sweat.
'Where have you been?' he whispered. He immediately began pacing.
I stepped inside the room and saw what looked like the results of a fierce battle. Two empty T.J. Swan wine bottles were keeled over on the coffee table. Amanda Rankin was asleep on the big double bed, her dress pulled down to reveal a padded black bra. There was no sign of Tommy or Dana.
'What happened?' I asked.
'I don't know.' Eli careened around the room. 'We drank a lot of wine… and Tommy turned out the lights and he and Amanda…' He pointed to Amanda Rankin's partially disrobed figure on the bed. 'Dana and I just sat here. Amanda must've passed out, because after a minute Tommy turned the lights on and wanted to drink again.'
I heard a sound from the bathroom like a sick person moaning. I looked over. The bathroom door was closed.
'Dana had a lot of wine. Tommy's in there with her.'
I tried the door. It was locked. I pounded.
'Go away, Boyle,' said Tommy. 'We'll be out in a minute.'
'Stop it,' I heard Dana say, muffled, from the other side of the door.
My shoulder hit the door and I was surprised at how easily it opened. I suppose I hadn't hit anything that hard since I nearly killed the cheerleader during the basketball game. Inside, Dana was on her knees, bent over the bathtub, moaning and spitting, having just thrown up. Tommy was standing behind her, trying to pull her dress up.
'Hey, Mason,' said Tommy, his eyes drunken slits. He smiled.
I pulled him out of the bathroom and pushed him across the room. He crashed into the bed and fell to the floor. As I stalked toward him, Eli slid past me into the bathroom.
Tommy was laughing. 'Come on, Mason. She was giving me the eye, man.' He looked at my collapsed lid and smiled. 'Oh, sorry.'
I pulled him up by his tux shirt and pressed him up against the wall. He pushed me back and I nearly lost my balance. 'Come on. She don't like that fuckin' geek.' He pushed me again, harder, and I staggered back, against the bed.
I grabbed him by the shirt and flung him across the room, and he knocked the television from its stand. It crashed to the floor next to him. 'Jesus, Mason. What the fuck's got into you?'
Just then a key turned, the hotel room door opened, and in came the same desk clerk that I'd seen downstairs. He still had that stony look on his face, the most overwhelming case of boredom I'd ever seen. He looked around the room: One girl passed out on the bed. One boy on the floor next to the TV. The eyeball boy standing in the middle of the room. One girl getting sick in the bathroom. Another boy standing helplessly behind her. Empty wine bottles everywhere.
'Out,' he said quietly. 'Get out of here before I call the cops.'
Tommy pulled himself up. 'My dad rented…'
'I don't care if your dad owns the fuckin' hotel, kid.' He said it like he was quoting us a price. 'Get your things, get your girl, and get out of here.'
Tommy walked to the bed. He pulled Amanda's dress back up over her bra and then shot me a glare. He wrestled with Amanda and got her to her feet. 'I'm on TV!' Amanda chirped, then she slumped in his arms. Tommy staggered under her weight.
'I'll help,' I said, and stepped forward.
'Don't come near me, you fuckin' one-eyed freak,' Tommy said.
Eli came out of the bathroom and helped Tommy stand Amanda up. They carried her out of the room and toward the elevator.
'Get the other one and get out of here,' said the desk clerk. Then he turned and followed Eli and Tommy and Amanda, who chirped, 'What channel is this?'
In the bathroom, Dana had gotten to her feet and wiped her mouth on a towel. She smoothed her dress in back and turned to see me. 'That's not very good wine,' she said.
She fished around in the medicine cabinet until she found a small tube of toothpaste, put some on her finger, and rubbed it on her teeth.
'I was going to kick him as soon as I finished puking,' she said. 'But thank you.'
'Sure,' I said.
'Where's Eli?' she asked.
'Helping Amanda to Tommy's car.'
I could hear engines growling and tires squealing on the street below. I checked my watch. It was midnight. The dance was over.
Dana looked out the window at the glittering skyline of Spokane. I've always thought it a strange city that way: a city of illusion, at night its downtown big and sparkling, but during the day small and decaying, with big gaps between the buildings. At night, you can imagine great things here. But daytime in Spokane is cold and real.
Dana reached out and touched the window. 'Do you have any idea how many kids like me sit at home on Friday nights and fantasize about this, about what people like you and Susan and Amanda and Tommy are doing? Everything we want is inside rooms like this.' She turned and smiled. 'It's sad.'
She picked up her wrap and draped it over her shoulders.
'Thank you for coming to this dance with Eli,' I said. 'I think it really meant a lot to him.'
She got a faraway look. 'You're welcome,' she said.
I stepped forward and gave her a small hug and we separated.
'God,' she said, and reached up to touch my face. 'Your eye.'
I don't remember much after that, how we ended up on the floor or when my hand found the neckline of her dress and one of her fine, new breasts, or how long we chewed on each other's tongues and ran our hands over each other's legs and sides and ribs and shoulders. What I do remember is the realization that someone was in the doorway watching us. And I remember being glad we hadn't gotten any further when I looked up from the floor and saw Eli Boyle – saw that look on his face that would remain with me forever, that look I would see again this week on his dead face, his eyes round and helpless, taking in more than they could bear.
I wish I could tell you how we all got there. Or what was said afterward. Honestly, I don't remember much beyond the look on Eli's face. I remember the carpet smelled like wine. I remember that Dana Brett's skin was a revelation. And I remember that it was just after midnight, the beginning of another cold, real day.
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