You Should Have Been Here Yesterday

Staying the Night With Joey, Tom, Joe, and my Shirtless Boyfriend

Everything is a mirrored image of my life before Christmas: Now, I spend most of my time with Steven an little-to-no time with Joe.

        I didn't completely ditch Joe, it's just that he kind of stopped calling and offering to hang out with me.

        Sure, it's only a few days after Christmas, but it seems like I'm seeing less and less of Joe.

        Anyway, Tom's birthday is only a few days away.  We've had the party planned for days now, and so far things are looking good (other than the invitees, who still need to be invited...).  It's a mash-up party of Tom's birthday and New Year's Eve.  It's gonna be killer.  I for one, can't wait.

--

I was waiting for Joey to invite me to wherever he was going.  He had already put on his boots and coat, and I sat patiently on the couch, watching him with a cigarette dangling between my lips.

        "May I help you?" Joey asked slowly.  I haven't really been seeing a whole lot of Joey lately.  He's been spending a lot of time with the band.

        "No, no," I said simply, "I'm cool, really."

        Joey groans.  "Ugh.  Fine, you can come with me."

        I had assumed he was going to hang out with the band.  I happily followed him out the door.  We made a detour for a few boxes of pizzas for dinner, as well as several cases of beers, and Joey, with his key, unlocked the door and in we went.

        "Gin!" Tom, Joe, and Steven exclaimed all at the same time.  They hardly acknowledged Joey.  Maybe it was because I was carrying the beers.

        "Yeah, hey guys," Joey said sardonically, trying to fit through the door.  I set down the beer and instantly went over to Steven, kissing him hello and perching myself right next to him in the large chair.

        After silently munching on the pizza for a bit, Steven decided it would be a good time to call a band meeting.  "So listen," he began, sitting up a little taller and wiping his fingers on his jeans.  "If this is gonna work, we need a name.  It's been over a year, guys.  It shouldn't take this long."

        It didn't take long for the guys to figure out what Steven was talking about.  All at once, there was a chorus of Tom, Joe, and Steven speaking at once.  It was a muddled together mess of, The Hookers, Spike Jones, Flash, and The Jam Band.

        "Pipe Dream was also thrown out there," I say.

        Joe laughs.  Joey, under his breath, mutters something about one of the books we read in school.  Why he would be talking about that now of all times, I don't know, but Steven made him speak up.  "What?" he demanded.

        Joey shrugged.  "Arrowsmith," he said shyly.  Another fun fact, before Joey and I formed our band with Peter and Jerry, he was in a group called Arrowsmith.  Weird...

        "You mean like Martin Arrowsmith?" Tom ask, incredulous.  That was the name of the guy in the book, Arrowsmith.  They made us write a paper on it and everything.  I'm surprised that Tom knew that, too.  "The guy that found the cure for that plague?"

        "Yeah," Steven said, "on that island... Like, the... titty-plague or something–" Joey and Joe looked very confused.

        "It was the bubonic plague," I say.

        "Same thing," Steven says.  Tom grins.

        "Not really, though," I reply.  "Anyway, his wife Leora gets killed off by the bubonic plague and then Martin decides–"