I'm Your Wreck

15- Unfathomably Hot

For the show at the gay bar, I was able to dig out my Halloween costume from last year. A pair of brown pants with fringe down both sides, a cow print vest, and a cowboy hat. It was a little bit cold outside to not be wearing a shirt, but none of my t-shirts looked right with the outfit and Ollie assured me that while the late October chill might bite, the heat inside the bar would ensure that I wasn't freezing.

He also informed me that going shirtless to a gay bar might earn us some free drinks, which was not my goal at all, but Ollie laughed when I told him that.

Ollie himself wore a Batman costume, cape included, as he downed two beers in the dining room before we left the house.

Banks was dressed as a caveman with an animal print toga-like skirt and a necklace of bones that hung low on his bare tattooed chest.

"I have this, but I know they won't let me take it into the bar," he complained, lifting a white bone in the shape of a baseball bat. "So many good giant bone jokes though."

With a smirk in my direction, he added, "So you found a way to get around having to wear jeans."

"You said a costume was preferred," I reminded him, glancing down at the outfit. "Is this okay?"

"The gays are going to eat you alive," Ollie said with a cackling laugh, patting me hard on the shoulder as the three of us started walking toward the front door and then into Ollie's car.

"That's a good thing," Banks said, passing by me in a waft of mahogany cologne.

The bar was only a ten minute drive into town with a neon sign out front with the word "Quake" and a glowing martini glass. The poster out front showed a picture of a woman with large brown hair and dramatic makeup with the text, "Halloween Drag Show" on the front.

The event was eighteen and up, but I got thick black X marks on both of my hands to signify that I wasn't twenty-one before I got admitted through the doors.

Everything inside was dark with a neon rim around the bar and ceiling. The floor was sticky and the crowd was already thick with people and the strong scent of tequila. A Madonna song played at ear-shattering volume as Banks grabbed my wrist in his hand and pulled me through the crowd. Ollie followed behind me.

It was too loud to ask where we were going until he pushed us through a stark black door into a hallway.

"Are we allowed back here?" I asked as he dropped my wrist.

"Yeah, yeah it's fine," Banks shrugged off my concern before turning into a doorway with the label "Dressing Room" on the front.

There were guys in the back, all in varying degrees of drag. Some with partial faces of makeup done, others in full sparkly outfits and wigs, two of them arguing over who would get to lip sync It's Raining Men.

"Jordan!" Banks called to a guy who sat at a vanity with a whole kit of makeup splayed out in front of him and a base of foundation covering his face.

Did he just say Jordan? As in...

"Hey, you made it," the guy grinned back at Banks, quickly glancing to me and Ollie. "Who are your friends?"

"This is my cousin, Ollie, and my friend, Liam," he said, nudging in our direction.

Jordan's face lit up with what seemed to be recognition. "No shit," he finally said, his curious hazel eyes landing back on me as if appraising me for something. I shifted uncomfortably in my stance. "Nice to finally meet you."

I was too confused about a multitude of things to even begin to form a response. Instead, I awkwardly waved one hand before it dropped like a stone to my side.