Lindsay: One of us

You see they all called me ‘the country boy’. The Boston kids at the time were all marked by heavily layered denim and jet-black hair dye. Multiple piercings were also a requisite of the look. I think that’s why Lindsay struck me the way she did. Sure, she was pale and had the pure black, ironed-flat hair, but she didn’t work the moody denim look. Rather, she was often clad in pleated skirts and striped knee-highs – a style that would become insanely popular the next year when mod turned emo and fashionistas everywhere were forced to just give up.

And Lindsay was joined at the hip with a cute little Asian girl named Mai. Mai was a sprite, she couldn’t have stood any taller than 5’1” and had the classic, round, perfectly symmetrical features you’d expect from someone of eastern descent. She was perfectly adorable, and together, she and Lindsay were generally regarded as the princesses of our little scene.

And their relationship certainly extended beyond pure platonic friendship. Lindsay and Mai did absolutely everything together. They shopped together. They ate together. They slept together. They showered together.

It wasn’t at all uncommon to head off for a drink at one of Eggy’s parties to return to the living room to find Lindsay and Mai lip-locked at center stage, making out furiously while the men around them bawked and cat-called at their performance. I figured it was all just for attention, but on several occasions, Lindsay had eluded to hers and Mai’s ‘secret’.

I tossed it up to foolish girlishness, but I soon found out otherwise.

Mai had a boyfriend named Joey. Joey was a great looking black guy with those stylish ‘indie dreads’ who played a mean saxophone and was just a complete trip to hang with. In my endeavors to woo Lindsay, I often found myself aligned with Joey while the girls pranced about, absorbed in one another.

He really became my first genuine friend outside of Eggy in the area, and when he called me one night to invite me over to his apartment to just drink and hang with the foursome, I had no reason to think the evening would turn out differently than any other.