Freshers Ch. 03

"Terri is there... is there something I should know?" I asked her, "Is it something about this job of yours?"

"It's... nothing, okay!" Terri retorted, "I love my job!"

She chuckled uneasily and to me, just a tad unconvincingly.

"Why else do you think I'd do it in the first place?" She added.

Somehow I doubted Terri's words were even slightly true, but I decided not to press her any further on the subject. After all, I didn't want an argument with her to spoil our night out before it had even begun. So I simply left it there and left her to return to her room to get changed.

When I eventually came downstairs, after having spent some time sorting my hair and makeup and selecting a nice outfit for myself that was fashionable but still well within the budget of an impoverished student and still reasonably comfortable for dancing in, I rejoined the rest of our happy little group. Terri looked fabulous in the dress I chose for her and Jenny's outfit looked nice on her too. Having been on the road around Europe for the past four months or so, she didn't actually have a dress to wear, but the midi skirt and crop top she had chosen looked really nice on her so she didn't look like our poor cousin or anything. And then there were the boys - Alex was wearing pretty much the exact same outfit as when he took Tommy out for their date at the restaurant in France, except he had obviously acquired a decent pair of shoes instead of the trainers he had worn that night. And as for Tommy... well, he looked so handsome it was about all I could do not to simply march him upstairs and have my way with him right then and there! He was wearing a crisp white shirt with an emerald green silk tie and a smart Harris tweed waistcoat with a matching emerald green back. I recognised the ensemble from the menswear section of the department store where I worked, and he definitely pulled off the look! He accompanied it all with a pair of smart black chinos and black loafers.

"Oh at last!" Tommy said in barely concealed exasperation, "Why do you girls always take so bloody long to get ready?? Alex and I have been waiting for ages for you!"

"Quiet you!" Terri admonished him as she followed me into the room, "If you were a girl you'd understand!"

"Are we all set?" I asked our little group as we assembled in the living room.

"Yeah, I'm ready to party!" Alex enthused.

"About bloody time." Tommy grumbled.

And so we went out into the street to wait for a bus to take us up into town - it was a crisp autumnal evening with russet coloured leaves dropping from the trees, a cold but gentle breeze to ruffle our hair a little, and with a bright full moon. The bus ride only took five minutes and pretty soon, we found ourselves outside the nightclub, its flickering red, yellow and orange neon signs announcing its name to passers by.

Ignis Domum.

"I wonder what it means?" Alex said as we joined the queue to get in.

"Fire House." Tommy chipped in, "If I remember my Latin correctly. I think this place was obviously a fire station before it became a nightclub."

We could hear the pounding music growing ever louder the closer towards the door we got. Two large guys dressed in matching black suits with white shirts and black ties were stood outside - they were obviously the club's bouncers, ready to take care of any alcohol-fuelled aggro that may arise. Eventually we made it inside and immediately found ourselves surrounded by young revellers dancing and drinking amid a cacophony of light and sound. The music was typical of the time - upbeat pop songs with rhythms that you simplyhadto dance to, with plenty of screaming sax solos and jangling guitars. I knew this wasn't Tommy's kind of music at all, but it suited me down to the ground! Needless to say, I headed straight for that dance floor!

"I'll go get us some drinks!!" Tommy yelled to me in an effort to make himself heard over the music.

"Okay!" I yelled back, "Make mine a glass of wine!"

"White or red?!"

"White!"

Bless him, it took Tommy ages to take our drinks order, and he practically yelled himself hoarse in the process, such was the overpowering volume of the music on the dance floor. It was still only around 9pm but already the venue was in full swing - and this was just a regular weeknight. I could only imagine what this place was like at weekends. Most of the revellers were young, most probably fellow students like Tommy and I, but there were plenty of local kids there too. In a provincial location such as York, far away from the fashionable youth scenes of London and Manchester and with few other clubs in the area, the mix of patrons was pretty eclectic. There were groups of New Romantics in their frilly shirts that harkened back to the days of Lord Byron and the romantic poets of the 19th century, there were a few spiky-haired punks, complete with chains and piercings who kept themselves out towards the outside of the room and obviously hoping for the DJ to play something a bit more rebellious than the synth-heavy electro pop that was the club's usual sound. Then there were the denim-clad rockers with their battle jackets emblazoned with numerous patches of various rock and metal bands. I figured that these guys weren't there for the music at all, and were probably just there to pick up some young lass for a one night stand or a quickie up against a wall in an alleyway somewhere. There was even a smattering of Goths, which surprised me, since I never expected any of those guys to be interested in a nightclub that catered to'normal'people. They were all probably there just for the cheaper drinks and the longer opening hours than the city's pubs.

Alex managed to bag us a table whilst Tommy went to the bar to order the drinks. We three girls, however, stayed on the dance floor. Looking back on it now, I have to chuckle at how typically 80's we looked, the three of us in our stilettos dancing around our handbags to synth-pop and electro beats with our big hairdos that seemed to take at least a whole can of hairspray each to achieve, in amongst other groups of girls doing exactly the same thing whilst the male revellers danced in their own little groups, obviously trying to impress the girls. It was such an obvious 20th century courtship ritual that I was surprised there wasn't a group of sociology students taking notes from the balcony that overlooked the dance floor. In a university town in the 1980's, that wasn't beyond the realm of possibility!

Terri, Jenny and I were having a whale of a time! Jenny and I looked on in wonderment as Terri utterly lost herself to the music and the whole joyous occasion of it all. When she said she'd never done anything like this before, she obviously wasn't lying! I felt a brief pang of sadness for her that she had been so sheltered by her domineering mother all these years, but almost immediately that thought was swept aside by the thought that here in this nightclub she was like a caged bird that was spreading her wings and taking flight and finding freedom for the first time in her life. If only it hadn't come at the price of alienating her from her mum and her family. Still, I was optimistic they would reconcile eventually.

After several songs worth of dancing I was beginning to tire a little, and so I glanced across at our table to see if Tommy had returned with our drinks. Sure enough he had, and our drinks were ready and waiting for us. But that was eclipsed by the sight of Tommy and Alex kissing each other. And when I say kissing, I don't just mean a friendly peck on the cheek; I mean seriouslypassionately kissing with tongues and everything! And I was also fairly

certain that at least one of them had their hand down inside the other's pants under the table.

If I had seen Tommy kissing another girl like that (with the exception of Terri and possibly Jenny too) I would probably have been incensed with fury, but the sight of the two boys kissing each other, utterly oblivious to what was going on around them, was almost beautiful in a way. Our brothers were discovering their true selves and exploring their sexualities and it brought a little tear to my eye to see it - they were blossoming, and if I had to make the personal sacrifice of sharing him with Alex, then I would rather have had that than not have him at all. I hoped one day he'd be ready to come out at home to our parents. I knew Mum and Dad would be pretty understanding, since they were, after all, fairly liberal as parents went, and they probably knew plenty of gay people when they were at university in the 60's. In fact, I was pretty sure my Uncle Jack (who wasn't actually an uncle but one of dad's old university pals who stayed in touch and had become a friend of the family) was probably gay himself. He did have a slightly camp air to him, he volunteered for WADS, the Westborough Amateur Dramatics Society, and had recently directed their production of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

As the boys' lips parted, they seemed to gaze deeply into each other's souls for a brief moment before coyly smiling at each other and giggling uneasily.

"Come on you two!" I called to Jenny and Terri, "Our drinks have arrived!"

We all picked up our bags off the dance floor and made our way over to our table where we rejoined the boys. It was somewhat quieter there away from the dance floor - the music was still pretty loud but at least you didn't have to shout to make yourself heard. We sat and drank for a little while as Jenny and Alex regaled us with some of their stories from the road since they had last seen us back in southern France. Jenny spun us a yarn of the time in Munich when she'd had to find a doctor for Alex who had a brief but rather unpleasant bout of sickness which was later diagnosed as gastroenteritis.

"He threw up everywhere!" Jenny chuckled, "Poor little guy, I'd never seen him as sick as that before. It was even a little scary - I mean, it got so bad it was coming out ofbothends!"

"Jenny!!" Alex growled angrily, "Would you shut up already! These guys don't want to know about...thatincident!"

"So I had to go out there at like 3am and see if I could find a doctor." Jenny continued heedless of Alex's protests, "Which wasn't easy since I couldn't speak a word of German and I didn't know the German word for doctor to help me find one in the phone book."

"Arzt." Terri chipped in.

"Yes, I know thatnow." Jenny chuckled, "But at the time I had no idea, and I was running around the neighbourhood desperately trying to find at least a 24-hour drugstore where they spoke English. Miracle of miracles I found one, and I met this woman named Frieda who worked there and she called a doctor for me. I had this like, awful sinking feeling that it was going to cost us a fortune in doctor's bills and insurance stuff, but when the doctor came and saw Alex he could instantly tell what was wrong with him and he simply gave me advice on how to keep his temperature down, how to keep from catching it, myself, and he assured me that it would just run its course and he'd be okay in a day or two. And it didn't cost us a cent! Or should I say aphenig. It was like, totally free!"

"Yeah, we have that sort of thing over here." I said as I took a sip of wine, "I don't know what they call it in Germany, but over here it's called the National Health Service. We don't pay a thing to see a doctor over here - apart from prescriptions it's all for free."

"And Beth and I don't even pay for prescriptions, since we're students and all." Tommy added.

"Is that for real?" Alex gasped in disbelief, "Back home you have to have insurance."

"So what do you two think of York so far?" I asked brightly to change the subject away from the subject of Alex's unfortunate bout of gastroenteritis and onto a lighter topic of conversation.

"Oh, it's beautiful!" Jenny enthused, "Even though I haven't seen much of it so far!"

This much was true - it was still light when we picked them up from the station, but all they got to see were just the residential streets on the taxi ride back to our flat. And once we had all got ready to go out again it was already dark outside.

"I can't wait to explore this place in daylight!" She continued.

"This whole country is amazing." Alex contributed, "London was just so cool, and Stonehenge was just so... I mean I can't comprehend something so... old - you know what I mean?"

"The oldest thing back home in Playa Arenoso is an old cannon in the town museum that came from a Spanish galleon during the time of the first settlers there. It dates back to the sixteenth century and to us it's like the most ancient thing we've ever seen!"

"And yet there's a building not far from here from thefourteenthcentury!" Tommy chuckled, "And that's a youngster compared to the Roman stuff in this place - you should see the dig I've been working on for my course. There's layers and layers of history from medieval stuff to the Vikings and the Romans before them."

"Cool!" Alex enthused.

And so we sat and chatted for a while, sipping our drinks and watching the elaborate yet subtle courtship rituals taking place on the dance floor. It was good to be together again, our little transatlantic circle of friends, and before long we all found ourselves back on the dance floor once we'd had a couple more drinks and were losing our inhibitions. I'd never seen Tommy dance with such enthusiastic abandon before; I had no idea he had such crazy moves! It was all going so well, until later that evening as the hour grew late and the slow numbers started playing.

-- -- -- -- --

It was... approaching midnight I think - I can't really be sure since by that time we'd all had several drinks. I don't think any of us were particularly drunk as none of us were hard drinkers, but I guess we were a little tipsy. Anyway, a soft soul ballad began playing and Terri, Jenny and I had retreated from the dance floor after having nearly exhausted ourselves by dancing to the song before it, an upbeat tune that was currently in the Top 10. We left Tommy and Alex behind on the dance floor and I was fairly certain they followed us girls back to our table, but when I turned to look back I saw that they were still there in each other's arms and dancing together to the soft and sensuous love ballad.

It was a beautiful thing to see, and even Jenny couldn't help but chuckle as we sat down at our table.

"Awww... don't they make a gorgeous couple!" She drawled in her Californian accent.

But then over our shoulders came a much rougher sounding masculine voice.

"Urrrgh, fuckin' poofs!!" Came the disgusted voice of a nearby skinhead in his ubiquitous uniform of a white Fred Perry shirt, tight denim jeans and Doc Martin boots, "Get a fuckin' room yer queers!!"

"Hey shut yer damn mouth!!" Jenny spat back with obvious fury in her voice, "That's my brother you're talking about!!"

"Yeah? Well he's a fuckin' dirty poofter!" The skinhead spat in reply.

Ugh! This guy was just the most foul individual I had ever had the misfortune to encounter - I was too far away to smell him, but I felt pretty sure he reeked of booze, cigarettes and body odour. His arms were covered in numerous tattoos and withLOVEandHATEtattooed on his knuckles. I also suspected his personal hygiene was pretty questionable at best. He was the sort of guy you either avoided like the plague, or just ignored to leave him to wallow in his own twisted ideology of naked hatred of everything that wasn't like himself. But Jenny, clearly incensed at the insult to our brothers, had other ideas.

She gave him a cold stare that could freeze the fires of Hades and said...

"Really?? Do you kiss your mama with that mouth?"

"Jenny!" I hissed in reply at her, "Just ignore him. Believe me, it isn't worth it!"

But despite my protestations Jenny carried on regardless.

"Were you raised in a barn to be talking like that? In with thepigsand the rest of your kind? Either way, you clearly ain't housetrained!"

Obviously, the skinhead took immediate exception to that remark - especially the way she spat the word'pigs'. I had a bad, bad feeling about this.

"An' who the fuck are you, yer Yankee bitch?! Some kind of fuckin' dyke out for the night with yer bitch girlfriends and your filthy poofter brother?!? Fuckin' Americans! Piss off back to... Illinois or wherever the fuck you come from!"

I just wanted the world to swallow us up so that we would be out of there as quickly as possible, but to my surprise Jenny looked as though she was actuallyenjoyingthe verbal sparring. Terri, sitting speechless between Jenny and me, was clearly of the same mind as I was.

"Aww methinks he doth protest too much!" Jenny chuckled, "I'll bet it's secretly turning you on ain't it?!"

"No it ain't!!" Skinhead replied angrily, "It's... fuckin' disgustin' is what it is! It's an...abovinationagainst nature innit!! It ain't fuckin' natural!!"

"Really?? Is that the only cuss word you know huh? Hey, I may not speak the 'Queen's' English but at least I know the word isabomination you goddamn retard!"

Skinhead was clearly taken aback, and obviously apocalyptically enraged to have been verbally taken down... by a girl of all things! And anAmericangirl at that. And she wasn't done berating him yet!

"Makes me wonder if you're not interested too, since you're getting your frilly pink panties in such a wad over it!" Jenny smirked.

The look on Skinhead's face, and that of his shaven-headed contemporaries who had gathered alongside him but were seemingly even less verbally adept as their ringleader, beyond trying to look mean with their bottles of lager in hand, was nothing short of the very definition of hellish fury.

"Whassa matter girlfriend? Y'aint got nothing to say 'bout that?" Jenny continued sassily.

By this stage, I simply couldn't help but be impressed by her sassiness, as ill-advised as it was. I looked over at the dance floor towards the boys, but it seemed the music was either too loud or they were simply too caught up in each other to notice, but Tommy and Alex simply kept on dancing together.

"Would y'all like me to ask if you can join them in a 3-way?" Jenny went on, thumbing in the direction of our brothers on the dance floor. By now she was clearly in her stride, "Or maybe I can set you up with another guy? After all, there's what... 3 billion guys out there in this crazy, crazy world of ours. There's got to be at leastONEguy who's desperate enough to get poked in the ass by a scuzzball like you! Gotta be somebody out there who'd want a bald dude like you whose tattoos make a train wreck look organised!!"

Uh-oh, questioning the guy's sexuality? That was the straw that broke the camel's back!

"Why you fuckin' little bitch!!!" Skinhead bellowed as he threw his bottle of lager to the floor with a resounding smash.

And of all things, it was that smash of glass and that ferocious bellow that finally alerted the boys to what was happening.

"Jenny!!" Alex yelled, and in moments he and Tommy were both fighting their way through the crowd of young couples on the dance floor to get to us.

They needn't have worried in the end - as soon as the bottle hit the floor the club's bouncers pounced on the skinhead and his mates. Clearly realising that not only were they outnumbered, but were also scrawny in comparison to the bulked-up muscular security guys, the skinhead and his mates briefly feigned regret for smashing the bottle but of course their protestations fell on deaf ears - they were promptly ejected from the area. Well, literally kicked out of the joint!

"You ladies all right?" One of the bouncers said to us just as Tommy and Alex made it to our table.