I spent the next day with a knot in my stomach knowing that Daphne and I were going to Babylon for the first time that night. I had no idea why I had agreed to go in the first place. It certainly hadn't been the first time that Daph had brought up the idea of the two of us going to a club on Liberty Avenue, the street that everyone in town knew of as "the gay street." In fact, right after I had come out to her that previous summer one of the first things she had said to me was that she could hardly wait for us to go to a gay club together, as if it had been a life-long dream of hers or something.

On one hand, I was looking forward to going. I did not personally know any other gay people and knowing that there were places in my hometown of Pittsburgh where other people like me congregated to dance, drink, and who knows what else was tantalizing.

On the other hand, I was terrified to go to Babylon or any other club on Liberty Avenue. I had no idea what it was really going to be like, being around all those gay people.

There had been one night a couple of months before when I told Mom and Dad that I was staying at a friend's house, but instead I hid out at Daphne's until about midnight before asking her to drop me off on Liberty Avenue. I walked around for a little bit, mostly just gawking at the people walking around, before some greasy-looking creep tried to pick me up. I told him no and he told me to go home to my mommy.

So I did.

I made it to a pay phone and called Daphne's cell phone - since my parents claimed that I was too young to have one of my own - breaking down in tears as I begged her to pick me back up. I felt like such a pussy. She did turn around to come and get me, but berated me about my wanting to go without her for my first trip.

"I'm not going to let you chicken out this time," Daphne said to me on Friday morning in her car on the way to school. "I'm going to be with you every step of the way. Ooh, we're going to have so much fun!"

I smiled over at her apprehensively.

My classes seemed to drag by that day. I had a test in calculus, which I could hardly focus on. At least I had Mr. Kinney's Creative Writing class the following period. We had an assignment that was due the following Monday, but I had finished mine already and had turned it in to him at the beginning of class the previous day.

While my fellow classmates worked on their papers around me, I spent the class period alternating between reading The Count of Monte Cristo and staring at Mr. Kinney, who was grading papers at his desk. We made eye contact for a moment before I quickly looked back down at my book.

Daph lectured me again about how I'd better not wimp out on our plans during lunch. I could see Mr. Kinney and Miss Peterson talking to each other where they usually stood together during cafeteria duty. They normally smiled and laughed while they spoke, but they seemed a bit subdued that day... maybe even somber.

As always, I got to see Mr. Kinney again later that afternoon during English Literature where we continued our discussion about Renaissance Literature. His somber attitude from lunch did not carry over and nothing seemed out of the ordinary as he read a section of John Milton's poem Paradise Lost out loud. Hobbs must have left his straw at home, because I went the entire class period without any spitballs hitting me in the head.

Once school finally let out at three o'clock, I met Daphne at her locker as I always did and she drove us to her house. I ran home and let myself in. Mom and Molly weren't home yet so I went up to my room, rifled through my closet before selecting a pair of dark blue jeans and a tight maroon long-sleeved shirt, and went back over to Daphne's before they could come home. I had already told Mom before leaving for school that morning not to expect me home before my curfew, which was at eleven on the weekends. I knew, however, that she would conk out around nine and it would probably be after midnight before I actually got home that night.

Although it had taken me ten seconds to chose what I was going to wear that night, Daphne tried on and modeled at least five different outfits before settling on a fuzzy hot pink sweater and some black pants. She then fussed with her hair for about a half an hour, using nearly a whole can of hairspray and tons of hairclips to achieve a French twist.

Ugh, girls... I'm so glad I was born with a dick.

After Daphne wasted another twenty minutes putting on her makeup, we got back in her car and went to the mall. We did some window shopping to kill time, stopping by Spencer's Gifts to laugh at the vibrators and bachelorette party favors on display before grabbing some dinner at the McDonald's in the food court.

"So, are you excited?" Daphne asked me with a mouthful of French fries.

I shrugged, trying to play it cool. "I guess so."

"You guess so?" she repeated. "Justin, we're going to the Mecca of queerdom tonight! I think it's going to be a fucking blast. I can't wait to see all the hot guys that will be in that abs contest. Oof!"

I shook my head at her, although I couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. "God, Daph, you are such a fag."

She gave me a big toothy smile.

Once we had made it over to Liberty Avenue, it took us nearly twenty minutes to find a parking spot and then about five minutes to walk to Babylon from the car. We knew that it was a popular club and that it was a Friday night, but we both groaned when we saw how long the line was outside the building. We could already hear the upbeat dance music playing from the inside. Luckily we had gotten there around nine when the doors opened, but it was almost ten before we made it to the brawny doorman who looked like he wrestled grizzly bears in his spare time.

Daphne and I both showed him our fake I.D.s, and even though he eyed us wearily, probably not believing for a second that we were both twenty-two, he let us inside. We both paid the cover charge, which according to the sign at the podium was $5 when you got there before eleven and $10 after, before checking our coats.

I grabbed onto Daphne's hand as we walked towards what had to be the main area of the club, since the music was getting louder the farther we walked.

"Ready?" she asked me.

I looked over at her and nodded before we pushed our way through heavy black chains hanging from the ceiling in the large doorway.

A techno song I had never heard before was blaring over the sound system and I could almost feel my organs rattling around my chest from the booming bass. There were bright spotlights moving around the huge room, giant disco balls hanging from the ceiling, and multi-colored flashing lights. Every so often, sparkly confetti would fall from the ceiling. Although it was still early, the dance floor was packed with men in various stages of dress and undress dancing with each other.

I suddenly felt like a fish out of water.

"Do you want to go?" I asked Daphne, who was looking around the room with her mouth wide open.

"Why? We just got here," she yelled to me. "Come on, you chicken!"

She pulled me farther into the crowd where there was a small opening and faced me. She raised her arms over her head as she started dancing along to the beat of the music, a big smile on her face. I quickly got with the program, letting loose as I listened to the words of the song that was playing, the female singer's voice auto-tuned.

We been broken down/ to the lowest turn/ and been on the bottom line/ sure ain't no fun... *

Suddenly, Daphne looked over my shoulder and started laughing. I turned to look and saw that a very attractive guy with brown hair was dancing behind me.

"Hey," he said into my ear.

"Uh... hi," I replied.

"Haven't seen you around here before, pretty boy," he purred.

Daphne laughed. "He's new!" 

I wrinkled my face at Daphne, silently begging her to shut up. Soon, the guy grabbed me by one of my shoulders to turn me around to face him and put his hands on my waist. I awkwardly placed my hands on his firm biceps as I danced with him.

"What's your name, baby?" he asked me.

"Paul," I said, deciding to use the name from my I.D.

He pouted his lips. "Oh... you're much too pretty to be named ‘Paul.'"

I shrugged. "Well, that's my name."

"I'm Curtis. Let me buy you a drink."

He tried to pull me away, but I planted my feet. "Uh, no thanks. I don't want to leave my friend."

He looked over at Daphne. "Alright, bring her with. I'll buy her a drink, too!"

I motioned for Daphne to follow us and after we walked several feet, pushing our way through the crowd, we made it to a large bar area.

"What'll you have, sweetheart?" he asked Daphne.

"Oh, her name's Erica," I said to Curtis.

Daphne's I.D. claimed that her name was Erica Buchanan. "Erica" was after Erica Kane on All My Children and "Buchanan" was after the One Life to Live family.

"Get me a Slippery Nipple!" Daphne said to Curtis.

"What the fuck is that?" I asked her.

She leaned in close to me. "I don't know... I've just always wanted to order one."

I was in no mood for a mystery drink, so I told Curtis to get me a Jack and Coke. I used to sneak sips of my dad's Jack Daniels that he poorly hid in the pantry before he moved out, so I knew what it tasted like.

"You better give him money for those or he'll expect you to fuck him," Daphne advised me after Curtis put our drink orders in with the bartender.

Looking at Curtis's profile, I didn't think that sounded like a horrible plan, but all the same I insisted on giving him some money for them.

We received our drinks about ten minutes later, during which time the Absolute Abs Contest began on a raised stage that was set up on the other side of the dance floor. A very tall, skinny drag queen who called herself Belladonna was hosting the contest and called for the contestants to come on out... "again," she added with a laugh.

Several guys, all of them with their shirts off and oiled up, filed out onto the stage. From where I was standing, each of them appeared qualified to be up there.

There were several hoots and hollers from the crowd and Daphne yelled out along with them. I shook my head the next time I caught her eye.

"What?" she asked me with a smile.

Belladonna introduced the contestants by name one by one, giving funny little "facts" about each of them, such as one being addicted to strawberry-flavored lube and another who worked summers as a golf caddy to Rick Santorum.

After each of the contestants flexed for the crowd and after conferring with the judges to the contest, whoever they were, Belladonna announced the winner - a very muscular guy with perfectly chiseled abs named Robert who, according to Belladonna during her introductions, could crack walnuts with his butt cheeks.

The music started again after the contest ended and Curtis dragged me back out to the dance floor. Daphne followed behind us and caught the eye of butch-looking lesbian.

Daph gave me a shrug as she started dancing with the woman.

Good grief. I didn't think homosexuality was contagious, but...

A few other men had gathered around me and Curtis and one of them managed to push him out of the way to dance with me. He wasn't as cute as Curtis, but he was a lot more handsy. I had to tell him that I wasn't interested twice for him to go away.

I danced with various other guys, mostly other young, skinny guys like me who I'd learned in my previous online research were called "twinks."

Soon I had to take a piss. I asked one of the twinks where the bathroom was and he pointed to an area off the side of the bar.

I told Daphne that I'd be right back and made my way through the crowd, which had grown over the hour or so we had been there. I made it to the wall adjacent to the bar and found an open doorway that I assumed led to the bathroom.

I started walking down the hallway, which was lit with blue lights. I didn't get very far in before noticing that there were men making out and even, holy shit, fucking against the walls. The sound of groans and grunts was flooding my ears over the music.

My brain told me to turn around and get the hell out of there but my feet continued to take me farther inside, where I found an open area. There were men on their knees giving blowjobs, men trussed up in slings suspended from the ceiling, and even an area where men were shackled to the wall as they were being whipped or fucked. My eyes continued to roam around and I felt myself get hard at all the sights.

I was in there for nearly a minute before some scary-looking guy approached me.

"Hey twinkie, wanna suck me off?" he asked in a deep voice.

"No thanks," I said before turning around to leave the way I had come in. I hardly made it two steps before something familiar about one of the men in action caught my attention.

Walking closer and squinting against the poor lighting, I realized that I was watching Mr. Kinney fucking Robert, the guy who had won the abs contest, from behind.