The Long Winter #113
Paradise part three
The pool party took place at an apartment complex with five pools in wild shapes. Three of them were deep, one of them even had a high dive. There were also a dozen hot tubs scattered across the grounds. Palm trees soared over all of it, bits of garden added more green, and the patio was finished in mosaic tiles in the pattern of giant pink and purple tropical flowers. It was full of people, of women in all shapes and sizes, all races and a variety of ages, from girls still in their teens younger than even Penny to gray-haired retirees. The women wore bikinis, tankinis, one-piece suits, t-shirts and boy’s swim trunks, sundresses, and one strutted around in a tuxedo with her hair slicked back.
Penny followed Becca through the jungle of humanity. Some girls appreciated her bikini-clad body. Some sneered down at her. Very few ignored her. She and an Asian girl eyed each other as they passed, but then the moment was over and Becca was greeting Rally and Katty and Penny found herself meeting an even greater circle of friends. There was curvy Tori Spinks in a thong bikini and Drew, a flat-chested young woman in flowery board shorts. Drew hugged her and offered her a bottle of water, imploring her to stay hydrated under the hot Florida sun. Katty introduced her to Melina and Sophia, another Cuban couple who showered her with appreciative words and kisses. Then she met Flora. The willowy, pale-skinned girl was hiding her light brown hair under a big hat and a long, flowing dress covered the rest of her. She glowered at Penny when she heard her nationality.
“Port Matthew, hm?” she snorted. “It’s bad enough to have these Cuban capitalists, now we have to deal with PMer fascists, too?”
“I’m not a fascist,” Penny muttered into her water bottle.
“It’s fine. At least you’re gay. Who are you here with? Becca Ford? Well, when you two are finally drunk come look for me…”
Penny glanced up at Becca who shrugged in return.
“No idea what she’s implying there,” Becca said with a guilty smile.
“Of course not…”
Becca pulled Penny out onto the mosaic. A DJ was flooding the pool area with music and they joined the people dancing to the pulsing beat. Penny was sweating, but it was fine. Many of the others were, too, even Becca. She looked beautiful under the hot sun, her blonde hair a glowing halo. They spun and jumped, twisted and turned, the beat taking over Penny’s body and the incident at the club that first night felt like someone else’s life.
Becca held her close, kept other girls away with her arms around Penny. She danced around Penny, going in tight circles, always staying in contact, always looking into Penny’s eyes or talking into her ears. She told Penny how much she loved her, how much she needed the half-Asian girl in her life. She talked about the wonderful things they would be doing that summer, all the friends she wanted Penny to meet. And she told Penny the things she wanted to do with her that night when they were finally alone together.
Penny’s bottle was empty and they left the dancers for hydration. Becca waved at or greeted a dozen more women on their way to the bar. They finished a bottle each and then took new ones.
“Let’s hang out in the pool,” Becca said.
Penny giggled. “It is a pool party!”
A young man with boredom in his slumping shoulders handed them large tubes and they splashed down into the water. Becca heaved herself over the top of hers, her butt hanging down into the water in the middle while Penny swam up through the middle of hers and hung over the side of it. She opened her bottle and drank more water.
“How did you meet all these people?” Penny asked.
“I grew up in Miami,” Becca said. “I was born in Michigan, but my parents were always down here. When I came out it seemed normal to join the community, same way I hang out at Shawn’s place up north sometimes.”
“Oh.”
“That’s it? Just Oh?”
“Well, we don’t really have this…” Penny stopped and frowned. “I should probably say I never had this experience. There’s no “coming out” in Port Matthew. You go out with boys or you go out with girls. No one is particularly judgmental about it.”
“Could have fooled me. Here I was thinking you were the victim of some homophobe’s revenge porn plot when in actuality Port Matthew’s the shining pinnacle of sexual equality and tolerance.”
“It’s not like that. That guy was just a terrible person. I think if I was a boy he would still try to do something like that just to get revenge on his ex-girlfriend. But he’s also a stupid boy, so I kind of expect him to have some sort of male ego. But him having a male ego and Port Matthew not being homophobe or whatever you just said, well, I don’t think they’re related at all.”
“It’s just he was a homophobe by himself.”
“No, it’s just he has a fragile ego and Ayumi and I hurt him. So he got revenge. It’s painful, you know, that his stupid revenge is still hurting me, like more than a year later and how many thousands of kilometers? Thousands of them.”
“I see. I can understand that.”
“Yes…”
They floated for a while. The Asian girl from before floated into their midst. She was pretty, her long, black hair wet, her body light and lithe in the water.
“You’re from Port Matthew?” she asked, her accent familiar.
“Yes,” Penny said, squinting against the sun at her.
“Me, too. And you're here with a girlfriend?”
“Yes.” Penny smiled at Becca.
“That's so amazing. I never knew so many girls like us in one place like this.”
“There’s no community in Port Matthew?” Becca asked her.
“Not exactly. Boys and girls go out with boys and girls and no one really cares.”
“See?” Penny gestured at the other PMer. “Just like I said!”
“There are many places to go to meet who you want to meet, but there isn’t any special community like there is here.”
“There sort of has to be here,” Becca said. “There are still people who get weird or angry at you for being gay. It’s much less of a problem than it was like fifty years ago, but it’s still an issue.”
“Why are you in Miami?” Penny asked.
“I’m working for a trading company. Our ships go through the Panama Canal and come here since California doesn’t want us there.”
“Huh, their loss is our gain,” Becca sniffed.
“What about you?”
“She got me an internship down here,” Penny said.
“My family lives in the area, so I’m just sort of here. I’ll work at the family business this summer for something to do at least.”
“What’s your family business?”
“Consulting firm. Legal stuff, international business stuff. Espionage.”
“Your family are spies?”
“No, that last one was a joke.”
The PMer laughed.
“My name is Hinata.”
“I’m Becca, and this is Penny.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Hinata said. “I apologize if I am intruding. You look like a happy couple, but I rarely meet anyone from home, so I was curious.”
“I’m always surprised to see people from Port Matthew,” Penny said. “I’m happy you said hello.”
“Where do you live? Unless that is too personal a question.”
“Not too personal,” Becca said, floating between Penny and Hinata. “We’re a few blocks away, right here in South Beach.”
“My home in Port Matthew is also called South Beach,” she said with a bright smile. “And here in Miami’s South Beach, my company has a condo a few blocks from here. Perhaps we will see each other from time to time.”
“That would be great,” Becca said.
“Wonderful.” Hinata looked at Penny. “Where are you from, exactly?”
“Mount Plains.”
“You graduated recently, from the looks of it.”
“Just last year. It was our school Morning Light attacked.”
“That was so terrible. I saw it on the news.”
“It was kind of a nightmare.”
“What happened?” Becca asked.
“Morning Light, she was part of the previous team of The Best Defense, she went crazy and attacked. She blew up the botanical gardens dome and then she attacked our high school.”
“How terrible. She didn’t harm Flying Juniper Tree, did she?”
“No, she was fine, she’s so powerful anyhow…”
“Who’s Flying Juniper Tree?” Becca asked.
“She’s a gardener,” Penny said.
“A botanist, she has special talents with plants. She makes it so PMers don’t suffer hay fever, it’s really amazing, she’s quite powerful.”
“That is amazing. Not that I suffer, but for people who do…”
“Yes, I agree. Well, from now I will go start to get drunk. I met a girl earlier who wants me to drink cocktails with her. I will try to find her. If I can’t I may bother you two again. So long.”
“Bye, Hinata, nice to meet you!”
“Yeah, a real joy!”
“Bye.”
Penny waved after her and then Becca floated into her field of vision, a scowl darkening her face.
“A sister from Port Matthew…”
“Yes, something like that.” Penny smiled innocently back at her.
“Should I be worried?”
“Of course not! Not unless you are offended I make a friend. You don’t seem to mind I talk to Sandra in the mornings.”
“No, that’s fine, it’s like you talking to your brother or your parents. I can deal with it. Other girls, though, ugh. I hate the idea of sharing you.”
“Good. Flora seemed interested though, didn’t she?”
“Flora? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Did you have dirty sex threesomes before you met me?”
“My life was a sex theme park, a Fucking Disneyworld, or maybe I should say a Fucking Sea World since we were always all wet.”
Penny laughed.
“Flora is who she is and says the things she says and that's that. She’s fine. Don’t worry about her.”
“Okay.”
Becca smiled and started paddling away.
“She was talking about cocktails and I’ve had enough water. Let’s pee and then get drunk.”
Penny blinked at the mention of alcohol and felt the slap across her face. She hurried to catch up with Becca.
“Do we have to drink? It’s so hot, don’t you think we’ll have a terrible hangover if we drink too much? It might be dangerous, you know.”
“Come on, you wuss. If not cocktails, let’s at least have a few beers.”
“Just one or two?”
“Sure. Like you said, too many would be dangerous, right?”
“Right!”
Three hours and far more than 2 beers later, Penny struggled to keep up with Becca as she whirled across the mosaic patio. They bumped into other drunk girls, Becca danced with them and Penny tried to keep their hands from her bottom, a constant barrage of unfamiliar faces. Penny finally succeeded in pushing and pulling Becca to the edge of the patio to a secluded space beneath some palm trees.
“Becca, I’m so tired,” Penny said. “I’m so tired and so drunk. I don’t think I can go on.”
“Oh, we’re doing this again, are we? We were just getting started.”
“No, please, Becca. I feel sick and my feet hurt. I don’t even know where my sandals are.”
Becca scowled at her.
“Please.”
“You fucking wimp.”
“I’m sorry,” Penny cringed.
“You fucking coward. You better not do this every time we go out.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t want you to hit me again.”
Becca’s scowl softened and her back stiffened.
“Fine. Let’s get some water and sit at the bar a little before we go. Maybe that’ll help you not be such a fucking cringing crybaby.”
Becca strode off and Penny limped after her. The world was tilted beneath her feet and everything was indistinct. She stumbled and a passing girl caught her before she fell.
“You okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine, I’m getting some water.”
“Okay, good luck.”
Penny staggered away only to run into Becca, standing before her with her hands on her hips and a scowl again on her face.
“Who the fuck was that?”
“I almost fell, I’m too drunk—“
“That’s not what I asked, Penny. Who the fuck—“
“Hey, Becca, you two okay?”
They turned to see Katty and Rally approaching, umbrella drinks in their hands.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Becca said with a friendly smile.
“I just stumbled,” Penny said, her English barely intelligible. “I’m too drunk.”
“Let’s go get you two some water.”
“I might send her home ahead of me,” Becca said. “She doesn’t seem to be able to keep up.”
Penny looked down. She was thankful she was so sweaty, the tears on her face would blend right in. At least Becca had not hit her again.
I’m such a disappointment to her, she cried to herself. I’m not good enough. I’m too drunk. I can’t control how I feel.
It’s all right. You’ll get some water and maybe a snack and you’ll start to feel better. She’s drunk, too. She’ll need it, too.
Penny nodded and Becca and Katty helped her situate herself on a bar stool. She gratefully accepted a water and twisted the top off. It tasted so good, cool and refreshing and she tilted her head back and drank and drank and drank…
***
“Penny! Penny! Oh my god, are you okay? Penny?”
Penny coughed and sputtered, water all over—
Where am I? What happened?
Becca and Katty and Rally were beside her, helping her sit up on the ground—
The ground??
And the world spun viciously.
“I’m so drunk,” she moaned.
“We’d better get her home.” Penny had no idea who said that.
“Yeah, do you need a ride? Flora can—“
“No!” Penny shouted struggling out of their hands. “No Flora. No Flora…”
“We’ll get an Uber,” Becca said. “Are you two staying?”
“Why, you need help getting her home?”
“Yeah, maybe.”
Penny had slumped down again, her friends keeping her upright.
“Are you ladies okay?” A man’s voice.
“Yeah, she drank too much.” Becca.
“You need any help?”
“We’ll have an Uber coming, someone with a minivan or something.”
“We have a shuttle. I can help you get her home if you need it.”
Penny tried to open her eyes. There were five of the man, swirling in the haze above her. She tried to reach up to take one of his hands but her arm was so heavy and the world spun and spun.
“A shuttle?” Rally’s voice.
“We’ll all help, if you don’t mind.” Katty’s.
“Come on. I’ll carry her, if you don’t mind.”
Penny went limp and let her eyes slide closed again. She was vaguely aware of being picked up and hauled away. She heard voices, Becca’s and Katty’s and Rally’s, but especially Becca’s, and she was thankful Flora was not there. Flora would not be taking Becca from her. Flora would not be forcing her way into their bed. Onto Penny’s body.
***
The next thing she knew, Penny was on her hands and knees in front of her toilet.
“That’s it, work it out, girl.”
Katty’s accent was so pretty, Penny tried to lift her head to smile at her but her stomach heaved one more time and she puked instead.
“Damn, Bex, how much did she drink?” Rally said, somewhere behind them.
“Fuck if I know. We never really drank too much together back up north.”
“Why’d you drink so much tonight?”
“I didn’t drink so much, she did. You’ll have to ask her.”
“I’m sorry,” Penny mumbled. “I’m so dumb. I’m so stupid.”
“It’s okay,” Katty said, her voice quiet and soothing. “We’re all friends here, you’re my special PMer sister, don’t forget.”
“I’m stupid. I’m so stupid…”
Penny fell away from Katty’s hands and hit the floor beside the toilet.
“Whoa!”
“Watch it! Watch her head!”
“Penny, hey, are you all right?”
“I’m stupid,” Penny mumbled again. “I’m stupid. Stupid.”
There was a stretch of time of echoing voices. Penny could not hear their words, just her friends’ voices. The bathroom was too bright and she could not open her eyes. It spun too quickly and she could not move, she just held on to keep herself from flying away.
***
Becca cradled her drunk girlfriend in front of the toilet.
“I’m really sorry about this,” she said. “I had no idea she drank this much.”
“It’s totally okay, she’s still a baby herself,” Rally said. “You should have seen us the first times we got drunk together.”
“Even this week, I got my hands on some of Esteban’s tequila and finished half the bottle myself!” Katty said, her joyful laughter echoing off the tile walls.
“Are you two seriously okay, though?” Rally asked. “You looked like you were, well, like you were at the beginning of a tussle. You looked pretty fucking pissed off at her.”
“No. Well, maybe.”
“You have to watch your temper, you know,” Rally said. “Everyone knows what happened between you and Flora—“
“We’re not bringing her up,” Becca said, stroking Penny’s face. “Penny and I, we had a few fights in the winter and I’ve been… I’ve been better since then. She makes me a better person.”
“You look like a better person,” Katty said scooting closer to them. “I really like this one. She seems so bright and happy. I think she’s doing you a lot of good.”
“Yeah, she really has.” Becca smiled down at her. “I should get her cleaned up and put in bed. I think she’s done puking.”
“Agreed,” Katty said, standing up. “Shall we leave you to it?”
“If you can help me get her into the shower I’ll take over from there.”
“Okay. Let’s help.”
The three of them hefted Penny’s prone body into the shower and then the other couple left. Becca stripped her and herself and cleaned them both, going through the motions mechanically. She got them both dried off and wrapped Penny in a towel to drag her to bed. Once in a pair of little shorts and a t-shirt she tiptoed back out to check on her friends.
“Hey,” Rally said, drinking a glass of water at the counter. “I hope you don’t mind, we were a little thirsty.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t find my wine. I’m not sure if I could handle two more drunk girls!”
“Is she all right?” Katty asked.
“She’s in bed. She’ll have to sleep it off.”
“Okay. We’ll stay tonight to make a late breakfast for you tomorrow,” Rally said. “We’ll help her with her hangover.”
“Yeah, she really seemed to like our food.”
“She talked about it a lot, I think she really likes you two,” Becca said. “And, well, I’m really grateful to you both for helping us out like this.”
“It’s no problem. We need to stick together, right?”
“Katty’s right. If you need our help, just let us know. We’re always somewhere around.”
Becca smiled at the two of them. She let them sleep on her couch and then retired to her room. She glared at Penny, snoring away in the darkness, and then sighed and got in bed beside her. If the PMer was going to let herself go like this every time they went out, it was going to be a long, terrible summer.