17
C eleste and Blake were approaching the front door of Star Lounge when a voice from above called out: “Hey!”
Blake glanced up to find Ryan and Marin above them on a small second-story balcony, toting water bottles.
“Getting some fresh air?” Blake shouted to them.
“Yeah,” Marin shouted back. “Have a nice smoke?”
“A brief one.” Blake snorted.
“Seems like this place is winding down a little,” Ryan called. “’Sides, Matt just texted me that he and Noel were pulling into Midtown—we should pick somewhere to meet up and eat.”
That actually sounded nice. Blake was about to reply with an affirmative before Celeste yelled out: “BOO!”
“‘Boo’?” Marin echoed.
“Yeah, fucking ‘boo’!” Celeste folded their arms over their chest, bouncing in place indignantly. “I want another drink!”
“Celeste, it’s getting late,” Blake told them, surprised. “We should work on sobering up, you seem a little—”
“No, one more shot!” Celeste insisted, stumbling back towards the bouncer.
Blake sighed and shrugged up at the other two before following Celeste back into the club.
As Ryan and Marin said, it was starting to slow down—most of the people who had been on the dance floor had either left or were lounging around the tables.
In the corner, a couple of young guys were twisted around each other in a way that looked legally dubious, their moans and chuckles muffled by the now-soft music.
Celeste made a beeline for the bar, so Blake decided to meet up with Marin and Ryan on the balcony. Marin tossed him a water bottle as soon as he approached.
“Lemme guess: Celeste’s trying to get another drink before we leave?” Ryan asked with a heavy sigh.
Blake thanked Marin before addressing Ryan: “Yeah… I don’t think we’re going to have the easiest time getting them out of here. They had two and a half drinks at the bar down the street when we left just now.”
“Fucking wonderful,” Ryan groaned. “I’ll go cut them off. They’re probably a lot drunker than they let on and I don’t want them blacking out.”
He disappeared back into the building, leaving Blake and Marin alone upstairs. Then, Blake was hit by the depth of his earlier epiphany. His heart squeezed in his chest.
“Hey,” Blake addressed Marin, almost shy. He propped his elbows up on the railing beside him, leaning out over the street below. “You enjoying yourself?”
Marin smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Thanks for coming with us.”
Blake returned the expression. “Of course! It’s been a while since I’ve done something like this. Sophomore year of college, maybe? Dunno.”
“You ought to have fun more often,” Marin told him, leaning into his arm. “It’s a good look on you.”
Blake’s first instinct was to respond to this flirtation with finger guns of all things. He caught himself halfway into the movement and managed to awkwardly cross his arms over his chest. And then folded them the other way.
Marin smiled, tilting his head at Blake in confusion. “What are you doing?” he chuckled.
“I. Uh. Nothing.” Blake shrugged. “Uh. Thanks—for the—”
Marin pursed his lips, looking like he was struggling to contain laughter.
“You’re cute,” he told Blake, wrinkling his nose in affection.
It was the worst thing he could have said. Any vague semblance of a hold Blake had on his chagrin was immediately vaporized. He flushed a deep shade of red, coughing and twisting his torso away from Marin.
Absolutely excellent. Great job, DeLuca , Blake chastised himself. Not twenty minutes after realizing the depths of his affections for Marin, now his brain decided to revert to that of an awkward teenager—probably because of that realization, if he was being honest with himself.
Unable to bring himself to flirt back in his frazzled state, Blake changed the subject. “I-I’m surprised how crowded it was earlier—shit, hold on.”
Blake reached for the buzzing at his hip, reaching into his pants pocket to extract his phone. Matt’s name flashed across the screen, along with a picture of his Twitch avatar.
The situation kept getting better.
“Hi Matt,” he answered, trying his best to not sound pained.
“Hey BB!” Matt shouted on the other line. “We’re at the parking lot by the pizza place. Did you guys pick out where you wanted to meet up?”
“Not yet, we’re still waiting for Ryan to wrangle his datemate,” Blake responded, peering down the street to see if he could catch a glimpse of them—seconds later, he spotted Noel’s lanky frame in front of the restaurant Matt had indicated, Matt bouncing in place beside him. “I think I see you—here, uh…”
He scanned the nearby buildings to see if anything nearby looked open, perking up as he spotted a pink storefront shimmering bright on the corner of a building. “Let’s meet over at Dawn’s Diner.”
“Yes!” Matt hissed. “I’m going to get a slice of mud pie the size of a football!”
“That’s horrifying,” Blake returned, blasé.
“Welp, see you when we see you! Good luck with Ryan’s date!” Matt concluded the call.
“Bye?” Blake said into the dead line. With a derisive sigh, he pocketed his phone and turned to Marin. “We’re meeting up with them at a diner down the street. Let’s go see how Ryan’s faring with Celeste, yeah?”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Marin assented, following Blake back into the club and down the stairs. They located the couple at the bar, where Ryan was trying in vain to get Celeste to drink from his water bottle.
“Babe, it’s fine,” Celeste insisted, throwing back a shot and slamming it back on the counter with a sluggish gasp. “I’m fine.”
Ryan sighed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “You’re not fine, you’re wasted.”
“I said I’m fine, baby!” Celeste whined, taking the water from him with an exaggerated swipe of their arm. They fiddled with the cap for a moment before tossing back their head and taking a deep swig. “There, see? I’ll be sober ‘n no time…”
Ryan shot a withering glance over at Blake and Marin as they approached.
“Heeeey…” Blake greeted Celeste with a grimace. “You gonna be okay to go out to eat? We can always call you an Uber—”
It was the wrong thing to say. Celeste launched themself off of the bar stool, almost collapsing into Ryan’s chest—Blake had to wonder how many shots they had managed to feed themself before their boyfriend caught up with them.
“No!” Celeste groaned into Ryan’s collarbone. “No, I really wanna meet up with Matt and Noel, I was super looking forward to it and I’m fine now you guys, I promise! I’m not even barf-y.”
“…no one accused you of being barf-y,” Marin said, tone low and suspicious.
“Celeste, maybe the two of us should head home. I think you need to get to bed,” Ryan told them. Celeste shook their head into his chest.
“No! Babe! Babe, no!” they repeated. “It’ll be better if I eat first, it’ll help me to get some salt in my system.”
Blake figured they were right—that is, if they weren’t lying about not being queasy. Adding food to that equation could go south quickly, depending on how drunk Celeste actually was.
Ryan sighed, looking defeated—there would be no getting Celeste into an Uber without some level of compromise.
“Fine.” Ryan sighed, patting them on the head. Celeste squealed in delight, snuggling into Ryan’s sternum. He wrapped his arms around them, turning to Blake and Marin. “Did we pick out somewhere to eat?”
“Yeah, we’re meeting up with them at Dawn’s,” Blake told him, hitching a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the diner.
“Sounds good to me, I could use a burger,” Ryan said as he peeled Celeste away from his person. “Can one of you bring up the menu?”
“Sure thing,” Blake nodded, removing his phone from his pocket once more.
As they made their way down the block towards the diner, he and Marin pored over the online menu, reading off several of the burger options to Ryan.
“I want chicken fried steak,” Celeste insisted, leaning in between them. “Please tell me they have it?”
“Maybe you should start with some toast and see how that sits with you,” Marin suggested with a gentle tap to Celeste’s shoulder. They squeezed in between Blake and Marin, wrapping both of their arms around one of Marin’s and rubbing their cheeks together.
“You are so nice,” Celeste insisted before affixing their hazy stare to Blake. “Keep this one around, okay? I like him soooo much—we’re like best friends now.”
“I’ll do my best,” Blake told them, dropping his speed so that he was in step with Ryan and adding to him in an underdone: “Are you sure they’re going to be okay?”
“No,” Ryan snorted.
“Cool, just checking,” Blake responded, sarcastic.
“I need to make sure that they don’t start climbing anything,” Ryan groaned. “They did parkour in high school and when they get drunk, they tend to get… vertical.”
“Oh god,” Blake balked. “Yeah, let’s keep an eye on that.”
They arrived at Dawn’s a moment later, spotting the dark blur of Noel’s form in one of the window-seat booths. Noticing Celeste’s enthusiastic double-armed waves, Noel turned to offer a shy wave of his own before Matt threw himself across his lap, beating the window with a greasy palm.
“HI GUYS!” he shouted, loud enough that his muffled voice could be heard through the glass. “We got a window booth!”
“I can see that,” Blake groaned, ignoring him and making for the front door. He held it open for the others, nearly having to catch Celeste as they tripped over the threshold. “Careful!”
Celeste went ahead as if they hadn’t heard him, rounding the corner and spilling themself into the booth beside Matt.
“Hi! Oh my gosh, thanks for meeting us here!” they greeted him with a side hug.
“No problem! I am absolutely down to go anywhere, any time, as long as there is pie involved!” Matt grinned, gesturing towards the mountainous slice of mud pie before him. “I’m Matt and you’ve already met Noel!”
“Noel!” Celeste reached across Matt, squeezing Noel’s hands. “Oh my gosh, hi Noel! I’m so happy you came!”