It was now the first week in September. Dana was just getting out of the shower. He’d spent the night doing something that made him feel the need to be clean, to just wash. He was feeling a lot of that these days. He wrapped himself in a towel and headed to the kitchen for some juice only to find Jason sitting on the couch watching TV.
“You feeling better?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Just fine.”
“I know but—“
“But what? You can’t let them keep this over you forever. You could fix this anytime if you wanted to.”
“No. I’m not going to do that.” Dana wasn’t trying to bring his past into his present.
“Okay. Well, it’s your decision. You talked to your mother lately?”
“At the rate she keeps calling me? No. I refuse to pick up the phone. She’s only calling to pump me for details about the relationship—well, the supposed relationship. She isn’t entirely convinced there is one. She thinks something else is going on.”
“So you’ve been ignoring her calls. That’s not nice,” Jason laughed.
“You go on and laugh. I don’t see your mom all up in your shit. And I’m tired of hearing her tell me how amazing you are and how I should be more like you. I think you’ve brainwashed her somehow, 'cause the Jason she talks about and the one I know are not the same person.”
“Hey, I can’t help it if I’m charming. Well, I got me a coffee date with Nancy, so I’ll see you around—that is, if this supposed relationship isn’t consuming too much of your time.”
“Just go,” Dana replied with a smile.
***
“What you doing here? Thought you were on the morning shift today.” Marco and the others were laying on a grassy hill on campus grounds.
“Took the day off, Marco,” Dana responded.
“Well, get down on the grass and stare at the sky with us.” Staring at the clouds can be quite calming, and as they became more relaxed, they began to just talk and talk about anything.
“So tell us about yourself, Goldie.” Dana threw a patch of grass at Raul and said he wasn’t a fish.
“All right. You’re not a fish. So who is Dana?”
“Nothing much to tell—city boy, lots of money. Just wanted to escape and leave all that behind me. Become a no-name. So I dropped the last and first name, made my past evaporate, and here I am. What about you?”
“Our parents are gay,” Rene said.
“Adopted?”
“No. Our dad messed around while he was still in America. Our mom died in a car accident when we were two. His parents moved to the UK, and he met his partner in college, and they raised us. Who says two men can’t raise children? We came out just fine,” Rene said.
“Well, I did come out gay so technically—” Raul was cut off as Rene threw a patch of grass at him.
“Now that’s the second time I’ve been hit with grass.”
“It’s 'cause you’re an ass,” Rene said.
“How’d you end up with these guys, Marco?”
“I ask myself that all the time. My mom was a researcher travelling the globe, and she met my dad in Mexico. She fell in love and started teaching there, where they ultimately had me. A few years go by, and she gets offered this really good position at a college back in her home country, so we pack it up and move to England. Spent the next few years using our free time to travel the world, seeing as me and my dad had never left our country.
“We became friends 'cause I happened to go to the same school as them, and could only speak and read basic English—just enough to survive. They crossed the language barrier and helped me out, even though the other kids were making fun. We’ve been friends ever since. Mind you, I’ve always been the third wheel to their chaos.”
“Whatever. You know you love us,” Raul said and got another patch of grass thrown at him.
“And you, Adrian?”
Adrian started to tell his coming out story in its entirety—and no missing pieces this time—so everyone was listening attentively. “…So then the town tries to exercise the ‘demon’ out of me—spearheaded by my mom, of course. It was one crazy month, but it cooled down just enough for me to bear going back to school for my senior year. My partial scholarship and my sister’s success as a lawyer saved me from small-town mentality and brought me here. I haven’t been back since I left. Still talk to some people, though.” This final story seemed to be enough for the reveal fest to end, so they all just stared up in silence enjoying some moments of serenity.
***
“Christ, I am getting so tired of this shit. Ad campaign this, promotion strategy that, target customer, zoning statistics. Why did I have to do marketing when there are so many easier things to do?” It was the beginning of October, and Marco was stressing over homework again.
“Oh, stop crying and relax. You got all weekend to get that shit done.”
“You would say that, Adrian. Mr. architectural and graphic design. When are you going to get a room for all your models? They’re taking up our floor space.” Adrian just shrugged it off and answered his phone.
“Hello.”
“Hey. Wassup Lil’man?” Dana said.
“Nothing much. Just another Friday night.”
“So you guys are staying in tonight then?”
“Yeah, we’re ordering the pizza now.”
“Tell him no fucking pineapple. I’m coming over.”
“Okay. I’ll tell him.” Adrian got off the phone and told Rene “no pineapple.”
“So I take it that was Dana. He’s the only one touchy about the pineapple.”
“Yeah, Raul. He’s on his way.” Dana arrived just as the pizza did, so he paid the guy and walked the food in himself. Time went on, and Adrian was in the kitchen making another beer run. Dana was just coming by from the bathroom when he saw him.
“You shouldn’t bend over like that with people like Raul around.”
“Oh really?”
“He might just try to push it in right here in the kitchen.”
“He wouldn’t dare.”
“Why not?”
“Because—”
Just as Adrian was finishing his sentence, Rene walked into the kitchen. “Oh shit. No way.” There, mid-kiss, Dana and Adrian had been caught.
***
A few months earlier at the end of spring term.
“There he is. What a waste of good, hot man meat.” The four of them were at Liza’s. Sitting at their old favourite table, which wasn’t in Dana’s waiting section. Raul was talking about him.
“It’s too bad about his bad rep, though.”
“Those guys had it coming,” Rene said. “Anyone of us would’ve kicked their asses. Maybe minus the broken limbs.”
“Yeah. Too bad. He always looks so sad and alone, though.”
“Really Raul. You care about his social life after that speech you gave him about hate crimes and thugs.” Adrien said sarcastically.
“Momentary lapse in judgement. I had a hot date planned with that particular guy that night.”
“So it was all about you then. Maybe you shouldn’t date assholes. Then they wouldn’t be the type of people to get their ass kicked.”
“Don’t bore me with facts, Adrian.” Adrian just shook his head, and the others smiled.
“I’m going to go cheer him up. Looks like he’s going on a break.” Rene didn’t wait for them to convince him this was a bad idea. He just up and walked over.
“Mind if I join you?”
“I thought you didn’t like homophobic assholes.”
“Okay, I admit I may have been a little harsh, but I’ve seen the error of my ways.”
“I guess I can accept your apology.”
“How could you not? I’m hot, Hispanic, and I have a British accent.”
Even Dana had to laugh at that. Straight from enemy to flirting. There was no shame in Raul’s game. “You shouldn’t flirt with me. Isn’t three little black books long enough? No need to start a fourth.”
“So you got jokes,” Raul replied with a smile.
“And besides, you’re not my type.”
“Oh, so you’re strictly a ladies’ man,” Raul sighed in mock disappointment. Dana just smiled. “Too bad. We could’ve been good naked together.”
“I bet. Just stay on your end of the table. I don’t wanna have to hurt you.”
“Ouch. Now that just hurts my feelings.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Dana said coyly.
“All right, you should come round the courts with us sometime.”
“Okay, sounds like a plan.”
“I gotta warn you—Jen might be there.”
“Jen?” Dana chuckled. “Jen is definitely not who I’m worried about.”
***
“Hey, Dana.” Janita was banging on the window. There was no logical reason why Dana would be walking by Liza’s at dinner time when he wasn’t working. Truthfully, he just wanted to get a glimpse of Adrian and was hoping this Friday night they would be here. Thanks to some encouragement from Jason, they had started sitting in his section, so Dana no longer had to bribe the other waiters to serve them.
“Come on in.” Dana obliged and came in. He’d spent a lot of time with them the past week. They sorta induced him into their pack.
“We just got here. Haven’t ordered yet.”
“Cool. So what makes you think I haven’t eaten?”
“A big guy like you? You know you can pack in some more food,” Marco said. Like he wasn’t a thick guy himself. So they ordered, and soon the table was full, with a large bowl of ribs, a side of potato salad, some stir-fried rice and vegetables, steamed broccoli and cheese, fish and mashed potatoes and gravy.
“Well, let’s dig in already,” Dana said and went straight for the bowl of ribs.
Dana bought the drinks for the night and for dessert they shared a whole strawberry cheesecake. Then it was on to Club Incognito. It took much persuasion to get Dana to come with them, but somehow they managed. No such luck with Jen. She wasn’t passing up on sex to go get drunk. She could do that any Friday.
This particular night they got in free. They assumed that either Adrian or Raul had finally slept with either the owner or someone who knew the owner, and their status had been bumped up at last.
Dana turned out to be the wallflower that he was and either stayed at the table or chilled at the bar talking to Jason. He was the bar manager there at nights. The rest of them were on and off the dance floor except for Adrian. He was the most wild, and apparently the hottest thing up in there. A few beers and he was topless and on the dancefloor in nothing but his jeans and a pair of Lugz. Nothing and no one could pry him off the floor.
That was how it went on until it was close to four in the morning. Adrian had clearly had too much to drink. The others were doing ten times better, feeling their hits only a little. It took all of them to force Adrian out and back into the world. Once outside, he was quickly in the middle of the road, singing, fucking people off, and shouting at any drivers that got too close to him.
“He’s a real character when he’s drunk.”
“Tell me about it, Rene. I don’t think he’ll make it home,” Marco said, and the three of them—Janita had already gone home—started to think. Neither of them could be bothered to take care of him. And suddenly it was like they all had the same light bulb floating above their heads. Spring him on the new guy.
“Why you all looking at me like that?” That was when they laid on the guilt about how they were too drunk to take Adrian home, and since he was the only one that didn’t drink much, he should do it. They put it on real thick with an extra cherry on top.
“I guess I could take him home then. Or at least to my place. It’s closer.”
“See, and I know you’re a straight boy, so I’m warning you he can get a little frisky when he’s drunk. So watch yourself.” Dana just shook his head at Marco and went over to Adrian.
“Looks like you’re coming with me, Lil’man.”
“I ain't little,” Adrian said, his words slurring into each other. He wobbled his way over to Dana, pushed his finger into his chest, and said, “I’m… A… big boy.”
“Oh yeah? Tie your own shoes and everything, huh?”
“Yup. That’s right,” he replied, looking up as he was too close and too short to see Dana’s face. Dana just picked him up. “Put me down. I’m not a child. I’m a grown man.” Dana ignored him, rested him on a wall and turned around. Adrian more or less fell on Dana’s back, as opposed to actually getting on. Then Dana walked back towards the guys.
“So I’ll see you guys tomorrow, then.” They said “bye” through laughter—they had been laughing since the “big-boy” comment. Dana started to walk towards his apartment, and Adrian started pretending to shoot people.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m an Indian using my arrow to shoot deer to take home for my family.” Adrian went on shooting walkers and actually shouting out in triumph when they crossed people crazy enough to pretend to die. Finally, Dana made it home, and he put Adrian on the ground so he could let himself in. Before he could even get his key, Adrian went Europe all over Dana’s chest. Europe being the sound you make when you throw up “uuuurrrr-uuuhhhpppp” slower or faster, depending on the forcefulness of the upchuck. So he finally gets him in the house, places Adrian on the couch and removes the shirt.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Adrian said, looking at what he had projected on Dana’s shirt. The apology was a minute or two too late, but there it was. He then dragged Adrian to the bathroom and leant him against the Jacuzzi tub while he ran the water and removed Adrian’s shirt. He took both shirts to the laundry, and the tub was filled by the time he got back, with an extra towel and the mop just in case of another accident. He turned on the jets just out of pure habit and stripped Adrian down to his boxers. He really didn’t want to take them off, but the guy was sick, and he wanted to wash the smell of alcohol and the club off him. That was the real reason for the bath. He was one of those people that Fabreezed their clothes after a night out just to clear out the smell.
He took off the boxers, forced all nasty thoughts out of his mind and let Adrian soak in the tub. Adrian seemed to come around a little bit as the smell of bath soap filled his lungs. Dana got into the shower—a quick one just to get the smell of regurgitated food off of him—and then came back to check on Adrian.
“You feeling better?” Dana asked him as he wrapped himself in a towel.
“A little. You didn’t have to give me a bath. You could’ve just let me air out somewhere and shower in the morning,” he said, not so slurred but very carefully, almost strained.
“Yeah, well, you smelled like a mix of beer, smoke, and your dinner.”
“Okay, so you don’t like the smoke, beer, or the stale food?” Dana just smiled in response.
“You okay to dry off yourself? I brought you a pair of shorts; I’m a little bigger than you so they might hang on your ass a little. Your clothes will be dry tomorrow.”
“Come back in five minutes. I’ll be out and dry, but I’m not trying to walk in a bathroom. I could bump into shit in here and bathrooms ain’t soft.” Dana chuckled and did just that. He helped Adrian to his bedroom and let him have the bed. That was when Dana received a phone call. From what Adrian could see, he looked agitated, but he was too drunk to think about it. Dana left to start the washer, and when he came back, Adrian was asleep. He was dying to climb in bed with him but somehow managed to force himself out to the living room and fell asleep on the couch, watching a DVD.
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