“Le Beach?” Jake widened his eyes. “We’ll never get in there. It’s only for celebs and VIPs.”

“Lucky you guys know me then,” she cooed.

“Oh yeah, and which celebrities do you know?” Andile walked up to her and put a hand on his hip, eyeballing her playfully. I looked at the two of them together and smiled; they were destined to become friends.

“I work at Simone Couture and her husband owns the club. He said I could go there anytime I wanted.”

We all looked at each other. “Then what the hell are we waiting for?” Andile said.

The nightclub was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It dripped with opulence. Everything was white. Huge chandeliers that looked like crystal jellyfish hung from the ceilings. The bar was a long, glass fish tank full of tropical fish, and the bar stools were transparent plastic. We headed straight for the dance floor as a particularly bassy house track started playing. Andile and Guy began doing their choreographed dance, the one they always did when they hit any kind of a dance floor anywhere, and soon a crowd had gathered. The crowd laughed and clapped as they incorporated ballet into their routine (like they always did). I watched them and laughed. For Andile, ballet had been his outlet, like my art. Growing up as a gay, Black teen in rural Limpopo had been hard, and dancing was the only thing that had gotten him through it. It was also what got him out when he received a scholarship to art school. And when he danced, you could see the passion and raw emotion that poured out of him. As for Guy, he came from a theater family and it was in his blood. We were all from completely different worlds, and yet our worlds had all come together, and now we were family.

I watched as the dance turned into an unofficial dance off as others joined in and showed their best moves. I looked to my left and there was Jake, staring at me. He waved his hand at me, beckoning me to come with him as he walked backward away from the dancing. We walked through the crowd together, out of the club, and onto its private beach. It was lit up with pink and purple lights, turning the sand and water luminous. It reminded me of the bioluminescence that Jake had taken me to see. Loungers dotted the sand, and the occasional couple were lying on them, sipping cocktails.

“This way,” Jake said, walking to the edge of the sea. I looked at the water and felt that cold, clammy feeling that hits me in the chest. I looked up from the water and into Jake’s eyes. They were almost the same color as the sea, which made the sea feel less terrifying.