Lucky

Ten

  After school on Friday, I went to hang out with Kate at her house while she baby sat her brother.

  We were sitting on the couch watching television and her brother Brandon was playing some form of Nintendo DS. Kate asked me what I was doing Saturday.

  “Patrick’s been on me about going to Karen’s party,” I told her.

  “Are you serious? She’s a total implant.”

  “I wasn’t gonna go at first, but it might not be so bad. I mean, we can have a few drinks on her and then get the hell out of there when it gets too obnoxious. Why don’t you come?”

  “As if,” she said, switching channels.

  “Come on. You’ll totally ruin her good mood. I heard she even has a fancy hot tub.”

  “I wouldn’t be able to go in anyway. Aunt Flo is visiting,” she said quietly, as if she were giving me a piece of top secret information.

  “Since when do you have an Aunt Flo?” I asked, because I’m a complete idiot.

  “She has her period, dummy,” Brandon said, without looking up from his game.

  “Brandon!” Kate yelled. “Would you get lost?” he didn’t move and Kate turned her attention back to me. “It’s not like I was even invited. Not that I wanted to be.”

  I didn’t know why I was trying so hard to convince her to go, but she seemed close to giving in so I kept at it. “Did she tell you not to come?” I asked.

  “No, but -,” Kate said.

  “Then you’re invited. Not that you wanted to be.”

  A half smile crept onto her face. “Maybe one beer.”

  I already put on a pair of dark blue jeans with my brown shoes. I was still shirtless when Patrick appeared at my door.

  “Help me decide which shirt to wear,” I instructed.

  “What’s wrong with the white one you have on?” An obvious dig at my pale skin.

  “Um, look who’s talking, Casper the Irish Ghost.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Patrick said. “You should wear a red shirt.”

  “Really? Why?” I asked, trying to think of what I had in red.

  “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that everything will be quicker if I just give you an answer, even if I don’t really care. Anyway, aren’t you gays supposed to give this sort of advice to the straight people?”

  “Stop stereotyping me. It’s not like I have ugly clothes. I’m just indecisive.”

  I chose a burgundy button-down shirt. “What do you think?”

  Patrick shook his head. “Uh-uh. Too formal. What else you got?” Patrick asked, sitting in my swiveling desk chair. I pulled a red tee shirt from my closet and held it up in front of me.

  “How about something in black?” He asked.

  “How about waiting downstairs?” I threw the shirt at him.

  Once I was fully dressed, we got into my car and left.

  “We have one little stop to make before the party,” I told Patrick.

  “Oh?”

  “You’ll never guess who’s coming,” I said, turning onto Sycamore, in the direction of Kate’s house.

  “Pat!” Karen yelled from across the room the second we walked through the door. “I’m so glad you came.” She spotted me behind him. “Travis!” she squealed.

  “Hey, Karen. Sweet house,” I said, faking an interest.

  “Thanks,” she said, grabbing my hands in hers. “Remind me to give you the grand tour later,” she said in a low voice. She must have looked past me and spotted Kate. “What’s she doing here?” Karen asked with a hint of disgust.

  “She’s our ride. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to come,” I lied.

  “How charitable of her,” Karen said, obviously displeased. “Well,” she said with a sigh, “help yourselves to the drinks and chips and stuff. It’s all in the kitchen,” she said, pointing in the general direction. “I’ll find you later to give you that tour,” she said before being whooshed away by a gaggle of girls.

  “God, could she be any more obvious?” Kate said from behind me.

  “I can’t help it if I’m irresistible to the ladies,” I said.

  “I can resist you just fine.” Kate pushed past me. “I’m ready for that beer.”

  “Get me one,” Patrick and I requested in unison.

  We walked around marveling at how badly rich peoples’ homes were decorated.

  Kate reappeared and handed Patrick and I bottles of beer just as we were looking at some kind of leopard skin hanging above the fireplace.

  “You know,” I said, twisting the cap off my bottle, “Just because something costs a ridiculous amount of money, it doesn’t make it not ugly.”

  “Man, I don’t even need to drink,” Patrick said. “I could get loopy just from staring at that ugly ass thing for a while.” We all laughed.

  “Ooh, speaking of ugly,” Kate gestured with her head across the room where Daniel was stumbling his way toward us.

  “Hey guys,” he said, his alcohol breath melting our faces.

  “That’s some shirt,” Kate said. It was silver and shiny, and he looked like a human disco ball.

  “Jealous?” he asked.

  We walked out the back door and into the yard where it was chilly, but refreshing.

  Rich walked up to us wearing only a bathing suit.

  “You guys gonna go in the hot tub?” he asked, sounding a bit buzzed.

  “Dude, it’s like 40 degrees out. How are you not freezing?” Kate asked.

  His answer was, “Wooooooh!” while running away.

  “Well, that was insightful,” Patrick said. He started walking back toward the house. “Gotta pee.”

  Kate and I were telepathically making fun of the slutty looking girls that had accumulated on the patio when Daniel popped up out of nowhere.

  “Take a walk with me to my car,” he said.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Just do it,” he said.

  “Fine. I’ll be right back,” I said to Kate.

  “You’re leaving me alone in the middle of this boobfest?” Some of the girls looked at her, but Kate’s comment must have gone over their heads.

  “I’ll be quick. I promise,” I said. Kate looked unhappy as we trotted off around to the front of the house.

  We got to his car, which was parked on the street, and he unlocked it and told me to have a seat. I found it strange that Daniel had singled me out to come to sit in his car. I was reluctant to get in, but figured I may as well just get whatever it was he wanted over with.

  “So what’s up?” I asked.

  “Felt like getting away from the noise. I just thought we could chat. We don’t seem to talk that much anymore,” he said. I couldn’t recall any time that we talked more than we do now, which was hardly at all. This was getting totally weird.

  “Um, what do you want to talk about?” I asked, now feeling a bit uneasy.

  “Karen totally wants to do you, you know,” he said, turning the radio on. He looked sweaty and flushed, obviously having started drinking long before we arrived.

  “Yeah, I kind of got that feeling,” I said.

  “She doesn’t know,” he said.

  “Doesn’t know what?” I asked.

  “You know.” He placed his hand on my left leg.

  “No, I don’t,” I said, shoving his hand off of me.

  “Fine, if you want to still pretend,” he said, sounding disappointed. “Let’s go for a ride.”

  I had to think for a minute about what was happening here. Daniel was blatantly coming on to me, which was totally bizarre. I had no idea how he could know that I was gay. The car started moving.

  “I don’t think you should be driving, Daniel,” I said, my common sense kicking in. “And I promised Kate I would be right back.”

  “We’re just going down the street,” he said, and I got a really bad feeling in my stomach.

  His steering was a little wobbly but we made it to a park in a few minutes where he stopped and turned the lights off.

  “Don’t try
and tell me that you’re straight,” he said.

  “Why do you think I’m not?” I asked, cautiously.

  “Come on,” he said, facing me, “We both know what we want.”

  “I don’t think I want what you want, Daniel.”

  He placed his hand back on my thigh. “We’re both boys that want what every boy wants.” He slid his hand farther up my leg. “To get laid.”

  His hand was almost right over my crotch when I gave him a hard shove.

  “What the hell, Travis?” he yelled.

  “I don’t want to mess around with you, Daniel. Can’t you get that through your head?” I was yelling now, too.

  Daniel started the car and began driving.

  “Your headlights aren’t on,” I pointed out.

  “I don’t need headlights,” he said, sounding like he wanted to disagree with me on spite.

  He drove faster and I got very nervous. “This isn’t funny,” I said.

  “Who’s laughing?”

  “Come on, Daniel, if I can’t see anything, you can’t.”

  “Are you scared, Travie?” He seemed to be delighted by this, and really started hitting the gas. I couldn’t make out anything except where the tree line ended, and some street lights way off in the distance. The car was swerving.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled at him. “Are you trying to kill us?”

  Daniel didn’t say a word and I started to panic. Could I open the door and jump out? It works in movies. Maybe I could grab the wheel. But what good would that do if I can’t see where we’re going? A million thoughts went through my head at once and I felt nauseas.

  The weird thing was, I heard the crash but didn’t feel it.