Chapter Six

Lance

I stood firm and almost motionless with the rest of the tightly packed people inside the elevator of the mall, everyone wearing the very same tense and doleful expressions appropriate to an evening after a long tiring day. I’m not claustrophobic at all so it’s not a problem being packed in a steel box along with everybody who works at the mall. However, the smell of a long tiring day was very much evident the moment you enter the elevator and I had to endure this kind of shit every time I time out of my day job.

As the elevator slides down towards the ground, I felt the titillating buzz of my phone from the pocket of my tight jeans. With so much difficulty, I tried extricating it with my elbow pressing unpleasantly unto some unspecified flabby portion of a suited old paunchy man right beside me. Having been successful at pulling my phone out, I swiped the unlock button to read a message. The message was from one of my friends, Timothy telling me to hurry up and that they are already inside the club where Dianna will be performing later this evening. I quickly checked the time and it’s just 6:36. It’s still relatively early and they’re already asking me to hurry up. I’m pretty much certain that Dianna’s performance will start at 9pm. She’s always scheduled to perform at 9pm as the opening act of the night. I don’t see any reason as to why they are forcing me to hurry up when it’s basically dusk. I was planning on going home first with my plans of having a quick shower and change my clothes suited for the holiday night.

I’m going to have an educated guess and say that they have missed me so much mostly because of the underlying fact that we only see each other every once in a while. We’re all busy dealing with our own adult shit so we only hang out if time’s aligning perfectly with each of our schedules.

Finally, after five floors, the dinging sound of the stopping elevator was like the shortest music to my ears. I can finally breathe freely as I jumped out of the metal box as soon as the metal plates slid open. I walked faster towards the waiting area and I had opted to ride a taxi going home rather than taking the bus which would just take hours.

By the time I got to my apartment space, I jumped right into the shower. The water felt cool and refreshing as I rubbed the soap all over my body. It was just a quick shower but I felt refreshed, galvanized and ready to party with my friends.

By the time I arrived at The Babylon club, every single one of my friends were already present and just as I suspected, they were already half drunk, their cheeks slightly blushed with a shade of pinkish red. I looked around and for the first time in what seemed like forever, we are all complete.

"Man, you came really late." Pulling me by the arm, Bradey spoke as loud as he could.

“It’s just 8pm, Bradey. What part of that makes me late?” I blurted out knowing that the night truly starts at 9pm. The night basically hasn’t started yet and they are already half-ass drunk. If it’s Dianna, I’ll give her a big pass because she’s going to perform later and she always gives a good performance worthy of dollars if she’s a little tipsy and her muscles are all prepped for some sick splits and death drops.

“Whatever, man! You’re still late. You know we only meet once in a blue moon.” Bradey trailed.

Bradey was your typical guy having the common height and body built and his faded buzz cut makes him a lot cooler than he actually is. He was the most aggressive back in the earliest of our college days. He was always energetic and was always on the go, and up until now he was still the same person. Aggressive. Energetic. Happy-Go-Lucky.

"How are you doing, Lance? What’s new?" Timothy, scratching the slight stubble on his chin, asked while handing me a bottle of Heineken.

Timothy, on the other hand, was the most thoughtful of the group. He was always the one in charge for asking things like how are you doing, have you eaten, are you sick and those kinds of stuff. He was like the mother of the group, not that he is feminine or some sort but he was really acting worrisome most of the time just like a real concern mother. Perhaps that’s because he was raised alone by his single mother along with her two younger sisters that he had adopted that kind of attitude.

"I’m fine, I’m actually doing fine." I lied. The words struggled to come out of my throat as smooth as possible but it came out nonetheless. Of course I don’t feel perfectly fine but I have to be. This night shouldn’t be all about me at all. It should be about all of us and I have to feel fine just so we would have a perfect night out since we don’t hangout a lot.

"Are you sure?" Dianna entered the floor of conversation, his Lady Gaga inspired blonde wig was still on his head but he had already changed his black maxi dress into a kinky bodysuit.

"What do you mean?" I asked shifting up my expression to a lighter mood. Deep down inside, I was feeling a bit anxious that Dianna had seen right through me.

"Because you look a bit crestfallen when I first came to the café." Consciously blowing puffs of cigarette from his mouth, Dianna sounded so sure about what he just uttered. He’s always been the type of person who always pays attention to emotional expressions, every smile, every roll of eyes, every grimace has a meaning to him.

"I do?" I was indeed a bit crestfallen a while ago but I pressed on denying Dianna’s accusations.

"Don't worry Lance, you'll get over it soon." The quality of cheerfulness in Bradey's tone was crystal clear.

"Cheers!" Timothy began perfectly changing the weird air in the room. "To Lance and whatever’s holding him back!" And they all raised what they are holding, whether it’s a can or a glass, into the air.

"And cheers to Lance finding someone new again!" Bradey followed up shifting the attention back to me once again.

"And to getting his heart broken once again soon!" Dianna added jokingly and every one of them laughed.

I raised my beer along with them and just let out a laughter. True friends do really tease you more and even if it hurts at least it's the truth.

We all continued drinking. Timothy, Bradey and I were all having beer while Dianna was having a cocktail with extra shots of vodka. We resumed catching up with each other until the moment Dianna had to leave to prepare for the opening of the drag performance for the night. The host of the night’s line up climbed towards the stage and hatched a few jokes before eventually introducing the opening act.

“Our opening act this Thursday night is our very own diva, the one and only Dianna Luxxxe.” The host announced and the music began playing as Dianna slowly emerged from the curtains.

“Yeeeeaaah!!! That’s my baby right theeeere!” Bradey, standing right in front of me screamed at the top of his lungs. He was even jumping in excitement and I can clearly see how proud he was to be friends with Daniel or in this case, Dianna Luxxxe. It’s quite endearing to be honest, even knowing the fact that Bradey’s straight as fuck, he’s not ashamed of having a gay friend in Daniel and a bisexual in me.