He put down his sandwich and went over to them, turning his back to me and bending slightly over the tank to look at them.
'They look fine,' he said straightening up. 'Thanks for feeding them. It's time I cleaned them out.'
'Coffee?'
'Thanks.' He took his mug, had another bite from the bacon sandwich, and began to dress.
'Did someone hurt you?'
'No, I fell over a table and banged my head. The bruise looks horrible, doesn't it?'
'You went back with someone?'
'Yeah. I meant to come home straight after... I intended to come home yesterday, honestly.'
'You've been away for two nights, we were worried. You don't have to tell me what happened.'
'I want to tell you. But it's embarrassing.'
'We're friends, aren't we? Come on, you can trust me.'
The Geordies, he said, having taken him into the club, were soon engaged with a group of young Chinese men and forgot him. For a while he simply stood against a wall and watched what was going on from the shadows, but seeing other men dancing on their own, or at least with nobody in particular, he summoned up the courage to join in. A man in his twenties looked across, smiled, and made his way over to him. They said hello, danced together for a while, went to the bar for drinks, chatted, then danced again.
A little later Darren offered to buy fresh drinks, but his new friend promised to get something much better than alcohol. He disappeared in the direction of the toilets for a few minutes and came back with some tablets. Darren paused and looked at me.
'Did you take any?'
'Only one.'
'What was it?'
'It was hard to tell in the lights of the disco. He told me they were speed... they looked sort of blue-grey. He said everyone was taking them. He worked as a courier with a holiday company and he said people partied all night on them, not only in London, but in Majorca and Ibiza, everywhere. He said at some places the so-called "straights" were really disgusting, much worse than gays ever were, got smashed out of their heads at beach parties, would do anything, strip off and do filthy things to each other with bottles while the others watched.'
'He didn't play any part in these goings-on himself, of course. What were our Newcastle friends doing while you were being offered drugs?'
'They were there. They weren't interested in me. They were too busy with Chinese and South-East Asian boys. Everyone down there was taking something.'