Wheels of Steel, Book 1 (38 page)

“No worry.”

Amberly came over, she was holding a bottled water. She gave Robin an appraising look. “I like your jeans.”

“Thanks. I like yours too.”

“Do you want to dance?”

Robin swallowed and looked around. “Okay.” She didn’t want to but if she said no, Amberly might think she was just trying to be stuck up. They danced; Robin doing nothing much more than a two step while periodically moving her shoulders. She sipped her beer just to have something to do but soon it was empty. Amberly was dancing, swinging her long hair and looking comfortable even if she didn’t quite look like she was dancing, more like she was spasaming. Patty actually looked good dancing but she wasn’t doing anything as wild as break dancing; just grooving to the beat.

Suddenly the sound of scratching could be heard and the music stopped. Link said; “Testing…Testing. One two, one two, on the mic is Link and my main man Top. We’re going to do our own thing up here. Y’all cool with that?!” The crowd roared. “Y’all ready for a little Ol’ Skool?!” Again there was madness. Robin felt her heart drum in anticipation. Link sure was good at getting the crowd going!

“IT’S WORKING! IT’S WORKING…PARTY PEOPLE IF YOU’RE READY TO ROCK LET ME HEAR YOU SCREAM!” And they did just that. The crowd knew that the routine Jason and Link went through was from the movie BEAT STREET because they began chanting Beat Street, Beat Street over and over. A bunch of white kids knew more about this hip hop movie than she did. She was going to definitely check it out.

Robin watched Jason, mesmerized as he seemed transformed when he was performing. He was completely lost in his actions. She became lost in it as well as her body began to react to the music. Patty placed a fresh beer in her hands and she gave the girl a grateful smile. The beer helped to loosen her up and soon she was moving in ways that she never knew she could.

Jason’s eyes would meet hers and he’d give her a wink and she felt like she was flying on cloud nine. She up-ended the beer can to her lips but it was empty. How did that happen? Did she drink it all? She danced her way out of the room and into the next room where the open bar was located. She looked around wondering why she had ever been so nervous. No one cared about her and they were all just trying to have fun!

She picked up the bottle of Hennessey wondering what it tasted like.

Jason thought that being a DJ was the way to go. It felt awesome being up here with his best friend and hearing the crowd out there cheering for them; dancing and feeling what they were doing. And then seeing Robin out there with Amberly and Patty, dancing and enjoying herself was the icing on the cake. And by the way…he was getting paid for this!

He glanced up and searched for Robin. He saw Patty and Amberly but not her. She was probably in the bathroom. Jason and Link moved from Old Skool to techno; which was Link’s thing but he was feeling it as well. He glanced up again, and still didn’t see her. He felt a bit uneasy. He tried to catch Amberly or Patty’s eyes but both were grooving too hard. He cursed under his breath and continued to play.

A few minutes later when he still hadn’t seen her, Jason leaned in to Link. “Let a song play out.” Link nodded his okay. He put on a long dub step that would end in a hard drum solo. It would give him about twenty minutes. He wheeled from behind the table and several people immediately converged on him.

“Top that was hot!”

“Top you gotta upload that to YouTube!”

“Top you are the greatest…”

He tried to politely acknowledge them but it was soon apparent that his wheelchair was not getting through the thick crowd of people. He felt panicked and anxious. How could he find Robin if he couldn’t move ten feet in front of himself?!

“Patty! Amberly!” They looked over at him and came to him with all smiles. “Where’s Robin?”

Patty blinked. “Dancing…” She looked around. “She was dancing.”

“I haven’t seen her for over half an hour.” He said urgently.

“She’s a big girl, Jason.” Amberly said with a stony look in her eyes.

“Well she’s not used to crowds. Look, can you check to see if she’s in the bathroom?”

Amberly sighed but did as he asked.

“I’ll check to see if she’s in the other room. She had a couple of beers.” Patty said while hurrying away.

“Top!” A drunken girl slithered up to him and sat in his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her drink went down the back of his shirt…she’d evidently forgotten that she was holding one.

“Shit.” He gently nudged her away and she pouted and called him something unintelligible. He tried to look through the throng of people but couldn’t see two feet in front of him. They were dancing wildly in front and in back of him. He was basically trapped.

His teeth clenched in a panic. Why hadn’t he told her the rules of a college party; stay with your friends, don’t take any drinks from anyone you didn’t know, don’t leave your drink unattended, and for gods sake—don’t go off with someone you don’t know…

Chapter 30

Amberly returned an impossibly long time later. “Jason, I checked all of the restrooms, she wasn’t in any of them.” Link whistled shrilly and Jason swung around to him. He gestured for him to get back on stage. The dubstep was at the end of the drumbeat solo. Jason felt numb. He sat there indecisively.

Jason made a rolling signal with his fists and Link gave him a surprised look. Essentially he was saying; go on without me. He turned away, not able to think about Link right now when Robin was lost…gone…disappeared…kidnapped—he had no idea.

Patty returned with a look of concern on her face. She knelt down beside Jason so that he could hear her. “She’s not in the other room. I’m going to ask around.” Jason suddenly felt afraid and helpless as he watched his friend push through the crowd of people. He should have brought his crutches, but what good would that have been? One unintentional shove and he’d be sprawled on the floor. He wasn’t the most patient person but all he could do was sit there and wait.

Patty’s eyes scanned the thrashing people for one black girl; it wasn’t like there were all that many black girls at an Omicron party…

“Hey?!” She yelled to the person that was dancing next to her. “Have you seen a black girl? Short hair wearing all black?”

“No. I ain’t seen nobody.” The half drunk person slurred.

Patty scowled and moved to another person repeating the question.

“Yeah.” The guy responded. “I saw her. She’s outside. She was fighting with someone.”

Oh shit! Patty took a step towards the entrance and then stopped. She hurried back to where Jason was. He gave her an expectant look.

“Stand up!” She commanded. He used the hand rest of his chair to push up and Patty grabbed him by his waist and hoisted him to his feet.

“Where-?” He began.

“Outside!” She bent and swept him over her shoulder in a fireman’s hold. Patty was almost as tall as Jason but much stockier. She did this with little effort and shoved her way through the crowd. Amberly caught a glimpse of them and hurried to catch up, tripping and half falling over the feet of the rude partiers who didn’t have enough sense to move out of the way of someone with an obvious walking issue!

“Hey wait up!” She yelled. But they didn’t hear her. Why was Patty carrying Top over her shoulder??

When Patty got to the entrance she stopped two girls. “Have you seen a black girl, short hair, wearing all black?”

They both nodded. “Yeah she went off with three guys.”

Jason was hanging upside down and the blood was rushing to his head but it sounded like they had said that Robin had went off with three guys. He felt his very toes begin to curl. Patty hurried out of the house. Chauncy was standing at the door. He was one of the brothers of the fraternity and he was collecting money.

“Chauncy! Where is the black girl that was with us?”

Chauncy gave Patty and Jason curious looks. “Uh…what black girl? And why are you carrying Top around?”

“Chauncy! Black girl! Stay focused!”

“With short hair? The drunk one? I made her and her friends leave.”

“What the fuck?!” Jason yelled. He slapped Patty’s ass to be put down. She lowered him carefully to the ground, still holding him around the waist so that he didn’t topple over. “Where’d she go?”

Chauncy shrugged. “I don’t know. She left with those guys.”

“And she was drunk?” Patty asked.

“Yeah, falling on her face drunk. Look, she didn’t have a student i.d. so I didn’t let her in. Plus she was with those guys and they didn’t have student i.d.s AND they were under 21 so I told them to leave or I’d call the cops on them-”

Jason felt lightheaded and sick. Robin had gone off with three strange guys… “Oh Jesus…” He said.

Amberly had finally caught up with them and rubbed his back. “She’ll be okay. Maybe she called you-”

Yes! He quickly reached into his pocket for his cell. Yes! There was one text from Robin! It was left about half an hour ago. He tried to read it but it didn’t make sense. It said:

JAON % 8&?3 3ell3hem I wi3hyou

“Jason…something…tell them I’m with you…” He repeated.

“Call her.” Patty said.

He nodded and hit redial.

Chauncy was moving nervously back and forth from one foot to the other. “Look, I didn’t know she was with you guys or I would have let her in. But she was drunk and since that problem a few years back you know we’re banned from having house parties unless it’s students only-”

Amberly held up her hand to shush him.

Jason looked at them, holding the phone to his ear. “She’s not answering…” He got her voice mail. “Robin! Where are you?! Call me…did you leave with someone? Call me as soon as you get this. I’m going to try to ring you again.”

Amberly hurried to two guys that were heading up the stairs to the house. They’d already been inside because they wore red stamps on the back of their hands.

“Hey, have you guys seen a black girl with three other guys? She’s probably drunk?”

They both pointed down the street. “Yeah. They’re trying to get her drunk-ass home but she won’t go.”

The second guy chuckled. “Not sure why drunk people won’t get in the car with their sober friends-” Amberly’s face paled. She hurried back up the steps, tripped, landed on her palms. Jason and Patty were looking at her in concern.

“Sh-sh-she’s.” She pointed down the street. “Th-th-THEY…ARE TR-TR-trying to guh guh GET her in a C-C-CAR!!!”

Patty grabbed Jason around his waist and dragged him down the stairs like he was a ragdoll. He hung on, the whites of his eyes were red and the green of them had darkened until they looked brown. He was furious, his mouth was a pale slash in his other-wise red face.

Amberly limped behind her trying to keep up. But her body was so tense that she could not manage more than a halting shamble. She hadn’t wanted Jason with anybody else…but she didn’t want anything bad to happen to that girl, either. This is how college girls got raped every day in America! Why would she just go off with three strange guys???

Patty finally spotted Robin sitting on the curb with three guys standing around her. They were surrounding her and her head was down. What the fuck?!

“Get away from her!” Jason began screaming. The guys looked up at them in surprise. The three young men thought that Patty looked like a bull as she charged towards them while holding the crippled dude against her body. That sight was more than enough to cause them to take a step back.

“What are you doing with this girl?” Patty bellowed.

“Nothing.” One guy spoke, holding up his hands in submission.

“Robin?” Jason said. She was leaned over with her arms crossed around her middle. “Patty take me over to her!” Patty glared at the three punks as she dragged Jason over to the curb.

“What did you do to her?” They fell over themselves trying to deny any culpability.

“Nothing! She was drunk!”

Jason slipped from her grip, sinking hard to the ground where he placed a hand on the back of her neck. She was rocking back and forth.

“She said her stomach hurt. We were just going to get her home. But hey, dude, if you’re her friends then we’ll leave her with you. This is too much fucking drama.” They guy talking turned and headed for his car. His friends followed.