15-Joe

As he’d expected, Joe had no trouble at all finding Zack Huchzermeier’s house. It stood out like a sore thumb on the dark, quiet road, the music and shouting heard from well down the street. He had to park his car several blocks away, and he marked its position carefully, already anticipating the need for a quick escape, which was likely inevitable.

The front façade of the house looked silly, like a carnival ride, and Joe avoided making his entrance there. Instead he slipped around to the backyard, where the kids were everywhere, buzzing around like bees. They looked odd to his sober eyes, and he saw them all—the drunk, the stoned, the passed out, and of course, the random hook-ups. On a normal night, Joe would be a textbook representative of at least two or three of those—that he wasn’t any, well, it truly was a strange night.

There was still time, though.

He made his way through the backyard and up onto the porch. Rob was there, in the center of it all, in full-form, running on all cylinders, full of shit-talk and f-bombs. His partner in crime, Paul, stood alongside, as did Lauren. Another voice rang out on the porch with a volume and crudity equal to Rob’s, and that belonged to Jimmy Redman, a loud, gregarious type, every bit as bipolar as Rob. The two seemed to be tentative buddies at the moment, their words and slang jabbing back and forth like boxers in the early rounds, feeling each other out. Joe wondered how long that would last, as he slipped past them, undetected, and walked into the back door, moving with clear purpose.

Amongst a large group in the kitchen he saw Trey and Nikki together, in what appeared to be a continuous hug that had no foreseeable end.

“Dude!” Trey shouted, looking up at him. “You made it!”

“What’s up, man?” They slapped hands.

“Yo, bro, I don’t know how we ended up here exactly, but, well…here we are.”

“It’s…cool…” Joe said, looking around.

“Hey, Katherine!” Nikki shouted across the room. Responding to Nikki’s voice, Katherine came in from the living room, and she lit up when she saw him.

Joe felt a wave sweep over him, thinking he’d remember that sight forever. Everything already had been obvious, but never more so now that alcohol was involved. He smiled back at her and they walked toward one another.

He finally noticed Raza and Liz were there, too, their bodies similarly intertwined in the way Trey and Nikki’s were. The night was working out okay for everyone, Joe thought.

Raza didn’t even say a word, he just reached out a fist and Joe bumped it as he passed by.

Joe still wore his collared shirt, khaki shorts, and golf hat from work, but he didn’t think about this, not even for one second. There wasn’t enough time to go home and change anyway. The night didn’t have enough time in it to worry about stupid things like that. This window of free-flowing alcohol, with Katherine buzzing around, wearing a smile like that—no, this night would not have enough time at all.

She smiled a lot normally, but this one was exaggerated, her eyes lazy, and before saying anything she threw her arms around him. Joe smiled meekly, holding her, almost afraid to let go, thinking she might fall to the floor.

Just ten minutes ago he’d convinced himself it was all a lost cause, but now he thought it may actually be too easy—how quickly things can change. But he didn’t necessarily want it this way—not with Katherine. The witty girl from his Spanish class—that was who he really wanted.

“Hey, Katherine. Good to see you.”

She stepped back under her own power. Long strands of her hair clung to the stubble on his chin. She laughed, and brushed those away, as Joe felt another wave sweep through him.

“So…did you all go to Antwann’s?” The music was loud, so he had to yell.

“Yeah.”

“How was it?”

“Cool!”

He didn’t like having to scream over the music.

“Do you want to go outside?” he asked. It was the obvious route.

She nodded, while smiling.

They walked together out the backdoor, cut their way through the crowd on the porch and then the one in the yard. Joe stopped only when they were far enough back that the bass thumps of the music and shouts from the crowd were muffled and distant.

“So, Antwann’s was all right?” he asked, finally able to speak in a normal voice.

“Yeah. We weren’t there for a real long time, though. How was work?”

Joe sighed, as though in relief. “I didn’t think I was ever going to get out of there.”

She stared into his eyes as he spoke, her smile never relenting, just clearly asking him. In that moment he realized that his courage normally came from alcohol, and being without it in that situation was like treading new ground. He almost felt rattled.

“I made decent tips, though.”

Even as he said it, he hated himself. He was panicking—he couldn’t believe it. This had never happened to him before.

She studied him. “Joe?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you mean all those things you said last weekend?”

“Yes,” he replied, even though he couldn’t remember any of the things he’d said last weekend. He could guess the general gist of it though, and he had no doubt they were probably some of the more honest and genuine words he’d ever spoken.

“Oh,” she said, her smile dazzling.

Hesitation is for pussies—this was exactly what Joe told himself to get his ass in gear.

It worked.

He kissed her, and that caused a chain reaction as their bodies came together like magnets. Their arms encircling one another, they kissed fast and slow and then fast again. It was pure joy and relief he felt, after all the anxiety and the tension he’d put on himself. There really was no sweeter reward than such a moment, during which time he was out of his mind, and out of his body too, he was lit up, and he couldn’t believe how much she was leaning into him, her navel area not at all shying away from it. He’d forever and ever love the way she did that, and it made him think that perhaps she wasn’t so prim after all—but then he realized it was really the alcohol in play.

Of course it was. But, so it goes. He didn’t care. It was just the way things worked out, and Joe wouldn’t fight it.

Joe knew he was often brash, even reckless, and he rarely made any attempt to modify that fact. If he had carefully planned everything, would the night still have accomplished such a moment? He didn’t know, and he didn’t care to find out. Flying by the seat of your pants was a terrible way to go through school, and work, but if the alternative meant he’d screw things up and not end up with the girl in his arms, then he wouldn’t trade it, because Joe didn’t really care so much about anything else.