They didn't plan on meeting anyone at the club tonight, they were going to celebrate her new job alone together, but it seems like everyone is here anyway. It's a little bizarre, Gavin here without Shay, talking to Xtina, who is here tonight not with Rainier, but the surfer she broke up with recently. In some ways it's like 'old times', when Xtina & Gavin were together, and they'd all hang out. But the club has changed so much since then, completely remodeled, with a new name, and all the relationships, too, have been shuffled. They haven't gotten together like this outside the home since Xtina & Gavin broke up.

In those 'old days' Justin would show up sometimes, always after Eleanor. Maybe it was because she never gave him a chance, but he never told her then all the stories he's been telling her lately, vignettes of the adventures of his life: apparently he hitchhiked across the country at one point, he's climbed mountains, and dove from cliffs. His stories always start in the middle, she's never quite sure when these things happened, or in what order, and there never seem to be other people in them, just vague shadowy strangers. But they are always exciting, as he risked his life time & again on some crazy stunt.

He's endlessly fascinating. He satisfies every desire she has, every wish...but she still wants more.

"Ride the bull for me, I want to watch you ride it," she says as she kisses him. The club installed a mechanical bull when they remodeled, and it's more popular than anyone expected, though most people end up on the floor.

Justin of course does as she asks. He says it's his first time, but he doesn't fall, he masters the mechanical bull like he masters everything he does. Watching him do anything usually gives Eleanor some kind of thrill, beautiful & graceful like a cat, even his walk can send shivers up her spine: watching him buck & sway on the mechanical beast makes her quiver as the blood rushes to her skin. As their relationship has intensified, so has their passion, and Eleanor has been thinking about Justin in ways she's never thought about anyone. She's always intended to remain a virgin, forever, and Justin has accepted that from the start. But looking at Justin all the time, graceful, beautiful Justin, touching him, kissing him, sleeping in his arms every night & waking with his hand sliding gently against her thigh, his teeth nipping at her ear, she's starting to rethink her position on virginity.