Chapter 2: Party

 

Pulling my jacket back on, I left the train and made my way to the block where the party would be held.

A tingle, then an uncontrollable shiver ran up and down my spine. I crossed my arms and gripped them to hug myself more tightly.

...I really should have taken a cab.

A bit later, I stood off to the side for a second or two to relax. Aside from being a tad numb from this chilling rain, I had another reason for being shaky. I was about there, to this party, and I knew there would be a lot of people there.

Almost as soon as I arrived, I heard a cacophony of high pitched feminine squeals. With my blurry vision, I caught the radiant light of the welcoming indoor warmth beaming down on the now laughing group of girls.

Correction: women. I noticed these were really hot women too. They had just fled the downpour and been welcomed right on inside. In that brief glimpse, there was no way they were from our school, but I had no complaints about them being invited.

Grinning at the sight and the possible interactions being more than delightful at this party, I doubled up my sulky walk to a spirited jog towards the steps up to the front door.

And I knocked.

Opening up the door was the host to our party, Karl. "Hey Shang! Nice'ta see you've made it... No umbrella?"

I shook my head and remained quiet for a second, contemplating if I should've correct him about my name or not. It was Jiang, not Shang.

"C'mon in. Party's just gettin' started…” Before I took another step inside, I stopped at his arm barring my entry. “Oh, please, no shoes indoors."

Set off to the side, he pointed down at the rows of shoes. At his statement, and gesture, I got the picture he didn’t want the rain to be dragged indoors.

So… off they went!

A little background on Karl. He was not one of the so-called bullies at school, but came close being a rich brat who was always in the right. It was odd for him to be friendly, but that wasn't like I'd been the subject of torment; I just never saw this side of him before.

Also, he wasn't that type of bully that picked fights or made people miserable if he didn’t get his way. He was the kind that got away with whatever he wanted. That meant being first in everything, having the best seat in the room, having a swaying word of influence with the teachers, and of course his own escorting crowd of 'friends.'

Now, that mentioned crowd would have been more suitably called bullies.

My best guess at describing him: a rational dictator. But that would be judging him without really getting to know the dude.

After reviewing my thought on Karl, and removing my shoes, I stood back up and relished the moment of being indoors.

Being able to get out of the rain was yet again a Godsent thrill to me. But instead of the underground, Karl’s place offered warmth, and the relief of not being pelted in the face and shoulders for a long while. It was this pause that gave Karl a chance to give me an appraising look over.

"Hey, bathroom is up the hall and around the corner. Give'ya self a minute or two to get cleaned up before mingling, 'Kay?" He took a little longer to look at me before saying something I thought was queer, "You on a diet?"

"Uh... yeah, kinda," came out of me in a bit of a soft whisper. Compared to him who never required this, what I was going through was called a 'Financial Diet.' I had to be ready to become self reliant upon leaving my parents.

College was not cheap, let alone finding a place to call my own.

"Yeah, I get'ya, but if you need anything, look me up.” After he offered, I got a swift pat on the shoulder, but then he shook his wet hand and gestured again for me to get going towards the bathroom. With a small chuckle, he stated: “I'm sure'll be able to help with a meal or two."

That did sound like a sweet deal. Maybe a celebratory one for when I get accepted at college. One nod and smile at him, a silent ”Thank You,” and I headed straight for that bathroom.

On the way to the bathroom, I noticed through the portal to the kitchen, sitting on a table were a square stack of cans and tall dark-stained bottles. Taking a pause, I peeked in and saw more variety of drinks lined up along the countertop too.

Looked like the graduation party was going to involve wobbly legs when we all would leave.

Getting myself back on track, I entered and clicked on the light in the bathroom --

-- and on top of having blurry vision, I was blinded. It was a double-dealer lightshow in here!

With the twin cones in the ceiling aimed at both the shower cubicle and the doorway, then the mirror itself topped with a fluorescent... no, I was wrong. It was one thick and long LED cluster outlining the mirror. And that mirror reflecting all that light to brighten up the whole shiny bathroom.

I mean, talk about making the throne room impressive. Yeesh...

After recovering, and fully entering, I closed the door behind me and got this dripping wet jacket off.

Seeing that I was getting the floor wet this way, I entered the shower to repeat my flapping like I had on the train. Once done with that, I walked out to lay it flat over the counter's sink. At the time, I thought, ’Maybe whatever I didn't shake loose would gradually drip off into the drain?’ It seemed like a good idea.

In about two seconds, I was heading to go back out, but as I turned I noticed something in the mirror.

A reflection of a red stain on my back in the mirror.

Turning more,I was sure that it was blood in the middle of my back. Something did happen... and I knew why I had missed that wet sensation: the bad weather. Being already soaked was hiding the blood.

Taking in a deep breath, I braced myself before I began my investigation.

Unbuttoning my shirt, I took note of something odd. Maybe it was the wet sheen on my face and this spotlight, but I looked a little younger. No, that wasn't quite the right description. I thought, ’Youthful?’ I didn't have that haggard face from pouring my teenage years into late studies. In fact, when I lifted my chin, it appeared my throat was a tad slender.

"Jeeze, I am losing weight." My eyes poured down the front of me to see my waist tapered down until swelling back out around my hips. When I removed my shirt, I could even detect that my shoulders were more narrow. 'Could that happen during a diet?' I wondered about that, considering bad posture could cause people to shrink.

It might have helped that my parents didn't use a foggy half-century old mirror in our bathroom or I'd have knocked off this diet before I got this far.

One thing did stand out that didn't make me very comfortable. Across my bust, those pecs of mine seemed perked up, and I didn’t mean my nips, but the whole deal. The way they looked gave me the impression I had some kind of augmentation done to my chest. Almost like I was giving myself some hormone treatment and this was a part of the transition.

It would be something to investigate later. Right now, I had a bloody problem with my back.

Taking the rest of the shirt off, I considered where to lay my second soaked piece of cloth. I didn't want to lay it down on the supposedly drying jacket, and it would be really bad if I balled the shirt up. With it being this soaked, and without a hairdryer to help the process, it would remain damp and the rough treatment of rolling it up would wrinkle the Hell out of it.

So I hung my shirt off the doorknob.

Getting As I turned and inspected my back, I saw the bleeding. It just had to be in the worst place possible, right where everyone needed a buddy to help scratch if there was an intolerable itch. This would definitely need to be washed and treated when I could get around to it, but the party was foolishly being my priority. With that in mind, I searched the drawers for something to patch up on my back.

Again, this wasn't something I could easily reach around and smooth out with a bandaid. I had hoped to find some kind of large burn pad or something like that, but I did come across flesh colored gauze wrap. It would be the kind that adheres, like tape, but a lot less painful when tearing it off.

I got to work. Starting from beneath one arm, I went around the top of my chest, giving it anchor to hold under the one arm before going under and around my back to grab the roll. Managed to get one loop around out of the three I intended.

On my second pass with the wrap, I had a single second to process what I saw. From the corner of my eye, I caught my shirt committing suicide, as it jumped off the doorknob. That meant one thing.

Someone was opening the door.

"-- was fine. Had trouble finding it at first -- Oh, sorry." I paused in the middle of my wrapping to catch that guy from the subway staring at me from the door. "I was told I could dry off -- Uh, sorry, I'll wait." He seemed to have trouble looking me in the eyes, which I found a little odd. That regularly meant an antisocial behavior, but he seemed cool before.

With the door shutting, I hurried up with the wrap so that I could save my shirt from its fall to the floor. A bathroom floor! "Ugh..." I groaned at the thought. I knew this wasn’t a ten second rule situation, but still… if I put that shirt back on, especially with whatever I did to my back,and ended up passing out on the floor or something -- not from bleeding but from the stock of drinks they’d got -- I might get an infection.

On that thought, I did a couple more wraps around to cover my back and flatten this bust until I had the whole area around and under my arms in nothing but gauze.

A worrisome thought occurred to me, ’Maybe one more wrap around the bottom, as a safety measure?’ The reason for the second layer was to create a sealant.

Okay… to explain that, drinking causes blood to thin and I wasn't going to ruin tonight with someone pointing out something like a red stain on a couch. My imagination pictured everyone turning and spotting me, and that vivid thought was enough to question if coming here was really a good idea.

Yes it was. It was, and had to be good if I wanted to find independence. I had to socialize.

And this invitation was the ticket out of my parents house.

Placing the now lighter roll back in the drawer, I turned my attention back to the door. Kneeling down close to the portal, I could hear the light tapping of someone on the other side. I guessed that the guy was leaning his frame against the door while waiting. At least he would be keeping anyone else from barging in.

Taking my shirt, I decided that the best place for it now would be the counter. With the shirt in one hand, I grabbed my jacket with the other and threw it to hang over my shoulder. Didn't want to do this before, but I balled up the flannel and set it in a corner. The jacket, being mostly dried, got put back on and zipped up.

Heading out, I had to give the door a couple of knocks to alert the man on the other side. I had no idea why he was here, especially considering that he had taken a different train route than what I took, but the little half conversation I picked up might suggest that he got lost.

The thing that got me was, 'Why is he here to begin with?'

The door was pushed towards me and I had to back up to let him in. I glanced up, now his brown eyes were on the level with mine. Giving him a nod, I turned aside to let him pass me on his way in.

In our brief passing contact, I noticed something I hadn’t before… or rather, I had, but not in this way. I was drawn to the shape of his body. A tall man, with broad shoulders, and an outlined physique that had me curious about how solid he was under those clothes.

Then there was his taste in the air. It was only around him. A scent that was coming to me and rolling off the buds on the tip of my tongue. Past the smell of rain, subway, and city street, a subtle hint of his manly scent lit me up like a bright flare. And it wasn’t a bad feeling.

Not bad at all...

A little pinkish heat had come to my face before I turned to leave.

Right when I was about to head back down the hall, he called out, "What was your name? I'm Jake. Karl's older brother."

That cleared the little mystery of why he was here. Might also explain him getting lost if this was his first visit here.

As I stopped, and glanced back at him, I announced: "Jiang."

He smiled.

In response to that smile, or to my disbelief it at least felt that way, my face burned a bit hotter. 'What the Hell? Am I getting a fever?' were my immediate thoughts.

To me, those thoughts of being feverish sounded more rational than him making me blush.

"Shang, sorry again for barging in on you." Once again, I didn't bother correcting my mispronounced name. I’d learned that it became less socially awkward to simply accept and respond to the call of that name.

My only response to him was a nod and the display of civility in closing the door for him.

Karl's place was getting a little crowded.

Out of the party, I took note of at least three or four faces I recognized from classes we shared. But when I nodded to them, each classmate I knew seemed to pause, or squint at me, or raise a brow, or give some indicator they didn’t acknowledge who I was, but otherwise returned a friendly greeting back to me.

After my failed attempts to mingle, I wondered, ’Okay, maybe I should start munching on some bread here and and crackers there to regain a few of my lost pounds if I was this unrecognizable?’

"May'aye 'ave everybod's atten'SHUN puwease!?" Karl had a mic in his hand and I was thanking God that there wasn't any feedback from that line he gave. "We've a game room, for'dese peoples."

For a moment, I didn’t really mind looking at who these ‘Gamers’ were. I was more interested in how Karl could continue being the host. He sounded sloshed already, and when I saw the clock, the party was only in its first hour.

"No protests for'dem peeps!” He slurred a bit. “I've invested a cool reward for'dese game winNARS!” And that was the eventual feedback I was expecting. “Please c'mon in when I call'yer names!"

Wiggling a pinkie in my poor ear, I had decided to vacate the area for someplace quieter. I used the wall between the living room and hallway to shield me from anymore ear popping announcements.

From my safe corner, I watched to see who among the crowd were these game participants.

One name after another, and each was a recognized name and face, but I was surprised when I heard the more familiar name, “Shang,” ring out of Karl’s mic.

Games? I was going to be playing games!?

The only games I was aware went on at parties like these were drinking games. But what worried me was those who would be participating.

Those classmates were the types who got bullied, and I was invited to join them…