Teaser Tuesday {2}

It's that time of week again, Teaser Tuesday time! This snippet is once again from Red Herring, a YA contemporary mystery.

I'm kind of excited because I'm in the process of conceptualizing and fleshing out an SNI at the moment, Here Be Humans. It'll be at least a few weeks yet before there's any teasers from that though. But at the moment, it is on deck as the next project.

But anyway, back to this week. Feedback is muchly appreciated! And without further ado:

__________

2:01 a.m.

The liquid is the gilded ochre of donkey piss.

Doesn’t taste much better either.

I vibrate the red plastic cup between my thumb and middle finger, watching the foul substance swirl in conflicting little waves.

Cherry bounces up and down on the bumper of her decade-old red Honda, shaking the car. She lifts her cup at me. “To the last day of freedom.”

I bump mine against hers overdramatically, arm looping in a wide arc. A little bit of the beverage sloshes over the lip of the cup and cascades to the pavement with a splat. “Cheers,” I mock-seriously respond fervently.

In unison we tip our cups back. The foul drink carries the heavy stench of alcohol, sliding abrasively down my throat. The aftertaste will be worse, so I force myself to keep gulping it down as if it were simply grape soda. I finish first and crumple the frail plastic between my fingers.

Cherry’s throat gleams unnaturally pale in the harsh yellow glow of the streetlamp we’re parked under. The smooth column of her jugular undulates as her subtle Adam’s apple bobs with each swallow.