The Mess We Made

At The Party

Reina nursed a bad cocktail of coke and different vodkas mixed together. It tasted disgusting but Reina kept drinking anyway because it'd be a waste to throw out and an even bigger waste of an opportunity to get drunk. She knew before long it would taste like nothing.

Baltimore lingered by her side, occasionally drifting to talk to someone he knew before coming back to Reina. Veronica was here, somewhat surprisingly but Veronica rarely passed up a chance to party. Reina was grateful. The three of them came to the party together, and there didn't seem to be any tension outside of the terse responses Veronica gave to Baltimore when she had to talk to him, but that wasn't outside of the ordinary. Reina knew that Veronica only tolerated Baltimore, and that she was bothered by his biphobic tendency to dismiss girls kissing girls. Reina understood why it was a problem, but she didn't have the same personal offense Veronica did. Veronica spent so many years fighting against homophobia, lesbophobia, while Reina never experienced that. Reina chalked it up to a flaw she'd ignore since Baltimore ignored hers and left it at that. And since Veronica really wasn't losing anything with Baltimore's beliefs, who was she to make a big deal out of it.

Veronica chatted with Reina just fine on the way here, then once they got to the party she slipped away in the dark to flirt and probably find the harder drug crowd that hung out in the back room corners.

Baltimore's hands found its way to Reina's waist. He leaned down to speak right into her ear to be heard over the indie pop music blasting through the house.

"Look at that guy over there striking out with that group of girls," Baltimore laughed.

Reina followed his line of sight. A guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt and ripped blue jeans was rubbing the back of his neck as he looked down at some girls together on a couch. In their sparkling chain jewelry and skimpy clothes, they looked back up at home like he was prey to tear apart. The poor guy didn't look comfortable, but he kept trying to talk to them, saying something that made the group erupt into hyena cackles.

He froze every time the girls laughed at him, a strained smile on his lips, and Reina noticed his eyes glance at another guy behind the couch.

"Do you think it's a bet?" Reina pondered, "He keeps looking at his friend behind the girls."

"Maybe, poor guy looks like he never talked to girls before in his life."

Reina watched the mystery man, wearing a black turtleneck tucked into tight black jeans, look at the girls, back to Hawaiian shirt guy, then back to the girls again before shifting his gaze away.

"Actually, I'm convinced he's forcing himself to flirt. I'm sensing some homoerotic tension between the two guys."

Baltimore whistled, "so he's trying to make his friend jealous?"

Reina shook her head, "No, I think he's trying to convince himself he's straight by pulling those hot girls. Poor closet case."

A voice interrupted the two of them, "That's fucked up of you to say, trouble."

It's an offhanded remark said into her beer bottle but Reina spun to see Veronica anyway.

+++

Veronica was trying not to scream at Reina for her flippant homophobia. She can see the glaze in Reina's eyes, sobriety swept away. It was a drunk conversation between her and her equally homophobic boyfriend, but Veronica heard it anyways. It made Veronica even more mad because she wanted to yell that Reina was just like that guy, just as bad, just as blind. She couldn't believe Reina had the audacity to look at some stranger and say, "oh that's a closet gay," when she has stuck her tongue down Veronica's throat and turns around to say she's still straight. It wasn't a fun joke to look at strangers and make up stories about their sexuality.