Note: It's important to read Part 1 before reading onto this part in order to understand the events occurring.
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The unfamiliar blasting bass pounded in Gai’s ears as he was led by Galaster, or pushed really, past the double doors, where supposedly another world waited for him. All around him, people were packing tightly together, laughing and dancing. Couples were huddled in dark corners. The flashing lights and pungent smell of weed made Gai’s head spin, causing him to slightly gag, but he managed to follow Galaster as far as the drinks table. Gai was tense and uneasy as soon as he transported to this new world, but everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun here so maybe he should ease up a little.
Then Galaster grabbed two classic red Solo cups from the drinks table and clapped Gai on the back, handing him one. “Well man, it’s time to learn your limit!” He barked out a laugh as he thrust the drink into Gai’s hands. He was being extra loud, probably because of the music and chattering around them that would otherwise drown him out. “Go ahead, chug. One shot!”
That uneasy feeling was back. Gai peered down at the cup in his hands, a dark brown liquid was swirling inside, small bubbles at the edges, and filled to the brim. He had never even held alcohol before. “Uh, but what if it’s too much for me?” He asked cautiously, turning to Galaster. “It’s kind of a lot to drink all at once...”
Galaster shook his head and shrugged off his concerns. “It’s fine, just drink it.” Then he flashed a sleazy grin. “Besides, I want to see what you’re like when you’re drunk. It’ll be funny!” He clapped on Gai’s back again, and Gai couldn’t think of another reason to say no without upsetting Galaster and without just leaving the party altogether. So he winced and started chugging.
He tried with much difficulty to keep his mouth shut. It had a nasty bitter taste, and felt like flames were being poured down his throat. It was like cough medicine on steroids. He’d like to split it out, but he felt like that would just make him want to throw up so he forced it down. Immediately after the red cup ran empty, he began to feel a slight lightheadedness about him. He couldn’t tell whether it was the drink he had just downed or the ever-increasing smell of marijuana and intense body odor.
Gai removed the cup from his lips, looking around. Galaster began cheering, letting out a raucous yell. Gai’s ears were ringing. He slapped Gai on the back for a third time. “Damn dude! You look like a lightweight but you might actually be a heavy weight. For someone who’s never had a lick of alcohol, you’re taking it pretty well.” He was clearly pleased by this.
Two people had come over, a small girl and a guy holding a beer bottle. Gai didn’t notice them coming, so they must have shown up while he was downing the cup. They seemed to know Galaster as he laughed with them. Galaster bumped into his friend next to him playfully, his drink sloshing around in his cup, threatening to spill over. Galaster held up his cup and shouted among the crowd. “Yo someone get this guy another drink! Let’s see how far he can go!”
Gai hoped that no one had heard that. The room had started to tilt for him. The corners of his vision were getting fuzzy. He wasn’t wasted yet. But man that shot really got him. He slowly looked around for Galaster, but he wasn’t in his immediate vision. Then he saw that he was dragging the guy with the beer bottle over to another corner to talk to some other friends.
The girl came up to Gai, moving in unnaturally close. She already had a strong scent of alcohol about her. Gai looked down at her. She was quite short, scantily clad in a black crop top and a pair of tight, light blue shorts.
“HI!” She said in a high, sing-songy voice. “I’m Britni!” She yelled over the roar of the crowd. She didn’t offer to shake his hand, due to the Solo cup she held.
Her voice hurt his ears. “Uh, hello. I’m Gai.” Gai mustered a smile.
“Gai, what an interesting name. Is it spelled G-u-y or G-a-i?” She laughed as if this was a funny joke. “What’s your major Gai?” She exaggerated her enunciation of his name, her voice rising at the ending. She was more than tipsy and Gai didn’t quite know what to do. Was he supposed to help her or was she usually drunk like this?
Gai shifted a little, fumbling around with his empty Solo cup. “Um, I’m a chem major.” He tried to smile at her.
Britni let out another laugh and she placed a small hand on Gai’s arm, almost like a paw. “Oooh! What else do you do Gaiiii. Like clubs or things you do for funnn?” Her words were becoming increasingly slurred. Gai wondered just how much she had to drink. The party only seemed to have just started.
“Uh, I like to play frisbee,” he began.
“Cool, cool,” she giggled, still looking up at him, expecting more.
“And... I’m a part of the Red Cross club?” He shrugged, picking at his brain for more information to feed her relentless questions. The girl seemed to be friendly at first, but she was starting to make him uncomfortable with how close she was getting. But she didn’t seem to notice this.
She gazed off into the distance, seemingly lost. Her eyes glazed over a bit. Then she shook her head, focusing her eyes back on Gai. “Is that it?” She took a chug out of her drink. “You should do more.” There was a not-so-subtle hint of condescension in her voice.
Gai didn’t know how to respond to this. “Uh...” Okay, well he certainly didn’t expect that.
Galaster walked back over, Solo cup still in hand, and slung his arm over Britni’s small frame. “Howzit going you two?” he smiled. He steadied himself upon Britni’s shoulders.
Britni looked at Galaster. “Your friend Gai is kinda boring. He doesn’t like to do anything fun.” She snickered, drinking again.
Galaster only laughed. “That’s why I was telling him earlier about how he doesn’t know about our side of the world,” he threw Gai a patronizing smile, “because the rest of us here know how naive and boring his world is.”
Britni laughed with agreement, then looked at Gai, swaying a little bit. “Why aren’t you talking? You should talk more. More!” She brought the cup back to her lips. “Well, if you’re not gonna talk, at least drink.”
Gai decided he didn’t like Britni. In fact, he wasn’t sure if he liked any of this. Not the darkness, not the drinking, and definitely not the people. Why did he ever agree to go to this party? He wasn’t missing out on anything. This place wasn’t for him. All he just wanted to do was to go back to his room and sleep, to get away from this chaos. His head began to swim.
“Hey,” came a voice from beside him. Gai looked over his shoulder. It was one of Galaster’s other friends, the one with the beer bottle.
“Yo. I’m Jake. Forgot to say hi before Galaster pulled me away earlier.” Jake said, extending his hand. The corners of his mouth were up just enough to be considered it a smile.
Gai shook it. Jake seemed to be refreshingly sober, much more controlled than Britni was. It made him want to take a huge sigh of relief at the difference. “Gai.”
Jake then slunk over to Galaster, and pulled out a small plastic bag. Gai squinted and saw that within that clear bag was one tiny orange colored pill in the shape of a triangle. He wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but he could definitely guess. Jake opened the bag, and dropped the pill into Galaster’s hand. Galaster did not protest this, but instead gave Jake a knowing smile. Jake winked at Galaster and then turned to Gai. “I’d give one to you, but it’s your first time being in a place like this. And you already had that huge shot earlier. No need to overwhelm you.” Jake patted Galaster on the shoulder and walked off. This time Gai actually did breathe a sigh of relief. At least he wasn’t being forced into anything this time.
Britni had drained her cup by this point and thrust it on the ground with gusto, before she began to whoop and dance around. She had a wild look in her eyes. She was glistening with sweat and breathing hard as she moved. She looked emaciated under the low light.
“Okay Britni you’ve hit your limit, that’s enough.” Galaster called after her in a weak attempt to stop her behavior. She didn’t listen to him, or maybe she just didn’t hear him over the music. Either way, Galaster didn’t seem care and shook his head with a knowing smile.
Galaster made his way over to Gai. “You having fun?” He shouted over the noise. He took a large swig from his cup. His nose wrinkled in disgust. He spat a little of it out, his tongue continuing to poke out of his mouth in protest. “That’s disgusting. Here.” He handed it off to Britni, who took it with pleasure and guzzled it, wet droplets running down the sides of her cheeks.
No, Gai was not having fun. Did he look like he was having fun? He didn’t understand what was so special about this other world. What was so promising about it that he took all of Galaster’s rude condescending comments about his lifestyle and felt pressured to change it? For all he knew Britni now had a dangerous concoction of drugs and alcohol sloshing around within her. This wasn’t fun, it was dangerous.
Gai opened his mouth to answer and finally said what was on his mind. “Actually, no I-”
Of course he was cut off. Of course by the very one who had asked him the question in the first place. “Hey Drake, who’s the girl?” Galaster called out to another boy walking their way. The boy had an arm wrapped affectionately around a girl’s waist. He wore a smile on his face that spelled all sorts of trouble.
The boy turned to her and gave a cheeky grin. “Shelly, right?”
The girl rolled her eyes, but let it go. “Bernadette.” To which Drake simply responded with a kiss on the cheek.
“Oh are you not seeing your girlfriend anymore?” Galaster asked.
“No, we’re still together.” Drake replied so nonchalantly that Gai almost missed the truth of what he had said. He has a girlfriend? Then what was Drake doing? Galaster nodded and Drake and Bernadette left to dance.
Gai looked incredulous at Galaster. “What was that? If Drake has a girlfriend, shouldn’t you tell him that he shouldn’t be seeing other girls like that?”
Galaster smiled, and grabbed a different drink. “Nah, he’s my friend. I’ll let him do what he wants.”
Gai couldn’t believe that he was saying all of that without a care. Had it been Gai’s friend, he was sure he would say a few words, to speak up. That was what was the right thing to do, after all. He was beyond surprised by how unconcerned Galaster was. But he knew if he asked him anymore he’d only get another talk-down of the naive world he lived in.
After a few more swigs of his drink, even Galaster was getting wasted and showing signs of it. He was growing unresponsive to Gai’s attempts to help him calm down so eventually Gai gave up.
Luckily, Gai’s head was starting to spin less and settle down, but now he just felt suffocated. He needed out. Or at least some fresh air. He pushed past the heated bodies and the open double doors. At last. He could relax. He couldn’t stand to be in there any longer before Galaster shoved another drink down his throat or before Britni tried to preach to Gai how boring his life was, how quiet he was, or the better ways of her lifestyle through her now incoherent speech. He just couldn’t take it anymore.
He grabbed a seat on a nearby bench out front and leaned back, savoring the cold air. After a few minutes, the shuffle of feet caught his attention. Now that he was out of that place, he could actually hear what was going on. He sat up. A couple of girls were passing by, and he could see that they were stealing some looks at the scene past the double doors.
He caught a snippet of their conversation. “Wait, what are those monkeys doing in there?”
Huh? Gai whipped his head back around. True enough, instead of the usual bodies dancing and drinking, there were now only a handful of monkeys hopping around. One of them stood out over the others with its larger build while it clapped the backs of other monkeys, and another had an almost sing-songy sound to its screeching. The monkeys were all imitating each other and clapping for each other. They were making a noise which Gai could only compare to the sound of what he imagined Neanderthals might make. It’s as if they were all in their own little world.
While Gai gazed in absolute disbelief, he felt a pat on his back. It was Jake.
“Hey man, let me know if you ever want to come to another party like this. See you around.” And Jake winked once again, making his exit and disappearing into the night.
Gai turned back, just in case he was hallucinating the monkeys from that drink he had. No, they were most certainly still there.
Well if there were ever any more like Galaster or Britni at those parties, Gai thought he’d much rather stay at his dorm alone for the rest of the night. He knew better now.
Gai straightened out his back and dusted off his jacket, preparing for the lonely but sobering walk back home. He shoveled his hands into his pocket and began his trek, his breath generating small wisps of air escaping from his mouth.
He could still hear the hoots and the calls of the monkeys from inside of the house. This time, Gai didn’t bother to turn his head back to look. If this was what the other world was like, he wanted no part of it.
Superior? Please.
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*Bonus: Bernadette, offended, slaps Drake in a fit of rage and screams “Feel the Bern!” before stalking off angrily (alternative ending to finding out that Drake had a girlfriend).
