Mark arranged a limo for Leah’s party. The driver picked us up and drove to a disco club called the Limelight. It was a legendary place, with a glass dance floor over a massive fish tank. Mark had finagled his way onto the VIP list, so the limo dropped us at the head of the line, which already stretched to the road.
The inside of the club was an assault on the senses, a maelstrom of light, sound, and heat. I immediately regretted my sport coat. The girls wore slinky party dresses, so they didn’t have to worry about heatstroke. I took off my jacket while Mark tried to get us seats in one of the curtained booths.
Unfortunately, we weren’t rich or famous enough.
“Hey, I tried,” he shouted over the music.
Erin spotted a table with someone she knew. She and Leah headed that direction, while Mark and I made our way to the bar. We joined them about ten minutes later with four Long Island iced teas.
“Paul, you remember Mindy,” Erin shouted in my ear. She gestured at a pretty girl sitting next to her.
“Yeah, of course,” I lied. I shook her hand. “Great to see you again.”
I introduced myself to her date, who looked like he came from a Sears catalog: Fashion Trend Yuppie, Also Available in Tall.
“And you remember Landon,” Erin said.
I turned to the other guy and shook his hand. Then my eyes widened. I knew him.
“Hey, man!” He pulled me into a hug. “Great to see you. How you been?”
“Great! You?” I turned to Mark. “Landon and I were on the wrestling
team together, back in high school. He was a year behind me.”
Landon introduced us to his girlfriend, Diane, and then something in my memory clicked. Landon had a twin sister. I looked at Mindy.
She laughed. “I knew you didn’t remember me!”
“I…” I hung my head. “I’m an idiot.”
“It’s okay.”
“The last time I saw you…”
“I was skinny and flat-chested.” She laughed.
“Well, you don’t have that problem anymore. So, what’ve you been up to?”
We spent the next few hours talking, drinking, and having a good time. I even spent some time on the dance floor, mostly with Leah or Mindy, much to her date’s annoyance. She didn’t seem to care. Mr. Fashion Trend even disappeared for about an hour, and no one noticed until he reappeared to tell Landon he was leaving.
“I told Landon I don’t wanna date one of his frat buddies,” Mindy said in my ear. Her look told me exactly who she did want to date.
Leah gave me a wink and headed to the dance floor with Mark.
I put an arm around Mindy and pulled her close. Might as well enjoy myself, I decided.
We partied a while longer and fended off several people who offered to sell us coke. Mark was incredibly cool about it, and made us sound like we were too well-connected to need extra party favors.
I was buzzed enough to be curious what it was like, but not so drunk that I was willing to try, even when Mindy hinted that she might like to.
A small part of me laughed at how much my attitudes had changed. I used to think drugs were only for losers. And being gay was wrong. And relationships were simple. Period, full stop, end of discussion. Somewhere along the line I must have realized that the world wasn’t black and white.
Mindy pulled me back to reality before I could ride away on my high horse. We danced for a couple of songs before she maneuvered me toward a little alcove near the stage. We started making out. Plenty of other couples were doing the same, including a surprising number of gay men.
Two of them jostled us and then moved away with a wave of apology.
Mindy overreacted.
“Relax,” I told her.
“They make me wanna barf.”
“Why?”
“You aren’t grossed out?”
“Why should I be? People are people. Besides, I have better things to do.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Like tell you how good you look.”
“You aren’t so bad yourself.”
I was just wondering how far I wanted to take things when Mark appeared beside us.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “Landon needs your help, Mindy. He’s drunk.”
“Can’t Diane take care of him?”
“’Fraid not,” he said apologetically. “She tried, but…”
Mindy huffed. “He always does this.”
We went back to the table, where Landon had more or less passed out. He was bigger than me, and Diane was doing her best to keep him upright. We decided it was a good time to leave. Mark and I ducked under Landon’s arms, while the girls gathered our things from the table.
We carried him to his car and laid him on the back seat. Mindy rummaged in the glove compartment until she found a pen and scrap of paper. She scrawled her phone number and handed it to me. Then she gave me a boozy kiss that was half-goodbye, half-invitation. Erin and Leah both smirked as I helped her into the passenger seat and shut the door.
“God, that took forever,” Mark said as they drove off.
“What?”
“You’re such a goof,” Leah said, and rose to kiss me.
“Come on,” Mark said. “Let’s find the limo and get the real party started.”
Mark had also booked rooms at a hotel, since the Coulter house was already full of family. Elizabeth’s parents had flown in from England and were staying in the main house. Her sister and brother-in-law had just arrived from Scotland. They currently occupied the pool house with their two grown children.
I chuckled at the thought of trying to have an orgy with all those people
around. Fortunately, Mark interrupted before the scene in my head turned into an X-rated episode of The Benny Hill Show.
“Sorry about what happened back there,” he said as the limo pulled away from the club. “Landon and the girls were fun and all, but they aren’t swingers.”
“Ah. Right.”
“So,” he finished matter-of-factly, “I had to keep buying Landon drinks.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You mean you got him drunk on purpose?”
“Yeah. But he wasn’t really the problem. Mindy was.”
I looked at Leah out of the corner of my eye. She was more amused than annoyed.
“She wasn’t going to let you go until you took her home.”
“Um, no,” Erin agreed.
“So I had to figure a way to get rid of them, without hurting anyone’s feelings.”
“Tonight is a private party,” Leah said. “Now, isn’t there some rule that says the birthday girl gets a kiss?”
Who was I to refuse?
Mark and Erin began making out too.
I pulled Leah’s hand to my lap, and she began squeezing my resurgent erection.
“Don’t get too carried away,” Mark said. “We’ll be there soon.” A couple of minutes later, he moved Erin’s hand from his own lap. He turned around to see where we were.
“Better cover up,” he said absently, and I realized that Erin’s breast was exposed.
She grinned at me and waited until the last second before she lifted the strap of her dress.
The limo pulled to a stop outside the hotel entrance. Mark and I helped the girls out of the back while the driver unloaded our small overnight bags from the trunk.
“I checked in this afternoon,” Mark said as we grabbed the bags and headed into the lobby. “Adjoining rooms,” he added, and pulled a key from his pocket. “We can party in one and sleep in the other.”
We tossed our bags on the beds, and the girls disappeared into the bathroom.
“Grab the ice bucket,” Mark said as he opened the door to the other room.
“Why? Duh. Never mind.”
“Be right back,” he said. “Make yourself comfortable.”
I poked around the room—a standard hotel double—and then decided to turn on some music. Mark had brought a boom box. Trip would’ve made a special mix tape just for the party, but Mark hadn’t brought any, even store-bought ones. So I turned on the radio and found a station I remembered from my high school days.
“We’re all set,” Mark said when he returned. He put the buckets on the table and plunged two bottles of champagne into the ice. “I brought the stuff to make B-52s. You wanna hand me those bottles?”