"It's £50 for a full bar, or we can go £25 each, if you like? There's a milder one, and a strong one. Me and Penny are going to get one of each. What do you fancy?"
Jason had never done magic mushrooms before. He was excited at the prospect of it. At the same time, he didn't know what to expect. Over the years he'd heard mixed reports about the naturally growing hallucinogenic drug. Now, some enterprising soul had mixed the drug with Chocolate, for sale, being advertised over instagram.
His friend, Lizzie, was wild. Almost ten years younger than him. Lizzie, had a mixture of brown and dark blonde hair, was around 5"5 tall, and large chested. She regularly worked out at the gym, and could be described as voluptuous. She was of Irish descent, very attractive, and they got on well. She'd invited him over to her stylish apartment, as the icy cold weather had changed their previous plans of going out in Shortland for the evening.
Lizzie also invited his friend's over too, but one guy was already out, drunk, and preferred to stay where he was. Another, hungover from the work's Xmas party the night before and decided to stay in. The other undecided to come, knowing he would have to lie to his girl friend about his drug taking behaviour. At the last moment, he cancelled too.
So, it was just Jason, or JJ as everyone knew him, and Penny, and Lizzie. He didn't know what to expect. Although it was better than staying in on a Saturday evening, especially so close to Xmas.
JJ was just getting over a bout of flu and wanted to go out and socialise, despite planning to train on Monday. Although he knew that if he went out that evening, training would be out the window.
As always he felt conflicted about his social life, enjoying letting his hair down, and sticking to a dedicated training regime. He wasn't getting any younger and still hadn't got the much sought after Black Belt in Jiu jitsu. Despite training at the martial art, for on/off, 12 years. He'd missed plenty of time because of a huge shoulder injury and a broken leg, and time off for his mental well being. There were times in his life where JJ had been to some dark places.
Thankfully those times were over, and he felt like a new man. In a way he wanted to experience the things he didn't do when he'd been severely depressed in his 20's, and 30's. Now, in the latter stages of his 40's, he was living life to the full. It was just the after effects, it took a while for him to recover. Still he was wise enough to know that was the price you paid for having a good time. That evening, he intended on having a good time.
It was 8pm, and Lizzie had just texted him saying she was home and to come round when he was ready. In other words, she was keen to get the party started. As it wasn't an official night out, he didn't plan to get dressed up. Although Lizzie did say, her and Pen, were getting dressed up, just for the sheer joy of it all.
Reluctantly, he wore a tight fitted Armani shirt, extra-large size. It fitted tightly over his muscular physique. Despite being 48, JJ was still very lean, had kept the same waistline as when he was 30 years old, and looked much younger than his years. His tall athletic frame helped keep a high metabolism. He ironed some dark blue jeans, put on his brown Calvin Klein boots, and a fitted Ralph Lauren racing green sweater. Finally, he slipped on his expensive tailored jacket, two linings to keep warm during the cold winter nights.
He'd already purchased an expensive bottle of champagne for the girls, and stuck to his six bottles of lager. JJ planned to drive over to Lizzie's apartment and get a taxi back. Although, feeling torn, knowing her sealed off block was in an area for notorious criminals. He wasn't 100% confident that leaving a brand new Audi A7 parked on the street would be safe. JJ said to himself that he would see how he felt at the end of the evening.
Luckily, a pretty young lady with rounded glasses, wearing a full length thick fur coat, was already leaving the apartment block, as JJ went to press the buzzer for Lizzie's apartment. She let him through the external gate, thinking he must have been a resident too.
He walked through the thick double glazed doors and rather than wait for the lift he walked up the four flights of steps, passing doors with Xmas decorations on, a Santa hat hanging off another, a real Xmas tree outside the last door before his friend's apartment.
As soon as he got outside Lizzie's apartment, he could hear music booming. He giggled to himself, clearly the party had started already. Clearly she didn't give a crap about her neighbors, that was Lizzie, not giving a damn about what others thought. This is why he liked her, respected her for this. Whether it would go any further than that he wasn't sure.
Having pressed the buzzer multiple times even went to text her when the door opened and there stood Lizzie with her arms up, eagerly wanting to embrace JJ.
She looked great, very sexy in fact. Lizzie wore a black tight dress that had two golden buckles that attached at the front of her rounded chest. The bottom of her dress was short, just stopping below her knicker line. Her hip line and shoulders were in perfect alignment. The black glossy high heeled shoes she wore matched the outfit perfectly. Lizzie gave Jason a huge kiss and pulled him into her apartment.
"Pen, come and meet JJ, see what you think of the big lanky adonis", laughing as she did so, a twinkle in her eye, and a flirtatious smile, showing a full set of polished teeth.
"Hi JJ, I'm Pen, wow you are a big bloke aren't you. Scary." and began laughing.
Pen was a blonde, not his favoured choice of lady. She had an amazing figure, clearly worked out too like Lizzie. She had a full chest, short black leather skirt on, and a leopard patterned top on. He could see she looked good, just not for him.
He automatically hugged Lizzie's friend, and kissed her on the cheek, and greeted her with a warm smile. As always, being very perceptive to energy and motion he felt Pen tense up slightly. He knew he hadn't stepped over the mark, she seemed automatically uncomfortable, despite her nervous smile attempting to hide this. Still, he had no intentions of going there. JJ wanted a laugh, nothing else.
Immediately, they walked through the hallway, living room, and into the large kitchen with a huge oak topped island in the centre. JJ placed the drinks on the top and sat on one of the high white chairs. It was clear the two ladies were excited at the prospect of taking the mushroom chocolate. They'd already unwrapped the bars and placed the square segments on the island too. Lizzie looked up at JJ and offered him a full square.
Not knowing the portion sizes, or the strength, he was reluctant to eat the chunk whole. He looked at it, it seemed to have a mixture of green in it, dark grey chocolate, and some black bits in his too. He'd never seen this type of thing before. But his friend reassured him they were eating the mild one first, and once they'd felt the drug kick in, they planned to eat the stronger version. Hearing this, and feeling calmer, he placed the entire square thick junk of chocolate in his mouth and crunched it a few times, and swallowed it whole. He washed it down with a mouthful of beer.
He watched the two ladies eating, smiling, and laughing. In the background the dance music was still playing loudly. JJ felt a little concerned for the neighbours, at the same time, if Lizzie didn't seem bothered, why should he.
Suddenly Lizzie asked JJ about his recent break up, with his ex, Gemma. It was a strange relationship, that was for sure, and didn't end well. They'd lived together for several months too. In that time they didn't really have that much sexual intercourse, which was a complete shock to him. He just felt like he couldn't connect with her. Gemma was tense, didn't seem to let go whilst having sex, and didn't really turn him on.
Yet to look at Gemma, you'd never think it. She was tall for a lady at 5"8, large double D implanted chest, very slim legs, and a flat stomach, and a brunette. She had a cute smile, and seemed to have a very easy going manner. Gemma was a massage therapist and worked for herself, earning good money by being based in the wealthier suburbs of Shortland. It racked his brains, because on paper, she was ideal.
This made him think, was it him, was it her, or did they just not connect. Yet, he knew this, right from the first time they went out and got drunk together. For Jason, this was a great way to break the ice when first dating someone. Get drunk, people seem more relaxed and less inhibited, often leading to a night of great sex. It had worked many times before. Yet on the first date with Gemma, it spectacularly backfired.
At first they'd enjoyed a delicious Indian meal together, and a couple of bottles of red wine too. Conversation was flowing, as were the laughs. So far so good, he thought. Even the young slim Indian waiter remarked on what a good couple they seemed, which was a nice gesture. Although JJ cynically thought there was a financial incentive behind this, he wanted a tip.
They then moved to an upmarket bar next door to the restaurant. Here, the place was very spacious, fashionably designed as more ambient, relaxed, despite it being packed on a Saturday evening.
After another glass of wine, the kissing began. As always a deep passionate kiss drove JJ wild. He felt you could get a sense of how horny a woman was from the way they kissed. It seemed this woman was one. They kissed with an intensity, it fired up his loins, and at one point he even thought, maybe this is the one for me. He stopped, and went to pour himself another drink.
He repeated the dialogue that went on between them that hot evening, back in the summer.
"Would you like another drink Gemma?"
"Can I?"
"What do you mean, can you, what on earth are you going on about?"
"He wouldn't let me have a drink when we were together, he stopped me drinking, said I couldn't handle it."
Jason felt an immediate sense of doom within his stomach. Oh no, an unhappy drunk, he thought to himself. She's still got ex issues. Fuck. Inside that killed it for him. He knew it wouldn't go anywhere.
As he explained this to Lizzie, he looked at Pen. She had her small frame backed to the vertical cream radiator. She just stood there, looking a little vacant, looking a little lost, clearly uncomfortable.
"Are you ok babe?" Lizzie put out her arm to touch her friend, concerned.
"I don't feel right babe, I think we ate too much chocolate." Frozen to the spot, he could see Pen looked startled.
"We only had the mild one, we've had the stronger before and been out. You'll be fine, you just need to snap out of it." He was surprised Lizzie seemed so matter of fact about it all.
"Can you call me an ambulance?" Pen looked at Lizzie, then Jason. She looked really out of her depth, and nervous.
At that point he regretted coming out. It was going to be a long night.