Trick Knee

It's hot. It's summer and no air conditioning, we've got who knows how many people in this place. Couple dozen, I think. We don't turn the fans on either. Sweating out the bad stuff maybe. Kirby's got beers and I've got my gin, Drea has bourbon since she's one of those girls. But generally we're having a good time through the sweat. Stuck somewhere between the floor and the ceiling.

I go into the next room and see Chelsea on the pool table, sitting there, tipping back High Life into her wide open mouth, resting that bottle on her bottom lip and it's almost like I can't stand it. One more night is all I want, but she's talking to Miller, that asshole, because he's a charmer and even I have to concede that point. He's talking about Singapore again, and it's actually a great story, but I swear to god if I have to hear it one more fucking time. She laughs, he says right, so they must be at the cart tipping over. He takes her empty and walks by me. Don't even fucking think about it, Fuck you, we say. I move in.

She hasn't spotted me yet so I roll the 8-ball across the table and it gently taps her. She turns around. Hey, Yo, and I walk over. Singapore again? Yeah. The cart? Ugh, that fucking cart, and I know we're on the same page. She picks the 8-ball up. I wonder why they chose the 8-ball for that psychic toy. I tell her it's from the Three Stooges but she doesn't seem impressed by the history. She asks where the Stooges got the idea and I shrug, so that's that then. She asks me how I'm doing. I say great. She shakes the thing and looks under it. Very doubtful. I amend to I'm doing OK I guess, I'm getting by. She shakes and looks again. Yup, that's the one. That's the one for all of us, isn't it, and I agree with her. So far we're pretty agreeable. Things are looking good, looking up, even if it is a hundred or whatever degrees. But no one wants the air on. Why are we doing this to ourselves?

I lean in, drunk, and ask her if she ever thinks about that night. She says she's thirsty so I give her my glass of gin and repeat the question. Yes. She does. She thinks about it. Well, what do you think about it. I don't know, I just think about it, just generally I guess. Generally good or generally bad. I don't know. You gotta know. I don't have to know anything, why, what do you know. I have an eye on the hall because Miller should be back with the beers by now, but he's not. Good old reliable Miller, always never there when you need him not to be.

Hell with this, I just go for it, shoving my tongue in a little more forcefully than I mean to. And though she's caught off-guard she doesn't seem to mind, reciprocates even, here we are being equals. I get a little closer to her, nestled inside her legs hanging off the table, and she wraps one of them around one of mine. But I got this trick knee, and she knows but she forgot about it, and that's the leg she wraps herself around. So it goes out, I can feel the cap unlock and lock again. I buckle, it's a split-second thing, I never know when it's gonna come or how much it's gonna go but when I do it hurts and there's nothing I can do to stop it. So I buckle, and fall, and clamp down on her tongue.

Iron. Screaming. She pushes me away, violent, throws herself off the table, runs into the bathroom. I feel around in my mouth with my finger, hoping to god I didn't bite a piece of it off. I either didn't or it's miniscule or I swallowed it, but any way you shake it I'm thankful that it isn't there. She's hurting somewhere though, bleeding, and maybe a piece of her is missing. Well, there's nothing I can do about it now. I had my chance.

And of course by now everyone's in. Miller's the first, drinking both beers, smiling at me and having a ball of a time. People are sweating and drunk and smelly and that's all. They got nowhere to go so they might as well be here. Someone asks me what happened. I don't say anything. Someone says I have blood running down my chin. I believe them. Someone says hey does anyone else's mouth taste like blood and I am only slightly surprised when three others say yeah.