SCENE IV

GAY BACHELOR PARTIES

Before we start this one, I have to say that I've got absolutely nothing against homosexuals, I lived with one for a year, I just hate the way they throw parties. Actually, it's not a homosexual thing, it's a Louis Kai thing. I love Louis, we went to high school together, he was a violinist who tried to kiss me in the ninth grade, and then confessed that he was gay. He eventually fell in love with the ever-so-manly Finn Darlings – who, by the way, I had absolutely no idea was a homosexual – nonetheless, it was their bachelor party that I got five invites to. One from Insley, one from his best friend Mark, another from another one of Insley's friends, Charlie, Mark sent me another one, and finally the actual invite from Louis. I ignored all of them of course, not because I didn't want to support Louis and Finn, but because I was already going to their wedding, and honestly, spending the night with a bunch of flamboyant men who pressure me into doing shots, and eventually make me do drunk karaoke – because that always happens – was not exactly my idea of fun. Alcohol and me don't have a great relationship, I barely ever drink, and that's for the sole reason that I absolutely cannot hold my liquor. I am one of the lightest lightweights all my friends know, and they know if you give Harry half a pint of beer, he'll be blubbering all over your t-shirt, and then your night's basically screwed. It's an unspoken rule between my family and friends that whenever they want to go out for a drink, I'll have maybe a glass of wine, diluted with water, and a metric ton of ice. However, I don't tend to drink, that's why on the night of the party, I was lying on my couch, with Drew asleep on my shoulder, halfway through Frozen, because he wanted me to watch it with him. I had no intention of going that night, but then Markus Walsh showed up at my door, hammering on it like the world was ending. I got up, left Drew on the couch, and went to answer the door.

"Harry! Insley's in the car, he's too lazy to come up, so you need to get your ass in gear because we're going to Finn and Louis' bachelors!" I sighed, in his face, and contemplated shutting the door because I had already told Insley I wasn't going.

Mark handed me a paper bag, "from the boss. You've got fifteen minutes."

"Mark," I said, "I can't go. I have Drew."

"No worries," he said and called someone to the door, "we've got Anna. She's a babysitter." At this, I heard Drew getting up from the couch, and sleepily wander over to the door.

"Daddy, what's going on?" He asked, looking up at me. I smiled softly.

"Roo, why don't you go to your room, I'll be there in a sec." I said sweetly, and turned back to Mark with a massive scowl on my face, "what makes you think I trust just anyone with my child?" I asked, like an angry mother.

"Dude, chill." Mark laughed, "I know her personally, she's been babysitting since she was sixteen." I sighed again, knowing there was no way I was going to get out of this one, and took the paper bag. Mark let Anna in, she looked okay, and I reluctantly led her to Drew's room.

"Roo," I said softly, knowing he was still awake, "Roo, come here for a sec." I saw him run up to me, look at Anna, and give her this dazzling smiling.

"Hi! I'm Drew! Who are you?" He asked energetically, even though he was half-asleep a couple of minutes ago. I exhaled in relief when I realised Drew liked her.

"Roo. Your dad's going somewhere for a little bit, but I'll be back tomorrow to make you breakfast, I promise okay?" I smiled, ruffling his hair, as I watched his lips form a little pout.

"But, Daddy. Who's going to play the piece tonight?" He asked, looking up at me with those green eyes of his, I melted to say the least. I am such a sap, okay? I know.

"I guess I could play something for you real quick." I smiled, shook my head, and watched him run over to the piano. I turned to Anna real quick.

"Sorry, he refuses to sleep without it. I'm Harry by the way, the dad." I smiled politely, and watched her laugh. If I weren't so in love with Rose Darlings, maybe I'd have settled for Anna.

"Nice to meet you, he seems like a good kid." She said honestly, and followed me into the living room, where the piano stood, Drew waiting impatiently on the couch.

"Daddy, play some 'Kovksy!" He grinned, meaning the Rose Adagio. Drew had a thing for that and Dream A Little Dream For Me. While I was practicing for some or other competition, I had played a ton of Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Liszt to get my technique up to speed. He had grown attached to the Rose Adagio, then, wouldn't stop making me play it as a lullaby as a child. Now, Anna had probably expected me to rush straight into Twinkle Twinkle Little Star because she'd probably assumed Drew was taking piano lessons, because when I started with Drew's lullaby, her eyes went wide. I only had to play a quarter of the song before Drew was fast asleep on the couch, and Anna was looking at me like all girls looked at me after they'd witnessed me play the piano. It was a regular thing, when I used to be in high school, and play for a festival, or some or other competition, I'd always have girls coming up to me, with this dazed, lovey-dovey look in their eyes, saying I was fantastic, mesmerizing, all that crap. Emma would always give them the I'm-his-girlfriend-bugger-off look, and they'd promptly scurry away. Anna was giving me that look right now.

"Wow." She said softly as I was carrying Drew to his room, and tucking him into bed, with his hand-made teddy bear my mother had made for him.

I shrugged, "thanks." I said, because I didn't know what else to say, "I'll probably be home in about two hours, I won't stay too long. You can mess around with the telly and stuff, I don't watch too often, but Drew does. And if he wakes up, there's this CD player on his desk, just press play, it's a mix of songs that'll put him right to sleep." I smiled.

"Thanks." She said, and I left her in the room to get changed. The clothes Insley my-billionaire-of-a-brother had no doubt bought earlier were a lot more his style than mine, but I wore the dress shirt, threw a sweater over it, put on the jeans, and the shoes as well because they were nice, checked my hair, and put on some cologne just because. When I came back Mark was flirting with Anna, and I rolled my eyes.

"I thought we were going to a bachelor's party, Mark." I said, laughing.

"Right! We are. See you 'round, Anna." He said with a playful smile, and then went out the door. I gave Anna a final smile, and prayed that when I came home Drew would still be okay.

When we arrived at Finn and Louis' house, it was decorated with a bunch of pink balloons, no doubt Louis' input, and there was an attractive doorman handing out pink, sugar-filled drinks. Mark took one and shot the doorman a wink, because he could, and then spotted his group of friends in the corner. I trailed behind Mark and Insley, emptying my drink into a nearby pot plant, and placing the glass on a conveniently placed table. There they all were, Insley's group of nerds, and geniuses. I had met them on numerous occasions, since Insley and I were pretty close, and while I was still in New York, he would hang around them a lot. There was obviously Mark, who was the only one in the group who actually had something going for him. Mark was the charismatic one, the one all the ladies flocked to. Then there was Charlie Wilde, he was some or other cyber-security expert, but he was sort of an alcoholic. I saw him first, no doubt on his fifth pink drink, laughing jovially at a joke someone just told. Next up we had Furukawa Satoru, Insley had met him while he was walking around Harvard for orientation, panicking in Japanese, because he could barely speak a word of English, except of course for yes and no. Insley went up to the frazzled Japanese kid, and asked him, in fluent Japanese whether he could help him. I wasn't really informed of Japanese culture, so when he introduced himself to me as "Furukawa" and called me Sinclair-san, I was slightly thrown off. He spent a couple minutes explaining that –san meant Mr, and that it was simply a show of respect. I told him to call me Harry, without the honorific, because he was older than me, and asked whether it was okay for me to call him Satoru. He's extremely smart, and still calls Insley senpai sometimes because he sees Insley as an upperclassman. Lastly there's Marco De Felice, American-born Italian, who was another hacker that Insley picked up along the way. This group of cyber-experts had recently become multi-billionaires, because of this app/website they designed that took off. Finally, Finnely Michael Darlings spotted us from across the room, and came bounding over, with Louis in-tow.

"Harry!" Louis threw himself at me, hugged me half to death, anyone could see Louis had had one too many of the pink drinks, "I'm so glad you're here! And you brought the whole nerd crew!" He said, even though he'd probably greeted them already. Louis was pretty forgetful when he was drunk. I spent ten minutes making small talk with Louis, until I broke free, having been handed another cocktail glass full of some or other alcoholic beverage, to escape to the bathroom, or something. I always hated the air parties had, it was hard to breathe in-between the overwhelming amount of bodies smashed together in the tiny living room, enough to make me feel claustrophobic. I dumped the glass down the sink, smacked some colour into my cheeks, and stepped out of the bathroom with a new sense of determination. If I couldn't have fun, I at least had to convince Insley and the hosts that I was. I was an actor after all, all I had to do was look jovial and pretend to drink. Did I mention how much I hated parties? No? Well, here it is. IN BOLD, ALL CAPS. I HATE PARTIES. I didn't hate this specific one, however, this was one of the few parties I wish I could relive over and over and over again, the sole reason being Rosemarié Darlings. The first hour or so of the party was ridiculously uneventful, and was spent by declining glasses of sex on the beach along with any other alcohol that came my way, laughing at all Charlie's drunk jokes, finally accepting a glass of whatever, and taking miniscule sips throughout the night, Mark telling me that I was doing it wrong, taking my glass and downing the whole thing. I was greatful for that, eventually I got tired of standing around and laughing at Charlie's dumb jokes, so I veered to the side, and fell down on a couch, watching a couple in front of me making out like the world was ending. The guy looked at me like "do you mind?" and I gave him a look that said, "sod off, I'm socially awkward and don't want to be here."

"Mon dieu, What did he ever do to you?" A voice next to me asked, amusedly laughing at the way I had just scared the couple away.

"Nothing much," I said, nonchalantly, turning to face the person. Lo and behold, ladies and gentlemen, there she was. My girl. My Rose Darlings. The symphony orchestra in my brain started up again, Love's Joy echoing through the crevices.

"Hey, stranger." She said, as if we were in a rom-com.

"Hey..." I said, almost out of breath, "I thought you were in France?"

"I was, but I came for Finn's bachelors. He said if I wasn't here he'd kill me, and then Insley called me and practically begged me to come." She laughed animatedly.

"I'm actually going to kill him." I sighed, but then smiled again, "so, it's been what? Four years?"

"Six, actually." She smiled, "what have you been up to, Harry?"

"So much," I said sarcastically, "I'm actually in med-school, I barely sleep nowadays."

"Seriously?" Her eyes went wide as she laughed, "you? A doctor?"

"Well, not exactly. I wanted to do cardiology, but when I did my first practical, I kind of did a projectile onto the body and dropped out. I'm doing psychology now." I said, watching as laughter poured out of her. I was ridiculously in love with Rose Darlings, six years apart might just have increased the amount of love we had for each other. If I wasn't sober, I would've probably married her on the spot, right there. At Finn Darlings' bachelors. Obviously I didn't. But I was late for breakfast the next morning. No, we didn't have sex, thank you very much, I would've mentioned sex with Rose, because a) I would actually be in the seventh heaven and b) well, you can't not mention sex with Rose Darlings...