I liked them. Whatever the fuck their names were.
“Thank you!” I said, throwing my hand up dramatically. We weren’t talking about my brother, but I was. “That’s what I’m saying, dude! Like, don’t disrespect me, don’t fucking spit in my fucking eye after I’ve donenothingbut support you, and be there for you, break my fucking back for you! You know?”
They both looked at me like they wanted to eat me alive. I’m gay as fuck, but at that moment, I’d let them.
Not Rebekah, or Ronnie, I was almost sure her name was Rickie—then who the fuck was Ronnie?—said, “I know. Trust me, I know. I shared a room with this girl in boarding school who was like mysister. Like, we lived together for three years. We werebestfucking friends. Who sat as her life drawing model when we weren’t supposed to use live subjects? Me. Who called her mom and told her she was in the shower, no matter where she was, as soon as I got a panicked DM? Me. Who fucked my boyfriend the one time I actually went home for Thanksgiving? Her.”
My face matched the disgust in my voice. “Ew, fuck that.”
“Oh, Gisele, right?” Kris asked.
“Yeah.” Rickie rolled her eyes and fell back onto the couch. “They deserved each other. Heard he gave her crabs. Still forgave her when she apologized, but like, things were different, you know? We still follow each other, and I’m glad she’s doing well, but, like, I wouldn’t go out of my way to hang out with her. If she were in the city and DM’d me, yeah, fine. But like, coffee, not drinks, you know?”
“Damn fucking shame.” I didn’t understand what she meant, or what city she was talking about.
Rickie looked me up and down with a smirk crawling across her mouth. “No, what’s a shame is the drinks VIP offers. All this booze,” she spread her arm to several thousand dollars’ worth of bottles and mixers on the table, “and the only thing you can make is like a screwdriver.” She laughed. “I’m not fourteen.Hello?” She laughed again. “You gentlemen want to escort me down to the actual bar for a proper drink?”
“Yeah, sure thing,” I said.
“Of course,” Kris said. Then to me, “She’s been into elderflower spritzers all spring.”
“It’s fab, and if you’re not on the St. Germain train,” she pronounced it like San Zher-main, “Then you are missing out. And that is not my fault.”
The VIP section was on a balcony overlooking the dance floor. The booths were large, square, U-shaped couches lined up next to each other, with tables and chairs in front. Each one was thousands of dollars to reserve. Or, did you have to agree to a minimum spend of thousands of dollars on bottle service just to sit there? I couldn’t hear Kris explain it as we walked down the private staircase to the main floor.
Finn was alone and very drunk at the bar. Not pass out, slurring his words, drunk. More like, “Hey man! Where thefuckhave you been? Been looking for you!” as soon as he saw me.
“Yooo!” I said, pretty close to, but not as drunk as he was. “I met people. They have a VIP booth upstairs.”
I turned to my new friends, aware that I wasn’t solid on their names, and introduced Finn first. “This is Finn, my brother’s best friend, and uh, best man.”
Kris knitted his brow at me. Rickie, thankfully, introduced herself, extending her hand to Finn. He wasn’t too drunk to take it and kiss her knuckles, causing her to giggle, blush, and shoot Kris a look. “And this is Kris.”
Finn stood up, solid on his feet, and shook Kris’s hand as if he’d just sold him a car. “Nice to meet you guys. I’d introduce you to the other guys, but I don’t know where they are.” He giggled, much like Rickie.
“That’s okay. You guys are cool enough.” She looked him up and down like she had me, only… more. Maybe she realizedI was more into Kris than her, but Finn was fair game? I didn’t know and didn’t care. As long as someone touched my penis and I touched theirs.
“Why don’t you come upstairs with us?” Rickie asked Finn. “Well, what are you drinking? If it’s just a mixed drink, thenpleasecome up. We have so much, and we won’t be able to drink it, and they’re gonna charge us anyway, and then throw it away, and I hate being wasteful.”
“Rum and Coke.” Finn looked at his half-empty drink as if he’d never seen it before. “You guys got rum and Coke?”
“Oh my god,somuch!”
Kris said, “None of them drink rum, so there’s a whole unopened bottle. And the mixers are free. Just tell them you want Coke if there isn’t any.”
If Rickie liked him so much, maybe Finn would go home with them, and I could sleep in the room alone. Or with company. Would it be the worst thing in the world if I helped get the kid’s dick wet?
It was a fleeting thought. Finn said, “Fuck yeah, man! I’d love to see what upstairs is like,” after slipping his heavy arm over my shoulders. Then to me, “You’re coming right? If not, I’ll just hang here.”
“Yeah…” I looked from Kris to Rickie. “If that’s still cool…”
“Of course.” Rickie threw her arms around Finn and me. “New frieeeeeends!”
The twenty-five-dollar blackberry, St. Germain, and Veuve Clicquot spritzer—pronounced Vuv Klee-KOH—was gone before we even got back to the third floor.
Finn never removed his arm from my shoulder. Not on the tight stairway, or when we sat down on the couch. The only time he took his arm away was to make a drink once the server brought him a fresh bottle of Coke. Then to slap my knee inresponse to a joke and leave his hand there. It was… I mean… how could he not…
I hadn’t had a drink in a while, but Finn wasn’t helping with the horny situation.
