Volume 5: Instar
Issue 4: The Afterparty
Florian Reyes Honeywell
By Roach
Camilo stared intently at the screen, alternating between Waluigi and Toad. Meanwhile, I weighed the blue JoyCon testingly in my grip. Amber’s icon hovered over Princess Peach, settling without hesitation. I considered Yoshi, but before I could decide—or figure out how the controls worked—Gabriel had already gone for the cartoon dinosaur. I circled around the screen. Camilo picked Shy Guy, cloaked in a black hood and wearing an expressionless mask. Then, mostly because I didn’t want to leave anyone hanging, I was forced to land on my choice: King Boo—a round, crowned ghost.
We were in Jay’s bedroom. I wasn’t sure where Jay was—I assumed with the rest of the party, which carried on in the living room. Decorations covered every inch of the walls. Pokémon cards had been taped to the closet doors, exclusively in Dark and Ghost types. Rows of old vinyls hung above the bed, lined by fairy lights. Black and white polaroids decorated the space above their desk: the photos were mostly inanimate, such as a snuffed cigarette on the sidewalk or a view of the still ocean of Fisherman’s Wharf. But, in the center, there was a photo of Jay, Gabriel, and Camilo. They squeezed together into the frame, all with bright smiles on their faces. Gabriel had a daisy tucked behind his ear, while Camilo stuck his tongue out at the camera—which Jay appeared to be holding.
I turned my attention to the TV. As I scrolled through the vehicle options, I watched the others make their selections. Gabriel went for the Mercedes GLA accessorized with a cloud glider, while Amber picked its sportier and more streamlined counterpart—a silver Mercedes Roadster. Camilo placed Shy Guy on an inconspicuous motorbike. I chose a pipe-framed go kart, which reminded me of a soapbox car my dad had built for me when I was four. I paired it with matching black tires. The only way I spruced up my build was with a sunflower glider.
“Which cup?” Camilo asked.
“We’re still missing some stars on the Leaf Cup,” Gabriel said.
“How about Rainbow Road?” Amber replied.
Gabriel turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “You? Rainbow Road?”
“What, are you scared I’ll beat you?”
He scoffed. “You’re on.”
I had the same feeling as in the GameStop—somehow, Amber seemed to have a better idea of what was going on than I did.
As if catching on, Camilo looked at me. “Any objections?”
I shook my head, and he clicked the crown icon.
The first race opened up with an overview of Cloudtop Cruise. Sailing ships floated through the skies, while what appeared to be a giant beanstalk probed through the clouds. A countdown appeared on the screen. Three, two, one… Then, in front of me, Peach, Yoshi, and Shy Guy—in that order—took off. Simultaneously, the pipe frame blew up in King Boo’s face. He threw his short ghost arms into the air. Already dead last, I searched the JoyCon for the forward button.
While King Boo lagged behind, the others raced through the clouds. By the time they had made it through the first lap, I was barely halfway, still trying to figure out the controls.
“How do I brake?” I asked.
“Umh, I don’t think you can,” Gabriel said, as Yoshi’s GLA drifted onto the deck of a flying ship.
“How do I not fall off then?”
In between furious button-pushing, Amber replied, “Get good.”
“You’ll get the hang of it.” Camilo sounded more reassuring, although he wasn’t letting down either. Shy Guy’s bike somersaulted gracefully through the air as he bounced off a leaf—a shortcut I didn’t even realize existed.
By the end of the race, I managed to catch up to a couple of the AIs, securing 10th place. Gabriel placed 2nd, with Amber in 3rd and Camilo in 5th.
“I’m just getting warmed up,” Amber said, lifting her chin.
“You’ll regret saying that,” Gabriel replied.
However, as we played through the next two races, Gabriel and Amber alternated between getting first place. I had given up on winning after the first ten seconds of playing, but I started to get a better handle of the controls as we progressed through the cup. Slowly, King Boo made it through the deserts of Bone-Dry Dunes and the ever-changing halls of Bowser’s Castle. When my Bullet Bill rammed into Shy Guy, Camilo gave me a friendly punch in the shoulder. I chuckled as some type of yellow turtle riding on a cloud rescued Shy Guy from a presumably deadly fall off the edge.
Maybe this party wasn’t completely unenjoyable, after all.
The final race, Rainbow Road, panoramaed across the screen. A group of Toads in astronaut suits cheered as Peach, Yoshi, Shy Guy, and King Boo crossed the startline. The neon-lit rainbow path twisted and turned until it launched us into space; hovering with my sunflower glider, I could see what appeared to be a space station. As King Boo flew through a void of extraterrestrial gasses and space dust, I glimpsed an asteroid on collision course toward a distant Earth. The fists of a caped silhouette—an allusion to some vague superhero figure—prevented the asteroid from getting sucked into Earth’s atmosphere.
Meanwhile, on the space station, the others exchanged blows. Peach’s green shell hit Yoshi with deadly precision, before Shy Guy’s Piranha Plant forced her off the neon path. Donkey Kong’s AI whizzed past all of them, stealing Camilo’s lead. This back and forth between the three continued until the third lap, at which point, King Boo had fallen off the circuit more times than I wanted to count. Thankfully, he was already a ghost, so hopefully plummeting into space didn’t bother him too much.
A banana smacked into the front wheel of Shy Guy’s bike, sending him veering off the road. Camilo cursed under his breath. Yoshi closed in on the finish line, with Peach and Luigi following behind. Gabriel and Amber button-mashed their respective controllers. A purple trail followed Peach’s Roadster, as she drifted behind Yoshi. Then, with an elegant throw, she tossed a bomb into the air. It landed in front of the finish line, catching Yoshi and Luigi in the explosion. Princess Peach blasted past them.
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“Yes!” Amber exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. On screen, Peach did the same, scattering blow-kisses around herself as she drove the victory lap.
“That’s some BS if I’ve ever seen it.” Gabriel tossed his JoyCon aside.
“Or maybe you just couldn’t handle a real racer,” Amber said.
Gabriel shook his head, then looked at her in disbelief. “Who are you and what did you do to Amber Wren?”
“What, just because I paint my nails you don’t think I can beat you?”
“That’s… That’s not what I was trying to say.” Gabriel gave Camilo a sort of pleading, yet confused, look.
“Sounds like a rematch is in order?” Camilo smiled sheepishly.
His friend surveyed the bedroom. “Actually… Wasn’t Jay supposed to join us?”
“I thought so,” Camilo replied.
“Hm. Why don’t you guys go ahead and start another round while I look for them?” Gabriel got up.
“If you need time to rethink your strategy, you can just say so,” Amber teased, her tone more playful than viscous.
Gabriel rolled his eyes, then left us with the Switch. When he opened the door, I noticed a faint—but pungent—smell that I couldn’t quite place.
Camilo flipped idly through the cups. “So, how many hours do you have on this?” he said to Amber.
She rolled her eyes at him in response, but didn’t say anything. We played a few more rounds. But, by the time we finished a couple of cups, Gabriel and Jay had yet to join us.
“Maybe they’re opening presents,” Camilo speculated. “You brought something, right?” He looked at the two of us.
“Got it.” Amber took out a small envelope from her clutch bag, containing the Icons packs we had gotten from the mall.
As we headed downstairs, the smell I had noticed before grew stronger. And I didn’t need my super-sensitive senses to realize that it was weed. And, sure enough, when we got downstairs, a group of people had gathered on the couch—a couple of them smoking. Among them, I saw Gabriel and Jay, in addition to a few people from spin the bottle. I also recognized Lucy, from gym class, puffing a small cloud of smoke. Chloe rested her head on her shoulder, and I wasn’t entirely sure if she was still awake or not.
On the table, there was a small tower of wooden pieces stacked on each other. The pieces were balanced on top of Bubbles’ fish tank.
“Hey,” Gabriel greeted as we approached.
“What’s this?” Camilo asked, halting to stare at the goldfish.
“We’re playing jenga,” Jay explained.
“I don’t think this is how you play it.”
“I hear it’s… reverse jenga.” Gabriel sighed as he leaned back against the couch. Although he sat next to Jay, there was an awkward distance between them. He exchanged a long look with Camilo, which I interpreted as a quiet agreement of some kind. Meanwhile, Jay placed another piece on the skewed tower of blocks. I imagined that reverse jenga meant that they were building the tower instead of tearing it down—in other words, probably too intoxicated or high to actually play the game.
“Of course,” Camilo said after a pause. “Reverse jenga.” Bubbles completed another lap in the tank.
Oblivious to the distaste in his voice, Lucy replied, “Here, have some.” She held the joint out to him.
“I’m good,” he said flatly.
She shrugged. “I got some other stuff, too.” She took out a small plastic bag from her purse. It contained a few pills. I couldn’t really tell what they were; they reminded me a bit of Love Hearts, but I had a suspicion it wasn’t exactly candy.
“Where… Where did you get that?” Camilo stuttered, his eyes widening.
“And here I thought your friends were lame like you,” Amber chipped in, resting her weight onto one hip.
Ignoring Camilo’s question, Lucy turned to me now. “What about you, Florian? You haven’t earned the friend discount yet, but…”
Before I could process what was happening, Jay intercepted, “Come on, Florian can’t even stomach a drink.”
“That’s why it would be funny,” Lucy said. They both started giggling at this.
I tensed up. It felt like, as long as I stood still enough, I could turn invisible. But, even if that was the case, it was too late for that now. Maybe my gut feeling had been right—I shouldn’t have come here. I suppressed the buzz of my churning insides.
“That’s uncalled for.” Camilo’s expression hardened as he looked at Jay. “This isn’t like you.”
“How would you know anything about what I’m like?” Jay placed another piece on the jenga tower. “Like, dude, you barely even talk to me anymore.” Their speech had slowed, lacking any sort of emotion.
I recalled Amber’s comment at the mall, about how Camilo hadn’t been hanging out with Jay and Gabriel as much…
“Huh?” Camilo’s mouth hung open for a moment, before he continued, “I see you basically every day.”
Jay shrugged. “I see lots of people every day. Doesn’t make us buddies.”
Camilo shook his head lightly. “What… What do you mean?” Confusion painted his voice. I saw him glance at Gabriel, who stared intently down at his hands.
Lucy burst into another sporadic giggle, and Jay joined in. I wasn’t entirely sure what prompted them to laugh again—until I noticed that Chloe had stirred, shifting her head from Lucy’s shoulder to the couch. “Oh my gosh, you’re so cute!” Lucy exclaimed, pinching Chloe’s cheek. She sleepily slapped Lucy’s hand away.
Camilo watched the exchange. “Maybe we can continue this conversation once… you have your shit together.” His voice had turned to a grumble.
Jay directed their attention back to Camilo again, their head turning slowly. “Dude, chill. You’re the one who ditched us…” Slowly, they turned to look at me. A fog clouded their gray stare. “For Florian. Florian nobody. And Amber. Fucking Amber, of all people?” They snorted in a sort of disbelief, before placing another jenga piece on top of the fish tank. It appeared closer and closer to falling apart, as Bubbles swam in distressed circles below.
“What, do I need your permission to make other friends?” Camilo hissed.
There was a pause. I surveyed the faces of the people around me. Gabriel still hadn’t looked up—instead, he continued to twiddle his thumbs. Chloe appeared to have nodded off again, while Lucy worked on the jenga tower. Amber observed the scene quietly, her marbled expression giving away nothing. A couple of others paid half-hearted attention as well, while the rest of the party carried on—scattered throughout the living room.
Breaking the silence, Jay said calmly, “That’s not what I mean.”
“I think you’re too high to know what you mean,” Camilo retorted. “You’re not yourself.”
Morgan—one of the people who had been smoking weed from the sideline—chimed in at this point. “‘Milo, why do you have to be so uptight? We’re just having some fun,” he said.
Camilo glared at him. “You guys are being stupid.”
Jay shrugged. “If you don’t like it, you’re free to go,” they said. “No one’s forcing you to stay here.”
Camilo’s glare softened into a frown as he looked around. His gaze landed on Gabriel, who sunk back into the couch a bit more. While he hadn’t necessarily endorsed Jay’s opinion, his lack of response seemed like a condemnation of its own. Drawn-out seconds passed, where no one spoke. There was just the background chatter and pop beat.
“I see,” Camilo finally said. Then, without another word, he turned around. He headed for the main door, leaving Amber and I behind.
For a moment, we both remained frozen in place. We exchanged a confused look. Amber moved first, setting course for Camilo. I glanced back at Jay, who was already chatting with Lucy—debating the actual rules of reverse jenga.
I followed Camilo and Amber. As I left, I heard the jenga tower fall behind me. An excited cheer from the others followed its collapse.
I headed outside, into the cold night air.