"Night Fever" • Bee Gees (by Julián Martinez)

I remember dancing my pants off and almost dancing off a beautiful stranger’s until she figured out I was lying about not speaking good English. I started talking about how much I loved this Bee Gees song. She tore herself from my arms— man, you saidyuwrsfrmMessico— which was for the best ‘cause I did have a girlfriend asleep at home. I had told her that, with a whisper in her ear in my fake exotic accent, but she wanted to be bad, not a fool. Turns out I was both, so she melted in with the crowd and left me to dance by my lonesome. Plenty of friends were made after that, though—people sweating out the same sicknesses as me. Worse, matter of fact. You thought I was a sick puppy?

Julián Martinez (he/him) is the son of Mexican and Cuban immigrants and is from Waukegan, IL. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in HAD, hex literary, Little Engines and elsewhere. Find him online @martinezfjulian or martinezfjulian.com, or IRL in Chicago.