The beat dropped and the crowd roared. He broke our stare and jumped off the stage, disappearing into the crowd. My eyes followed him as my foggy mind tried to catch up with my racing heart.
"Don't think I didn't see that!" Nat screamed against my ear, trying to beat the deafening music. "No boys remember!" Nat laughed.
"I think I'm going to puke." I gagged.
"Shit! The line will be insane for the bathroom, come on!" Nat jumped off the stage and helped me down, leading me through the crowd and into the employee only section. With the help of his friend, they found me a clean toilet to throw up in.
He held my hair and rubbed my back as my body rid itself of the toxins I stuffed it with. When I was done puking, he wiped my mouth and handed me a bottle of water to rinse it off.
"Feel better?" Nat asked and I nodded.
"Don't make me do this again for at least ten years," I grumbled.
"Oh come on, you're having the time of your life." He wiped my forehead.
"Yeah? The time of my life on the bathroom floor of a strip club at twenty-seven?"
"Twenty-seven is the golden age, now up!" He lifted me off the floor and flushed the toilet before we stumbled to the sink.
"The guy on the pole, he was real right? It wasn't just the alcohol," I asked, washing my face.
"Yup. Real and fuckable if that's what you want to know."
"I wasn't thinking about sex, Nat."
"The only thing people think about within these walls is fucking."
"I wasn't... There was something in his eyes... it glowed, but it wasn't the light."
"Ok... That's enough alcohol for you, buddy, this night is over, I'm taking you home."
"You didn't see it?" I turned to him.
"No kit, but I did see his tight ass."
Saddened in my drunkenness, I splashed more water on my face.
"What does it matter anyway? No more boys... Right?" Nat continued.
I returned my gaze to him, slightly nodding. "Mmh."
"You look like you got run over by ten trucks." Nat paused, staring at me as I tried to steady myself. "Do you want a one day pass?"
I chuckled. "You think you're so smart, a one day pass for me means a one day pass for you, doesn't it?"
"Ugh fine, whatever. Let's get you home."
I threw my hand around his shoulder and we stumbled and giggled our way out of the bathroom, back into the club, moving through the dancing bodies.
I took one last look at the stage where my eyes found the most beautiful man I had ever seen, hoping I'd catch one more glimpse of him, maybe even see his face. He was nowhere to be found.
However, someone else caught my gaze.
I wasn't sure if it was really him. I stopped Nat and squinted at the sight to get a better view. His tall slender body hung off the body of one man as another squeezed his ass, grinding all over him.
"What is it?" Nat asked.
"Is that..." I pointed. "Is that Sud?"
Nat turned towards the direction. "What the fuck."
It was clear Sud was out of it, I recognized the view because I had seen it so many times in the one year and seven months I spent being his boyfriend.
"Keep moving, Kit." Nat moved me along.
"Wait... he looks out of it."
"He is always out of it, Kit. He isn't your problem anymore, let's go."
I kept my eyes on him as Nat continued to the entrance.
Nat was right. Sud was not my problem anymore. It had been a year. I had finally begun to heal my mind from the pain and trauma he dumped on me. There were so many times I had to rescue him from situations like this, times when he was too high to say no.
Sometimes I'd be late, and it'd be over by the time I arrived. I'd task myself with getting him cleaned up, getting him tested, making sure he was fine.
He'd blame the drugs—he'd always blamed the drugs. "You can't hold this against me, Kit," he'd say. "You know it wasn't me, it was the drugs."
I'd nod and bite it all down, besides, he was trying the hardest to get clean, it's just a relapse, he'll do better, he'll get better—he never did. I knew deep down, he was barely even trying, and I was enabling it.
"I can't leave him like that." I stopped Nat.
"Kit, we are not doing this! You are not doing this!"
"Please, Nat. I'm too drunk to carry him by myself. You know what is going to happen."
"Let it happen!"
"Nat—"
"He called you a sick pervert! Do you remember that! After all you did for him!"
"Nat please... please. I know, I know. We'd just get him out of here, dump him somewhere safe and be on our way."
Nat groaned, shaking his head. "Fuck! The things I do for you." He pushed past me, diving back into the dancing crowd and I followed. "Ok that's it! We're done here." Nat pushed between the men having their way with Sud's body.
"Who the hell are you!" The hulky one asked, tearing his lips away from Sud's.
"Oh I don't know, Cinderella's fucking god mother; get your hands off him, he belongs to me." Nat moved to peel Sud off his body.
He could have been more polite in his query, but Nat was not one to care about politeness when it came to dealing with people he disliked. If Nat resented you, even the slightest bit, he'd make it a point of duty to make sure you knew it.
"Hey! Do you know this guy?" the lanky one with curly hair asked. The wobbly Sud took one look at Nat and shook his head. "Fuck off then!" The lanky one shoved Nat.
I shut my eyes and sighed. He shouldn't have done that. No one shoved Nat and got away with it, I knew what was coming next.
THUD! Nat punched him across the face, before I knew it, they had him by the collar.
Fighting was like a hobby to Nat, he was really good at it. People underestimated him because of his height, and it always worked in his favor, they never saw him coming. But even him couldn't tear away from the grasp of the two men holding him down as they punched into him.
I could hear the clubbers yelling as we shoved around, throwing punches, but I could barely see, just the neon lights flashing here or there and bodies pushing against me. I got smacked hard across the face and it sent me to the floor. It was a struggle getting back up.
I wasn't as good as Nat at street and club fights, but my years training in Taekwondo to beat Jaran at the regional competition back in university came in handy.
"Security!" Nat yelled. "Get him!" He pointed at Sud.
I turned, finding the passed out Sud on the floor, getting stomped on by both the clubbers and the guys we were fighting.
"Sud! Open your fucking eyes!" I picked him off the floor, hanging him over my tiny self.
"Kit? Kittisat?" He muttered. "Is it really you?"
"Yes! Move!" I dragged him.
The security was upon us in no time and in a blink of an eye, they were hurling us out of the club.