Night Life Part I

"God, I think the BART station closes, guys. Can we please just get a taxi or something?"

It's cold and my legs are tired and I want to stop walking. I think that Nick might be just about ready to cave and pitch in for a taxi too, but this is really one of those things that we all need to be on board for.

Why the fuck are we out here this late? Fucking spare the air day.

It's getting colder I think, which is good because it means I'll be able to sleep tonight. Maybe. I guess just because it's cold here doesn't mean it'll actually be cold in Lafayette. San Francisco's climate is basically unconnected. Still, it would be nice. I'll just pretend. I can't sleep when it's muggy.

What is this, a high-schooler convention? There's like 15 kids on that dock. What the hell?

Anyways, keep walking. Pier 24, 23, 22. How much farther. Fucking Embarcadero BART. It smells like seagulls. Well, not seagulls so much as everything associated with seagulls.

Looks like those dock kids need to get home too. It's like midnight, why are these kids allowed to be out this late anyway? My parents would have destroyed me if I had been out this late in the city in high school. I can barely swing this now, and I don't even live at home during the year.

"Guys, you know they have taxi vans nowadays, right? Like, we don't all have to cram into a little sedan cab or anything, we can totally fit comf-"
"God, Sean, we're not getting a taxi. Absolutely no one here has money for that. We'll be fine, it's not going to close for a while. Stop whining."

Whatever. I think I've been tracking some gum since Ghirardelli Square. At least we didn't get lost like last time. With just the guys. Nick, Ben, Josh, Josh and Scott I think, I could be wrong. Some variation on that crew for sure. We came out here for the day, must have been a half day in school or something.We took BART like always, we wandered.

The Earthquake.

We ate the Earthquake, I remember. That force of ice cream nature that cost us something like 25 dollars. There were five or six of us and we barely finished. Oh god, those 2 miles from Ghirardelli to Embarcadero BART may have been the worst two miles any of us have ever walked. The aches, the sweats, the headaches of what was essentially self-inflicted digestive torture. Not to mention the getting lost. Not to mention the bowel movements.

Okay, TMI I guess. But we created a do-whop song about our shared digestive experiences as we walked, so there's that.

At least tonight isn't that. I can take some comfort in my relative, well comfort. Still, with the guys there's that comraderie, that solidarity in suffering. Nick is here tonight as well, but the rest of this group is different; friends, not that family we built. Liz is Ben's girlfriend, I don't know where Ben is, maybe vacation or something. Mike is a wildcard, I don't really know the guy, as is Kristina who we just call K. Erin I've known for years, but we've never really been close. Odd group, to be totally honest.

Those kids are closer now, walking behind us on Embarcadero. They're probably going to BART too. I wonder if they are a family, like Nick and I and the guys are, or if they really knew each other before tonight.

Huh.

They just get closer and closer. They're engulfing us now, walking alongside, 15 of them to our 6. They've walked through us rather than past us, essentially dividing our group between them like a pack of wolves. They're just walking alongside us now, continuing to joke and laugh with themselves.

We went to In 'n' Out tonight. In San Francisco. Who the hell goes to the city and eats at In 'n' Out? We spent a bunch of time on the pier, we could have had seafood or something. I think Liz insisted, maybe it was K. Definitely one of the girls. I felt totally clueless the entire time.

A couple of them are trying to talk to Liz, teasing, being oddly flirty for a couple of straight-looking girls. What is straight-looking, anyways? That was a dumb descriptor. As they've engulfed us, I've noted that there's something hard, something edged about this group. As much as they laugh and joke, there's something that says very clearly that these kids are on a mission. There's something they want, and they're going to get it.

I pull Liz in close and begin playing the boyfriend role. Maybe that'll take some of the heat off. The little comments only grow more frequent, more forward. There's a stoplight up ahead. It turns green just as we reach it, good. We begin to cross, to part ways with the predators, but their hunger remains unsatiated. We cross the street together, wolves and sheep alike. The tall one asks Nick is he has a dollar to lend. Even from here, I catch the beer-blast of breath. Coors or something. Urine in a can. I can smell it on each of them, like some kind of pheromone separating their kind from ours. The girls are getting physical now; bumping Liz, grabbing her, her ass, her breasts. Poor Liz is trying to be tough, be the bigger bitch. Trying not to cry. I hold her closer. For some reason all I can think is that Ben should be here, doing this, and does this constitute some weird form of cheating? I mean not cheating exactly, but I am in his emotional place, cradling his girlfriend, like some sort of protector-man, and it feels wrong, and why am I caring about this right now, and I'm so glad Jocelyn isn't here because I would die inside if anything happened to her, if she was eaten by these predatory creatures, and for some reason everyone else here is expendable for her, except maybe Nick but he is a protector-man too, like me, so there's no sense worrying about that. And while I am thinking, this a girl is grabbing Liz's purse, and Liz is pulling it back, and this girl won't let go, and Nick notices this before I do, and he turns around and tells the girl to stop and Liz is crying won't you just leave us alone we just want to go home and BART is just a few blocks away we promise because for some reason we think that that proximity will mean something, will make our case to these animals, and Nick says stop again and pulls the girl off Liz and that is the signal I guess, the license the pack was waiting for, because then the first punch flies and tall guy's fist pushes Nick's face out of the way like one of those saloon-style doors.

What the fuck?