How come you got in without paying? You’re not wearing a costume.

I dunno, said Michelle. Maybe he thought I was someone else.

A band was playing “Part Time Punks.”

Adam took a flask of his roommate’s whiskey from his hoodie pocket. He offered Michelle some but she didn’t want any. He took a long pull.

I’m going to the bar, she said.

Right on, Adam said, I’m gonna get in there.

Have fun. She kissed him on the cheek and shoved him into the mosh pit.

Arms and elbows, bodies pressed tight to one another, muscles, sweat – Adam was sucked deep into the pit and sucked back out the other side. He hit a wall and dove back in, pushing people and jumping to the beat. Adam breathed in the musk.

He almost puked.

At some point Adam crowd surfed back to the other side of the pit where he was dropped on his shoulder. Michelle was sitting at the bar with the door guy, both of them flipping their blonde hair in conversation. He took out his flask, drank the rest of the whiskey, and threw it at the bass player, who took it as an invitation to shred.