Chapter 14
   It's Gone Now

     Tenchi stepped into the rank living room of Jonny Lester and almost 
puked on the spot.  A strong smell of alcohol mixed with all different 
kinds of wines seemed to be attacking him from all flanks.  Tenchi was 
used to his father and grandfather drinking a little, and experienced a 
few stinky aromas when Ryoko and Aeka were still living with him, but this 
one blew those out of the water.
     "Tenchi, my boy!" Jonny called from across the room.  The entire 
place was littered with teenagers, some passed out, some still conscious, 
all severely sedated.  Most of the stench was probably coming from their 
breaths.  Tenchi held his breath and began making his way into the crowd.
     He wouldn't even have come to this party, had his father not insisted 
so much.  Nobiyuki didn't like the way his son was resisting becoming a 
party animal, and this was a great chance for him to remedy his son's party 
phobia.
     "Hey, boy!" Jonny shouted over the blare of rock and roll in the 
background.  The house was situated way in the country, and no one was 
liable to hear them, because the next house was a good mile away.  "How you 
like the party?!"
     "It stinks in here!" Tenchi shouted over the blare.
     "That's just the smell of people having fun, my boy!  Here!" Jonny 
handed Tenchi an opened Brooskie brand beer and slapped him on the back.  
"It's time you started smelling like that too!  People are smoking pot in 
the bedroom, and having sex in the bathrooms, so knock before you go in, 
alright?!"
     "Uh, fine!"
     "Cool!  Let's party!!  Get yourself a bitch and go down to one of the 
bathrooms!  Condoms are in the kitchen!"  Jonny left, waving his hand over 
to a girl hanging out by the stereo.
     "Some party," Tenchi mumbled to himself.

     Fifteen minutes of searching proved that Tenchi knew absolutely no 
one at the party.  He still hadn't taken a sip of the Brooskie and was 
about to head for the door, when people started getting up to dance.
     "Hey, Tenchi!" a girl Tenchi had never met before called to him.  
"You wanna dance?!"
     Tenchi eyed the door and then looked back to the girl.  The girl 
looked drunk, if not a little high, and he noticed that she had no bra on.  
He eyed the door again when Jonny came over and slapped him on the back.
     "That's premo bitch over there, dog!  Go get yourself a slice!"
     "I don't know.  She doesn't look sober."
     "Of course she ain't, dip shit!!  That's what makes her premo!!  Just 
remember to stop for a condom on your way to one of the bathrooms, 
alright?!"
     Before Tenchi could answer, Jonny shoved him into the direction of 
the girl.  Tenchi looked at his beer and shrugged.  "Ah, what the hell," he 
said as he gulped it down and let the buzz fill his head.  He didn't really 
like drinking, but he figured that it was ok since everybody else was doing 
it.  He wobbled over to the girl and put out his hand.
     "I'm Tenchi," he introduced himself.
     "I know who you are, dip shit!  Just come over here.  They're playin 
my song!"  She grabbed Tenchi's hand and wrapped her arm around his waist.  
Tenchi, caught by surprise, pulled away, but the girl pulled him back.  
"C'mon!" she said.  "Let's dance!"
     The "dancing" included her grabbing hold of his crotch halfway through 
the song and feeling him up for the rest.  Tenchi was getting really 
uncomfortable, but his erection told the girl all she needed to know.
     She then lifted up herself on tip toes, almost falling over, and 
whispered into his ear, "Let's go to the bedroom, Tenchi."
     Tenchi thought about how he had refused to go to bed with Ryoko.  
He then thought about how he'd left Aeka there on Jurai.  He then thought 
of what his life might have been like had he'd given in to them.
     "Alright," he said, reluctantly, "but I need to stop by the kitchen 
first."
     She smiled.

     An hour later, Tenchi was laying, naked from the waist down, in bed 
with someone he had never met, his penis fitted with a rubber condom.  He 
was not happy with himself.
     The girl, however, was very happy, sleeping like a baby, fully naked, 
and fully done over.  All around them, boys smoking pot stole peeks at the 
two of them, laying beside each other.  The mere smell of the pot had been 
enough to make Tenchi high enough to go through with it with all the pot 
heads around, but the beer, which had served to peek up his courage to 
where he could actually grab a condom from the kitchen drawer, was wearing 
off fast.
     Tenchi was very unhappy with himself.  He threw the covers off and 
looked for his pants.  His erection had gone down rather quickly after the 
act, and laid, deflated, leaning on his right thigh for all the pot heads 
to see.  Few looked, however.
     Tenchi found his pants and ripped them on.  He then found his 
underwear and stuck them in his pocket.  He then looked at the girl and 
then at the pot heads.  He sighed.
     "Alright, boys," he said to the smokers.  "Give me and the girl a 
little privacy, huh?"
     Pot heads weren't ones to be disagreeable, so they grabbed their pot, 
their dong, and their pipes and left the room.
     Tenchi then shook the girl awake.  She opened her eyes groggily and 
smiled up at him.  "That was great," she mumbled.
     "Yeah," Tenchi said, "but you may need to put on your clothes."

     Tenchi walked home, his head down, staring at the cracks in the road 
as he passed them.  He saw a rock and kicked it, watching it skip down the 
street.  The rock bounced off a trash can and ricocheted into the road.  
Tenchi frowned at the rock.  He resumed his walk, along with his close 
study of the ground.
     It had only been a few minutes since Tenchi had walked the girl 
home.  He had managed to put a cup of coffee into her gut and get her 
dressed.  She had still been pretty drunk, but she managed to give him 
directions to her place, and he had been able to carry her most of the 
way.  He had given her his number, although he doubted that she would call, 
and she had given him a peck on the cheek.  That was probably the last he 
was ever going to see of her, and he wasn't very disappointed.
     He wondered if he should tell his father about what had gone on at 
the party.  He decided not to.  Nobiyuki might make him attend more parties 
like it.
     Tenchi found another rock and kicked it.  He watched it go into the 
road, and he sighed.  

     Tenchi strolled in at about twelve.  His walk had taken longer than 
he thought, but it didn't matter.  Surprisingly, his father was sound 
asleep, sleeping like a baby in his room, snoring loudly.  He passed 
through the dark house without cutting a light on, walking through the dark 
into his room.  He kicked off his shoes and got into bed with hardly a 
sound.  He sat awake in his room for a few minutes before going to sleep, 
thoughts of the night circling around in his head.
     He wasn't a virgin anymore, he knew.  It was gone and he would never 
get it back.  He was one of the others now, like Jonny and all the others 
at the party.He sighed again and fell slowly to sleep.  That night, 
like all the others that week, he dreamed of his friends in outer space.