By the time we got back to the group, the party was fizzling out. Allan was already taking a last shot with Craig and Josh.
"Hey, hon," said Benji when I approached. "Where ya been off at?"
"I went to the bathroom," I said quickly. Benji raised a suspicious eyebrow, so I added, "Got lost in all the rooms. This house is
so big
."
"Whoo-ee, those mushrooms hit nice, don't they?" Amir said, lounging across a wooden bench.
"Yessiree, they sure do!" I chuckled as I copied his Western lilt, the shape of it tickling my mouth. The two of us dissolved into a fit of giggles.
"Oh, so you ate some too?" Asked Benji, an accusatory note in his voice.
"Uh huh," was all Amir could get out between his hoots of laughter.
"When?"
"After flip cup."
"Well, shit, I want some." Benji declared and headed off toward the kitchen. "Don't leave without me!"
"Leave?" I asked.
"Yeah," said Amir, finally coming down from the giggle high and sitting up. "Yeah, we're getting ready to head out."
"Time f' dinner!" Said Josh, suddenly appearing at my left. "Weh goin' f' pizza!"
He looked absolutely wasted.
"Awesome!" I said, leaning slightly away from his tequila breath. "Couldn't hurt to get some food in you. Water too."
"Wha'?!" Josh blurted, offended. "'M totally fine. Look a' me!"
He threw out his hands in an almost valiant effort to strike a confident pose and prove his sobriety. Unfortunately, his left hand sent a finger directly up Craig's nose and his right knocked the cocktail out of Benji's hand just as he returned, munching on a few chocolates.
"Oh shit," he said dully. "Guess you're right, big bro."
And with a laugh, I draped his arm around my shoulder and we led the group out of the dying party, Benji still flicking loose drops of gin and tonic off his shirt and grumbling about dry cleaning.
The pizza restaurant was a few blocks down the road, where the main strip of town began. It wasn't far, but our drunken group was taking its sweet time.
"Shit, gurl," Amir sighed, flexing his fingers and staring in awe at the leaves overhead. "Them mushrooms got me all fucked up."
"How many did you take?" Asked Craig.
"I had like three or four cubes."
"Three or four?!" Allan said with some alarm. "Which is it?"
"Gurl, that's about as accurate as I can get right now." He stumbled a little. "How many'd you have?"
"None for me," said Craig.
"Josh and I had two," Allan answered. "Danny had..."
"Three," I finished.
"And you not seeing these colors?" Amir was amazed and incredulous.
"No, not just now," I laughed. "But everything does seem a little wavy still."
"Oh wow. I mean, this is just a - a
vibe
."
Allan and I caught each other's eye and stifled some more giggles.
"Josh?" Benji asked the ragdoll that was my brother, leaning heavily on me as we walked.
"Hm?"
"How ya doin', hon?"
"Bitchin'," he said without energy, his head and eyelids droopy. We all laughed a bit.
"You sure?"
"Fuck yeah!" He said with drunken bravado. "I got m' bro wi' me," he tapped me on the chest, "I'll be jus' fine."
I grinned lightly and redoubled my grip on his weight as we walked.
"We'll be at the pizza shop soon," said Allan. "Good thing too, I'm starving!"
We rounded the corner on the main street just then and ran right into another group of guys coming the opposite way.
"Danny!"
"Oh shit!" I said in surprise. "Hey Logan!"
Our entire group came to a dead halt. Even Josh found the strength to look up in surprise.
"How's it goin'?" Logan asked with a dashing smile.
"Yeah, p-pretty good," I squeaked and felt my face redden. "And you guys?" I looked over at Ty, Cornelius, and Gus, who loomed over us all from behind the others.
"We good," said Cornelius, and he turned to look at Josh. "Is this your brother that's getting married? He look like you."
"Yeah," I said, disarmed once again by Cornelius's direct questions. "This is Josh."
I introduced them all to each other. Everybody nodded politely and engaged in pleasantries, but both crews seemed to be standing behind our obvious points of connection: Logan and myself.
The flush in my cheeks and neck deepened.
"So," said Logan, "We'll be seeing y'all at the underwear party tonight?"
"Underwear party?" Asked Amir, swaying almost imperceptibly to unheard music.
"Yeah," said Ty amiably. "We're gonna be at the Mermaid Lounge. Logan, I thought you invited them already."
"Yeah, I - uh - I hadn't gotten around to telling them yet... uh... sorry." I piped up meekly.
"Well, damn," said Benji. "That's better than what we had planned tonight! I'm definitely in!"
"M' too," slurred Josh while the others agreed. "But isn't th' Mermaid Lounge, like, sssuper hard t' get into?"
"Oh, no worries," said Logan, raising his sunglasses to reveal his shocking blue eyes and flashing a reassuring smile. "Ty'll get Danny's name on the VIP list for tonight, and y'all can come on in with him! Just skip the line when you come and pay the cover."
"Wow, uh -" I stammered. "Thanks, th- that's so nice."
"Ain't no problem, darlin'." His accent once again tickled my spine.
"And thank you, Ty," I turned to him. "Logan said it's gonna be your birthday at midnight, right?"
"Ugh, I'd just forgotten for a blissful half hour," he said ruefully.
"Well, I bet your set'll bring the house down."
"You know that's right!" He called out, perking up again.
I leaned over to Josh and the others to explain. "Ty's gonna be DJing the set at midnight for his fo-" I caught Logan's warning eye "... his, uh, his birthday."
"Oh fun!" Said Josh.
I thought I could detect a suspicious look in my drunken brother's eye as he looked between Logan and myself.
"Well!" I said, desperate to bail out of this uncomfortable moment. "We're just gonna grab some pizza and get ready for the party then."
"Oh yeah, for sure, don't let us keep you." Logan made a gentlemanly sweep of his hand as he sidestepped out of our way. "But looking forward to seeing you tonight, darlin'." And he gripped my shoulder with a final bright smile before they all walked past us and up the street.
There was a ringing silence in the group as we were left alone on the corner. Just a momentary collective brain reset before -
"Ummm, what the fuck was that?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," Benji added more sass to his voice, "
what the fuck was that?
"
"Um..." My face burned with embarrassment. "It's just - just some guy I met last night."
"Some guy? Last night??" Amir demanded. "We were invited to an underwear party by Logan Brooks LAST NIGHT and you didn't say nothing?"
"No!" I defended, but demurred immediately. "He- he invited me at the beach today. When I swam out to the sandbar."
"Oh so
that's
who you were flirting with, huh?" Benji taunted.
"I wasn't flirting!"
"Mhmm."
"He seemed pretty into you, not gonna lie," said Allan, a cheeky glint in his eye. Something about Allan's approval felt - was it - reassuring?
"I... but... ugh, it doesn't matter!" I mustered a tone of exasperation and turned to walk toward the pizza shop door. "The point is that we're on the list for a party tonight. And that's what we're looking for, right?"
"Uh uh, dude," rejected Craig. "That
was
the point. Right now, the point is that you need to tell us
everything
. How are you getting invited to VIP parties by
Logan motherfucking Brooks
?!"
"Why do you keep calling him 'Logan Brooks'?" I asked, confused. "Is he famous or something?"
"Yah!" The whole group spoke in unison.
"Gurl, he's HUGE on OnlyFans," twittered Amir. "And I'm
not
just talking about how many followers he got."
Craig and Josh both howled and laughed.
"He's got a really big dick," Allan mouthed to me, pulling a sardonic face and making a show of measuring his forearm.
"Yeah," I said to him deadpan. "I got that, thanks."