Forest of Rope

Chapter 17

Dedicated to Aquapisces94, who let's face it shall probably never read this :)

It had been a warm spring evening in April the first time Riley met Vincent. It all started innocently enough at a house party hosted by one of Alexis’s strange friends. Riley barely knew anyone there and spent most of the night drinking like a fish and chasing hopelessly after Alexis who flitted in and out of the crowds effortlessly, moving from one baffling conversation to the next.

Flustered and annoyed Riley had shuffled around the clusters of people unsteadily in search of his companion, this time so that he could get away from the flamboyantly dressed man who had been eyeing him beadily since he arrived. Vincent, having been invited by Alexis, had certainly dressed for the occasion. The suit he wore had looked almost as expensive as the house he lollygagged in.

Vincent had sat nonchalantly (if a little too casually) on top of a set of drawers with his legs prised wide open and his vision attentively fixed on every clumsy step Riley made.

An intoxicated Riley stumbled his way in the opposite direction, worried that the clearly gay young man across from him was about to chat him up. His suspicions turned out to be more or less correct as Vincent soon caught up with him, cornering him at a table of hash brownies.

‘You don’t look too happy to be here,’ he said observantly with a wry grin. Riley contemplated the man’s persistence and decided to humour him a little.

‘Well, it’s not exactly my scene,’ he replied with a shrug.

‘It’s not mine either,’ Vincent concurred with a hearty swig of his gin and tonic. ‘You see with these things it’s always the same: drink, dance, fuck, rinse and repeat. Everyone’s trying to outdo the other. It’s a fucking contest.’

‘I guess,’ Riley half-agreed, picking a corner off the closest brownie and popping it into his mouth.

‘I’m Vincent by the way,’ he offered him his hand.

‘Riley.’

It felt incredibly smooth in Riley’s grip as he shook it, feminine almost.

‘Nice to meet you. You know I wouldn’t complain so much if it wasn’t for the shitty music they’ve gotta play while they get on with it. You know what I mean?’

‘I think so,’ Riley said carefully after sampling the tribal, throbbing pulse which drummed throughout the house. It was an anthem to everything Vincent had pointed out: drinking, dancing and copulating.

‘It definitely isn’t what I’d normally listen to,’ he admitted.

‘I’ll bet. I heard you were in a really sick band.’

Riley sobered up a little out of surprise.

‘Where’d you hear that?’

‘Oh I don’t know, a friend I think...’

‘Well, that was a long time ago...’ Riley said meditatively. ‘A lot has changed since then.’

‘Yeah, I heard about what happened. My condolences man.’

Riley returned his weak smile, but only out of politeness.

‘Thanks but I don’t really care about it anymore. Time heals all wounds I suppose.’

Vincent nodded, until that point he had been holding back.

‘You know what? I couldn’t have put it better myself,’ he affirmed. ‘What is life anyway right? Why bother worrying about what you can’t control?’