Chapter #7Those Who Pass as Party Animals by: Seuzz   Whoa. College party, you think. Sweet! You text Connor back for the place and time, and he replies only a minute later. You rush on home.
Okay, technically it's a party, and technically it's being held at the house where college-level guys hang out. But in terms of substance you're pretty sure it's not really going to be much of either. You use that to your advantage, though, when you tell your folks you'll be hanging out at some friends' house for dinner and most of the evening. "Connor Hutchison and Justin Carr," you say when your dad asks where you'll be. "You remember them."
"I thought they graduated," he says, and you barely manage to keep your jaw from dropping. Does your dad really pay that much attention to your friends?
"Well, yeah," you say. "But they're having a cookout at their place. Hamburgers and stuff. Carson and James and Paul Davis and guys like that will be there, so it's more or less, you know, a high school party." You feel yourself turning red under your dad's stare.
"Uh huh," he says dryly. "Just be home by eleven."
"Eleven?" you gasp.
"Do you want to try for ten?"
"Eleven is great," you hurriedly say. "Can I have a few dollars? I'm supposed to bring a couple of bags of potato chips for something."
"Better start budgeting for stuff like that in the future," he says, and doesn't move for his wallet.
So there goes most of the money you were planning to use to buy up new supplies for the next spell.
* * * * *
Connor and Justin only graduated in May, so you're surprised to learn that they have already moved into a place of their own, and are even more surprised when you find out that they are not actually enrolled at Keyserling College. "We're taking the year off, building up some work experience, saving up money, having fun," Justin says when you broach the subject. "School is fucking expensive and I'm not even sure it's worth it. We're testing things out, maybe give it a try next year or the year after."
But that talk occurs later in the evening, after the sun is down and the coals in the grill have cooled. When you arrive, with three bags of Lays potato chips, the sun is still up and Connor has just squirted lighter fluid onto the briquettes.
They're living in the "student ghetto" south of the college campus in a house that's maybe an eighth the size of yours. It shares a tiny parcel of land --half an acre, maybe -- with five other equally tiny houses with a street out front and broad alley on the other three sides; low, whitewashed cinderblock fences separate a yard the size of your bedroom from five other yards equally small. There are four rooms inside: a living room and kitchen that occupy a single large space with a countertop/bar in between; two bedrooms; and a bathroom.
"This is actually student married housing," Justin explains after you've noticed that there are two couples in the other yards, along with three toddlers.
"So you and Connor finally got married," says Carson Ioeger from the chair he's relaxing in. He and Lamont were invited as well. "Me and James are waiting until we graduate."
"Suck on this, Ioeger," Justin says, and holds out a cold wiener. "Actually, we're secretly subletting from the couple that lives here. Except they're separated, so it's only Manuel in the other bedroom."
"And you and Connor are sharing a bed in the other. Why don't you make it legal?"
Justin tosses the dogs onto the grill, where they quickly start to sizzle, then walks behind the lawn chair that Carson is lazing in. He rests his hands lightly around Ioeger's neck.
"Because I'm saving myself for you, when you're finally eighteen. Assuming Black and Patterson don't deflower you before I can. How are they, by the way?" He lets go of Carson and returns to the grill.
"Still being giant dicks. Wouldn't you say so?" He squints at James Lamont, who's in the chair next to him.
Okay, so this is more or less what you were expecting; and, sad to say, it's more or less what you tried promising your dad. (Would that his worst suspicions had been true.) Hutchison and Carr, and Ioeger and Lamont, who all hung out together all through high school though the former pair were a grade ahead, are together again, and they're still talking about Westside High. You let your mind drift as James and Carson tell the other two about the latest injustices perpetrated by the basketball squad. It's very boring, because it has been that way for as long as you can remember, going back at least to your freshman year: the jocks in all the classes hanging out with each other, with the older jocks teaching the younger ones the finer points of how to humiliate guys like you. And in every class there were also jokers and insurgents like this quartet who always tried to find ways to get back at the abusers. Every once in a while they would try to rope you into helping out with some scheme or other; but you wriggled out once too often, and soon the invitations stopped coming, and you sank to the bottom as just another loser who wouldn't even fight back.
It's kind of sick actually, hearing them talk like this. If the jocks -- as you suspect -- will continue to live on past memories of high school glory on the gym courts and athletic fields, it sounds like the anti-jocks like Connor and Justin are continuing to live on past memories of high school glory they earned by resisting the jocks.
You pull a beer from the ice chest and pop it open, and would feel more like a rebel while doing it, except that everyone else also has a beer open.
The sliding glass door opens, and out comes a beefy guy in khaki shorts and a dress shirt with flapping tails. "Braaaaaahhhhts!" he growls as he tweaks up a sausage from the grill with his bare fingers. He hisses as he tosses it from hand to hand, cooling it before taking a bite from it. "So this is your party," he says. "Cops'll be here to bust it up in ten minutes of you keep it up."
"You're the one that said to keep it low key," Connor retorts.
"There's low-key and then there's this. Fuuuuuck" You wince a little as the newcomer casts a contemptuous eye over you and the rest of the turnout.
"Everyone else is coming later. Hey guys, this is Manual, the guy who's breaking all kinds of rules to let us live here. This is Carson and James and Will."
"Sup," Manuel says, and doesn't look at any of you long. "You all workin' at Starbucks too?"
"Nah, we're still at Westside," says Carson. He cocks his head. "Weren't you there too, on the football team?"
"Yeah, four or five years ago," Manuel says, and tosses the last of the dog into his mouth. He wipes greasy fingers on Justin's shirt with a sly grin. "Used to play 'freshman in a blanket' with these two." He slaps Justin on the back hard enough to knock him forward a step. "Ah, fuck me, that was fun."
But then he nudges Justin in the side, and most of the mirth drains from his face, leaving an expression of quiet sincerity. "I'm not planning on coming home tonight, and I put fresh sheets on my bed. You guys are welcome to use it, you know, if -- " He grins.
"Thanks," says Justin. Manuel shrugs again, and with a chuck of the chin bids everyone else a farewell before stepping back inside.
No one speaks for a moment. Then Lamont leans forward in his chair. "Ramos?" he says. "You guys are rooming with Ramos the Rapist?"
"Shut up," says Connor. "He's turned out to be cool. He's getting a degree in mechanical engineering, and if his wife hadn't turned out to be a bipolar cunt he'd be happily married and on his way up in the world."
"He's married, and he's going on a date?" you croak.
"He's going to a bar to pick someone up," Connor says. "I told you, he's separated, and he's got a restraining order against his wife. It's really too bad."
You don't remember Manuel Ramos from school, but you try to imagine moving out of your parents' house and into a house with Lester "The Molester" Pozniak or someone of that ilk, and discovering that he's a "cool guy." You can imagine some crazy things, but that's just too crazy.
But it's easier to think about that than it is to listen to the other four guys; everyone overheard Manuel's offer to Justin, and that has set off some ribald talk about everyone's sex life -- or lack of it. It starts with Carson and James razzing the other two for being footloose bachelors in college housing who still can't get laid, and then the other two turn it back on Carson and James, especially the latter, when they demand to know when he's finally going to talk Jenny Ashton into going out with him.
You keep very still, lest someone's eye fall on you. Your feelings about Lisa are still very tender, and you're not sure you'd be able stand up to any teasing that this bunch might give you over her -- particularly if it were left to Carson Ioeger to describe the disaster that was your relationship.
But then your brain turns it around: Why shouldn't you call Lisa and invite her over here? This is a fun, innocent outing, and she'd be more likely to show up at a party than on a date, and in a social setting like this maybe you could start to win her back. It would be a much more congenial setting for that than the weird three-sided date that she's got you roped into for the movie tomorrow.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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