the Devil and the Sea

58| Mansion party: back to the past

We walk along a narrow concrete path and my breath stops at the sight of the classic stone facade of this incredible villa. Jesus lets me in first, and, as expected, the smell of sweat mixed with alcohol hits my nose. The sound of the music is so loud that when Jesus tells me to follow him, I need to read his lips; I walk behind him through the crowd, into the center of the hall, looking at the ceilings with centuries-old wooden beams along the way. I have lost the habit of all this and feel some discomfort and nostalgia for the past fun times. I see familiar faces, but many more unfamiliar ones.

We stop at a large table with a lot of booze. There's a large set of speakers and one of those shiny new Pioneer DJ tables, with a guy who seems to know what he's doing at the decks. Jesus says something in his ear, and then turns and shoves a glass of some kind of drink into my hand. I bring the edge to my nose and understand that this is Coke mixed with some kind of strong alcohol; I take a sip, the liquid cools my lips, but then pleasantly burns my throat.

Music stops, and Jesus jumps up on the table and whistles to get the attention of the audience. When everyone is silent, staring at him, Jesus says, deliberately distorting his voice:

"Ladies and gentlemen," he looks around at the audience, and I roll my eyes, "let's drink to this lost soul here," I wince when I realize that he is pointing at me and give him a murderous look, even though I know that it won't help.

I hear screams and whistles - stupid bunch, most of them don't know shit about me, drunken empty fakes.

Jesus continues the "toast":

"This girl left our parties, but now she is ready to break into our wonderful world of alcohol and fun again, so let's welcome her with open arms and remind her how awesome it is to spend time with us!"

Jesus raises his glass, and, echoing him, the crowd raises their glasses with enthusiastic yells.

Why this farce? I roll my eyes and take three generous sips from my mug, realizing more and more that I've outgrown these pointless shit parties.

The bass starts to rumble again.

Jesus comes down from the table and hugging me, lifts me off the floor, above him, I drop the glass, grabbing his shoulders so as not to fall, and he circles me, circles, circles. And it becomes funny to me, so cheerful and carefree, I laugh, enjoying the attention of an old friend. I feel dizzy when Jesus finally puts me on my feet and he gently holds my waist.

And then I am surrounded by familiar faces.

"Delgado and Gallardo are together again." Noah says nodding hello to me and looking at me with slightly intoxicated eyes.

Carmen hugs me hard, almost knocking me down. They take me into a room where the music is not as loud as in the living room. Everyone settles down on the sofa, armchair, chairs and on the floor. I sit on the edge of the sofa with Carmen next to me. Jesus sits down on the floor in front, leaning back against the couch between my legs.

Once again I regret that I came here: these questions of theirs, how my life is and why I stopped gathering with them for such events, tire and inspire melancholy. But, one way or another, I still feel at ease, it is especially pleasant that Jesus strokes my leg with his right hand, and I notice that he has tattooed this arm all the way. Jesus, as always, is dressed in a black shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbow, in black jeans. I wonder how many more new tattoos are now adorning his body.

At the opposite end of the room sits another group that makes an annoying noise, and my eyes are fixed on the dark eyes of a guy who looks at me and is not at all embarrassed that I noticed this. Our non-verbal "communication" is interrupted by a girl who sits next to him, drawing his attention to her.