New Scene: Enter the Club

The place was called Sparke & Flash, but it was usually just known as Flash. The name was fairly accurate, it was known for it's amazing lighting. It was so popular that, despite the fact that it was overall a gay nightclub, straight guys were not an uncommon sight inside. One thing that you could always say about these men was that they were comfortable with themselves.

Terry was comfortable with himself, well, he thought he was. Of course, as Alexis had pointed out, if he was as comfortable as he believed himself to be he probably would have ended up in Flash a lot sooner.

Almost as soon as they had entered the club, Alexis and Nathanial were accosted by people greeting them with enthusiastic hugs. A few had already met Terry, and they also threw their arms around him.
"Oh my Gawd, honey, it is so weird seeing you in here!" "I am shocked they actually go you out to Flash!" "Terry, baby, is this your first time?" They fired off their amazed greetings, interrupted frequently by Alexis or Nathanial introducing him to someone else. Then, quite suddenly, they had all dispersed, returning to the dance floor or to the bar. Neither of his compatriots looked at all shocked -- apparently this was typical.
"You know I'm not going to remember who anyone is, right?" he asked after a stunned silence.

Alexis gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "That's okay, I barely know who half those people were," she admitted.

Nathanial shrugged. "She actually knows more of them than I do, I think," he said sheepishly.

After working their way to the coat check and leaving their jackets there, the trio made their way towards the dance floor. Periodically they would be stopped by someone who had not participated in the storm of greetings when they entered, and the same pattern would commence -- a hug to Nathanial, a hug to Alexis, and a light handshake as they were introduced to Terry.
Once they finally reached the dance floor, Nathanial began to dance. For a gay man, it was clearly not his forte. Still, he was enjoying himself and that was what counted.
"He's better at choreography," Alexis said into Terry's ear, "Wait til they play the dance remix of 'Cotton Eye Joe'."

Terry's jaw dropped. "There's a dance remix to that?"

"There's a dance remix of everything, babe," Alexis explained, "These are gays. They can and will turn anything into a dance party. They're professionals at it."

"I doubt everything. They can't have done a dance remix of "Silent Night', can they?"

"If they haven't yet, I'm sure we'll hear it brand new this December." As the couple had been talking to each other, although they were being loud, they'd had to talk directly into each other's ears. As they'd gotten close, they'd begun to dance. Nathanial spun around them, an obvious third wheel.
Alexis smiled and brought her mouth up towards her boyfriend's lips, which he parted ever so slightly as they met.

"Feeling a little left out?" a voice asked the dancing gay man.

Nathanial stopped, frozen in the middle of a move. "Huh?" he asked, turning to face his ex-boyfriend, "A, why are you here? B, why are you talking to me? And PS, what are you even talking to me about?"

Brad took a step back, putting up his hands as though to show he was unarmed. "I'm allowed in here, it's a public place," he replied, "And B, I'm talking to you because I like talking to you. I miss you. And you're obviously not here with anyone so...I just thought you'd like some company since your friends are playing tonsil hockey." He nodded in the direction of Alexis and Terry.

Terry and Alexis gently pulled away from each other. The straight man looked up towards his single friend and scowled. He had caught sight of Brad. "Excuse me, babe," he said to Alexis before striding away, "I'm gonna get a drink."
Nathanial was almost assuredly playing hard-to-get, but everyone had seen what Brad could do to that boy. Maybe he'd say he was over his ex, but even so the manipulative jerk knew exactly what to say to get exactyly what he wanted. It was time for backup...

A blond boy at the edge of the dance floor caught his eye. The boy was talking to someone on security and was holding a Shirley Temple in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. This was a golden opportunity. With a smile to himself, Terry approached him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Look, Brad, you're being all sweet and stuff," Nathanial protested, although his resolve was clearly weakening, "But, really, whatever connection there is between your life and mine or whatever...it's coincidental. We're nothing and we can't be anything more than that."

Brad's lower lip quivered pathetically. "You won't know that til you try, and I know we already did but I just don't think we were ready..."

"I don't think he's ready for you yet anyways," an unfamiliar voice said, loudly but cheerfully.

Brad stopped and stared. Nathanial's jaw dropped as a pale white arm gracefully draped itself across his arm and over his shoulder. "Right, sweetheart?"

Nathanial gave a glance towards his two friends. Terry nodded. "Your timing is so good, honey," Nathanial fibbed, turning towards the stranger, "You're always so perfect like that." The boy was blond. Otherwise not bad on the eyes, but blond? He shot a glare at Terry. Brad was going to see through this in a second.

"You don't like blonds, Nathanial," Brad questioned, "And I really can't see you dating one of the dancers at this club."

Clearly a second look was in order. Brad was right. During their special events, this blond boy was one of the Flash dancers. "You wouldn't understand the connection we have," the dancer said poetically, "It's stronger than hair color. Stronger than occupations."

"You know, no is an answer too," Brad spat, turning on his heel and storming away, glancing back. He was too stubborn to be done trying for good, but he knew he'd been defeated for one night.

"Then why wasn't he taking it?" Alexis mused. Then she turned to the newcomer. "Thanks so much, hon. Brad's so hard to deal with."

"Cheap too, he never tips, just stares," the boy complained, "I'm Ian, by the way." The trio introduced themselves to Ian. It turned out that he'd come to the club alone that night, so the the three invited him to hang out with them for the remainder of the night.

(The last two pictures come from Jennifer Thomas's site, and all three were taken at Club XS.)