The Basketball Atrocities

Twenty Four - Late Night Rave

"Yes, Mom, I know. Hey, Tyler stopped by. You know how his truck has been having some issues?" she asked politely.

Josh nodded very slightly while Perez kept painting. "Yeah, what about it?" he replied.

"Well, he's downstairs now and he needs a ride to the party. Could you give him one?" she asked hopefully, clasping her hands together.

"Yeah, of course." Josh chuckled.

His mother blew him a kiss. "Thank you, hon. Have fun and be careful. The outfit is looking good. Brings me back to the '70s." she sighed happily. She left the room and closed the door behind her.

Perez peeled the stensils off of his face and looked at him. "Hell, yes. You look good. Anyone would be lucky to dance with you tonight." he exclaimed with pride.

"Thanks. Is that it?" Josh asked curiously.

Perez shook his head and packed his painting stuff into his bag. "Nope, we are all good. I'm ready whenever you are, my car's back at home." he said.

"Alrighty." Josh bent down to put his shoes on.

"Damn, bro." Perez suddenly remarked.

Josh started tying his shoes. "What?" he questioned.

Perez made a squeezing motion with his hands. "Thicker than a milkshake." he responded. Josh rolled his eyes. "Those jeans are tight. They really make your butt look good."

He chuckled. "Here I was thinking you were also straight."

"No, bro. No one in this group is straight except Ty and Jon. Everyone else? Gay, bisexual, pansexual. Well, Emerson is asexual, he doesn't like sex or romance." Perez responded.

"Mm. Well, don't get too comfortable staring at my ass." Josh joked, grabbing two blankets and a pillow.

They walked out into the hall and down the stairs. Tyler stood up and raised an eyebrow at Josh. "I thought you never been to a party before." he pointed out.

"Nope. School wasn't big enough for actual parties." Josh responded with a smile.

Tyler sighed. "Well, first impression looks nice. Come on, Jon is on my ass right now. Everyone else is already there, he's waiting on us three. You know how to get there, Joshua?" he asked gruffly.

"Down by Em's. I know. He showed me the warehouse last month when I went over to his place." Josh shrugged. "It's gonna be great. We'll get to watch the football players compete against who can chug the most beer without stopping. The cheerleaders are gonna be doing lines of coke in the bathroom. We are going to have the time of our lives."

They walked out to Josh's car and packed their stuff into the trunk. They got in and put their seatbelts on. Josh started the car. He backed out of his driveway. He could see his mother in the window watching as they left. Soon, he was driving through South Side. It was a middle class neighborhood and usually had all of the doctors and lawyers and architects. The neighborhood Emerson lived in was vastly different. It was lower class. A lot of the buildings were run down or abandoned. The houses were small and two or three bedrooms if they weren't trailers. It was also a pretty sketchy area since a lot of business went on down there. Emerson didn't look like it because he knew how to hide it with makeup and he went to Columbus High, but he was raised around drug deals and alcohol.

Tyler had vaguely mentioned it once how Emerson was a stoner when they met him in elementary school. He was the one that turned Brendon into a stoner. But Emerson was always a genuine dude. He was more like a therapist to the group if they needed to get some emotions and thoughts out.