My best friend Laura decided she was going to throw a cookout at her place, nothing special or anything, just hamburgers and hotdogs with a birthday cake for her uncle Luke. He was dealing with a terminal illness and whatnot, so I figured it would be best if I showed. I wasn't exactly close with Uncle Luke, but we had some common ground. He was the only older gay man I knew at the time, and he made it a point to talk to me one-on-one every now and then when I'd been younger because he knew I was gay from the first time we'd met.
He was just a nice old man, maybe a little flirty, but nothing creepy. I think he just saw in me something he saw in himself at some point, and he always made it a point to make me feel welcome when he was around during my visits.
When I showed up, my car was overheating because it was on its last legs, and I was still waiting for it to cool down to top off the radiator and reserve tank when Uncle Luke came up behind me, "I can help out if you're just needing a reason to bend over" he said. I was leaned under the hood checking everything else out. "I bet you would if you could" I shot back as I turned and gave the old man a hug.
We chatted just a little, mostly about nothing in particular, and he helped me top off the radiator and do a few minor things with my car before we both walked over to the covered parking spots in the driveway. They had moved the cars out and put the old picnic table from the deck down in the driveway to be close to the grill. Laura's dad was already grilling the meat for the cookout and didn't even acknowledge either of us except with a grunt. He was a homophobe though, so that was probably a blessing.
"Well look who finally showed," Laura's mom Rachel almost shouted once she saw me, "it's about dang time!"
Rachel gave me a hug, and I made minor introductions to the rest of the family and gave a few nods and handshakes to Laura's other friends. We were not, by any means, friends with the same people. In fact, I was pretty sure most of her friends would beat both mine and Uncle Luke's asses if given half the chance. Just a part of growing up in the rural south I guess.
I did take notice of two guests in particular though, Aaron and Carter were both in attendance. We'd never been friends by any means, and honestly Carter was probably on the enemies list if I had one, but Aaron had always been cordial. He continued that aspect by simply giving me a handshake and calling me by my last name. Everyone back in high school used to do that because my first name was so common in our class.
After some general small-talk and story sharing we all had some food, cut the cake, gave our cards and gifts to Uncle Luke and wished him well, and eventually Uncle Luke's roommate (and possibly boyfriend, never could tell with him) told him it was time they get going so we all said our goodbyes.
Laura had planned the lunch for Uncle Luke, but had invited all of her friends including me to stay after and play some games and hang out. Her mom wasn't a fan of this, so Rachel and her dad Bill eventually excused themselves to go visit with Rachel's sister. It was likely just an excuse to leave, but we were all glad once Bill had left.
Bill was an asshole even if you weren't a "queer" as he called us when he was actually being polite.
After playing some generic games with playing cards and random board games with missing pieces for a bit, Rachel phoned and let Laura know that her and Bill would be staying over at her mom's house that night. Something about her needing to go to the doctor, but it not being urgent was going on, so they wouldn't be back until the next afternoon. I guess Rachel figured since it was the weekend she could trust Laura, so she clearly didn't know her own daughter.
"We should go and grab some beer!" Laura damn near yelled after she got off the phone and gave us the news. So her, Aaron, and Carter all hopped into Carter's truck and went down to the gas station to get whatever was in stock out here in the boonies. In rural NC that typically means Bud Light, Natural Light, or some other much worse beer.
I was left alone with her remaining friends which consisted of some generic girls who's names I'd intentionally never learned all these years, a couple dude-bros, and one odd guy named Larry. Larry smelled bad and was just generally creepy, but there were women present so he kept himself distracted with creeping them out as I just chilled out and played around on my phone for a bit.
Eventually Larry had driven the girls to the point where they were basically ready to leave, but I diffused the situation just long enough for Laura to get back by playing a little piano. I wasn't great, but I could read music and the girls were just happy to sing while the two dude-bros cheered them on, and Larry stared at them creepily but at least he had stopped talking.
When Laura got back, Aaron and Carter convinced Larry to leave, but to their dismay the girls left pretty much right after he did and took the two dude-bros they'd apparently brought with them.
I think once they knew he couldn't follow them home, they were happy to bolt knowing they'd be ok for the drive back. Larry was just an odd dude I think, but he did come across quite creepy when it came to women.
So I was left with just Laura and two guys I figured would sooner beat my ass than shake my hand, but to my surprise they actually both lightened up a bit. I think coming in and finding me playing the piano with the girls singing must've given them a new perception of me because they did ask me to keep playing for a bit after they returned and handled the Larry situation.
We then spent the afternoon drinking and chatting, hell I was actually getting to know these guys a little for the first time, and eventually it got late and was time to go to bed.
I called dibs on the bed in the guest bedroom since I wasn't about to sleep in the bed with Laura and I knew the parent's room was totally off limits. Carter immediately called the couch, I assume to make sure he wasn't having to sleep in the same room as me. But, to my surprise Aaron volunteered to also sleep in the guest room, though he said he'd take the daybed against the wall since I had already called the actual bed in the room.
This put me in the same room as Aaron, but he'd be in the tiny bed against the wall which was normally covered in gaudy throw pillows and I'd have the queen sized bed all to myself. I was okay with this arrangement.
After not too much longer, I took my leave and went to the bed I had claimed and left everyone else out in the living room to party as much as they'd like. I dozed off for just a bit, but came startled back awake when Aaron stumbled into the bedroom and kicked like three different pieces of furniture trying to fumble his way onto the daybed. He was clearly way more drunk than I'd gotten, but he also was so skinny that the alcohol probably just hit him way harder than it hit me.
I feigned sleep as best I could until he got settled, but it did take him a while. The room was dark, so I couldn't really tell what he was doing to take so long, but it seemed to take him like 20 minutes to finally get settled on the bed before the room was quiet again.
I tried very hard to go back to sleep when Aaron whispered, "Hey man, are you awake?"
I stayed silent and tried to keep my breathing as even as I could because I wasn't really in the mood to deal with his shit right now. He tried just two more times before he started tossing himself around on the daybed and making it squeak obscenely as he made himself comfortable.
