13. Max’s Party
Max’s Party
The next week was a rapid technicolor daydream Gus could never have pictured outside his sketchbook.
Gus and Bridger indulged in all their favorite activities around town, just now with increasing intimacy.
When Bridger first yanked Gus into Livingston Lake weeks ago, they were alone.
Now local families were here and kids were swimming all around.
The boys still roughhoused and splashed in the water.
But this time, Bridger also kept attempting to steal hidden kisses from Gus under the lake’s surface.
At a crowded Mark’s In likewise, Gus was surprised by every stealthy slap to his butt Bridger delivered unbeknownst to Dan.
Gus could never have drawn a picture colorful enough to capture this first week of falling in love with Bridger.
After a few successfully smooth days of woodworking together, Dan agreed to help the boys complete their skateboard orders for Coop, Bennet, and Avery.
The middle-aged man polished off the layered, shaped plies of the three wooden boards, Gus painted the requested deck designs, and Bridger attached the baseplates, trucks, and wheels with a practiced ease that came from exchanging the hardware on his own decks over the years.
Once all three of their first SCRAPS board orders were finished, Gus and Bridger were buzzing to deliver their first products to their first loyal clients.
The boys drove to McNair, parked the Chevy, and ran up to the concrete edge of the skatepark to see Coop, Bennet, and Avery already riding the bowls and shooting the shit at the other end.
“Yo! Guys! Get over here!” Bridger called out to them.
The three all looked up while weaving in between each other, slowed down, and popped up their boards.
“What?!” Coop screamed back.
“DELIVERY!” Bridger held two new boards up in the air. Gus belatedly held up the third. The two shared a look of pride as their first customers whooped with joy across the park.
The three skaters kicked off again, speeding through the small, sloping concrete mounds to swipe their new decks from Gus and Bridger as they zoomed by them.
The boys smoothed to a stop.
“Bro! This is epic!” Avery inspected the hand-painted heavy metal bass guitar, lightning, and screeching music notes on his deck. “Gus, you are a beast!”
“Yeah! Shit, Gus! This wolf looks real!” Coop’s fingers grazed his board’s layered acrylic painting of a howling wolf under a midnight moon. He turned to dab up a startled Gus.
“For a gay guy, you still gave this milf some nice knockers!” Bennet joked, giving the back of his skateboard a sloppy wet kiss.
“Bennet!” Bridger shoved him to shut up as Gus chuckled and looked at his toes.
“Can we test ’em?” Avery asked Gus and Bridger.
Bridger looked to Gus, who nodded. Bridger gestured out to the park in front of them, grinning proudly. “Knock yourselves out.”
Coop, Bennet, and Avery immediately jumped onto their new boards and shot down the concrete, dispersing to the various portions of the skatepark. Coop did a flip at the top of a quarter pipe, Avery rode the flat bar, and Bennet went around and around one bowl in circles.
Soon the boys skated back to Gus and Bridger, kicking up their boards and holding them tight.
“Bridge.” Avery chuckled. “It’s like skatin’ on butter.”
“Yeah. So smooth,” Coop agreed. “And it didn’t feel like it was gonna snap right under me when I got air.”
Bennet shook his head. “I can’t go back to my one now.”
“That’s what we like to hear.” Bridger smirked toward Gus, then held his hand out to his friends. “That’ll be $150 each, boys.”
The friends all laughed. Coop, Bennet, and Avery pulled out wads of crumpled cash from their pockets, having come prepared.
“Max’s birthday rager’s this weekend. We’re all going right?” Bennet asked the group.
Bridger turned to Gus. Both looked unsure.
“College girls and lots of booze?” Coop nodded with excitement. “Of course.”
Avery laughed. “Yeah, plus it’s Max. He’ll kill me if I miss it.”
Bridger sighed. “I want to go, but not without Gus.”
“And Max still doesn’t like me,” Gus reminded them all.
“So probably not.” Bridger shrugged to his friends.
“C’mon!” Bennet complained. “You can’t not go, B. Max will wanna drink with you.”
“Gus, you should come. Just be where Max isn’t,” Coop suggested. “Sneak him in, Bridger.”
Avery gave them a knowing look. “Could be the perfect place to sell some boards…”
Bridger and Gus locked eyes with raised eyebrows. They both nodded.
~
Saturday night, Bridger drove Gus to a large house on the outskirts of Livingston. Gus told Bridger that this wasn’t Max’s house, which would have been too small for his party. The place belonged to one of Max’s older friends, on break from Missoula College. His parents were out of town.
Blaring music and flickering strobe lights beckoned from inside as the boys walked up to the house from Bridger’s parked car.
Under their arms were their skateboards.
They hoped people here would ask about their deck designs so they could nab some sales.
And there were a lot of people here. Crowds of kids their age and older were already drinking, even on the front porch.
Gus gulped. He didn’t know why, but a wave of anxiety crashed over him.
Inside, they navigated through a sea of people until they finally spotted Coop, Bennet, and Avery amidst the crowd.
“Where’s the Birthday Boy?” Bridger called out over the music.
“About six beers down in the back,” Coop replied, gesturing with his red plastic cup.
Bridger tapped Gus. “I’ll be right back.” They shared a smile, then Bridger veered off with Coop, Bennet, and Avery to go find Max.
“Gus!”
Gus turned and found himself grinning as Tara approached him from across the room. Her presence amidst the chaos immediately calmed his nerves. “Tara! Hi.”
“Hey. I heard a rumor you’re making more boards,” she remarked.
Gus nodded eagerly, lifting his board as proof of merchandise. He also retrieved a crumpled flyer from his pocket to show her. “We’re trying to convince my dad to actually sell them in his shop. Would you maybe wanna buy one?” he proposed with a small grin.
Tara examined the sample designs and price ranges on the flyer and smirked. “Yeah, duh!”
Gus’s face lit up.
Bridger and his boys returned as Gus and Tara were enthusiastically discussing her board ideas.
“We can’t find Max anywhere,” Avery announced.
“He’s probably taking a leak,” Coop quipped.
Bennet jolted to a stop when he saw Tara standing with Gus. “Oh! Hi. Hello. Tara…”
Tara didn’t even see him. Gus could hear Coop comment to Bennet, “You’re so lame, dude.”
Bridger slipped in behind Gus to whisper into his ear.
“Meet me on the roof,” he breathed.
Goosebumps covered Gus’s neck as Bridger’s lips grazed his ear. He watched as Bridger shuffled away and traveled up a nearby staircase. Before turning the flight’s corner, Bridger shot Gus a steamy gaze, then disappeared to the second floor.
“And what was that?” Tara placed a hand on Gus’s shoulder, pulling back his attention.
Gus blushed. “Nothing!”
“Gus! I saw that look from Bridger!” she exclaimed in a hushed eager whisper. “Did something more happen between you two?”
Gus beamed at Tara and hurried off.
Tara’s mouth dropped open behind him and her eyes glowed with pride. She raised her drink to Gus as he dashed up the steps.
Upstairs, Gus walked through a dark second-floor hallway with various sounds coming out of closed-door rooms with god-knows-what happening inside. At the very end of the corridor, a dull yellow light issued from behind a partly open bedroom door.
“Bridger?”
Gus gently pushed the door open. The homemade board he’d built for Bridger leaned against the far wall.
Above it was an open double-paned window.
Its short white curtain billowed in the night’s gentle breeze.
He peeked over the window’s ledge and saw the familiar backside of the beguiling boy sitting on the lower roof by himself.
Gus smiled. He placed his own skateboard against the wall next to Bridger’s.
Carefully climbing out the window, Gus brightened as Bridger turned to see him step onto the short roof. Bridger reclined back on the shingles beneath the starry night sky, his smile gentle and warm.
“Hey,” Gus greeted slowly as he settled down beside Bridger.
“Hey,” Bridger responded.
Downstairs at the party, a tipsy Max exited the first-floor bathroom and stumbled his way back to his friends near the pseudo dance floor in the living room, weaving through beer-sipping college students.
“Why aren’t you guys wasted yet?” Max jested as he approached his skate crew with a lazy, playful smirk adorning his face.
“We’re getting there!” one of the skaters called back through the noise, chugging his beer.
Max grabbed a bottle from one of the guys next to him and downed it. He tossed it like a basketball into the trash. He dabbed up the guys all around him.
“Bridger is looking for you, by the way,” another skater chimed in.