Page 27 of Juliet's Echo

"Manny, my guy. I appreciate you," Psalm responded, bumping forearms with him.

This man really believed he was the greatest thing walking. Scoffing, I turned toward the truck to watch Manny put my roll together, making very deliberate eye contact with everything except Psalm Mitchel.

"If I'm subjected to the same treatment that thong is getting," he said low in my ear, "count me in" — and walked away.

We were lucky enough to find an empty table in the shade where the breeze was hitting just right. The only problem with the location was that Psalm and his boys had claimed the table right next to ours.

"You excited about that new Orbi drop, Ju-Money?" Mega asked.

If there was anything that could make me smile besides my family and food, it was an Orbi set. Orbi was Lego for scientists. You physically built atoms and molecules with the pieces, but there was no guide — you had to rely entirely on your own knowledge and form your own hypothesis as you went. One wrong calculation and the whole model collapsed. Get everything right and you earned yourself a display piece and full bragging rights.

"Hell yes — this is the most anticipated set of the season," I said, unable to contain myself. I caught Psalm glancing over with his invasive ass.

"My little nerd," Yahya shook her head. "Out of every new release dropping right now, you're most excited about scientific Jenga."

I laughed. "Jenga is for a drunken evening. Orbi is for the intellectual elite," I signed, giving her a flirty wink.

"So you getting the set?" Mega asked, mouth full of bread and lobster.

My excitement deflated instantly. I plopped up and down on the bench with a full pout.

I was never going to beat these bratty allegations.

"No," I signed, bottom lip out.

"What — why?" they asked in unison.

"ARS," I signed.

Alpha Rose Society required its pledges to give up their favorite hobbies for the following week. And they could not have picked a worse time. The limited-edition quantum architecture release was dropping in three days and was guaranteed to sell out. Unlike Lego, there was no backorder. One and done.

"Damn, Ju. I know you wanted that set bad," Mega frowned, genuine sorrow written across his face.

Yahya waved her hand. "I'll just go get it and hold it until your little fast is over."

"You can't," I signed.

"Why not?"

"Because you have to be a registered member with a qualifying tier ranking to purchase it. Every buy gets tracked back to your membership profile," I whined.

"Damn, that nerdy shit is that strict?" Mega asked.

"Small sacrifices for big rewards," I shrugged — sounding far less convincing than I intended.

We ate and talked a little longer, the festival humming around us. Then the crowd began shifting — a large wave of people all moving in the same direction at once.

"Oh hell — Heaven is about to perform," Mega announced, scrambling to clean up his mess.

Sure enough, people were flooding toward the main stage. It was a community performance — no assigned seating, first come first served.

"Absolutely not. I am not standing in all of that," Yahya announced. "I love me some Heaven, but I will watch the TikTok streams before I risk getting trampled."

"Let's park on the hill behind the lot," Mega suggested. "Best view, sound carries clean up there — and we can spark up this new strain called Aladdin."

"Aladdin?" I questioned.

"Yup. One hit of this and you'll be in a whole new world."