The Lush and the Ledge

Saturday evening found me in Bed again but this time I was with a couple of officemates, one guy and one girl. The guy decided to hang out near the DJ’s booth, so I accompanied the girl—let’s call her Mia—at the bar. We were just chilling out when this young man (he said later on he was just 18) started talking to her. After saying hi and exchanging names, Edward told Mia, “I think you’re cool to be in a place like this!” We noticed he was already quite tipsy. Edward told us he had to take a cab to Bed because he lent most of his money to his friends. Seeing that he was more interested in Mia, I went back to ogling the half-naked buff guys gyrating on the ledge.

At first Mia was doing okay by herself, but after a while Edward was becoming more insistent and more forward. He wanted to get her number, he wanted to take her shopping, and he had lots of money and can buy her anything she wants. “If you want a Jag, I can get you one!” he told her. He wasn’t just tipsy; he was freakin’ drunk. I had to step in and join the conversation.

At first I had a hard time taking Edward’s attention from Mia, but when he started looking for his “friend” (a guy he was talking to before he talked to us), I offered to help him look for his friend. “You lead, I’m so drunk,” he said. I took him up to the second floor and to the toilet, where he asked me to wait for him while he peed. I stayed outside, trying to peer through the dark punctuated by flashing lights, looking for Edward’s “friend”. No such luck. Edward came out of the toilet. “I like your beard,” he said, draping an arm on my shoulder and leaning dangerously close to my face. “I think it’s sexy.”

“I think we should look for your friend down below,” I said with a smile.

“You know I’m gay, I’m openly gay! I’m openly gay!” he repeated, his eyes barely open.

“Sure!” I replied in a gleeful tone that meant, “Whatever.”

We went downstairs, me towing him. We got back to the bar; no such luck with his “friend”. By this time I noticed Mia had already joined our officemate near the DJ’s booth. I had to lose Edward. Luckily he saw someone he recognized and started talking to him. I left him there and joined my friends.

We danced the night away. Later on, we were able to transfer places and moved near the ledge. When one of the dancers stepped off, bells rang in my head. Ledge! Ledge! Ledge! So I quickly jumped up. Wheee! I really let loose up there, even headbanging to the beat. I think I was able to stay there for almost 30 minutes before the muscle queens elbowed their way back up on the ledge. Humph, inggit lang sila dahil enjoy na enjoy ako! Anyway, I already had a great aerobics workout by then so I willingly gave way to the Muscle Marys of Bed.

I think I went just a bit too far with my headbanging. Today I can still feel a dull ache at the back of my neck.