Are We Still Going

The night does not start on Resident Advisor. RA is a brochure and Dice is a receipt, and the actual night happens in a thread that opened at 4:12 with are we still going. Someone has the guest list, someone has the charger, and someone is already in the Uber eating a granola bar like it’s a moral position. The door does not know your name. The chat does.

This isn’t new. In 1998 it was three missed calls and a Motorola that died on the SkyTrain. In 2004 it was a mass text that said back door, tell them Maya. The phones got prettier and the politics stayed: who has the address, who has the cash, who will leave if the door is ugly. Women twenty-six and thirty-six still run nights this way whether the flyer has a boy’s name on it or not.

If you’re not in the thread, you can still go. You’ll just arrive like a tourist. Send the pin, and don’t add the guy who reviews rooms on his story. When the chat goes quiet, that’s not a maybe. That’s the afters starting without you. Put your shoes on, or stay home and put Sade on. Both are a night. Only one needs a code.