But soon enough I was heading down ivy-drapedVia Giulia, my arm around Eunice Park’s fragrant, boyish frame. Shewas seemingly in good spirits, promising me a kiss, then chastising my poorItalian. She was shyness and giggles, freckles in the moonlight and drunken,immature cries of “Shut up, Lenny!” and “You’re such an idiot!” I noticed shehad released her hair from the bun’s captivity and that it was dark and endlessand thick as twine. She was twenty-four years old.
My apartment could accommodate no more than a cheaptwin-size mattress and a fully opened suitcase, brimming with books. (“MyText-major friends at Elderbird used to call those things ‘doorstops,’ ” shetold me.) We kissed, lazily, like it was nothing, then roughly, like we meantit. There were some problems. Eunice Park wouldn’t take off her bra (“I haveabsolutely no chest”), and I was too drunk and scared to develop an erection.But I didn’t want intercourse anyway. The next morning, she was kind enough tohelp me repack my suitcase, which refused to close without her help. “That’snot how you do it,” she said, when she saw me brushing my teeth. She made mestick out my tongue and roughly scraped its purple surface with the toothbrush.“There,” she said. “Better.”
During the taxi ride to the airport I felt the triplepangs of being happy and lonely and needy all at once. She had made me wash mylips and chin thoroughly to obliterate every trace of her, but Eunice Park’salkaline tang remained on the tip of my nose. I made great sniffing motions inthe air, trying to capture her essence, thinking already of how I would baither toNew York,make her my life, my life eternal. I touched my expertly brushed teeth andpetted the flurry of gray hairs sticking out from beneath my shirt collar,which she had thoroughly examined in the morning’s weak early light. “Cute,”she had said. And then, with a child’s sense of wonder, “You’re old, Len.”
June 1: From the GlobalTeens account of Eunice Park.
Euni-Tard Abroad to Grillbitch.
Hi, Precious Panda!
So, guess what? I met the cutest guy inRome. He is exactly my type, tall, kind ofGerman-looking, very preppie, but not an asshole. Giovanna set me up withhim—he’s inRomeworking for LandO’LakesGMFordCredit! So I go to meet him in the Piazza Navona(remember Image Class? Navona’s the one with all the Tritons) and he’s sittingthere having a cappuccino and streaming “Chronicles of Narnia”! Remember westreamed that in Catholic? So adorable. His name is Ben, which is pretty gay,but he wasso niceand so
smart. He took me to look at some Caravaggios and then he kind of like touched
my butt a little and then we went to one of Giovanna’s parties and made out.
There were all these Italian girls in Onionskin jeans staring at us, like I was
stealing one of their white guys or something. I fucking hate that. If they
mention my “almond eyes” one more time, I swear. Anyway,I need your advicebecausehe called yesterday and asked if I wanted to go up toLuccawith him next week and I was playinghard to get and said no. But I’m going to call him and say yes tomorrow!What should I do?Help!!!
P.S. I met this old, gross guy at a party yesterday and
we got really drunk and I sort of let him go down on me. There was another even
older guy, this sculptor, trying to get in my pants, so I figured, you know,
the lesser evil. Ugh, I’m turning into you!!!!! The first old guy took me to
dinner at this restaurant, da Tonino, which was like O.K. He was nice, kind of
dorky, although he thinks he’s so Media cause he works in biotech or something.
And he had the grossest feet, bunions and this gigantic heel spur that sticks
out like he’s got a thumb glued to his foot. I know, I’m thinking like my dad.
Anyway, he brushes his teeth all wrong, so I had toSHOW A GROWN MAN HOW TO USE A TOOTHBRUSH!!!!!What is wrong with my life, Precious Panda?
但是很快我走向紫藤垂挂的茱莉亚大道，胳膊环着尤尼斯·帕克芳香的男孩子一样的骨架。她看来精神不错，她说要给我一个吻，接着却责骂我不伦不类的意大利语。她羞怯地笑，月光映出脸上的雀斑，她有点醉，孩子气的大嚷“闭嘴，列尼！”或者“你真是废物！”我留意到她解开了头发，黑发如瀑。她24岁。
我的公寓到处都是书，仅能容下一个廉价的一对床尺寸的褥子和一个完全张开的行李箱。（“我在Elderbird的Text-major朋友们曾称这些东西为“制门器”,尤尼斯告诉我。）我们接吻，起先懒洋洋地，好像都不在乎，接着又狠狠地吻，就好像我们很认真。但是有些问题，就是尤尼斯·帕克不愿意解下她的内衣（“我平胸啊”她辩解）,我醉醺醺的，战战兢兢，脱不下裤子，但我也没想把她怎么样。第二天早上，她友好的帮我重新整理行李箱（没她扶着，行李箱合不上）。“你不该这么做。”她说，那会她看到我在刷牙。她让我伸出舌头，用牙刷粗粗地刮了一下紫色舌面。“你瞧，好多了。”她说。
乘出租去机场的路上我一下子觉得又欢乐又孤独又穷困。她让我彻底清洗我的嘴唇和面颊好除去她的痕迹，但尤尼斯·帕克强烈的碱性味道依然萦绕在我的鼻尖。我用鼻子深吸一口气，试图捕捉她的精华，想着我该怎样引诱她去纽约，让她变成我的生活，我永恒的生活。我摸了一下自己刷得很专业的牙，拍了一下从衬衣领带下探出的乱糟糟的灰白头发。那天早上她刚对着微弱晨光全身打量了一番。“很可爱”，她说。然后，带着孩子一般迷惘的神情，加了一句，“你老了，列尼。”
7月1号：来自尤尼斯·帕克的GlobalTeen账户
尤尼-塔德（国外）致Grillbitch
嗨，宝贝熊猫！
你猜怎么着？我在罗马遇到了一个最和我心意的人。他呢，正是我喜欢的那种类型，长的很像一个德国人，穿着刻板，但是一点都不让人觉得讨厌。乔凡娜安排我俩见的面——他在罗马就职于LandO’LakesGMFordCredit！我去纳沃纳广场和他见的面（还记得ImageClass吗？。。）他正坐在那儿，喝着一杯卡布奇诺，浏览《纳尼亚传奇》！还记得我们在天主教堂也看过吗？真是讨人喜欢。他叫本，很英俊也很聪明。他带我去看浮世绘，然后他若有若无地摸了一下我的屁股，接着我们去了纳沃纳的一个聚会，后来就开始接吻拥抱。所有穿着亮闪闪的薄牛仔裤的意大利妞都盯着我们，好像我偷了她们的一个同胞似的。我恨透了她们。我发誓，她们要是再提一句我的“杏仁眼”，我让他们好看。不过，我想听听你的看法。因为昨天他打电话问我是否愿意下周跟他一块去卢卡，我呢，就假意拒绝了。但是明天我准备打电话给他说我同意去。我该怎么办呢？帮帮我。
宝贝熊猫?
附注：在昨天的聚会上我遇见了一个又丑又恶心的老男人，我们喝的烂醉。我好像还让他帮我做了口交。还有一个更丑的人，雕刻家，想占我便宜，所以我就看出哪个是不太龌龊的。哎，我现在变得跟你似的！！！第一个又丑又老的男人带我去一家叫da Tonino（听上去像ok） 的餐厅吃饭。他人很好，有点笨，但他还觉得自己很潮，因为他在一家生物科技之类的公司工作。他的脚是我见过最恶心的脚，有拇囊炎和根骨骨刺综合症，突出去的那块好像是脚上粘了什么东西，我知道，我说话的语气跟我爸一样。不过，他刷牙的方式完全错误，所以我得给这个成年人展示如何正确刷牙。我的人生到底怎么了,宝贝熊猫?
