Oscar pulled up to my house around 8:15 and I hopped in. Ray and Liz sat in the back while we sped off towards downtown, the street lights becoming blurs as we passed.

"Hey, I invited Nick and Angeline. Is that coo? I told them to meet us there."

"You dont know where were going." countered Oscar. I shrugged.

"They advertised a huge bash at Club Rapture. So, I assumed." Oscar took his eyes off of the road and stared at me.

"How in the hell did you know that?"

"Lucky guess." I said with a smirk. Oscar grinned and gunned the engine some more before speeding up and weaving through traffic as he turned onto the freeway. I smiled as the common adrenaline rush took effect, but buckled my seat belt anyway. The car sped up until finally it seemed like it would lose control at any moment, and Oscar slowed down. He pulled off the freeway and with a quick glance back, I saw two cop cars speed by. Close call, I thought to myself and laughed mentally. Tonight was gonna be a good night.

"Hey, so wheres this club at?" asked Liz from the back. Oscar smiled in the rear view mirror and turned at a red light before continuing.

"No idea. The person who told me about it just said to look for the crowd of cars under a bridge. So, I guess its near a bridge."

"Nice Oscar. Now were gonna be lost in downtown and were gon-" right then Oscar turned and Ray stopped complaining. We all stood breathless at the sight as Oscar braked hard and the tires squeeled. I laughed as soon as the car stopped completely and Ray joined in. I looked back at them and unbuckled my seatbelt before opening the door and getting out of the car. Liz was the first to follow and Oscar finally turned off the car and got out, too. Ray was the last one and he just left his door open. I noticed Oscar had left his keys in the ignition and we just all walked forward.

The club was too small to hold the bash, it turns out. The crowd had spilled out onto the street and it was like an out of place Mardi Gras. For as far as the eye could see, people drank and danced in the streets with only an SUV here or a Sedan interrupting the river here and there. Where there was vehicles, people just crowded around or got on top of.

I turned around to see people surge and dance around us until we were enclosed. I lost sight of Oscars car and kept walking forward, making sure to stay close to Oscar, Ray, and Liz. The feeling that pervaded the atmosphere was one of escape. The world couldnt touch us here. We were above the law in numbers and beyond civilization with the music. Nothing could stop us now.

I turned to see Oscar get pulled through the crowd with some acquaintances of his I didnt know, and then turned to my right to see only Ray there.

"Wheres Liz?" He shrugged and smiled. "She saw her friend and went to say hi. I told her wed meet at the Excursion over there." I nodded and we proceeded through the crowd. I didnt have much rhythm and Ray didnt like to dance, so we would just enjoy the atmosphere and dance if we had to. I saw a few faces I knew in the crowd, but they would disappear after a glance, and mostly the crowd contained strangers. You could see where the crowd had started to pour out of the club because the swarm was concentrated there at the entrance.

I turned to my right and saw Ray get pulled into the crowd by Liz. She was smiling and dancing and Ray looked back with a grin. His eyes said sorry for leaving me alone, but the smile I gave back said it was ok. If the world really was ending, I wanted him to have as much fun as he could.

"I'll meet you in one o the cafes!" He hollered through the blaring music and cacophony of various noises.

Various cafes lined the sides of the crowded streets, so I nodded. I didnt know which one he wanted to meet in, but just assumed it would work out. I waved to him, but he had already turned around with Liz and they soon disappeared into the mass of bodies. I took a deep breath looking to where Ray was just at and turned to walk alone. The people crowded into me and prodded me along and I just went along with it. No use fighting, since I wasn't particular in where I wanted to go. I ended up at this one minivan at one point where the two side doors were open. I sat in there for a bit to observe the scene around me and had a pleasant conversation with the people in there.

"Hey kid. How're you?" asked the goateed guy in the shotgun seat. I waved at him and looked around once more before answering.

"Just dandy. You?" He looked at the other people in the van and laughed.

"I'm great, kid. This is the party of a lifetime, and it doesn't get much better than this." I nodded, and he introduced the other people, indicating them with a nod of his chin. "This here's Gunner. That's Monica, and behind her is Fara. And this fine specimen of a human being beside me is Xiao."

I waved politely at all the people, and then back at the man.

"And you?"

"Well, they call me Carlos, but my real name is Fred."

"Why do they call you Carlos?"

"It was a joke, kid. A joke." he said with a laugh. "And how 'bout you? Whaddya go by?"

"Robby." He held out his hand to me and gripped it firmly.

"Nice to meet you Robby. It's a pleasure to spend the end of the world with you."

The phrasing took me by surprise for a bit before I recovered and smiled.

"The pleasure's all mine." Pleased with my response, he turned back around and lit a cigarette. On closer examination, it wasn't a cigarette at all. It was a special cigarette. I laughed.

"Smoking weed during the end of the world?" I asked.

"The only way to go, man. The only way to go." I cocked a smile but turned it down when he offered. "You a straight edge?"

"Nah, man, but I dunno. I don't wanna be stoned when i go. I would rather see the world as it is now, not idealize it with the help of pot."

"I see your point, kid, but I wanna go happy."

"I'm not trying to persuade you."

"And that's why you're cool, kid." he exhaled and a cloud of smoke ensued. The mist faded and twirled into the night air and I watched the wisps and tendrils of it dissolve. "Who'd you come with, Rob?"

"A few friends, but they kinda got lost in the mix. A few more are meeting me here."

"Ha, I wish 'em good luck. You seen this crowd?"

"The thought occurred to me they'd have some trouble." I said glancing around at the bodies that pulsed against the van and then receded into the mass of people. "But, it'll work out."

"Why you so sure, kid?" asked Gunner. I shrugged.

"I can't hope for it not to, and I wanna hope. That severely limits my options, doesn't it?" I said with a smirk. Xiao turned around and gave me a grin.

"Kid's got spunk."

"Nope, he just knows how he looks at life." commented Fara. It felt odd being observed, but kinda nice. They talked about me objectively, like I wasn't there but I didn't really mind.

"That right, kid? You think you got the meanin' of life?" asked Gunner.

"If not the meaning, at least the gist of it." I answered. He nodded, took a toke of the joint and passed it to Fara. The only one who hadn't spoken was Monica, and I waited to hear her voice. But, the conversation took off again without her.

"And what's the gist?" asked Fred.

"Life is... life. There's no other word for it. If you use another word to describe it, you pigeon hole and classify it. Its good, but then you forget it sucks sometimes. A lot of times. Then its bad, and you forget about the rainbows and rain. Then its beautiful, and you forget how ugly it is. Then its ugly, and its not."

"Whoa, philosophical overload. If not for the weed, I'd be lost." said Xiao with a laugh. "But kid, you forget that it can't be all those things at once."

"Why not?" asked Fara.

"Sorry, I worded that wrong. It can be, but we can't see it like that. We can't perceive more than one major emotion at once, because it'd be overload and we'd like, die or something. We can't remember it sucks when we're in love-"

"Or making love." interrupted Gunner with a smile.

"-or that its beautiful when someone dies." she continued without a break. "That's what makes life beautiful. Being able to move on."

"I agree but disagree with that ending." said Gunner. "What makes life beautiful is the fact that everything, bad and good, is beautiful anyway. Even ugliness itself is beautiful. A deaf person laughing, a retarded kid smiling, that's beautiful. The screech of metal on metal can be music and even death is awe inspiring."

"You're a dark human being, Gunner." said Fred. I laughed and Fara spoke.

"If the world were just one thing, it wouldn't be worth it. I need to feel sad and cry. I need to be pissed and scream. I don't wanna just be happy. That's crap right there. Anyone who says they just wanna be happy is sad. Because, happiness is only good in intervals, in little tastes. Happiness in too huge of quantities, you'd overdose."

"I agree with that." said Xiao. "But sadness and anger are good themselves, too. Not just to make happiness better. I love being deep and sorrowful. I love how it feels to snap and have people get scared. I love how it feels to wanna cry so bad, and then you do, and its good."

"Wow." said Fred. "I think this is the best weed ever to inspire a conversation like that."

"I think it was just Rob here." said Gunner.

"I am a good drug." I said. I looked around once more and smiled at Fara since she was looking at me. I think she was trying to figure me out.

I started to step out of the van and disappear into the crowd, but a voice stopped me. It wasn't the most beautiful voice I'd ever heard, but it had a raspy quality to it that gave it a unique beauty. I looked back at the only black girl in the group. Her eyes were dark and her hair was in dreads. She wasn't the most beautiful person I'd ever seen, but she just emanated warmth and a kinda sad understanding.

"You wanna know why life is beautiful?"

I sat there, half in and half out of the car, and waited on her words. Like teetering over an abyss, I felt like this was important. The crowd outside seemed to slow, and the group inside seemed to lean in and wait for the revelation just like me.

"I think its beautiful because it ends. Because it never, ever makes sense and yet, it always turns out right. It always is and always will be okay."

"But-" Gunner tried to interrupt. A look from Monica stopped him, and she continued.

"Robby, do you believe in God?" I nodded. "And what do you believe about him?"

My mind sputtered as her hoarse voice soothed me and cradled my thoughts. A gently smile from her coaxed out my opinion and I spoke it without having to really think about it.

"I think he has a sense of humor."

"Why?"

"Because he has to. He has such mood swings, because sometimes he's a dick, and sometimes he's so generous, and people say its because he has a plan, and I understand that his plan doesn't always benefit me but probably will in the end, but that doesn't help sometimes. But he has to have a sense of humor, because that's all that makes the bad good. Worth it. Because its funny. Irony is God's greatest gift to himself, his works, and thus us."

She smiled. She had made me loose my cool and go off, and it scared me how she did it so easily. I finished my rant and added an afterthought. "God is fuckin' funny. That's why life is hilarious. That's why the world is good."

I waved to the people and Gunner saluted. Fara blew a kiss and Fred waved. Xiao was lost in her own thoughts, I think, and Monica just smiled at me. That knowing smile. That knowing smile where I think I found God.

And I left that van with a smile.