As soon as she put on the sunglasses, Anna felt a wave of panic consume her like an unwanted ghost who had just possessed her body. The sunglasses appeared distorted and huge, and the hearts were stretched out and appeared to be beating like real human organs. “Lolly, I can’t be here,” Anna whispered. “I’m going to find Steven. I feel weird.” Lolly nodded and asked the LA Eleanor if she’d hang with her because she had dropped acid for the first time and was a little scared. The girl smiled and said she was shrooming herself but was more than capable of trip-sitting her while they waited.

Anna wandered around looking for Steven but couldn’t locate him, even though he was wearing a bright red HEY BRIDGET baseball cap. The problem was that all the colors were bleeding together, so staring into the crowd to find Steven was like rescuing the exact color crayon from a ninety-six-color boxed set before it melted into a waxy multicolored blob because you had put it in the dryer accidentally while you were tripping. The sun was too bright, and she was feeling overheated. Some guy in a clown wig came up to her and asked her name. “Why do you want to know?” Anna asked, suddenly afraid. “Do you know me?” Her voice was rising in terror, and the clown held up his big white-gloved hands and slowly backed away, telling her he had mistakenly thought she was someone else.

“Who did you think I was?” she cried out. “Who? Tell me!”

The clown yelled out, “Juliet. I thought you were my Juliet.”

This made Anna overwhelmingly sad, a Romeo in a clown wig had lost his Juliet. How will he ever find her here? The ground seemed to be shifting and slanting under her feet. Oh my god! she thought. It’s an earthquake! She spotted a white tent in the distance and, remembering what Steven had said about the VIP tent, ran toward it, dropping her water bottle in the process.

When she got to the security gate she placed her yellow wristband on the sensor and it glowed green. She found herself walking through a beautiful rose garden and almost sat on a bench but as the roses swayed in the desert breeze she felt as if the flowers started whispering to her, so she kept going, wanting to avoid any hallucinogenic conversations. The VIP area was less crowded, and everyone was better looking, less sweaty, and not dressed as clowns. She found a small area that had a couch, where a couple was holding hands and vaping, and squeezed in, mumbling an apology. She felt queasy, and the ground felt like it was moving. It’s not an earthquake. You’re just tripping. You’re fine.