“You think I’d miss this?”
“Actually, yeah. I didn’t think you’d come. Here, let me introduce you to people.”
It was mostly Karina’s friends, as he’d guessed it would be, her party, her birthday, et cetera, or anyway, the first few people Milo introduced him to were introduced with their connection to her, a work friend, a high school friend, someone from her obstacle race training group. They seemed nice enough and he memorized their names their faces took in their clothes their drink choices the way they positioned themselves like they didn’t even care that their backs were to the windows their backs were to the doors they were shouting to be heard over other people shouting to be heard over a song he’d hated in high school. They leaned in and shook his hand or nodded or clinked their beer bottles to his and said nice to meet you how do you know Milo and he said they’d been friends forever no lie but didn’t say they’d served together nobody needed to know that except almost every one of them then said oh, wait! you’re that guy from the ad! “The best me I can be” and then some sang an old razor ad and some sang an old Army recruitment jingle and some asked if he and Milo served together and no matter how he phrased it they knew they knew they always knew they asked stuff he didn’t want to answer he smiled and drained his drink and said he needed another and made his escape and all the time his eyes were on the door the window the patterns of the crowd the songs the slight rattle in the bass notes from the speaker by the kitchen where he shoved his hands into the ice in the red cooler looking for another beer but also looking for the numbing cold for a moment numbing cold to numb his brain, too.
Someone came into the kitchen while he had both arms elbow-deep in the ice and he knew it looked weird nobody looked for beer with two arms in the cooler and the person said you look familiar and it was possible he knew her from high school but he didn’t want to be there while she figured it out and recited his commercial back at him, so he pulled a bottle out with each hand like he was going to bring one to someone in another room and raised them over his head like twin victories and icy water ran down his arms and into the arms of his shirt and over his chest and it did not feel bad at all but now it looked like it was sweat and maybe some of it was because there were so many people in this tiny apartment and it was legit hot outside even before you factored that in. The woman looked at him oddly and he popped both caps and made his exit.
There were more people in the narrow hallway with the picture frames on the walls showing Milo and Karina and Milo and a beagle and Karina and a cat and Milo’s family members whom David recognized even if he hadn’t seen Milo’s brother in how many years and Karina with her family that David didn’t know. The hallway bathroom door was locked, but there was another off the bedroom, he was pretty sure. He didn’t even need to piss he needed two minutes alone.
He expected the bedroom to be as loud as every other room. The door was closed, and he debated knocking wondered if he’d open it to find it in use like a high school party some couple taking advantage of a bedroom away from parents the way most adults of their age didn’t need to do now unless maybe they had just hooked up at the party but he pushed the door open anyway and was surprised to discover an oasis.
Two people sitting on the bed, sandals and wedges kicked off haphazardly, three others on the floor, two with backs against the dressers one against the one bare wall. Four looked relaxed, the fifth, on the floor with back to the wall, looked more alert, like she was taking in everything, fingers tapping on thighs. Floor-to-ceiling windows, no, a sliding door, there was a narrow balcony beyond, he hadn’t ever been in their bedroom before. It looked less than cozy, generic edge-of-city, beige-carpeted generic apartment, but maybe they’d cleaned it for guests, hidden everything that made it homey. Air conditioner pumping out through a vent in the wall working on only this room far more successfully than in the rest of the apartment because of the door he closed the door behind him the closed door blessed cool blessed quiet nobody here was shouting and the music was far away.
“Join us?” One of the two people on the bed held out a small candy bowl. Two colors, yellow and teal, same size and shape, the yellow unmarked and the teal with a stylized lowercase q on them. Not candy. Pills. Pills had never been his scene he’d never really had a scene but pills wasn’t it.
“Nah, I’m okay,” he said.
“If you’re in here, you’ve got to play,” said someone from the floor. “It’s a good game.”
“What’s the game?” David asked, out of curiosity. He didn’t buy “If you’re in here, you’ve got to play.” In his experience, people offered drugs and you took or you didn’t and nobody cared either way sort of a suit yourself more for me attitude and anyway if they held the line they couldn’t force him and he could walk out again into the noise but it was so much nicer in here.
The person holding the bowl smiled it was a friendly smile. They were cute.
A floor sitter said, “One pill makes you larger . . .” but the cute one shook their head and dug
