Cute, Cozy, Queer Stories

Part 14: Rue & Angel

Rue mounted the stairs towards Tony's apartment with a six-pack of red ale in one hand and a fifth of Jameson in the other. After a nine hour shift, then two more hours working on her History of Film essay, then three more hours working on her short film group project at the media center, it was an ungodly long day. And, now, it was time to relax. Tony's place was perfect for that.

Rue knocked on the door.

"It's open!"

The scent of weed, beer and incense slipped into her nostrils as she entered. As she took off her shoes, she glanced down the short hallway towards the living room. Sitting on one side of the couch, Tony waved a hand at her as he strummed his guitar. Another young man and two young women she didn't recognize lounged on the floor. She glimpsed a knee of someone else sitting next to Tony, and assumed someone was sitting on the other side of the couch. Rue expected nothing less; Tony was a nice guy, making fast friends with everyone he met, and his place was always popular.

"Hey, Tony." Rue waved as she stepped towards the kitchen.

"Whoa, whiskey and beer?" Tony chuckled a bit between riffs. "Long day?"

"You have no idea." Setting the whiskey on the counter, she pulled a can of red ale off the pack and opened it. Taking a deep drink, she sighed. "Nobody drink my whiskey. I mean it."

"We won't," came the chorus of voices from the living room. Rue didn't believe them, but she also doubted she would care in a few hours if anyone dipped into her whiskey. Besides that, Tony's friends were always cool. Before too long, she knew she'd be offering everybody shots.

Starting off with a beer, she found a spot on the floor between the two women. "Hey." She smiled at each of them.

"Hey Rue, this is Christina," Tony nodded towards the woman on Rue's right. A metal ring cut the middle of her lower lip, making the straight, white teeth of her smile even more striking. She waved, thick silver rings clicking on her fingers, and Rue just glimpsed the colorful tattoos over her lower arm.

"That's Olunne," he nodded to the woman on Rue's left, with deep, dark skin and long, impressive dreadlocks falling over her shoulders. She gave a cool nod and passed Rue the hookah hose she held. As Rue took the mingling flavors of earthy weed, vanilla and coffee onto her tongue, Tony gestured to his left, at the young, black-haired man lounging by the sliding glass door to the balcony.

"That's Federico." Federico held the other hookah hose, but waited for Rue to finish her hit before he hit it. With his other hand propping up his head, he gave her a mild salute with the hose. His half-mast eyes were almost obscured with black eyeshadow, his thick, dark eyebrows pierced with metal posts.

"And you met Fatima," Tony smiled at the woman sitting next to him in the middle of the couch. Rue remembered the dark-haired woman with impeccable, dark red lipstick, a perfect smokey-eye, and movie-star good looks. Though, by the utterly enraptured look in his eyes—and the fact that the two were snuggled close on the couch—Rue got the feeling Tony and Fatima had gotten closer since the last party.

"And?" The young man on the other side of the sofa spoke softly, not looking up from his own guitar.

"Oh yeah." Tony smiled and nodded towards him. "And this asshole."

Releasing a cloud of smoke into the air, Rue looked at Tony's brother through it. She smiled. "Hi, Angel."

The quiet young man's long, dark, wavy hair hung into his face as he gently played a few bars from a flamenco song. He glanced up at her once, his deep brown eyes catching hers just for an instant, and leaving a burn on her cheeks. Rue kept looking at him, watching his long fingers play across the neck of the guitar. Angel was at most of Tony's parties, though he seldom said much. Rue wasn't sure if he kept the guitar in front of him so much because he really loved to play that much, or because he didn't like people getting too close to him.