't empty, not in the least. But we had space to dance between the seats as the molly kicked in and the sun went down. As it got dark, the stage came to life. It was a monster of a thing that stretched across an entire end of the field, with towers of light six or seven stories high, flooding the crowd below. And the colors played off the bowl of the Coliseum as well and the whole place was alight like a fire-pit as Laidback Luke and Benny Benassi killed it. My eyes trained to the light as moths do, the side of my face rubbed up Sara's white fur vest. And my hands crept up her hips to her bare back, and she slid in close. We danced with each other and took ecstasy until our touching was the best thing imaginable. We didn't move from that spot the entire night. It was perfect. A heat rose off the mass of people at the bottom of the cauldron and mixed with the light winds and the smoke from the smoke machines above a sea of single neon lights swaying in rhythm. Trips to the bathroom became adventures back through a haze with refilled water-bottles. Curious cases and pretty faces, I stopped to dance with them all, and maybe got a light-show or a kiss. One girl gave me a beaded bracelet over our clasped hands. Her glasses looked silly.
"What kind of glasses are those?" I asked.
"They're 3D."
"Ooo. Tradesies for a little bit?"
"Oh, you have to try them. Are you rolling?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Haha! Here you go," she said. "I'm on acid."
Ok, I thought to myself and I tried them on. "Oh my God!" I exclaim and take them off. Then I put them back on. It was incredible. The glasses acted like a prism and all the light from the stage refracted into all the colors of the rainbow a hundred times a second. Right before my eyes. "You're on acid?" I asked her seriously.
"Mmm-hmm." She said it slow and smiley smooth, and I handed her glasses back.
"You're incredible. You're electric," I said and went to find the group of glow-sticks in the distance that looked familiar, back to my little blonde dance queen. Armin van Buren closed it down with bright flames and fireworks at the end, and we all walked back to the cars in a daze, waited two hours to get out of a lot, then drove caravan down to Mike's boat in the Marina and all pasted out in heaps on top of one another in the tiny cabins.
"We're going to Europe soon," Max whispered.
"Fuckin' right we are," I said.
"Hey, me too!" wined Mike.
"In due time." And the girls laughed.
