Against all odds, I was feeling damn good. I sat there and pondered what had just happened. I shivered slightly at the memory of what Coyote had done to me. I was awed and humbled by his power, and vowed to not get on his bad side, ever. As scared as I should have been though, I wasn't. Whatever he had done to me before he left, it worked. All I wanted to do was have a good time.
I started thinking about Katie, about all the tenderness of her alabaster skin, and the pleasure I would take in her, and sat back with a smile. I wondered if I should introduce her to Kristel. That could have possibilities right there. Yeah, the two of them in a room maybe with–
"Steve!" I was snapped from my pleasant daydream and glanced up to see Carlos and Brandon walking towards me.
Carlos is Puerto Rican (although he looks at least half black), about 5' 8" or 5' 9", with very short hair, kind of like a buzz cut, a goatee and a perpetual five o'clock shadow. He shaves before he goes to sleep at night so he has that days growth thing going for him. When I first met him, he was shooting for the Bob Marley look with long dreads, but he's since cut it all off, going instead for a more professional appearance. He claims he doesn't smoke, but he's always got that half-lidded look of the constantly stoned. You know Jim Bruer of SNL fame (think Goat Boy) and the movie Half Baked? Like that, only Puerto Rican.
Brandon is a bit taller and, as I said before, Navajo. He's got the tanned skin and dark hair that he keeps fairly short (although it's always kind of messed up), with eyes so slanted that until he told me, I thought he was Japanese. He always looks as if he's preoccupied. Like his mind is wondering off to other places. Not the most dependable of guys, but we liked him anyway.
I met Carlos through some other friends of mine, but we never hung out until we ended up sharing some classes in school. Brandon I met in class as well. All of us had graduated and were seeking fulfillment in the real world without much success at that point. Carlos and Brandon were now roommates.
"Hey! Right on time." I said, "Have a seat."
"So what's up Steve," Carlos asked. "You look nice. Are you sure we aren't celebrating something?"
"I just wanted to get together and have a good time. Ready for some fun?"
"What did you have in mind?" Brandon asked.
I looked at him and Carlos, debating on how much to tell them. I didn't want to lie to them, but I couldn't really tell them what was going on either.
"Anything you want, you just say the word."
"I want the Fanta girls." Carlos exclaimed, him and Brandon sharing a laugh. "What are you smoking? Can I have some."
He and Brandon shared a laugh while I just looked at them smiling.
"You doubt my powers?"
"Whatever," Carlos said. "Are you drunk this early in the afternoon?" He sniffed my empty glass of lemonade. "No liquor in here, is there? Are we going to have to do an intervention on you?"
"No, I'm straight." I sat and thought for a moment then decided. "I think I know a good way to start off. Come with me." I got up and started walking out of the atrium, when I glanced back to see if they were following. They were just sitting there.
"Come on," I insisted, and gestured them to stand up. They both slid out of the seat, giving me curious looks and followed me out into the main restaurant area.
The way Gameworks is set up, you can look down onto the arcade floor from the restaurant. It's got a lot of open areas in the floor where you can stand and look down on all the people milling about. The object is probably to get you to see how much fun they're having and go down and spend more money. I walked up to one of the railings and looked down, and Brandon and Carlos walked along either side of me and looked down also.
"You okay," Carlos asked. "You're acting kind of weird."
I didn't answer, instead I said, "See anything you like?"
"Like what?" Brandon asked, not getting my meaning.
"Girls, women, poon-tang." I told him, nodding my head in the direction of all the people downstairs.
"Oh...well yeah, sure. There's some good looking girls down there," he said. "We saw this one girl coming in, she was wearing this really tight short skirt and this tiny little halter. She was fucking hot!"
"Oh yeah," Carlos chimed in.
"Do you see her? Point her out to me, then go and introduce yourself," I told him.
"No way, I need a few beers before I'll do that. Shit, probably not even then. She was...wooo."
"What about you Carlos? You see any girl down there you want?"
"Yeah, but I'm not going to go up and just talk to them."
"Why?" I asked him.
"Because, man. I just...wouldn't. Why don't you go up to a girl and talk to her."
"I did," I said, thinking of Katie. "She's out in the mall right now doing a bit of shopping, she'll be back in awhile. Now it's your turn."
"I'm not going to walk up to some random girl and talk to her. What would I say?"
"It doesn't matter. You can say anything you want. Tell her the short-cut in Photoshop to create a new layer, it won't make a bit of difference. I'll bet you money that if you pick a girl and go up to her, she'll be yours for the night." I looked across at him and then over at Brandon. "Same goes for you too Brandon; Any girl in here.
"Are you out of your damn mind?" Carlos said.
"Really," Brandon replied. "If it were that easy I'd have brought that hot chick up here with me."
"You're right," I agreed, "it normally doesn't work like that. But this time it will be different." I paused for a moment. "This time, I'm going to give her to you." I backed up from the railing so I could look at both of them at the same time. They turned around and gave me critical and somewhat concerned looks.
"You can't give us a girl," Carlos said, incredulously. "She's...she's not yours."
"Think of it more like borrowing," I told him. "I'm borrowing her for the night and loaning her to you. Try me. Pick a girl out from the restaurant, any girl it doesn't matter. Point her out to me."
"What?" Carlos shared a look with Brandon. I could tell they were thinking me unwell at that point. I was getting a little frustrated. I was tired of explaining.
"Just do it. Pick someone."
"Okay Steve, calm down," Carlos said. He looked around the restaurant and a girl caught his eye sitting in a table across the floor on the other side of the restaurant. "Her," he said, pointing to a blonde girl hunched over the table, flipping through a menu. "How about her? Happy now?"
I looked to where he pointed, giving her a quick once over. She was attractive from what I could tell. She'd work for this demonstration.
"She'll do. Now watch."
