Ride the Wreck (Stonewall Investigations Blue Creek 2)

“Thank you, thank you.” I tipped an invisible hat and took a long sip from my mojito.

Anyone who knew me wouldn’t be too surprised at my ability to draw people in. I’d been told that I resembled a human-sized magnet, pulling people into my orbit with a little wave and a friendly “hey” offered their way. Those people usually stayed for a while, sharing stories or laughing at dumb jokes, letting guards down with every honest smile I gave them. It was a trait I’d had since I was a kid, always being the center of the playgroup during kindergarten, and I honed that ability over the years. My magnetic friendliness didn’t just come in handy when meeting new people; it also helped in my investigations. People found it easy to open up to me, and sometimes that meant they’d share more information than they originally intended to.

It helped that underneath my warm and glowing smile, I kept a barbed-wire fence patrolled by rabid Rottweiler and crocodile hybrids around my heart.

The lights dimmed, and the attention in the room shifted toward the stage. The club itself wasn’t large, but the mirrors along the walls and ceiling gave an illusion of infinite space. The pink velvet trim along the floor climbed up and around the stage, framing it like a gaudy painting tucked away inside a tacky aunt’s closet. The stage jutted out toward the clustered group of tables and was big enough for three drag queens tops at a time, which made the girl group of four from the previous performance slightly awkward.

This next queen wasn’t part of a group. Her name was Blue Divine, which was almost drowned out by the amount of cheering her introduction had received. She came out on her own, a red-taped and scratched-up black heel greeting us first to a large bit of fanfare. The leg stepped out, and the queen came next, taking center stage and effortlessly commanding everyone’s attention like a natural-born rock star. Her makeup was both natural and surreal with her overdrawn lips and multicolored eyeshadow, sharp and bold lines drawn down her cheek almost making her seem cartoonish. Her lashes were stacked, and her lace-front wig sat perfectly, framing her striking face with sandy-blond curls. The sequin dress clung to her enhanced figure and sparkled in the light every time she made the smallest hip bump or chest shimmy.

I’d been hypnotized, and I watched, a little slack-jawed, as Blue Divine gave a flawless performance. When the music briefly cut out, I had almost thought it was part of the show until I spotted a flash of panic underneath that baked-on foundation. The crowd didn’t drop the ball, picking up where the song cut out. Blue Divine rolled with it and kept her performance going, collecting a bundle of dollar bills in the process.

The music came back on, and the queen continued her routine, dancing around the room as if nothing had happened, everyone wrapped around her brightly painted fingernails. I grabbed a dollar bill from the stack on the table and waved it in the air, hollering with the rest of my table.

We made eye contact, and the world froze. I couldn’t really describe it any other way. Time just kind of stopped. I saw past the multilayered eyelashes and rainbow-bright eyeshadow, seeing someone that made my breath hitch and my heart spark. As if I’d taken a match to the inside of my chest.

Time started up again. Blue Divine danced toward our table, exuding a confidence in her moves that had me captivated. I had a hard time picking my jaw back up, made even harder when she looked at me, wearing the cockiest, sexiest, most self-assured red-lipped smile I’d ever seen. She turned and did the good ol’ bend and snap directly in front of me, giving me enough time to break out of my daze and stuff a bundle of money into her tights that peeked out when she bent over.

It was a ballsy move, but this drag queen had me feeling some things. I found myself wondering what she’d look like when the makeup wipes came out and the wig came off. I imagined someone just as beautiful, just as cocky, just as—

Her heel snapped.

Oh fuck.

She tumbled down to the ground and brought the entire table of half-full drinks with her. Time froze again but for a very different reason.

I dropped to my knees and helped her up, not caring that my jeans absorbed a good twenty fluid ounces of the alcohol mixture coating the floor. Blue Divine offered me a quiet thanks, her chin practically burying a hole in her chest from how low she carried her head. I put a hand on her lower back and was about to try and encourage her to keep going, but she raced off before I could get a word out, leaving behind the broken heel like a sad Cinderella remake with a budget totaling a hundred bucks and five McDonald’s meal vouchers.