Night Being Out

This event happened me on January 22, 2010. I will never forget it.

My Friday nights have never been of any importance to me, as many times, I simply stay at home and relax from the hard stressful life of a Biology major. The rain has finally stopped after a whole week of getting my shoes wet and changing my socks every hour. School had started and the January air was crisp and clean from the previous rainstorm. It was just a Friday night, but it turned out be more than I could ever imagine.

My friend, XXX, and I decided to stop by another friend’s place to visit him and hang out for a bit. We had previous planned to stop by earlier, but were running late on our errands and getting home, so we pulled around his place around 9PM. We met up with YYY and his friend AAA, who had just gotten back from an event. We all hung out for a while, relaxing and having a good time, the usual Friday night rhythm for me. We ask my friend, YYY, what his plans were to night, and he revealed that he would be going to a gay club in Los Angeles. I will admit, I was slightly intrigued, being from a heterosexual background and never in my life experiencing a gay club. My two friends talk about it since I was the odd man out of the talk with no background, but I listened intently out of curiosity.

YYY wanted my XXX to go, and so after a few forceful grabs and throws, XXX gave in and went back to his place to get ready. YYY and I continued to hang out and talk about our stressful weeks, when we were interrupted for two of our friends, BBB and CCC, came over. It’s very interesting when you are the only heterosexual male in a large group. I always have a tendency to examine my position in a group of people and in this space, I was definitely not of the same background. One of my friends, ZZZ, begged me to go as well as the rest of the lot. I simply smiled and refused; looking back now, I don’t know why I wasn’t so intent on going. Perhaps, the mix of fear and apprehension were the driving force that kept me from voicing the part of me that did want to go.

Once XXX came back, it was decided that the night was only young for a bit and it was time to hit the trail to Los Angeles. I started to get up to politely say goodbye and be on my way back to my place, when BBB continued to ask me to go with him to the club. He then grabbed my hand as we walked out and stated that I was going to go no matter what. It was in that moment that I decided to go, and so, out of everyone’s shock, I said I was going. To say my friends were excited would be underscoring their reaction; they were ecstatic and their energy fired me up for this new uncharted waters.

We reached LA and it was so cold! I couldn’t believe that some of my friends were only were jeans and a shirt to the club. Their decision would later be proved to be wise. We got in a long line, and despite the length, my friends continued to get excited. We took funny pictures as we waited and before we knew it, we were in the club. As I walked through the doors, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The obvious fact was there were millions of men all around, but there were a few women as well. The music was blasting and the atmosphere had a certain thrill or excitement. My friends and I went to get drinks since it was open bar. Afterwards, we decided that it was time to hit the dance floor.

It was packed on the dance floor with so many people dancing, bumping, and talking together. It was so hard to even get there, and my friends wanted to go right in the middle of the crowd. The lights were flashing and the DJ was blasting some awesome music, and so, once we go there, the only logical thing for me to was dance. At first I was semi-conscious of myself; after all, I wasn’t sure how to act in a gay club, though it is basically the same. During the course of the dance floor, I noticed that some of my friends had found guys to be with, and so our group slowly dwindled down. I got saved through some creepers, and even when I walked into the club, I had gotten groped and pinched a few times from some unwanted men. It was an interesting feeling; on one hand, I did not enjoy it at all and it made me a bit mad, but on the other hand, it felt sort of amazing to think that someone was actually paying attention to me and how I looked. A bit of a catch-22 was presented me at the club.

As we continued to dance, I was approach by one of the strangest things that has ever happened to me. From what my friend told me, we were dancing to the music, probably a Lady Gaga song, and a young Latino guy started coming up to dance with us. At first, we all thought he wanted to dance with one of my friends, but then, it came up that that person was I. He came up to me, and I didn’t know what to do. My friend told me to go with it, and so I did. I just started to dance with him, but then he suddenly grabbed my ass and started to grind against me. Let’s just say that as we continued, he started to kiss onto my neck. Needless to say, I left that club with two hickeys. I ended up dancing with the guys for about three songs, and there was a lot of grinding and a lot of closeness. I even ended up dancing with three other guys with this guy as well. I had to stop dancing with the guy finally, and then he threw a small fit. I felt so sorry for the poor guy. Not only was I ending his fun, but I was also leading him on since I am straight.

Overall, it was a great night, despite that guy feeling a bit sad. I never thought I would even be in that position when I first came to college. For some, this can be seen as experimenting, and to all of you, sadly, I am still a heterosexual man. But, I have no regret about that night, as much as I may joke around about it. It’s a story that I can look back at and laugh with friends. I will never forget that night when I was out.