The first thoughts that ran through Malik’s mind was that maybe he was an angel because he remembered white lights and the cold numbing of his body. He looked down and noticed the tube in his arm where he suddenly felt pain from. His heart rate accelerated while the thoughts became more clear; he had overdosed and survived. He didn’t know how he could come back from such a dangerous night but as he searched his mind for an explanation of what happened and how he survived. Only thing he could remember was giving up and wanting to die. “I couldn’t imagine someone surviving that without a miracle.” a long haired stranger said as he walked through the hospital room door. Malik didn’t recognize the stranger. “I found you outside the other night” he continued. “I’m James. I found you outside the other night. You don’t remember do you? They said you wouldn’t remember. This is like something out of a mexican novella. I read this article about this one lady who just simply bumped the back of her head on this pipe at work and she lost her memory. She couldn’t remember her kids or husband. It was weird.” he smiled.
Malik imagined James as Jesus with his long hair and bright smile. “Still not talking huh? The nurse told me that you might wake up in shock and might not be able to talk.” Malik turned his head to look out the window of the room. He focused on the birds flying into the park across the street. He could hear James talking in the background but he tuned his voice down trying harder to remember what happened. He felt his dreadlocks underneath his neck and realized he couldn’t even remember much about himself. Turning and looking back at James, he listened back into wherever James was in his story. “Yeah, so apparently her album is being pushed back again.” James finished. Malik tried to ask what was he talking about but only uttered out the word “what”. James looked down and said “I’m sorry, I just thought I’d distract you from all of this. I’ll leave.” Malik sat up quickly, hurting all the wounds he didn’t know he had to speak. “wait, I’m Malik”. He held out his hand. James placed his hand on top and looked into his eyes searching for something.
In a yellow taxi, JoJo watches the city while crossing the Brooklyn bridge heading into Manhattan. Last year, JoJo had quite an eventful Spring and Summer. He went from being a nice nobody to being on everyone’s mind and in everyone’s conversation; whether they wanted to admit it or not. The rumors of JoJo’s departure from the city was bigger than he could imagine.
JoJo texted his friend Carlos and invited him out for drinks. They met up at a bar in the East Village where he hoped nobody he knew would be. He wanted to tell Carlos all about his trip back home. “Where the fuck have you been man?” Carlos shouted as he walked into the bar. JoJo was already drinking his beer and taking selfies in the corner booth. “Let me get you a drink.” JoJo said while getting up and walking over to the bartender. Carlos sat down at the booth. As he waited, JoJo noticed how handsome Carlos was. Carlos had this nerdy stoner look to him that JoJo always loved ever since the first time they got high together; when they watched cartoons and told their insecurities to each other. JoJo was the only one that believed that Carlos was straight. Carlos had a lot of gay friends. JoJo kept his eyes on Carlos and his juicy pink lips as he brought the glass of beer over to him. JoJo began to point out that they both had the same pea coat but before he could , Carlos asked again “Where the fuck have you been?” JoJo smiled innocently, “Home.” “Why?” Carlos asked. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. I just want to lay low for now. Maybe, MAYBE go to Pride this year. But I want to focus on writing music and working with some creative people. I was kinda blinded the last time I was here.” said JoJo. He thought his fifteen minutes of fame ended when he left the city. He chugged the rest of his beer and jumped up. “Let’s go get really stoned like old times!” Carlos could never turn down a smoke session so he chugged his beer too and they set off back uptown.
Back Uptown, the boys were rollin up blunts and listening to spoken word and Hip Hop jams. JoJo noticed that Carlos was so comfortable around him. “ I wanna to listen to something mellow and chill” JoJo said while licking the blunt to perfection. “You wanna go first?” he handed the blunt over to Carlos because he knew he would want to go first.
Howie tossed his bags on the floor and collapsed in his king sized bed. He thought having to choose between two different pairs of Christian Louboutins was hardest thing he’s ever had to do. His phone buzzed on the nightstand next to his bed. “What the fuck is it now?” he thought. He sat up and answered the phone not checking to see who it was. The voice on the other side of the phone said “Hey, I’m outside.” Howie jumped up, ran to the front of his apartment until about three feet from the door. He caught his breath, let out a calm sigh and then opened the door with a confused smile pinned on his face. “Did you forget something or get locked o…” -- a warm kiss interrupted him.
The following morning, the sun peeked through the cream colored curtains and brightened up the brick wall bedroom apartment. Howie opened his eyes to see Santiago slipping his pants back on. Santiago was Howie’s ex neighbor’s straight ex boyfriend. He watched him for a few seconds longer thinking that the trip to Europe obviously worked. “Look, I’m not sure about this” Santiago said while buckling up his belt. “You kissed me..” Howie said disappointedly. The idea of falling in love with Santiago quickly shot through his mind as he changed his voice as if he didn’t care; as if it was just another hookup. “He knows that was the best blowjob he’s ever gotten” Howie thought as he remembered the only thing that they did was kiss and exchanged blow jobs. Santiago looked over at Howie laying there in the bed and thought to himself that he had never seen anything sexier and couldn’t believe that it was a naked guy. He took his shirt back off and walked over towards the bed. “A’ight pa, whatchu gonna do to make me stay?” He grinned looking down at Howie as he made his way over to Santiago on his knees. Howie unbuttoned Santiago's pants. He stuck his tongue out and placed it on Santiago’s skin.
On the other side of town, Malik walked across the street into the park breathing in the fresh air. For a moment he felt like he was experiencing air and sunshine for the very first time in his life. The painful memories of how he ended up in ICU were still being put aside by the thoughts of the long haired guy that visited him in the hospital. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a cigarette that he had stole from the janitor in the cafeteria of the hospital. He tried to imagine if it was possible to start a new life since he vaguely remembers his old life. The Oakland Raiders tank shirt he was wearing still had a scent that gave him a blurry idea of what happened that dark night before he blacked out. A couple inhales from the cigarette later and he walked toward the train station reopening the mental note of which neighborhood James said he lived in. He didn’t really have a plan but he felt like he was suppose to find James.
JoJo and Carlos woke up and rushed to the subway to go their separate ways for the day. Carlos went back uptown and JoJo hopped on the 1 train headed towards SoHo. There was an awkward goodbye exchanged between the two. Carlos didn’t think much of it but JoJo couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened in his bed last night. They were completely high and bonding like usual except this time, Carlos had taken off his socks. JoJo had never seen Carlos’ feet before. He had always silently admired his lips and how trimmed he kept his finger nails and eyebrows. “Why couldn’t he just keep his socks on?!” JoJo thought. After two or three blunts, Carlos opened up more about how he thought he was this ugly guy and why he puts up this cool act; He had no friends when he was younger. He got teary eyed when he explained to JoJo that his little brother reminded him of himself and that’s why they’re close. When they finally fell asleep in JoJo’s twin sized bed, JoJo opened one eye and moved his bare feet to “accidentally” touch Carlos’ feet. When that was a success, He got overconfident and wrapped his legs around Carlos’ surprisingly soft legs and then tried to place his arm around him. Carlos was still asleep but was aware enough to move away towards the edge of the bed. JoJo sat on the train replaying the night over and over in his head until felt a stranger’s eyes on him. Before he could catch the stranger’s face, he had slipped off the train at 103 Columbia University subway stop. JoJo focused back on the task ahead of him; buying a hot outfit for a dinner meeting with someone he met on Grindr that apparently works in the entertainment business. He played with the idea of this being his way up the social ladder as he transferred trains. On the other side of the platform, Malik pickpocketed a tourist’s wallet and used a dollar to buy a Snickers bar from the underground vendor.
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