bro?”
I ignored him, and I kept shepherding people into the room. He tried to get in my face, but I said, “Dude, there’s a bedroom open right below us. Go on. Shoo. Shoo.” That wasn’t true, but I knew if he left he wouldn’t come back.
I jumped onto the bed, and Mari clambered on next to me. Carrie sat on one end, and Dave hovered on the other side, his back touching mine.
“Do you guys have a car?” Carrie said. “We drove with Avani. God, I can’t believe I fell for that again.”
I felt Dave heating up next to me; for some reason he was glowing intensely. I wanted badly to reach for his hand. Maybe no more touching.
Gabi appeared in the doorway, and she came in, sitting next to Carrie. Now the bed was full, but the opening of this room had relieved the pressure in the other one, and more and more people came in. Someone threw open the balcony door, and now a few people stood out there too.
Everybody seemed happy. Homecoming was a topic of discussion. People wanted to know about it. Somehow they were very happy that we’d left that place and come to this one: it validated their decision not to go. One really drunk girl said, “Are you back together?”
“No, it’s a one-night engagement,” I said. But even that didn’t make Dave’s glow die off.
This room wasn’t particularly fun or nice. I hadn’t done anything. It was just quieter and less crowded. But for now that was enough. And with more space, some of the tension left the crowd. And that wouldn’t have been a problem, except that Avani somehow managed to free herself from Lyle’s clutches, and she stood in the doorway with a foul expression that put a pall over us all.
Nothing at a T99 party could proceed naturally: If one person was gaining ground, then somebody else was losing it. Avani was free of Lyle, but she also wasn’t near the center of attention anymore.
“Sorry I couldn’t make it today!” she said. “Did you still have fun anyway?”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Homecoming wasn’t all that great anyway.”
“What?” Dave said. “I had fun!”
“Well, I hated not being able to make it.”
Her voice drew Lyle, which was a surprise; I’d have expected him to stay in the other room. Now his big body pushed everybody farther into our room. He was in the doorway, projecting his voice all across us all.
“Nandan!” he said. “Heard you’d gone gay.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Who’s the boyfriend? This kid?” He pushed forward, pinched Dave on the cheek. “Holy shit, is this Bow Tie Dave? You cleaned up all right!”
I hopped off the bed, but Lyle wrapped up Dave into a hug. “Dude, this is awesome. I love this.”
Hatred boiled in my gut. Lyle’s bushy red hair took up my whole view. He was doing exactly the same shit that Pothan did, but somehow his whole manner and essence were much worse.
“Didn’t you two hook up?” he said, pointing to Avani. “Jesus, you must be gay, to pass up that body.” At the silence around him, he held up his hands. “I’m just joking. I’m joking.”
I cocked my head, a bit fascinated. Lyle’s voice thrashed around, trying to reclaim our attention. I kept expecting him to reintroduce the bong from the other room, but he was smart—he had abandoned that scheme. Now he was operating purely by instinct, trying to hold control simply by talking over everybody. As conversation in this room chilled, he smiled at us. I wanted badly to figure out some technique or trick for shutting him down. Instead, my eyes warred with his, trying to force him to look away, and finally I broke, saying, “Hanging out with high schoolers now?” I said.
“Dude, whoa.” He put up his hands. “What’s your problem?”
“No problem.”
“Come on, man, come on, I always wanted us to be friends. We should be friends. Come on, dude.”
He pushed forward, grabbing me around the waist and planting a kiss on my cheek. The movement of his broad body cleared out a swath of space, and everybody pressed together to avoid him. Now with one hand around my neck, he started talking loudly, asking what the fuck had happened, I’d gone gay, Carrie had gone gay, everybody had gone gay.
“Actually,” I said, “I’m straight again.”
“Ohhh!” he said. “There and back.”
The whole situation was uncomfortable, and now, feeling defeated, I tugged at his arm, trying to get out from him, but he grabbed me