Cygnus and Christopher

Chapter 10

A few people stood outside of Rick's house, cigarettes in their mouths, drinks in their hands. I liked the way the orange bits of cigarettes traced lines in the air like a more subdue sparkler.

The volume of the voices of the people outside the house sounded roughly equivalent to the music that snuck up out of the basement. Only the low notes had the endurance to make it all the way, a selection of frequency that lured in the curious.

It was standard to remove shoes inside Rick's house, and with barefeet I felt the floor vibrate. The house perhaps welcomed me with a light massage, a message to relax and enjoy the night. Embrace an environment designed to fill pilgrims with their desired sensory pleasures. I wondered if I worshiped parties. I didn't ever really kneel or pray to them, but sometimes I indulged till sick and well maybe that counts for something.

Parties at Rick's filled me with so much stimulation it was hard to not get caught up in it. Mixed drinks down my throat, black lights and lasers in my eyes, and sporadic bass heavy music in my ears.

Sometimes I could not tell if parties were the most hopeful thing I experienced or the most despairing. When I walked through the door I wondered if this was the end of the road in a way, all that I could hope for. A place to stuff myself on what was enjoyable just for the sake of enjoyment. It did not have to go anywhere, it did not have to result in anything else, it just had to feel nice for as long as I could stay awake. Other times though it kind of felt the different. As if I'd given up of adopting any other types of joys into my life, ones that also radiate back out beyond myself. I don't know, maybe it was a bit of both.

On a couch in one of the rooms laid Rick and a couple other people. They were all in pajamas, patterned with kittens or cartoon characters. I thanked Rick for inviting me. He glanced up towards me, smiled, nodded, and started laughing. "Man you are so welcome. Actually no, thank you for coming."

In the kitchen a crowd of people took shots or refilled glasses. For a moment it almost felt like a cave, the glass bottles various colored stalagmites. A lot of people kept their bottles on the counter. There had a been a few instances of stuff getting stolen, but it was pretty rare.

I walked through the kitchen and into a empty beer pong room, a piece of wood placed over a dining table. Drawings covered the piece of wood, primarily genetalia and curse words. The lack of a game going on seemed a bit unusual. The infusion of alcohol, competition, and occasionally clothe removal was typically quite popular.

Christopher came out of the kitchen. "Table is open. That is a sign ya know. Me and Nicole versus you and Alex sound good?" Alex and I looked towards each other and nodded.

During the first round of tossing, Nicole sunk the middle cup. As per house norm she removed her pants, slowly and with a sense of flair. Hips rocked back and forth while her pants lowered like a drawstring window curtain. People cheered, a small crowd had formed along the walls.

If someone did not want to remove their pants after sinking the middle cup, no one usually pressured them to. At least not after there was a small incident of sorts last year. It ended with Rick kicking out some guest who was really pressuring someone else to take off their pants.

The game went rather quickly. Alex and I got beat pretty bad. I think we each made one cup. Christopher and Nicole gave us each a post game hug, sportsmanship tended to be expected.

A lot people had shown up during our brief pong game. It was slow to get through crowds. In part because of simply finding a way through and in part because of stopping for short conversations with various people. Rarely did it get that packed at Rick's, might had something to do with being the first day of summer.

Alex came with me around the house, got introduced to various individuals. A good portion of people we ran into had gone to school with me since elementary school. It felt self-centered to think, but I almost felt like I was walking through a museum dedicated to me. My first kiss drank from a straw and mingled with some players from my old soccer team. A few people smoking hookah who use to frequent the beach with Christopher and I. The two people, John and Sandra, I played city simulation games with during computer lab time in fifth grade walked in door together. Once we spent a month creating this huge city together. People in the city were consistently happy, the city was pretty clean, and crime was low. Best city we ever built I think. One day Christopher, Sandra, and I met before school in the computer lab to work on the city. John typically wasn't late, but he was that day. He came in crying. Turns out he crashed his scooter on the way to school. The flash drive with our city saved on it broke when he fell.

I stood and thought for a bit, but not too long. Spending the party thinking about a time I built a digital city, seemed somewhat possible if I didn't get a move on. And I wasn't sure that is the path I wanted to go down.

"Do you like dancing?" Alex looked perplexed then leaned in. I repeated myself. Alex nodded, "Yeah. I love it."