“This is for my people, my party people. This is for my people, my motherfucking people,” Kelly sang loudly as she waved her hands to the beat of the music.
Nelly snickered as he watched his drunk girlfriend wave her drink around and slosh it all over the people around her.
“That’s enough for you, shorty,” he said before taking the drink from her hand and directing her to a table at the side.
Justin watched the exchange in amusement before turning back to the bar and ordering another beer.
Everyone was scattered around the club. They’d gotten there about an hour earlier and had decided to stay even though the DJ tended to blend house and techno with dance and hip-hop.
Justin grinned broadly when the Missy Elliot song fell into a mix of the new Timbaland joint and the crowd seemed to appreciate it too as more people headed toward the already packed dance floor. He bopped his head to the song and took another swig of his beer as he watched the dancers move.
He eyed the girls in their short skirts and crop tops and surreptitiously eyed the guys hanging around the bar beside them. Not bad, not bad at all. Justin took another mouthful of beer and let the cool liquid slide down the back of his throat. He wasn’t positive when it’d hit him that he was as attracted to some men as he was to women. But he knew it had been a gradual thing over the last few years.
It wasn’t something he had openly gone after. He hadn’t had any same sex relationships or anything; he was too much of a coward to go there. But of the few kisses he’d had with other guys, he’d liked it. Besides, being attracted and attractive to both sexes was something he used to his advantage. He could wrap almost anyone around his little finger when he turned on the charm.
Justin turned his attention to the DJ as he bounced from the Timbaland track to a hot, pounding bass driven beat and the crowd got even more intense. He tried to look the guy over but in the darkness of the club Justin couldn’t really tell much about him except that he was about average height and had shortish dark hair. He watched as the DJ hyped up the crowd more, as he bopped his head to the beat and did a couple of tricks with his 12’s. He liked the way the DJ was playing the crowd, gauging their reactions and responding to them. The guy had some serious skills and Justin was curious to find out more about him.
A sudden vibration in the pocket of his pants turned his attention from the DJ to his cell phone. He shoved his hand in his pocket and took it out. Looking at the number, he snorted. Britney again. It was the third call that evening.
In the last couple of weeks, he’d felt trapped around her. He could barely be in the same room with her without wanting to make a run for it. It had been over a month and most of his relationships didn’t last longer than that. He was getting antsy and that meant one thing: the relationship had run its course. It was time to end it.
He flipped open the phone, while making his way to the men’s room. “Hey Brit.”
“Justin? Where are you? I can barely hear you.”
He pushed into the bathroom and closed the door firmly behind him. “Oh shit.” He said as he realized that his half full bottle of beer was still sitting on the bar.
“Excuse me?” Britney said waspishly.
“Nothing. Look Brit, we gotta talk.”
“About what?”
Justin cut to the chase. “I’m breaking up with you.”
”You’re what?”
“Breaking up with you.”
“You son of a bitch,” she screeched. “Where are you, you bastard? Are you with someone? Are you at some club trying to get a quick fuck? Is that it, you piece of shit?”
He took the phone away from his ear and waited a few seconds for her screaming to stop.
He slowly put it back to his ear and waited to see if she was going to say anything else but all he could hear was muffled sounds and muted voices in the background. “I’m sorry, Brit. I just don’t do relationships. We had a good couple of mont…umm, we had good times, didn’t we?”
“Why are you doing this to me? To us?” Her voice broke and Justin felt a stirring of guilt. When had he become such an asshole?
“I hate you!” she continued. “I hope someone treats you with the exact same courtesy you’ve treated me, you bastard.” She slammed down the phone and Justin winced at the loud sound.
He looked at the phone before flipping it closed and shoving it back into his jean pocket. Maybe that hadn’t been the best way to go about it. It had seemed like a good idea in the dark club with the pulsing music and the gyrating bodies around him. It had seemed like a good idea when he’d had the cold bottle of beer in his hand.
However, in the musky, small space of the men’s room with the bright light and the resounding click of her phone clearing his head, it occurred to him that what he’d just done to her hadn’t been the right thing to do. Not like that, anyway. He wanted to blame the alcohol but he couldn’t really. It might have pushed him to do the deed but he’d known exactly what he was doing the whole time.
Well it was over now and he’d deal with whatever the consequences of that action was Monday morning. Right now, he needed to get really drunk. He was feeling the stirrings of guilt again and he didn’t like it. He looked up as the bathroom door shoved open and two guys came in.
“…he’s killing it though and he’s just the opener.” One of them was saying.
Justin walked around them getting ready to leave when the next words that came out of one of their mouths stopped him.
“True. The DJ’s got skills; I’ll give you that. I hear he’s still in high school or some shit like that. Can you believe that shit? When I was in high school, I was working as a grocery store bagger not living it up as a DJ.”
“You went to high school?”
“Ha ha. Funny man.”
“Yup. Yo, did you check that chick eying me?”
“That nasty ass?”
“Not your girlfriend. The blond at the side of the bar.”
Justin turned back towards the door and left the room when he realized that they weren’t going to say anything else about the DJ, and before he witnessed one of them getting his ass kicked.
So, the DJ was still in high school. Interesting. Justin couldn’t figure out why he even cared one way or the other but somehow his interest was piqued. He walked out of the hallway and collided with someone just as he walked onto the dance floor.
“Watch it!” The other person said as he pushed Justin away from him.
“Dude, chill. Shit,” Justin said in annoyance.
“Whatever,” the guy muttered and was about to turn away when Justin got a good look at him and realized that he was none other than the DJ.
“Hey wait. You’re the DJ, right?” Justin said grabbing the man’s forearm before he could leave.
The guy gave Justin’s hand a disparaging glance before taking it off his arm and turning away again. And before Justin knew it, he had slipped away into the crowd and had disappeared.
Justin looked into the crowd and tried to find the short, dark man but couldn’t. He shrugged and went back to the bar. There was always next Friday. The DJ didn’t know it but by giving Justin the cold shoulder, he’d thrown down the gauntlet. He’d challenged him and Justin could never resist a challenge.