Meet You There

Chapter Twenty-nine: Word Vomit

“Hey, Stanford boy,” I say to Brody when he gets here. “You look great.”

Behind him, Megan pretends to vomit. “Yeah, yeah, enough flirting. It's time to party.”

Ryan and Charlotte wait in the car, Ryan riding shotgun. Brody, Megan and I quickly get in to the car and we drive off. Brody sits in the middle, with Megan and me either side of him.

“So, you've told your parents you're in Ruben's?” Ryan asks Brody and Megan.

“Yeah. We spend a lot of time there, so they don't suspect anything.”

“I don't get why you guys don't just stand up to your folks and tell them you're gonna do your own thing no matter what." I find myself rolling my eyes and wishing Ryan would put his foot in his mouth sometimes.

I feel Brody's muscles tense beside me, but he doesn't say anything. He just looks straight ahead, expressionless.

“You wouldn't understand unless you'd spent more time with our parents,” Megan says, calmly.

“I dunno, they seem pretty nice.”

No one says anything for a few moments and I think I've dodged an awkward conversation, when Ryan decides to open his mouth again.

“I just think if you assert yourselves, your mom and dad will understand that you guys aren't little kids anymore and that they need to give you more freedom and let you make your own choices. From what I've seen you just let your parents walk all over you.”

Next to me, I see Brody's face growing redder and redder. “Do you even know what you're talking about? Not everyone's parents are like yours. Now can we please just drop this fucking conversation?”

And thankfully, Ryan shuts up and hooks up his iPod with Charlotte's car speakers. The sound of Radiohead, then The Beatles, fills the car, and no one talks to each other much for a while.

When we finally get in to Dallas, it takes us about ten minutes of driving around before we find the cities tiny gay scene, tucked away on the outskirts of the city center, away from the rest of the bars and clubs.

Kiki's Court is pretty easy to spot. Charlotte finds a parking space, and the five of us join the queue outside the clubs entrance. Despite being away from the main hustle and bustle of the city, there's more people here than I expected. In the queue for Kiki's Court there's mainly college aged men, but across the road I see women smoking outside of a lesbian bar painted bright pink.

I've only been to Denver's gay scene twice, and both times I was less than impressed. Bad music and creepy old men trying to cop a feel wasn't my scene, and I wasn't a fan of non-gay bars and clubs, either. Right now, I'd rather be in my barn playing cards and listening to music I actually enjoy, or even getting drunk back in the barn.

When we reach the front of the queue, the bouncer looks at us and bursts out laughing before those with fake ID's can even get them out of their purses and pockets. This doesn't seem good.

“Taking your little sister on a night out on the gay scene, are we?” he asks Brody, obviously seeing the resemblance between him and Megan. They do look alike tonight; more so than usual. Megan is wearing her hair straight rather than curling it like she usually does, and Brody has straightened his too. They both wear black and white. “Alright, alright. I'm not gonna let the rest of y'all in and send her away. Come on in.”

Inside the clubs lobby, Megan looks slightly offended. “But  people usually say I look older than Brody. What the Hell?”

Usually, I'd agree with her. But for some reason, she looks younger than usual tonight. She wears less makeup and flat shoes instead of heels. Maybe she figured she didn't have to make as much of an effort, since she was going to a gay club.