Chapter 16

Zephyr Shop – Friday Night

Alex heard the music blaring as soon as she turned onto the block-Jimi Hendrix's Fire, a sexy, fun party song. Alright then, that bodes well for her decision to check out the party. She had put on a Rolling Stones T shirt that she had "re-designed" herself. Actually she had taken the standard Stones tongue logo shirt, slashed up both sides and laced them back together with red satin ribbon. The neckline was cut down a little and again whipstiched with the same iridescent ribbon. She had been pretty pleased with the effect and thrown the shirt on over some tight blue jean bell bottoms and matching candy apple red platforms. She pulled open the door to the shop unleashing a barrage of Jimi and smoke.

"Hey chica, welcome to party central," Tony said hugging her like they were the oldest of friends. Throwing an arm around her shoulder he led her toward the counter, currently serving as a bar. "Have a drink, make yourself at home. You remember a lot of these guys from your pool," gesturing genially at the crowd with his drink, not making any actual introductions.

Alex figured right away that Tony had gotten a good head start on partying, not that the other party goers were slacking off in that department. A cluster of Z-Boys and their girls on the right were swaying/stumbling in a chemically altered version of dancing. Further back a couch was lined with couples who had moved off the make shift dance floor and onto phase two. She thought she recognized the back of Red Dog's head either trying to resuscitate or maybe swallow a petite girl.

"Bitchin' party, huh? Glad ya came down!" Tony pulled her closer to him to shout over the din. "What kind of beer do you want?"

"I brought a bottle a wine with me; you think there's a cork screw around?" Alex held up an ignored brown bag.

"Other than the ones on my head?" Tony pulled one of his curls out in a boinggg motion, laughed at his own quip and grabbed her hand and led her behind the counter to search through Skip's supplies for one.

Like a heat seeking missile homing in on its target, Blanca parted the crowd and headed for Tony. "What are you doing, honey?" she asked her boyfriend with her eyes firmly trained on Alex.

Tony popped his head above the counter and pointing to his ears like he was having trouble hearing, said to Blanca; "I don't know, Alex here was whining about getting screwed."

Both girls looked at him totally aghast, and then quickly turned their gaze to each other; Blanca's eyes narrowing, Alex's widening in surprise.

Tony took this all in and pounded the counter like he had just perpetrated the best joke ever. "Blanca baby, just kidding!" Holding up the bottle of wine he continued: "Alex was w(h)ining about finding her a cork screw for this bottle. Lighten up, girls, it's a party!"

Alex moved into damage control mode; "Blanca, I gotta give you all the credit in the world! How you keep up with your man, damn, I could never. Besides I'm really glad you're here, I was hoping you could introduce me to the other girls around here."

"Yeah, eh sure," Blanca replied, sounding like her party was pooped. "Tony said you hooked up with Stacy, where's he?"

"He had to work tonight."

"So-you are with him?" Blanca looked more interested by the minute.

"He's a nice guy and we've hung out a little, I guess we'll see how things go." Alex confirmed.

"Yeah, you should stick with him, he's a good catch, you know with the car and job and all." Blanca looked pleased that Alex seemed to be off the market. "Let's see if any of my girls are around," she said scanning the crowd. "That's Kathy Alva dancing in the blue shirt, she's Tony's sister, so we're real tight. And Peggy's around somewhere, probably out by Tiki." Looking toward the back of the shop, the girls eyes lit on Jay talking to two very young girls by the door to the bathroom. "They must be Jay's latest victims, don't know their names, but probably he doesn't either, so whatever."

(A/N In this story Kathy doesn't have the history with Stacy/Jay she had in the movie-sorry just too complicated for me)

Catching sight of the bathroom and the always present line for it, Alex chose to make her exit: "Blanca, I'm gonna hit the bathroom, I'll catch up with you later." Alex sauntered towards the bathroom and in front of it, Jay.

"Hey hot stuff! I thought you were gonna be like your old man and stay away from parties," Jay said with a big smile.

"My old man?" Alex arched her eyebrows at him. "If you mean my dad, he's been gone a while now and he always loved a good party. Aren't you gonna introduce me to your friends, Jay?" Alex turned her gaze on the two young blonde girls.

"Sure, friends meet Alex, Alex friends" Jay smiled back, not missing a beat.

Luckily, the door to the bathroom opened at that point and the confused girls scooted in, giggling to themselves. That left Jay standing, hands scrunched into the front pockets of his jeans looking at Alex. "Decided to come see me even without Stacy, I see?"

"Decided to take up your offer to check out a party, for sure, and I see now you made the offer to the local Girl Scout troop, too," Alex said nodding her head towards the girls in the bathroom.

Jay let out a snort of laughter and replied, "Yeah trying to help them with their sex education badge."

Now it was Alex's turn to laugh, "Oh please, you'd be so lucky if one of them let you touch the straps on her Maidenform training bra."

Jay looked completely serious, as if she had touched on something he had given a great deal of thought to: "What's up with training bras? What the hell is it they're supposed to be training those tiny titties to do?"

"Duh, they're training those tiny buds to blossom into the full fruits of womanhood!" Alex responded, trying to keep a straight face.

"Thanks for clearing that up and I gotta say, you've got some lovely ripe fruits there yourself. You know like Steve Miller says, really love your peaches, like to shake your tree'." Jay made an exaggerated leer down Alex's shirt.

Alex realized this was the time either to get really bent out of shape with Jay's banter, or laugh it off. She chose the latter. "Quit making me laugh, Farmer Jay, my peaches are out of season, definitely not harvest time tonight. I really hafta go to the bathroom, any chance your little mosquito bit friends will be out any time soon?"

"They're just making themselves beautiful for me, I guess," Jay said. "See you tomorrow at Del Mar? Stacy said you talked him into entering, that's a good thing, he should be there." Jay leaned in abruptly and planted a kiss on her cheek, "Don't let those peaches rot before they get picked."