The room literally shook with noise. Erin and Sara stood in a large, great hall. A spiral staircase curled up and away in the center of the room. 

Below the stairs, a disc jockey wearing a backwards hat and headphones, blasted music from his high-tech computer. Around the room, Sara glimpsed multiple loudspeakers. Strobe lights flickered on and off from the high ceiling. The flashing lights made the faces of the dancing crowd blink in and out of focus. 

The D.J. lifted an air horn above his head. He gave it a loud blast. 

Sara inadvertently covered her ears in shock. 

But Erin grabbed her hands and pulled them off her ears. 

"LIVE A LITTLE, SARA!" she hollered. It was impossible to hear anything Erin said unless she shouted. 

The strobe lights made Sara dizzy. She watched as Erin immediately lifted her arms high in the air and started to jump around, in time to the music. 

Sara was bumped from every side. The large room was totally packed. There must have been well over a hundred people in this one room, alone. A couple to her right was feverishly making out. A guy on her opposite side was attempting to lift a girl he was dancing with onto his shoulders. But the girl looked too drunk. She kept slipping off and tumbling back into his arms. 

"THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A BONFIRE!" Sara yelled to Erin. 

Erin had her eyes closed. Her head swayed from side to side as the intense music pumped around them. Sara couldn't be sure if her friend had heard her at all. 

But then Erin's eyes opened. She looked at Sara. "WE NEED A DRINK!" she hollered. 

Sara couldn't hear her. The guy next to her had crashed into her back. He was still trying to get his drunk partner onto his shoulders. 

Erin waved a hand in Sara's face. She made a drinking gesture. Sara got the hint. 

She let Erin take her arm and guide her through the crowd. 

At first Sara worried they would be trapped. There were so many people around them. But to her relief, people seemed to move out of their way to let them pass. 

It's as if they do this all the time, Sara thought to herself. She kept her hands out in front of her. She didn't want to fall down in her heels. She could feel how sticky the floor was. Various red plastic cups of spilled beer littered the ground. She had to use caution to not trip over them. 

"ALMOST THERE!" Erin called. 

Sara put her hands on her friend's shoulders for balance. She could see another light from the next room shining out from around the corner. 

Just as the girls reached the edge of the crowd, Sara felt a hard tug on her waist.

Letting out an 'O' of surprise, she was jerked forcefully around. 

A tall boy in a tux pulled her roughly up against him. He wrapped surprisingly strong arms around her small hips.

"Come to Papa, Mamacita," he whispered drunkenly into her ear.