Black Mamba

“Where is this party again, exactly?” Min’s mum was interrogating them for the millionth time.

Robin smiled the most polite smile she could manage and hustled Min over to the the front door. “It’s in Coster Park Mrs Wu, and it’s totally safe, I promise.”

The two girls were out the door and in the cool air of the early evening before Mrs Wu could stop them. Still, the old Chinese woman hurried out after and called to them as Robin shoved Min into the passenger seat and darted around to get in and start the engine. Mrs Wu was shouting in broken English about not drinking and not smoking and not taking any drugs and not letting boys talk them into doing things and so on. Robin grinned at Min who rolled her eyes as she heard her mum continuing to shout advice from the front step of their house.

“She’s right you know,” Robin confirmed as she jammed her old VW Beetle into first gear. “If a boy is trying to talk you into sucking him off, he is exactly the type of boy who doesn’t deserve to be sucked off. Lesson number 72 complete.” Robin said, nodded to herself and squealing out of the Wu residence driveway.

Min rolled her eyes again, hoping that none of the airborne driveway rocks hit her mum (who was probably still on the step, shouting, now probably in Chinese). “I’m not going to do that anyways,” Min affirmed. She felt silly in the outfit she had chosen — black jeans and a red, v-neck ruffled top she had borrowed from Robin that showed too much cleavage — and she was already regretting her agreement to go to the stupid party altogether.

Robin burned down the street away from Min’s house and took a too-sharp right onto the main town road. “Oh my God. Can you please relax?” she said, screeching to a halt a the red light outside the pharmacy. “I’m not saying you’re going to suck a dick tonight, I’m just informing you of the whats and what-nots.”

“That phrase doesn’t even make sense.”

“Of course it does!” Robin said, letting go of the wheel and throwing her hands up dramatically. “Look, Mini,” her face turned serious. “Stacey is going to be there tonight and all I want is for you to have a good time.”

Min felt herself blush and looked out the window to avoid Robin’s eyes. “Oh my god, what do I even care if Stacey is there?!”

“Well, I just thought maybe you’d care because you’ve been eye-stalking him for the past forever.”

Min turned back with her cranky face up to full volume. “Eye-stalking? Now I can be sure that you’re not making any sense. Eye-stalking.” Min shook her head. “I have not been doing anything of the sort.”

A huge smile peeled Robin’s perfectly painted party face almost totally in half. “Of course you have Mini. When you’re watching him I’m watching you. I see your eyes slide around like a wet slug in a cup. It’s fucking brilliant!”

Min couldn’t help but think that it was precisely the opposite of brilliant. She knew she had been ‘eye-stalking’ Stacey for a while now, she just thought that no one had actually noticed, and now, knowing he would be at the party she shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat and tugged at the red v-neck blouse, willing it to cover more of her chest than it could ever possibly manage. Robin always gawped on and on about how jealous she was of Min’s breasts, but Min couldn’t help but feel they were nothing but a burden — a huge pair of luminous beacons that she couldn’t hide if she tried.

They were moving again down the main street towards the bend in the town, closer and closer to Coster Park. To the party.

“Relax, please?” Robin tried again. “It’s going to be fun. You can have a beer and eat some corn chips and I’ll be there with you. You can hit on Stacey. I bet you’d be a pro if you gave it a go. Oh my god that rhymes!”

Min rolled her eyes. The dim street lights flew by like fireflies in the night. Min figured she wouldn’t mind a beer at this point, just to take the edge off. Maybe the party would be good. She would never know if she didn’t go. Oh, she realised her inner voice was starting to sound a lot like Robin. Fancy that.

They sped through the bend and down towards the part of town without street lamps. Coster Park sat detached from the main street and was where more of the wealthier people in town lived. Acreage and farms and sprawling ranch houses. It was also quieter than where Min and Robin lived but it was where the best parties happened. They saw the smoke plumes and the golden glow of the fire long before they made it to Buck Mason’s house.

Robin had been there a million times — apparently — but this was a first for Min. Actually, the whole party situation was a first for her. She tugged up at the low-cut red top again without luck, and started to panic as they rolled through the open gates of the property and along the fence line until they found a parking spot next to a rusted baby blue utility.

Robin turned off the ignition and took one of Min’s hands in her own. “Listen cutie, I know you don’t want to be here and I fully understand that. Please stop pulling at the shirt — it looks fucking good on you okay — and I know you’re nervous, which is fine, but if you could see yourself like I do…” Robin’s brows furrowed like Min had never seen before. She trailed off.

The deep base-beat of party music rumbled the world outside the tiny car. Min looked at Robin and Robin smiled her life-filled smile back at Min. “You are gorgeous and smart,” she said, “and worthy of so much more than you think you are Mini. I just want you to take one chance with me and try to have a fun night. We leave at midnight no matter what — we keep your mum happy and we don’t get wasted — I promise.”

Min felt Robin’s hand in her own, warm and solid despite the delicate fingers and the sparkly nail polish and all the shiny rings.  Min was way out beyond her depth. “You really think the shirt looks good?”

“You know I fucking do. If anyone can pick a top for you, it’s me, bitch.”

They both laughed and Robin pulled Min in close and kissed her cheek. “C’mon my Chinese bombshell, let’s go make some dreams happen.”

Min was smiling as she scrambled out of the car and followed Robin past the enormous house and the multiple sheds to where the party was happening; to where everything was happening.

There was a large bonfire surrounded by intoxicated teens, and a stable of horses to the left, and a couple of eagle cages next to that, filled with fluttering wings. Min was nervous — she wanted a drink.

The two girls approached the party of people; Robin took Min by the hand and they entered the glow of the firelight with a certain camaraderie. A million eyes swiveled around to focus on them and Min felt Robin’s fingers tighten in her hand. She wondered if this would be the moment when her life actually started.

That was when Buck appeared out of nowhere. “What the fuck is my favourite girl doing without a drink in her hand?” he demanded with a smile.

Min saw Robin beam and lean up to kiss Buck’s almost-shaggy beard. For a moment she was afraid she would lose her friend to beers and beards and sex, as she always did, but their hands remained intertwined as Robin whispered something in Buck’s ear and he paused only for a moment before he winked at Min and took off again around the other side of the fire.

Robin pulled gently on Min’s hand and they kicked up dust as they walked around outside the circle of people by the fire. Robin had always been lively but she wasn’t one for big groups or ‘being on show’ as she called it. She liked to entertain but preferably in a one-on-one setting. Min had presumed that meant Robin was kind of slutty, but the more they hung out the more that seemed to be untrue. Robin liked sex  — she had said that exact thing over and over to Min — but only sex with someone who gave half a shit about her, or so she said. Min figured Robin said a whole lot of things. It was hard to tell which ones she meant and which ones she didn’t.

Min decided to break the silence. “So, you and Buck then?”

Robin shrugged. “Get me a drink first, then I might talk. But just in case you’re wondering, his dick is absolutely magnificent.”

Min was beyond embarrassed and hoping that no one else had heard their little conversation, when Robin’s eyes widened at something behind Min, and she abruptly walked away. Min was about to call after her when she felt a heavy warm hand on her shoulder — it made her jump.

“Hey.” It was Stacey behind her. Min turned to see his smooth brown face illuminated in the firelight/light of the fire.

“Hi.” The word came out too quiet and soft. Min blushed.

Stacey removed his hand from her shoulder and smiled. “You are apparently getting a drink for Robbie so that you can hear all about Bucky’s dick. Maybe we could get some drinks too, if that’s okay with you?”

Min felt all words evade her, so she nodded and followed Stacey over to the sprawling tables of snacks and drinks and candles. He poured a vodka cranberry for Robin (Robbie, as he called her) and a plastic cup of beer from the keg for himself and then turned. “How do you feel about a gin and tonic? You probably won’t like it too much at first, but I bet that will stop you from getting drunk.”

Min pondered this a moment and then nodded. She’d never had gin before — or tonic (whatever that was) — and there was something so dulcet and easy about Stacey that she decided that all she wanted right then was for him to make her a gin and tonic.

Three ice cubes clinked against each other in her cup as Min followed Stacey back past the bonfire surrounded by people and through the dark to a small bowl-shaped brazier where Robin sat on Buck’s knee, the two of them barely noticeable in the dim light. Stacey pulled up a spare chair for Min and took one right next to her. He was as easy as Sunday morning. He was calm and confident and smooth as golden honey. Min felt her insides turn to soft butter.

Robin sipped her vodka cranberry. “So boys, nice night you got going here. Took all I had to get my girl to come along. We had to make promises about curfew, we had to sell our souls to the devil, and, we had to make a personal sacrifice upon the sacred ground. I hope you two are willing to go as far as we did.”

Min saw Robin wink at her from Buck’s lap.

Stacey smiled. “Bucky my boy, I’m afraid we don’t have any souls left, but maybe we could sacrifice Terrance to the gods above?”

Buck was drunk. “Stacey,” he said with flat, glassy eyes. “What kind of gods would want Terrance?”

The two of them burst into boyish laughter and when Robin joined in Min sipped her gin and couldn’t help but feel even smaller than before; even further from fitting in. The drink was bitter — no, sharp — and it burned down her throat, but she took a few more sips nonetheless, and swallowed hard.

She was glad they were over here in their own little party — the big one would have been too much for her. The party noise still travelled over, but it felt as if they were in their own universe. Like the world outside them couldn’t touch or be touched. Min drank a little more of her gin and tonic and started to feel warm despite the night. Stacey scooted his chair closer to hers and continued in conversation with Buck and Robin. Maybe he was as nervous as she was.

As she sipped the sharp gin and tonic, Min felt herself sink down into the night. She remained acutely aware of Stacey’s every movement — the way he sat with his knees wide and casual; the way he constantly ran his fingers over his smooth shaven chin, as if grooming an invisible beard; the way his eyes flicked now and then to her, to Min, now and then to her crossed legs, now and then to her thick dark hair that was caught by the wind, now and then to where the red blouse came down to a v in the front.

Eventually Buck’s beer ran out and Robin pecked him on the cheek before grabbing Min’s hand and dragging her back to the main party area.

“But I don’t need another drink,” Min protested.

Robin brushed the curls out of her face and stared up at the sky as they walked slowly. “I know, fool. But the boys needs to talk about us and we need to talk about them.”

Min panicked. “What are they talking about!?”

Robin screwed up her nose. “I just told you. Us. “

“I know, I know. But what about us?”

“Probably your tits.”

“I’m being serious.”

“So am I.”

Min felt a hot frustration rising up inside her. “I wish they weren’t the reason he’s paying attention to me.”

Robin stopped walking. “What, Stacey? Of course that’s not the reason. He likes you because you’re awesome, and honest, and you don’t take any shit even though you’re quiet. He likes you because you try hard and you get excellent grades and you’re not like me. And, he likes you because of that poem you wrote for Advanced English at the end of last year.”

Min pulled up short and shot Robin a look. “He — he remembers my poem?”

“That’s what he told me,” Robin said, looking a little tipsy in the moonlight. “C’mon, I want another vodka. Buck’s horny and I really can’t deal with that again tonight. If one or both of us get drunk it will mean I get the night off.” She winked and fumbled about on the table of refreshments that were near the house.

Min didn’t protest. She had poetry and the firelight and Stacey on her mind. She still knew most of that poem, not by heart, but it had won her the senior poetry prize despite the fact that she hadn’t been a senior last year. Her mum had been so proud, and Min had been so proud as well, until some of the other girls in their grade had started making fun of her in the halls. They recited lines to her in a generic Asian accent as they passed by. She didn’t ever bite — she would never risk her scholarship like that — but after a while she was taking the long way, avoiding the halls, leaving through emergency doors, entering through them. Robin had been the one who had saved her, but that was a story for another day.

These days, no one bothered Min, not with her sparkly friend around.

As she watched Robin pour another vodka and then a beer for Buck, Min wondered if she would have survived high school without her bright, sparkling friend. “Rob,” she started, “what if I want to kiss Stacey tonight?”

Robin turned with a dramatic look of shock and awe pasted across her party painted face. Her glittery eyeshadow sparkled as she blinked. “This had better not be a joke, young lady.”

Min shrugged and felt the blush rising again to her cheeks. “You know I like him. Everyone knows I like him.” Min was hunting for advice but she didn’t actually want to ask for it, for fear of dying right there on the spot.

Robin lifted the plastic cup to her lips and pondered with narrow eyes. “I like this new Mini. Maybe it’s the gin and tonic, but she’s definitely wooing me tonight.” Robin turned back to the table and poured another vodka cranberry and another beer, both of which she handed to Min.

“You’re nervous, my little Chinese kitten, but this is the easy part. The boy wants you and so all you need to do is smile and be there.” Robin’s eyes went all wide and crazy. “Let’s go!” She kicked Min’s butt gently with her foot and the two of them left the main party behind again, a drink in each of their hands.

When they got back the boys were huddled close in their chairs, whispering to each other. They looked up as they heard the girls approaching and their secret conversation stopped abruptly.

“Only good things, I hope,” Robin said as she handed Buck his beer and pulled him up off his seat. “How about we leave these two to their own devices?”

Min handed Stacey his beer with a shaking hand and wished Robin would be a little more subtle about the whole thing. Stacey took the plastic cup in one hand and pressed the other, very lightly, into the small of Min’s back. She felt a jolt of needful electricity shoot up her spine and warm the entirety her skin. Her ears were suddenly hot and she took a gulp of the vodka drink Robin had poured for her.

Stacey didn’t stand, but pushed a little on Min’s back until she was close enough that her thigh touched his knee where he sat. “We just need a moment Bucky, if you don’t mind. How about you and Robbie go and check out that hole you’ve been digging out behind the damn — oh, I’m sorry, the ‘excavation site’.”

Buck stood up and spilled some of his beer onto his jeans. “There’s something down there Stace, and when I find it I’m going to get mega rich and you’ll be sorry you ever made fun of me.”

Min saw Stacey smile but it was warm friendly. “I know, Bucky. I wasn’t making fun. Poking the bear, as it were.”

Buck swayed, looking confused for a moment, but then Robin tugged on his shirt and they disappeared, away to this purported excavation site. Min was about to ask what exactly Buck was excavating when Stacey suddenly pulled her down to sit on his warm lap. Her heart beat faster than she had ever known it to do, and she wished the light of their small fire was casting anywhere but upon her face.

Stacey wrapped a solid arm around her waist and smoothed his invisible beard once again. “Can I kiss you right now?” he asked.

Min took a quick sip of her drink and swallowed her fear. She nodded. “Mmhmmm.”

It wasn’t like how she had imagined at all — and she had imagined quiet a lot. Stacey bent and placed his plastic cup of beer on the dusty ground next to his chair. Min didn’t know if she should do the same, but there wasn’t time either way, because his face was close to hers then, and she could feel his chest giving off warmth into her side. She was vibrating with excitement and anticipation. This would be her first kiss. This would be more than her first kiss. This would be everything.

Before she could think any longer, Stacey’s warm hand came up to her face and he leaned in and it was too fast and it was slow motion and it was just the right speed. It was everything. Their lips touched and Min was surprised when his were so soft — much softer than she had expected — and the moment lasted a lifetime.

The red v-neck blouse was suddenly perfect, and the gin in her blood felt sweet and syrupy, and the small fire crackled like the electricity up her spine where his hand had dipped under the red blouse and was holding her in close to him.

Stacey.

Bucky’s call pierced the night and the perfect moment.

Min didn’t care, she was under so many layers of Stacey-honey that some part of her worried she might never be able to get back out.

“Stacey!” Buck called again.

Stacey took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. You know how he is.”

Min ran her fingers across her freshly-kissed lips. “It’s okay. Robin is my best friend, remember?”

Stacey smiled and the two of them stood up and started off towards Buck’s excavation site.

The hole was about ten foot in diameter and Min was impressed at Buck’s efforts. “Did you dig this yourself?” she asked.

Buck smiled wide and finished his beer. “There’s something down here, I know there is.”

Robin sat on the far edge of the hole with crossed legs looking quite unimpressed. “Please don’t encourage him. This whole hole thing has been going on for like a week now. Can we just drop it. Mr Mason is going to castrate Bucky if he finds out there’s a fucking pool-sized hole in the back yard.”

Min figured it was likely that Mr Mason might not ever find out — they had walked a good half mile down from their small fire to the excavation site. Buck had set up a few spotlights around the hole and Min looked down to where he stood in the dust and dirt and rocks with a shovel. She felt Stacey’s hand holding onto the back of her jeans but somehow it felt like more of a soccer mum hold than an I wanna do bad things to you hold. No big deal, she thought, but secretly she was looking forward to the latter.

Stacey seemed tired of the hole thing and Min saw him share a look with Robin. “Look, Bucky. I know this is important to you, but don’t you think that this is just a distraction? School is coming to a close and you haven’t done well, I get it. I get it. Let’s just knuckle down and get through this last month and then we will be free, yeah?”

But Buck wasn’t listening, he had his shovel and he was going to town on the hole, smashing away at dirt and rock, searching for something that none of the rest of them could imagine. Min saw Stacey give Robin an imploring look and, in the spotlights, they heard Buck’s shove hit something. Whatever it was, it rang out into the night air. It sounded hard and metallic.

All of them were still.

“Buck?” Robin called down into the hole.

There was silence, and then, “I fucking told you guys!”

Stacey looked at Min. The two of them stood side by side across from Robin and peered down into Buck’s excavation hole.

Min saw it immediately — a large square-shaped indentation in the ground beneath Buck’s feet — she looked up and knew that Stacey had seen it as well. Stacey put his arm around Min again and pulled her back from the edge of the hole. “Bucky,” he called, “I think maybe you should get out of the hole, yeah?”

“What do you think it is?” she asked him quietly.

They watched Robin stand up and leave her drink behind her, abandoned in the dirt. “Buck, baby. Can we just call your folks in the morning and get a professional out here to have a look. Maybe it’s unsafe or something?”

Buck didn’t reply from down in his hole. The three of them heard him digging and digging, smashing the shovel into the metal thing that was down there. Min felt her heartbeat hasten and a strong urge rise up inside her. She wanted to be anywhere but near Buck’s excavation site. There was something she didn’t like about it but she couldn’t quite put her finger where it needed to be. She figured he was probably just doing as Stacey had said — distracting himself from the reality that he had done poorly on his final exams — but at the same time she felt the adrenaline pumping through her blood.

Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was her proximity to Stacey. Maybe it was the quickly cooling night. Maybe it was Min questioning herself, doubting herself, hating herself. — Worrying that perhaps she hadn’t done that well herself on the final exams either. Maybe it was the dark movements of the trees around the hole Buck had dug at the back of his family’s property.

Min turned to Stacey. “I really want to go back to the party,” she said, and it felt like she was begging. A blush started to rise in her as she felt Stacey take a hold her shoulder and turn to give her his whole attention.

“I’m sorry, he’s drunk and in a bad place. But Bucky’s my best friend, and I know that you know how that feels.”

Min felt the warmth of his body close to hers and the seriousness of his tone. “I know. I do know,” she said, and it was more of an admission than anything else. She was new to the best friend thing, but she understood how important it was.

Below them they heard Buck fall and the shovel clatter loudly onto the metal thing. Buck groaned — he’d hurt himself.

Stacey gave her a slightly pained smile and brushed the hair out of her face with gentle fingers. “If you want to go back I won’t hold it against you. Once I get him out of this ridiculous hole I’ll come and find you, okay?”

Min felt relief — she was free. She turned to see Robin crouching on her knees in the dirt, looking down at Buck. Her sparkly friend was still trying trying to convince her not-boyfriend to give up on becoming a raving idiot right before graduation.

Min called across the hole. “Robin!?”

Robin looked up and gave her a desperate look. “I’m so sorry Mini, I didn’t think he was that drunk. You okay?”

Min nodded and gave her brightest pretend smile. “It’s all good, I’m just cold.Going to head back to the party, is that cool?”

Robin closed her eyes and smiled in slow consent and then looked back down into the hole.

Min looked up at Stacey. “Promise you’ll come find me later?”

Stacey’s face was bright and glowing as he looked down at her. Like a Christmas star, Min thought to herself. He was the lovely thing she had been searching for. The thing she had wanted for so long. Too long.

“Of course I will,” he said, taking her face in his hands. “Will you be able to get back without a light?”

“I think so. I’ll be fine,” she shrugged. “Just — just get him out of there, please?”

Stacey stuck out his tongue and the tension eased. Min turned and knew immediately that she needed a light in the darkness of the trees, though she didn’t dare backtrack. There was something about Buck’s hole and the big flat metal square down at the bottom that made her stomach tighten with fear.

She had only walked a dozen feet or so when there was a strong wind that pulled at the tops of the trees above her and whisked up dust into her face. It was so strong that she had to cover her eyes and turn her face away and bend her knees. The wind was freezing and it cut through her.

That was when she heard it — a laugh like she’d never heard before. It was piercing and staccato and brought her stomach up into her throat. It was a laugh that no one could ever forget.

In the darkness she turned, still close enough to Robin and Stacey standing around the hole that, between them, she saw a thicket of dark smoke start to rise. It was black and amber and the red of dark blood.

Just as Min began to panic and move back to the site, that same awful laugh sounded around her in the trees and more pointedly, from the hole. Min crept a few steps back towards where Stacey and Robin stood. She wanted to stay quiet but it was hard with the dirt and the rocks crumbling under her feet. As she got closer she saw that Robin had her arms raised out and high into the air on the other side of the hole. Robin?, she whispered to herself.

The laugh erupted again, and it was from her mouth; it was Robin who was laughing. “It is you who have given your blood, young one,” Robin said in a voice not her own as she looked down at Buck, “and it is you who will pay, now, as I have paid in the past.”

There was a cracking sound and Min heard Buck cry out in pain. She crept a few steps closer to the excavation site in the dark and saw the black-amber-red smoke thickening from where it rose from the hole. “Stacey?” she hissed, trying to catch his attention, but Stacey was watching Robin through the smoke. He didn’t seem to see or hear anything else.

Robin spoke again in the awful voice that wasn’t hers. “And who is it that will be my vessel?”

Feeling a strong impulse to run away, Min wondered if this was some kind of drunken practical joke. She hoped it was. From the trees, she watched as the smoke started to clear a little and her sparkly friend, Robin, lifted up off the ground and drifted over the hole towards Stacey with her arms still raised high, opened up to the sky, as if she were in some kind of yoga pose.

It was impossible — Min knew it was impossible — but she watched it happen all the same. She watched as her lithe friend landed gently on her feet on the other side of Buck’s excavation hole and looked at Stacey with eyes that were bright green and pierced with a vertical slit. Snake eyes.

Min inched a few steps closer. She didn’t know what to do — there was a strong urge to run away and a similarly strong one to stay and approach — but who was she to make that decision? She felt small and young and helpless.

She watched as Stacey stood dead still and not-Robin approached him with a careful step. Robins feet were bare; her boots were gone. Min’s heart was a racing drumbeat inside her chest. She listened as closely as she could.

“Do you not fear me, boy?” asked not-Robin.

Min watched Stacey as he remained solid on the spot in the dust. “I don’t know you, so how can I fear you?” His voice trembled a little but he didn’t move. Min wanted to run to him.

Not-Robin pondered Stacey’s answer a moment. “People usually fear things they do not know, and things they cannot understand. If you were wise, you would fear me.”

Min inched closer again and she was just at the edge of the trees hoping she wouldn’t be seen. She saw Stacey move on the spot slightly; he was, perhaps, starting to lose his baring on reality. Min knew that she was surely starting to lose it.

“Without understanding of what you are, and what you can do, why would I be afraid? Ignorance is bliss, right?” Stacey asked.

Inappropriately, Min felt something inside her heart flutter at his calmness under pressure; his wit; his put-togetherness — all the things that had made her first start to eyestalk him.

Not-Robin smiled like it was what she was born to do, and Min felt a terrible chill creep through her, raising her skin into gooseflesh..

That was when her adrenaline really kicked in and Min ran directly towards Stacey from the trees where she had been hidden. She burst out into the spotlights and the smoke, and not-Robin turned to see her just as she stumbled in front of Stacey.

He started to say something to Min. He started to grab hold of her arm and pull her back, to try and move in front of her, to try and stand between her the Robin who was no longer Robin.

Min turned away from him and saw Robin with the yellow snake eyes. Robin was right in front her of — close enough that Min could feel her sparkly friend’s hot breath on her face.

After that she knew nothing but darkness.