alabama arkansas

there was a mariachi band in the gold room last night. it paused the jukebox and played screeching, deafening, trumpeting mariachi music for at least an hour. there was an extremely drunk boy with glasses who would explode through the door every time he re-entered the smoking section. one time he smacked me on the arm. another time he made a grand show of tucking his blue buttoned-down shirt into his skinny jeans. there was another boy with a front row of fake teeth, whose name rhymed with cannon and whose grandmother is named valerie. there was an australian recounting the celebrities he's seen in la. there was a bearded man who would catcall all the girls for the sheer joy of seeing their discomfort and at the end of the night he was doing push-ups on the bar floor. the bartender flitted around, dabbing glitter star gel on our faces with her fingers. there was free tequila; there was loud singing in the living room until four am.