Punk and Zen by JD Glass Read Free Book Online

a bit, “you are in the Dominion with Nina,” I reminded them.
    Whoops, hollers, and applause broke out across the
room, and I stared out at the crowd as the dancers all paused to cheer me in
the skybox. Usually, when I announced songs or just uttered some encouraging
enthusiastic phrase, I got some enthusiastic hollers, but this, this was a
standing ovation. I was momentarily stunned.
    “Do it, Nina!” someone yelled over the music.
    I was shocked out of my daze, and my ears burned with
embarrassment because I was pretty sure that was not a reference to my DJing,
although it could have been. Most people looked at the floor and each other
when they danced, and they couldn’t really see anything behind the partition
except for heads. Anything they heard they probably thought was just part of
the mix, add-ins by the DJ to enhance the music and the mood. It seemed to have
worked, intentionally or not.
    “Experience Dominion!” another person yelled, and the
crowd picked up the cry until it became a chant that reoccurred over the
closing strains of music and beat that flowed through the room.
    “Dominion! Dominion!” The sound from the eager dancers
seemed to swell and grow.
    I placed my hands on the board and studied the crowd a
moment longer, their attention firmly on the skybox and not on the music,
apparently. Hoo boy. I’d started something I’d had no intention of even beginning,
and I wasn’t sure of how to go on or what they were asking for.
    Scratch that. I knew. Fuck it, though. This wasn’t
something I’d normally play with, but I was feeling reckless anyway, and the
burning in my ears was nothing compared to the burning in my skin or the rising
flood threatening to overwhelm me that being with Blue had done nothing to
stem.
    I set my headphones firmly, placed a hand on a fader,
and keyed the mike. I brought the level up as I spoke. “Is that what you want?”
I asked the room in a low and throaty voice. Cheers broke out. “Are you sure?”
I pressed in the same low voice, bringing the fader up a bit more. The mix was
still in the background, but now discernable through the other song. More
cheers and applause.
    I checked my timing and went with the rhythm. “Fine,
then,” I purred. Careful now, timing, that’s what it’s all about, I
reminded myself, listening for the entrance, “have it.”
    I brought the faders up on full, and the mix was
complete. The room was off and grooving, and I grooved along with them to the
music. I pulled out the next few selections and positioned the tune that would
follow on the board, checking my levels for time and volume.
    Andra had come back with our drinks and set them in
the request window. Done with my board for the moment, I picked them up—a cup
of cran and orange for me, a bottle of Corona for Blue, and, wait. There was a
third? Yes, another cup of what looked like cran and orange.
    “Thanks,” I told Andra, who had waited to make sure I
saw the drinks, “who’s this for?” I asked, pointing to the second cup I had
left on the ledge.
    “For you,” Andra grinned, “in case you’re too busy,
um, grooving, to remember to get another.”
    “That was very cool of you, thanks.” I smiled back. It
was true, that was both cool and nice of her to do.
    “You’re very welcome,” she answered, “oh, and by the
way?” She stuffed a piece of paper into the hand that held the cran and orange
cup. “You can start with me, anytime.” She gave me an appraisingly smoky look,
then walked away.
    Stunned, I blushed, then managed to collect myself.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I grinned and called to her back. Andra heard that
and gave me a saucy smile, then wove her way through the dancers back to the
main bar.
    I shook my head. Yep, definitely flirting, I thought,
ABC bemused. Drinks in hand, I found Blue still sitting on the back
bench, and she favored me with a smile as I handed her the beer.
    “Thanks for your patience.” I grinned at her, holding
my