One Night Too Many: Part I

It's here. The first sore throat of the season. I feel so sick today that all I want to do is curl up in bed and watch mindless television. Too bad I still have a massive pile of midterms to grade. I went out late Thursday night with Narc, to a party on Friday night and another late night party again last night. (Although I didn't drink last night). Guess I was just out "one night too many."

This weekend was an interesting one-- a lot happening. But while I don't have the energy to be as detailed as usual, I'll try to give you the highlights. (Some of this, I already mentioned in the previous post, so sorry for any repetitions...)

Thursday:

On Thursday night, I taught a great class. Two students stayed afterwards and told me how much they enjoyed it. I walked out with them. One of them asked me how old I am, and when I told her "26," she could hardly believe it. I was really flattered and it was a nice boost to my self esteem. Parting ways with the students, I turned on my cell phone. Guess who? Yes, a message from Narc:

Hey, it's me. It's about 8:30. Um, it's uh, It's Thursday, so as I recall, I think you have a late class tonight, or something? I'm not sure. Well, of course you do, but I'm not sure how late it goes... til 9:00 or til 10:00 or til what. But, I'm on the Upper East Side and I'm taking the green line down. I have to meet a friend of mine at Marseille in a little bit. But that's in like an hour or so. So, I was going to pop into Cheers and all that and maybe, um, get a drink and maybe do Karaoke and all that. But I guess you're still teaching. So, maybe I'll see you in a bit. I don't know. Anyway, just give me a ring back if you like. Alright. Bye.

(I think it's cute how he always sounds nervous on the phone when he calls me.)

Needless to say, I was excited and called him back. He said that he was already at Marseille but that he could stop by Cheers afterwards. I raced home as fast as I could. NDN had sent me a text that he was already at Cheers. He had decided to go to my sister's Halloween party as "Hyde," so he wrote me a text telling me he was at Cheers doing some research to "get into character." I laughed and went over there to join him. I told him that Narc was on his way and that I was nervous about it. (Remember, they don't like him very much at Cheers!) NDN assured me it would be fine. Soon enough, Narc arrived. It's always a little awkward when I first see him, but we ended up having fun. NDN moved over to another table and Thursday girl joined him, pointedly asking him in reference to Narc, "What is he doing here?" But in general, Narc was none the wiser that he wasn't all that welcome there. We did some karaoke and both got drunk. NDN left after a little while. Narc and I came back to my place to continue the evening's revels at around 2:00 am.

Friday:

The next morning we both got up pretty late-- at around 12:00 pm. I had my speech therapy appointment and was worried about getting him out of bed. (If you recall, I left a brief post about that.) Anyway, I did get him up, but I didn't make it to my appointment. Instead, I got a little sidetracked (and I'm sure you know what I mean). I had another doctor's appointment at 3:00-- to get the results of a test I had two weeks ago. I was nervous about it. Narc didn't want me to go. He said I should just skip it. Then, he asked if I had anything to drink in the house. I have purposely not restocked any alcohol here, so all I had to offer was some cheap vodka and some khalua. He started drinking straight away. Not me. Since he really didn't want to part ways, I offered that he could come to the doctor with me, and then we could go back to my place after that. He agreed and said that he would wait for me during my appointment in a nearby pub. It was a beautiful little place called "Tir Na Nog" and I met him there right after, according to plan.

When I walked into the bar, Narc was visibly drunk. He was talking to some guy about the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Narc attended for a really short time, but didn't like it there and was trying to persuade this guy not to have his son go. Anyway, the news I had from the doctor was not all that great (I really don't feel like discussing it here) and I didn't want to discuss it with Narc either. But of course he asked me what had happened when he saw that I was visibly upset. He told me that I shouldn't worry-- that the whole health care profession is just trying to get money from people by diagnosing people with problems that aren't really problems in order to be able to run more tests and make money from the subsequent medical procedures. He was on one of his drunk rants and not making logical sense, so I kept trying to change the subject, telling him I "didn't want to talk about it."

"Normally, I wouldn't care, you know? But it's you," he said. "It's you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Well, you're my Hyde!" he said. "My Hyde."

Shit.

Anyway, he just drank more and more. I ordered him some food (and some for myself) because neither of us had eaten all day.

"I'm going to get wasted today!" he declared. "So, you'll have to hold me together, okay?"

"Okay."

Later we started talking about teaching and stuff and he told me that he's sure I'm a good teacher. I was happy because I've never quite forgotten what he said about me being an "unfit teacher" all the way back in January. Anyway, I had two jack daniels but after that switched to diet soda. I just didn't want to be drunk like that in the afternoon. He tried to pressure me a bit to get back onto the whiskey, but I reminded him that I was supposed to "hold him together," so I couldn't. Really, though, I knew I had dinner plans with NDN and a Halloween party to go to that night. I told Narc that he could come with me if he wanted to, but that I had to be home by 6:00-ish.

"You're sleeping at my place tonight," he announced.

"Oh, is that so?"

"That's right. I own you today, Hyde."

He can get so fucking grandiose. It probably sounds obnoxious here, but at the time that he said it, I thought it was half sweet and half funny. He wasn't being entirely serious. When his words were starting to become incoherently slurred and he seemed about ready to fall off the bar stool, I told him we had to go. It's a good thing too, because when he stood up he had absolutley no balance. I took his hand and led him out into midtown rush hour. We were right near Penn Station and there was not a cab to be seen.

I know that Penn Station has a taxi stand on the other side, so I tried to lead Narc there. He kept bumping into people as we went, and I had to turn and apologize them as we moved along. When we finally got to the taxi line, Narc freaked out about how long it was and said he wanted to walk home instead. It's about a half hour walk, and I wasn't sure what to do, but he was getting a little belligerent. I didn't want to lose control of the situation, so I agreed, taking his hand and leading him towards my place. While we were walking he decided he wanted to go to another pub that he knows near Times Square. I agreed only to keep him content because we had to walk in that direction anyway. But somewhere near Macy's, I saw a free cab and ran towards it. To do so, I had to leave him on the corner, and I was worried he wouldn't realize where I had gone. He managed to make it over to the cab though, and we were off, headed for my apartment.

Narc wanted to make out in the taxi, as I told you in the last post. He kept trying to take off my pants, and I kept telling him that he had to wait until we got home. I'm sure the driver overheard us and I was embarassed. When he saw he wasn't getting anywhere with my pants, he started to take off his own. There wasn't much I could do to stop him without drawing unwanted attention from the driver, so I let him do it, and then just tried to put my hand over him to keep him quiet and to keep the driver from seeing anything. While I was putting on my "responsible Jekyll"/"caretaker" of Narc act, part of me liked being in that kind of "naughty" situation. If I had been drunk too, it would have been fun. There was just too much Jekyll in me, though. Anyway, when we got to my corner, he forgot to zip up before getting out of the car. He was swaying, unbalanced, and hanging out of his pants. The fruit seller who I see on my corner every day, looked at me alarmed.

"Are you okay, miss?" he asked.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine. He just had one too many, that's all. It's alright."

Back at my place, Narc wanted to have sex, as promised. I was fine with it, but stressed out because I knew NDN was waiting for me to call him and tell him it was okay to come over. And afterwards, I couldn't get Narc to get dressed again, so I couldn't give NDN the call. Finally, I just told NDN to come anyway, and when the doorbell rang, I pressured Narc put his pants back on. I was starting to feel like the whole day was some kind of surreal dream, between all of Narc's antics and the bad news I had from the doctor. I was so emotionally stressed out. Maybe I would have handled it all differently, if I didn't have the doctor's new on my mind, but maybe not... I just felt like I had to be a mother to Narc that day--and I got off on taking care of him. But then again, for all you Freudians, is it any surprise, something primal is sparked in me by taking care of and pleasing drunk men? So, whatever...

NDN brought over some chicken and string beans but didn't have food for Narc. I asked Narc for his credit card and sent NDN for some pizza and beer (Narc was insisting on drinking yet even more). While he was gone, I cooked the chicken and looked for a CD to put on, choosing the Rachmaninoff vespers. Narc came up behind me while I was searching the CD shelves, and I had to fend him off because I knew NDN would be back in a few minutes. When NDN returned, he had bought me a beautiful bouquet of lilies and roses and charged it to Narc. I thought it was kind of funny. He also had the pizza and beer and we all ate dinner. Then it was time for me to help NDN get ready for the party. It was a fundraising/costume party for a small opera company.

(The background on that? When I was in high school I did a lot of community theater and the summer after I graduated, I was in a sort of "opera training" program for teens. We did a production of the Mikado and then some smaller recital type performances. I stayed in touch with two people from that group for a few years-- one was a boy a few years younger than me, who had already at age 16, an enormous Verdi-baritone type voice; the other a girl my age, a lyric soprano. Both of them pursued singing as a career. The boy (who is now 24, I think) ended up doing all sorts of amazing things, including a young artists program with Placido Domingo. He then moved out to the West Coast and started performing small roles. Anyway, to make a long story short, he just moved back to NY and threw a party two weeks ago. I went, bringing NDN along, and the girl (who I had lost touch with) was there as well. She's singing with this small opera company in NY and invited me to their fundraising Halloween party. Again, I asked NDN along).

Anyway, I helped NDN with his makeup and costume. Since it was an opera-themed party, he went as Paggliacio and I went as Cio Cio San. While we were getting ready, Narc passed out cold on my bed. At around 9:30, we were ready to leave, but we still had the problem of the sleeping Narc. I started to try to wake him up. He didn't budge. I tried to put my arms around him and heave him out of the bed, but he's just too heavy for me. I tried to slap his cheeks a little (lightly, of course!), but he rolled over and shrugged me off. I tried to drag his legs over the side of the bed to get his feet onto the ground. It was hopeless. I told NDN that maybe I should just stay home. But NDN was determined to help me get Narc up, so we each slung one of Narc's arms around our necks and hauled him up. We led him into the hallway and leaned him against the wall and tried to shove his shoes onto his feet. We got him downstairs and I sent NDN to the ATM because Narc was out of cash. Then NDN hailed a cab while I held Narc up on the corner. I gave Narc $20 and we put him in the car. He was confused and wanted me to come with him, but I told him that I couldn't. He was upset and demanded that I "get into the car!" But we just closed the door and sent him off. I was full of a slew of mixed emotions-- too many for me to sort through right now. But most of all, I was worried about him and wanted him to get home safely.

After that, NDN and I headed uptown to the opera party and I tried to put all the Narc stuff behind me. I already blogged about the party. Narc called me a few times and told me he got out of the cab at the wrong place. I was worried sick until he called me when he got home. I really do love him. I promised him I would call him on my way home from carousing that evening and maybe go down and see him. He really just needed to sleep it off though. NDN was chatting it up with all of the ladies at the party, and one girl was really into him and probably would have gone home with him, but he wasn't that attracted to her. I spent most of the party talking to that tenor who told me I have great cheekbones. The party ended relatively early because they only had the room reserved til midnight, so after that, NDN and I took off for Cheers.

Again, I already blogged about this in the last post. (I can't believe I felt KHill through his jeans. That's something Jekyll would never ever do! But I have to confess, I have a little crush on him, so it was kind of cool.) Anyway, NDN went home before me but I stayed out really really late and drank a lot. At around 3:00 in the morning, I sent Narc a text:

If you're still up, call me. I want to fuck you.

I'm not surprised I didn't hear back from him that night. I don't remember how or when I got home, but I woke up the next morning ultra-hungover. And I had a message from Narc:

Hey, it's me. It's about 11:00 am. I just crawled out of bed. You are probably still asleep, but just give me a call when you get this.

I called him back and he asked if I wanted to "come on down and have sex." I know how crass it must sound to you guys, but in reality, he just wanted to invite me over and can't admit that he wants to spend time with me without couching it in some kind of obnoxious macho way. I told him I'd give him a call in a little while. In the meantime, B stopped by and asked if I wanted to get lunch.

So I lunched with B and then went to see Narc. It was cute-- Narc wanted to play his new video game with me. I have so rarely played video games that I hardly knew how to hold or operate the controller. So I wasn't much competition for him. Then we watched Superman on TV and ate sushi. He wasn't feeling well. He said it was more than the hangover-- he thought he was getting sick. I told him I had to leave by 5:30 to get back to my place in time to get ready for my sister's Halloween party. He was sad to see me go.

Anyway, last night there was a lot more excitement. NDN played "Hyde" for the evening and did a smashing job. But as this post is getting dreadfully long, I'll write the "Part II" later...

-h-