The Chezdon Chronicles: The Continuing Saga--New Plot (bxb)

Chapter 2: Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

Brody met Jayden near the former's home. Neither boy said much to the other; the look of anticipation writ large across Brody's face. Jayden looked dour. Maybe this would work out better than he expected he thought to himself. Stay upbeat, Jayden. Don't let Brody know what you're doing until you're ready to tell him. Not now. Collingwood beckoned. The task at hand was getting there. Fortunately, Uber was all too willing to oblige them. Brody fired up the Uber app on his mobile and after a couple of minutes, their car appeared. Like magic. The magic carpet ride.

When Brody gave the address to the driver, the response after a look at Brody and Jayden in the rear-view mirror, was a cocked eyebrow. He knew where the youths were headed, but he didn't understand why they were bothering. Each looked too young to get access to the club, The Peel, a fixture of Melbourne gay nightlife. Brody had been careful to specify a corner just across the street from the club. He wanted to assure that he and Jayden were as discreet as possible.

The Uber pulled up to the desired end of the trip, and as they exited the car, both boys turned and looked at their intended destination. Neither boy had been to Collingwood, though Jayden could remember his mother once going through the neighborhood when he was little. From the outside, The Peel looked like a Victorian-era train station, make that a tired Victorian-era train station. The still young evening greeted both of them with a gentle breeze as they looked at the well-behaved though hardly-silent queue of men waiting to get inside the club. Leading, Brody went to take a place in the queue, Jayden following. As the line moved ahead, each of them looked around taking in the scene. The neighborhood surrounding the club seemed surreally quiet given the presence of such an iconic place of boisterous entertainment.

Each man in the queue entered the building in sequence. Brody noted that the appeared to be no entry fee. He had chosen The Peel in part because it was free entry. The entrepreneurial businessman in him reasoned that there was no reason to pay for something if you could get it for nothing. They made small talk between the two of them, a few onlookers noticing them as overly young to gain entrance to the club.

When it came their turn to enter, one of the bogans at the door stopped Brody and said, smiling, "You're took young, mate. You're going to have to wait a year or two." Brody thought about telling the bogan his age, but decided better of it. The bogan gestured to Jayden to move ahead into the building. Brody pulled Jayden aside, earning a scowl from the bogan.

"Mate, you go in," Brody said. "I'll try to find a way to join you and will text you if I succeed. Check your mobile often while you're inside the club. If I can't, we can get together tomorrow for lunch. Tacos. My shout."

Jayden would have preferred to leave with Brody and head home and call it a night, but he couldn't risk Brody thinking that anything unusual was happening in Jayden's life. Like throwing Brody under the bus.

Jayden looked at the queue as he responded, "I have plans for tomorrow. Make it arvo the day after, which might work better."

Brody first cocked his eyebrow, then nodded as he walked away from the entrance, trying to think of a way to get into the building. He couldn't find one, but he didn't know that until after he had spent a half an hour trying. So much for Brody's introduction to the Melbourne gay nightlife scene.

As Jayden entered the club he immediately made his way onto the dance floor. Wadded his way might be a better description. The auditory-visual assault on his senses briefly overcame his sense of location. Music blared as lights of every color flashed in syncopated rhythm in all manner of direction, as Divine's gravelly voice blared out of the seemingly omnipresent speakers: