50...

The kitchen had so much chrome in it that it felt like a room-sized machine. It gave off the ambience of starting to life and thrashing all in the vicinity with jagged, shiny edges. Frank was sure that it cost a fortune, but it seemed corpse cold. Others must have had this same sort of feeling for, even though it was home to the keg and various liquor bottles, the room was nearly empty.
There were two guys sort of huddled up in the corner. They gave Bryan and Frank wary glances when they entered and then quickly went back to their intense conversation. From what Frank could gather, one was talking the other down from a bad trip; Frank could relate.
Bryan pumped the keg and poured himself a foamy cup of beer. Frank grabbed one of the red plastic cups and went for a bottle of sitting on the counter. He had to reach around the two guys in the corner and muttered a soft "’scuse me". Frank believed he heard one of them say something about 'all that greasepaint', but thought it better to let it go. He poured himself a good eight ounces of rum and drank it down like it was water. He pushed out a rush of air and saw Bryan watching him over the rim of his cup.
"Good?" Bryan asked.
Frank put a splash of beer in his cup, swirled it around and drank it down. He made another grab at the rum, with another hushed apology to the guys, and filled his cup halfway to full.
"I am now."
They headed out of the kitchen and towards the front door. They passed milling party goers in groups of twos and threes. To Frank they appeared almost as is they were those human statue figures. These people seemed posed in place and complete with party masks filled with glass eyes that merely reflected the colored light bulbs soft light back out into the room. He then had one of those moments where it feel like your flexes around a notion, like looking at an optical illusion and suddenly seeing the other picture that had been hidden there the whole time. He felt as if his determined walk through was actually a flash to everyone else, that he was walking through a lane separate from all others here and he saw there movements as a hummingbird must see ours.
Frank felt a little dizzy. He and Bryan made it to the front porch and took a seat on the steps, Frank immediately lit up a smoke.
“Why did you want to come here?” Bryan asked. “You can’t stand parties.”
Frank looked at him through smoke, giving him his best incredulous look.
“I thought you wanted to come here.”
“No man, you seemed like you were hoping to find someone here, so I entertained you. Were you looking for someone?”
Frank thought about this for a moment. He appreciated Bryan’s no bullshit approach. Frank noticed a cop car come around the corner at Broderick and quickly downed his rum. Bryan did the same with his beverage and the two turned their to-go cups upside down to indicate emptiness if the cop happened to look over their way.
“I don’t know,” Frank said slowly, trying to formulate his thoughts into words. “I think I was looking for a last chance some sort of connection with them.”
“With Evelyn and that group?” Bryan asked. “Or with everybody?”
Frank shrugged and pitched his cigarette over the side of the stairs.