The last two items brought a grin to Jamie’s face. The guy at the party had had a wicked sense of humor, and he took everything stuck to the front door in kind. He quelled the turmoil within and tried to stride confidently to the front door. He looked around but could find no cheerily lit doorbell, and the door’s knocker lay against the front wall of the house, ripped from the door and discarded. He didn’t know what to do. It seemed unlikely anyone inside would hear him knocking over the din of the party. He backed away far enough to double-check that the window shades were all drawn down tight, then put his hands in his pockets and let his shoulders slump. The guy had no doubt known this would happen. It was just another snub, another joke at Jamie’s expense. He turned away, blowing his cheeks out with a released sigh.

“Just go in,” said a woman’s voice.

Jamie jumped and spun his head from left to right and back again but saw no one. He whirled around to face the house, but the front porch was empty, as well.

“Up here,” said the girl.

He looked up at the roof, and there she was: an elfin blonde girl—though her roots gave lie to her hair color—wearing nothing but a pair of once-white panties and a pair of Keds. His gaze strayed to her chest, and heat came to his cheeks in a rush. “Uh, sorry…”

“If I didn’t want you to look, I’d wear a shirt,” said the girl. She took a final pull on a joint that seemed as big as Jamie’s little finger, then snubbed it out on her palm. “No one can ever hear the door around here, so Kahin just leaves it unlocked.”

“Oh. I, uh… I’m…”

“He invited you, right?” she asked.

Jamie found himself staring at her breasts again and blushed again.

She laughed. “Want to feel them?”

He forced his throat to work, swallowing hard, and once more moved his gaze to her own. “I apologize. I don’t know what’s come over me.”

“What’s come over you is that I have great boobs.” She shrugged, making the organs in question bounce.

“Um, yes, you do.”

She smiled at him. “Then look, touch, caress them all you want. The evening is looking up.” She jerked her chin to the side. “How old are you, anyway?”
“Uh. I’m twenty.”

A sly grin slid across her features. “No, you’re not.” She cocked her head to the side. “I’d say you’re seventeen or eighteen but still at Ukiah High School.”

His blush burned bright. “Um, yeah. I’m a senior, but it’s all bullshit.”

“Can’t say I’d disagree with that assessment, but I was homeschooled, so my opinion’s probably not worth much.” She shrugged again and grinned as his gaze dropped to her chest. “Go on,” she whispered. “Lay hands on.”

Jamie looked around, feeling sneaky, raunchy even. No one was out on the street. “I can’t exactly reach you up there, but if you were down here with me…”
“Yum,” she crooned. “I like a man who’s not scared of touching what he wants. Stick around, and we’ll have some fun. So go on in. I’ll meet you inside.”

“How did…” Jamie frowned at the single-story home. “How did you get up there? A ladder in the backyard?”

Her face twisted with a half-grin. “Why do you want to know? I’m coming down.”

“Just… Just curious.”

“Kahin cut a priest hole from one of the closets and put in a wooden ladder. He calls it the ‘escape hatch’ as if the cops wouldn’t notice us up here.” She turned and walked up the gentle slope of the roof. “Meet you in the kitchen. Just go on in.”

“Okay,” said Jamie. He approached the front door and lay his hand on the doorknob, which felt loose and somewhat greasy, but it twisted easily, and the door swung open to reveal what would be the formal living area in any normal home. In Kahin’s house, however, it was hard to tell what the room was intended to be.

The floor was covered in garbage, and by the smell of the carpet, urine and feces. The walls had once been white, but between the thousands of stickers affixed everywhere there was space, the color could better be described as industrial grime. The stench he’d detected from half a block away grew to impossible proportions inside the place, and his eyes watered a little while his stomach did slow flip-flops in his gut. Mold, waste, body odor, and drug smoke wafted through the open door and slapped him in the face.

Twenty people lounged in the room—some on a beaten-down old couch, some in chairs pulled from the kitchen, and some right on top of the layer of garbage. There were more men than women, which wasn’t unusual at a party, and Jamie was glad he’d had a moment outside to meet the girl on the roof. He’d almost certainly have shut down in this room, talking to no one until it was time to go. The people were in various states of undress, though the ones with the most clothes on also had the clearest eyes.

The man he’d met at the earlier party came through a door that Jamie figured was the basement door. The man’s eyes lit when he saw Jamie, and a large grin split the lower half of his face. “Hey, man!” he shouted over the din of the thrash metal screeching from the stereo speakers, of the television blaring “American Ninja Warrior” at full volume, as well as the shouted conversations. “Glad you could make it!”

“Yeah, um, thanks,” said Jamie.

The man’s eyes were even more glazed than they had been earlier, and something crimson and wet glistened on his lips and chin. He’d stripped to his underwear and age- and dirt-grayed athletic socks since Jamie had last seen him. He’d also wrapped his greasy dreadlocks in a green silk cloth wound up like a turban. “I forgot to get your name.”

“Jamie Wenstrom,” he said. “What’s yours?”

“I’m Kahin Alshaytan. Welcome to my home. There are no rules once you’re inside. Do whatever you want; stay as long as you want. Beer’s in the fridge, and there might even be some food, but generally, everything but the water is BYO.”

“Thanks,” said Jamie. “It’s a”—his eyes cut away from Kahin’s—“nice place.”

Kahin threw back his head and laughed. “It’s a piece of shit! But it’s my piece of shit.” He grinned.

“You mean your mother’s piece of shit,” said a waxy-faced guy on the couch, who seemed to be doing nothing but staring at a shadowy corner and nodding.

“Shut up, Jack,” said Kahin. He threw his arm around Jamie, and a wave of emetic body odor washed over him. “Let’s go into the kitchen with the civilized folk.” He glared at the one he’d called Jack for a few heartbeats, then turned and headed into the kitchen without releasing the hold he had on Jamie’s shoulders. As they walked, he said, “That guy’s on my last nerve. I’m going to kill him at sunrise.”

Jamie laughed—it was just another instance of Kahin’s black humor—but the man only looked at him askance. As they turned the corner into the kitchen, the girl from the roof squealed and danced over to slip under Kahin’s other arm. Two other scantily-clad women watched in silence—one sitting on the corner of the counter, the other laying on the floor, her head propped in her hand looking up at the other.

“Hey, girls,” said Kahin. “Meet Jamie. He’s new.”

The girl from the roof took half a step forward and looked him in the eye. “I get first dibs,” she said. “Jamie and I are old friends.”

Kahin arched his eyebrows at him, then grinned with one side of his mouth. “Where did you meet Anya?”

“Uh, outside. She was on the roof when I came up.”

Kahin laughed long and hard, then slipped out from between them and shoved them together. “You kids have fun.” He walked toward a hall that led to a darkened room on the backside of the house. Just before he entered it, however, he turned and looked back. “Unless you want to help me kill him, Jamie?”
“Who?” asked the girl on the counter.

“Jack,” said Kahin with a sour look.

“Being a jerk again?”

“Being disrespectful, and we all know where that leads him.”

The girl on the counter nodded. “He’s a selfish lay, anyway.”

“So? Jamie? Are you in?”

Laughing, Jamie nodded. “Yeah, of course.”

Beside him, Anya made a face and squeezed his waist. “He’s asking a serious question,” she said. “Don’t say yes unless you mean to help him.”

Jamie glanced down at her, then looked at Kahin, who nodded. “Oh,” said Jamie. “I thought… I thought you were joking.”

A slow grin spread across Kahin’s face. “Of course I was.” He beckoned. “Come on. You can screw Anya later.”

Jamie thought that might earn a rise out of the beautiful girl beside him, but she only gave a throaty chuckle and soft shrug. “Don’t go telling him stories about me,” she said.

Kahin only grinned.