About It's Tradition

by Aaron Michaels
17 pages / 6200 words
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc

Justin isn't much for Vegas Christmas parties, especially when his sister is throwing them. She always wants to set him up with someone, and this time is no different. Justin thinks Reggie is hot, but he's been hurt too badly to trust someone so quickly, and he decides to leave before he can get too interested. Can meeting up with Reggie at his sister's house for dinner change Justin's mind?

Sample

"Come to the party for a little while," Justin's sister had said.  "Only a few friends, nothing special.  You might even have a good time."

Justin stood inside the lobby doors of the Orion, Las Vegas' newest hotel and casino, and wondered exactly why he'd decided to accept the invitation to Lisa's annual Christmas party.  While he had nothing against the holiday, even though Christmas had been pretty much just another day of the week for years now, Justin wasn't a party kind of guy. 

He wasn't a casino kind of guy either.  Too much smoke and noise and drunken gamblers for a man who was a virtual hermit, not to mention terminally tacky decor, which the Orion seemed to have taken to a whole new level.

Most of the major Strip casinos had some kind of theme.  The Luxor sported an Egyptian pyramid and Caesar's Palace was an homage to ancient Rome.  The Orion?  Outer space nerd meets heterosexual male's wet dream. 

Being neither an outer space nerd nor a heterosexual male, Justin was less than impressed with the buxom cocktail waitresses rushing around the gaming floor dressed in outfits that could best be described as a cross between Playboy Bunny and one of those taped-on female alien of the week outfits from the original Star Trek series.   He also wasn't seduced into gambling his money away by the big-busted cartoon alien women bursting out of their shirts with a come hither bedroom grin prominently featured on the rows of slot machines near the lobby.  At least the machines didn't chant Wheel Of Fortune! over and over again like the ones at the airport. 

This year Lisa's holiday party was booked for Rockets, the small lounge that housed the Orion's comedy club.  The comedy club was dark on Mondays – apparently the first workday of the business week wasn't a good night for comedians – and the Orion rented out the space for private parties. 

A small party for a few friends.  In a comedy club.  No doubt the Orion had set the party up as a promotional gig, which meant Lisa would have more "friends" at this party than he'd had his entire life.  Then again, Lisa had never done anything on a small scale, which was probably why her career had taken off, and his was... well, "stalled" would be a kind description.  Just like his love life.  Stalled.  Broken down.  Or just plain broken.

Rockets was off to the left past rows upon rows of slot machines. Justin wound his way through the machines, avoiding bumping into any of the players and thus ruining their luck – luck being a very important commodity in Vegas.

The crowd didn't thin as he reached Rockets.  If anything, it got bigger.  Lisa must have invited half of Vegas for her private little party.

"This is such a bad idea," Justin muttered.   The idea of spending the next hour being introduced to everyone Lisa knew as "her baby brother, the writer" was his idea of hell, complete with slot machines and glow-in-the-dark neon on black carpeting.

"Research," he told himself.  "Every life experience is potential research."

Some experiences were just more painful than others.