Jennifer was 5’11” with long brown braids and a huge smile. She bartended at a gay dance club I frequented. She also worked at the pizza slice place, The Funky Pickle. I ate the Pig Kahuna slice with honey and hot peppers.
I’m sorry, I do love the ham and pineapple slice with honey and hot peppers. I wish I were a liar, I’d have a lot more fans and paid subscriptions.
But, I digress…
I saw Jennifer a lot one summer when I was rehearsing for, what can only be called, a goth sex shop runway fashion show. She was a basketball playing Go-Go Dancer. I was a photography student, getting drunk and dancing ever single weekend. Hands stained with manic panic, doc martens, never failed.
Again, I can’t lie, I don’t know how I ended up spending Halloween with her. But it was 1996 and she wanted to wear pasties and paint our nude torsos silver and green and be fairies with these elaborate tutus she’d constructed.
We went to the club and danced. Jennifer’s breasts were flying all over the place. I was completely losing my shit.
A mutual friend of ours then tells Jennifer I’m interested in her and Jennifer explains that she’s straight.
As I’m writing this I am actually pretty mad at Jennifer for turning me into a Duckie, but, alas. I was A FUCKING DUCKIE.
That night she invites me to stay over at her house. In her bed. She knows I’m attracted to her. Knowing she’s already rejected me.
And she goes to bed, naked. And I just lay there with my body, pounding. And I kinda vowed I’d never go through that again.
The Funky Pickle brings me back to when I worked at Divine. We would close at 11, grab a few drinks at the Thirsty Turtle and then grab a slice from the Funky Pickle. Mine always had corn on it, which to this day I loathe, but I loved it from there.
It makes me feel strange when I realize that not a single one of those places is still there. Nor am I.
I love your essays. Also the manic panic Doc Martin reference took me back to my junior year. '96 was an epic time!