Sold Out!

[Jay Carpenter]

The concert was sold out. The arena was absolute chaos outside. Jay pushed his way through hawkers and was pretty sure he may have been offered a million dollars for his ticket at one point by a girl that looked about fourteen and definitely shouldn't have that kind of money, but by the stern look of the private security guard at her shoulder, Jay wondered if she had been exaggerating or not. He gave the guy a nod and waved her off, hands up where the guard could see him. "Shouldn't you be at home doing homework or something?'
He asked of her, as he carefully disentangled the pre-teen from clutching at his arm. She practically sniffed and turned elsewhere. The guard turned as well, and neither saw when Jay walked into the shoulder of a hulky beast of a man.

With bright red dyed hair and powdered white face, he looked like a clown, or maybe a goth clown, as his lips were almost tinted black and the eyes rimmed with some sort of makeup. The man down right snarled. Jay, immediately aware of the trajectory of the man's hands, quickly put space between them and nodded. "Relax, buddy. Just an accident. If you're hard up, that girl was offering a fortune for a ticket,"
he laughed.

Jay pointed at the back of the preteen's head. The red head swiveled and started to walk toward her like he actually considered selling his ticket. Jay shrugged and headed for the gates. At least he didn't get in a fist fight in the parking lot. That was one victory so far. Hate to have to deal with that kind of paperwork later. Nor stand around and keep the hulking hot head contained until police showed up. This was suppose to be his night off dammit.

Sure as shit, the ticket was legit. He was inside soon enough and walking the perimeter. Soon enough, he had a beer in one hand and a bag of popcorn in the other. Corn fed Iowa boy and all that. And pushed his way toward his seat. Fourth row. Damn. Maybe his ticket was worth a million bucks.