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In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

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up the street to the shoe store where Max slipped Penny's foot into a<br />

pair of pointy-toed elf princess mules with spiky Lucite heels.<br />

They stumbled back to the studio, where Maia was in middance<br />

lesson. Real bump and grind. He was in middle of catching her<br />

through his legs as they came in, but his hand slipped when he saw<br />

Penny, and Maia landed flat on her backside. Everybody laughed<br />

nervously and Sandro and Maia quickly went upstairs to change into<br />

their party clothes. Ula stepped into her bathroom and changed, door<br />

open, into her dress, the first brightly colored item anyone had ever<br />

seen her wear. She came out dabbing extra patchouli under her armpits<br />

and beneath the diamond choker in the notch of her collarbones,<br />

wordlessly cursing Penny's fantastical slippers.<br />

The white limo's interior was in shades of ivory, down to the<br />

shag carpet. Sandro wore his New Year's tux with nothing underneath<br />

and when he leaned forward she could see his nipple. Ula's own pale<br />

nipples peeked out now and then from the deep V of her neckline.<br />

Maia was all blinged out in gold lamé, and even her cleavage was<br />

sprinkled with iridescent gold powder, her celebrated breasts concealed.<br />

The conversation bubbled awkwardly all the way uptown.<br />

They got out and walked up the red carpet to the club as<br />

anabolic black studs kept the crowd at bay behind the purple velvet<br />

ropes. Hands reached up out of the crowd with digital cameras, micro<br />

video cams, even bulky telephoto Nikons. Amongst the muscle-men<br />

stationed along the rope and inside the club were the pros, scanning,<br />

elbowing for a prime spot, inconspicuously dressed in black. Barely<br />

contained hysteria reigned. And the word was out, that Princess Purple<br />

and Max were together at last. The tabloids held their breath.<br />

Penny floated down the red carpet, her shoulder crushed<br />

beneath Max's grip. Luckily, Sandro's measured steps were just behind<br />

her.<br />

Lights flashed everywhere inside in the cavernous club, many of<br />

them from cameras but also from lasers and video wall screens. A low<br />

pulse started shaking her bones. No, it couldn't be! <strong>In</strong>strumentals<br />

enhanced with deep synthesized E.L.F. No one seemed to notice, but<br />

Penny in her fog waited for the bodies to fall. She had a drink from a<br />

passing tray to steady herself, purple haze be damned. Max held her<br />

close, his mauve silk shirt open to the waist. His gold chains thumped<br />

and slapped against his burnished chest. The swarm slammed<br />

mindlessly against each other, one eye on the star dancing with his<br />

mysterious throb, the girl he'd named his guitar after. She caught a<br />

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