When Alan woke up, he felt a hand lodged
right between his thighs, centimeters away from his genitals. He froze as soon
as he open his eyes and realized he didn’t really knew what had happened the
night before. Not minding the hand or the soft breathing next to him, he tried
to remember where he was exactly and what had he done to get there.
He remembered going to his friend Amelia’s
house as she had organized a party for her boyfriend, who had recently came
back to the country after working with an NGO for several months in Africa.
Alan had always thought Julio, Amelia’s boyfriend, was very handsome and kind
and he always told her that if he had been gay, he would have been the one to
get him. Amelia always responded to this by laughing and saying, “Right, you
wish”. She had cooked some things, bought other things and had bought lots to
drink for the many people that were coming.
At first, it had been a nice little gathering
of people and, as it was a surprise party, it had been really nice when Julio
had come in and he was truly surprised to see so many people there. Alan ate a
lot and then began to drink, just like the rest of the people. Music slowly
changed throughout the night and after midnight they were already dancing all
over the place. Everyone was having fun. And that’s all Alan could remember
clearly. Memories become blurry after that.
He turned around his head to the left and
realized, although the hand between his thighs was a good indicator, that he
was naked. His clothes were all over the floor, his underwear on top of a shoe
that wasn’t his. He turned around his head to the right and expected not to see
whoever it was awake but he wasn’t. He had his eyes closed and he was a very
cute guy. Cuter than most men he had ever had sex with. But no matter how hard
he tried; he couldn’t remember who he was.
After dancing had begun, he thought he
remembered drinking a lot more. He probably mixed liquors and that’s why his
head didn’t feel so good. And his stomach wasn’t too great either. He closed
his eyes for a while and tried to think about what he should do. He ended up
remembering a conversation with Julio about some political issue in Africa and
with Amelia about how hot someone was. He didn’t really remember who he was
talking about but he remembered saying something about an ass.
Carefully, he lifted the bed sheet to see it
if the guy’s ass made him remember anything else but it didn’t. It was nice
though and he couldn’t help but appreciating that the guy slept on his chest
and with his face towards him. He almost laughed at this stupid thought but he
contained himself and realized it was probably time to go.
The hand was the most difficult part. The best way to do it was to make him move
the hand instead of Alan taking it and moving it himself. So he just moved his
legs and feet a bit and that made the guy turn his head around and remove his
hand from where it was, instead putting it right under his body. Alan waited
for further movement but it didn’t happen, so as silently as he could, he got
out of the bed.
He suddenly had a string urge to sneeze and
grab his nose just in the right way not to make a big noise. He had a bit of a
dust allergy and he realized the floor was not precisely spotless. There were
little balls of dust here and there and he decided to get his clothes fast,
before he needed to sneeze again. He grabbed his underwear first, then one sock
that was on the bed, then his pants on top of the other guy’s shirt. His shirt
was on a chair, as well as his jacket and, finally, his other sock on the
nightstand near the possible owner of the room.
Alan realized two things right there: that he
might not be in that guy’s place and that he had no idea where his shoes were.
He looked beneath the bed and under every piece of clothing still on the floor
but he couldn’t find anything. So if they weren’t there, they had to be
outside. Hoping not to have to wake up the guy, he grabbed the door handle and
pushed as slowly as he could. The door didn’t make a noise and he closed it
with care.
Effectively, his shoes were on the corridor
outside. He got dressed right there and in a few seconds he was clothed and
walking to the main door. The apartment was nice, although a bit dusty too in
the social areas. There was an opened bottle of wine on the coffee table and
two glasses. Those were probably theirs and that really explained why Alan had
such a need to eat something or vomit. He had never been a good wine drinker
and realized he must have been really drunk to accept wine.
He put on his shoes right on the door, checked
his jacket for his wallet and cellphone and when he felt them, he opened the
door, got out and closed without minding the slamming sound. He was out anyway,
so he didn’t really care anymore. He walked towards an elevator and press the
down button and then had a memory, a confusing one, of having kissed someone in
an elevator recently. Not a surprise.
When the elevator opened, a woman not much
older than Alan came out and greeted him. He walked into the elevator and, just
as the doors were closing, he saw she was standing in front of the apartment he
had just left and was looking for her keys. He opened his mouth in surprise and
wondered who she might have been.
Moments later, on the street, he quickly knew
where he was and where he had to walk to catch a bus towards his house. It was
very early and it was, if Alan remembered correctly, a Saturday. So that
explained why the woman was visiting he guy he had been with. Maybe it was his
sister. Or maybe it was a friend that had keys, but that didn’t really make any
sense. Or she could have been his roommate. After all, he remembered seeing a
couple of closed doors. If only he could remember anything about his likely
conversation with him.
When he got to the bus stop, he tried to
straighten his hair and look a bit less “hangover” in the face. But that was
probably impossible so he just sat in the small metal bench and waited for his
bus. He checked the number on his cellphone and then realized he maybe used the
phone the night before. So he checked for pictures and, he certainly had many
of those but not the kind he was hoping for.
He almost dropped the phone and had to lower
the brightness of the screen so no one else could see, even if he was alone at
the bus stop. There were five pictures and in all of them he was having what
looked like great sex with the guy he had woken up next to. He certainly didn’t
remember that but then something woke up some of his neurons: in one of
pictures, he could see the guy had a tattoo of a Celtic symbol on his arm. He
remembered having talked about it but not with whom. Probably that guy…
He knew he said he knew what the symbol meant
and he did: it was about eternity and everlasting energy or something like
that. Maybe that had been his so-called “pick up line”. Alan didn’t really use
those but maybe it had worked that way for him. He also had a couple of
pictures in the party but that he remembered very well because they had been
taken early in the night.
The bus arrived; he passed his card and then
sat down in the back row. He looked at people and cars and dogs as the bus took
him home and when he finally got there he just took off his clothes again and
got in bed. But he couldn’t really fall asleep. He was still thinking of the
guy and how guilty he felt not knowing who he was, at least a name or something
about their conversation or what the sex was like.
He really was an attractive guy so Alan
wondered how he made it happen. Maybe the guy was desperate or maybe Alan had some
charm he didn’t even know was there. Maybe he should have stayed in that bed,
with that hand between his thighs in order to know more about that guy and
possibly about himself. What harm could it have done?
