YOU ARE MENTAL

"TFH!" The letters gasped out. Verbal

acronyms were something she rarely

used, but hours under the scorching

sun had Marissa Duplei's skimpy shirt

plastered to her skin and the strength

sapped from even her voice.

Being in

the midst of a crowd of equally hot

bodies intensified the suffocation. Her

closest friend, Olivia, habitually voiced

text abbreviations and had no trouble

interpreting

"Too Fucking Hot'.

"You're such a vampire! When

did you stop having fun?" Olivia

complained as they wove through the

throngs of scantily clad partiers.

"We used to be on all day beach patrol."

Her friend referenced their younger

years in their Mississippi coastal towns

and their non-stop troll for guys who

could stop a girl dead in her sandy

tracks. Back then, Spring Breaks and

summer months brought vacation

flings, and temperature had never once

been a complaint.

A refreshment trailer was an oasis

just off the sand, and Olivia passed

her plastic through the tiny window.

Feeling the cool blast of air escaping in

the transaction, Marissa moved closer

as more interesting plastic was pushed

to their side along with the return of

Olivia's credit card.

Curving her fingers around the base

of the cold cup, she wiped at beads

of sweat forming near her hairline.

Idly, she wondered how the newest

Scan drugstore clearance mascara currently

coating her lashes was holding up.

Olivia closed glossy, red lips around

the straw of her super-sized hurricane

drink. Marissa had no doubt that

Liv's lipstick, as well as anything else

painting her face, was a department

store brand priced in, or near, triple

digits, assuring a worTry free day from

smearing or disappearing. Taking a

pull from her own straw, she eyed

the surrounding crowd as the cool

alcoholic slush trickled soothingly

down her throat.

"Better?" Olivia sweetly inquired.

"Much!" Marissa sighed the

assurance and shoved the cheap

sunglasses higher on her nose.

Curving

a smile, she made an effort to seem

thrilled to stroll the 'Hang Fest,' a

yearly festival of live bands, rides, and

vendors.

"Good," Olivia grinned. "Proceeding

with Phase One."

"Ugh.. This time her sigh was one of

annoyance.

Up until now, the mission had been

momentarily abandoned, not aborted,

and she mentally cursed Kel for the

thousandth and one time.

Walking in last week on her fiancé

Kel, with some tramp straddling him

had been devastating.

Worse, there

was a twisted irony of forever knowing

this faceless bitch's name due to it

being a permanent stamp above her

slim butt. The image was branded in

Marissa's brain just as permanently.

Hibernating, she had mopedin

misery around her apartment binge

eating granola bars and yogurt. Olivia

became the only person she spoke

to, wailing to her face, whining into

her calls, and texting chapters of Kel

hatred.

When she quit sending Kel's

pleading and apologetic calls straight to

voicemail, Olivia charged to the rescue

heading up 'Operation Save Rissa From

Herself

Since Olivia's answer to breakups

was hook ups, the given mission today

was to pick herself up, dust Kel off, and

get dirty with someone else.

Just thinking about a random

hook up was terrifying. When it

came to men, Marissa was out of

practice. A local casino was her place

of employment, and the sexy smiles

rehearsed in the mirror were for better

tips from blackjack players, not real

live flesh and bone players.

Olivia sent a look of encouragement

as they paused at the fence jutting

up to the stage platform. Olivia also

worked at the casino, and a backstage

pass tipped to her by a player at her

craps table had her hoping to meet and

mingle with her metal idols.

Marissa had no such aspirations.

Besides not having a laminated access

card, she couldn't care any less about

any of these bands.

"Ten o'clock, Rissa." Direction, and

not time, was the subject of her friend's

clipped, enthusiastic sentence, and as

instructed, Marissa slung her gaze to

the slight left.

A long, lanky roadie had paused

in the stage set up and was currently

honing his attention over the front

area to the two of them.

Olivia held up the badge swinging from her neck.

Nervously knowing that her own

success in passing this hallowed line

would depend on her flirting abilities,

Marissa shuffled her feet.

Putting the awful events of the

previous week behind her, she

mustered her sexiest smile and her

first 'strange' flirt in five years. After

gesturing that he would come to them,

the roadie finished the tear down of a

microphone stand.

"Score!" Olivia did a jig before

grabbing Marissa's wrist and towing

her closer to the gate.

Vaguely, her excitable friend rattled on about which

band members, from which bands,

in which order, she wanted to bang.

Mindlessly, Marissa listened as a severe

case of cold feet set in, and working

through a mild panic, she focused on

her friend instead of the area beyond

the fence.

Bending at the hip, Olivia raked

manicured fingers through her scalp

then flipped her thick mane of hair as

she straightened.

Draining her drink to the last slurp,

Marissa desperately hoped an alcohol

confidence would quickly kick in.

A few paces away, she trashed the cup

ignoring her friend's silent censor.

With the cup, refills were half-price,

and Olivia, despite blowing her money

on designer everything, was into

saving money on alcoholic anything.

"He's coming!" Olivia's frown

disappeared, and she thrust her hip out

as she whispered. Marissa took it as a

hint to strike a similar sexy pose.

Although, initially, he had been

several hundred feet away, recognition

came easy, and the roadie was even

hotter close up. A ponytail of straight

brown hair was elasticized at the nape

of his neck, and heated hazel eyes

perverted them both.