A few days later at the apartment...

Midnight. The bedroom is dark.

"Mick?"

"Hm?"

"You asleep yet?" A small chuckle.

"If I am, then I’m talking in my sleep."

"And very coherently, too." Lauren rolled over to grin at Micky. "I think you know what’s coming... What happened at that bachelor party you guys had? You never really explained why you pretended to be drunk."

Micky sighed. "The short of it is that I’ve noticed bad things can happen if I get mad or can’t really control my actions thanks to the powers the crystal gave us."

Lauren nodded. "Kinda like the ruby’s powers from several months ago."

"Right. And as for what really went on at that party..."

*****

Micky opened the apartment door and three other twenty-something males entered, nearly plowing him over. "Hey, guys," he said, smirking, as he closed the door.

Mike set down several six-packs of bottles on the table. "You got playing cards, Mick? I thought we’d play some Poker."

Micky glanced at Davy, who nodded, and Peter, who looked a little nervous. He shrugged. "Sure, I’ll go get them." He disappeared into the bedroom and rooted around a bit, looking for the cards.

By the time Micky emerged with the deck of cards, the others already had a card table set up. An open bag of M&Ms sat on the table, to be used as the chips. He made a quick detour to put a record, a new Beach Boys album, on the turntable. The music began as he got to the table.

Mike’s eyebrows lowered. "Beach Boys, Mick?"

Micky shrugged. "What else are we gonna listen to? Even if I had any of the tapes we’ve made of our stuff, I don’t have anything to play the tapes on."

"It’s okay, Michael. This is a great album," Peter said, smiling.

Mike gave Peter a look and relented. "Alright."

Micky sat and began shuffling the cards. "Couldn’t find the chips, huh?"

Davy shook his head. "No, but these should do... as long as you don’t get ‘ungry, mate." He winked.

"Funny, Dave, real funny," Micky said, then gave a pained expression. He dealt the cards and the tournament was on...

...A half an hour later, Micky glanced around the table. Mike was starting to get sloshed, but he was still winning most of the hands. Peter had half a bottle and had to rest his head on the table every other hand. Davy wasn’t quite as sloshed as Mike, but he was getting aggrevated because Mike was beating him in a less lucid state of mind.

Then there was the fact that Davy had suggested that they not only play to win M&Ms, but play to keep their clothes. He promised no one would lose their shorts, but thought it’d be funny all the same. It had been initially before the stupors began to set in and now that all of them were sitting around in their boxers, it really wasn’t funny anymore.

Micky glanced at the bottle that sat in front of himself. He’d taken a few swallows, enough to feel a very slight buzz... and a sudden urge to rewire something and make it explode. No, he really just wanted to do some type of damage. He came to the realization that his MonkeeMan powers were not meshing with the beer very well and gave up on it. Besides, he figured the others were too far gone to notice he’d stopped drinking it, anyway.

But then he wondered if they would notice that, for once, he’d gotten quiet. With Peter half in and half out, and Mike and Davy shooting zingers back and forth, Micky thought his best bet was to just get himself out of the game.

After a hand that Mike won soon after, Micky stood and walked away from the table, not even earning a second glance from the two arguing over the win, and retrieved the shade from the lamp. He grinned as he placed it on his head and went to change the record. He put another Beach Boys album on, then went over to the couch. He climbed up and stood on it, using it like a surfboard. He stood there, pretending to surf, and proceeded to sing along with the songs in the most off-key voice he could muster without hurting himself. If that didn’t say he was drunk, nothing would.

"Surfin’ USA" was just about to start when he heard the phone ring. He wondered if maybe it was Lauren calling, so he picked it up, but didn’t respond. He hoped that if it was anything important, she’d just start talking without waiting for him. He tried to listen through the sound from the record player and his own singing, but could only heard muffled female voices. He guessed the ladies were wondering what they were up to and decided to call, now they were having a grand time listening to what was going on at their party.

Micky sang louder in the same off-key voice so the ladies could hear. He grinned, hidden under the lampshade, but the grin fell when he heard the announcement behind him:

"I’ve got a chandelier!" Mike proclaimed, and pointed his finger like a gun an the light fixture right above Micky.

Micky froze, having a good idea of what Mike was doing. He just hoped that there really was no way that Mike could shoot that light fixture.

"Bang," Mike said, holding his hand as though it really was a gun. He grinned and collected his winnings.

Micky, meanwhile, had both arms over his head and the lampshade. He slowly lowered his arms when he realized that nothing was going to fall on his head. He let out a sigh and kept singing along with the record.

As the last song on the current side of the was ending, Micky could faintly hear female voices outside the door. He grinned and picked up singing "Surfin’ USA" again, still off-key.

The door was finally flung open, Lauren right behind it. Her eyes widened upon taking in the mess. That’s when Micky realized that he’d be cleaning up the entire mess. The other ladies piled in behind her and began making snide comments...

*****

"And you know what happened from there," Micky said.

Lauren nodded. "Wow. I’ve gotta admit..." She gave him a smirk. "That wasn’t nearly as bad as it could’ve been."

"You obviously didn’t do any of the cleaning after the party." He rolled his eyes.

"Obviously. That was your punishment for using our apartment for the party," she reminded him.

"Yeah..." Micky paused. "Babe, any chance we could play Poker sometime?" He grinned.

Lauren quirked an eyebrow, then gave him a sly grin. "Only if you’re good."

~End~