After working for a week straight at the bank, it was no secret that I was in need of leaving town since it was technically my spring break week. By a series of fortunate events, I was able to forego working on Saturday morning. It just so happened that a coworkers son was ill at school on Friday, which caused her to be dismissed from work early. In turn, my boss made her go in on Saturday and I was given the day off.
I had a dinner date with my friend Mark on Friday night, and since I was off the hook for Saturday morning, I could stay out late if I wanted to. Mark and I met for dinner a little after seven. We both sat down and started talking while we waited to be greeted in the bar-like atmosphere. Mark ordered a New Castle beer and I had diet coke. The conversation started casual enough, but we really dove deep into some serious topics and dinner progressed. We talked about work and coming out stories, embarrassing moments, and family relations. One beer turned into a couple for Mark. I talked more once I finished my chicken alfredo. I only managed to eat half before asking for a box. Mark and I talked and laughed and took turns talking. He would warn me when I spoke too loudly. We'd laugh, both decide we didn't give a fuck, and that I would back Mark up if he had to fight the guy in the booth behind me. We both finished, and I drank a couple cups of coffee as a band set up their equipment in the restaurant. We listened to them play a couple songs before deciding that we had to leave. We left Mark's car there and I drove us both back to my house so I could use the bathroom (since the one at the restaurant was very small and exposed and I didn't feel comfortable using it since it was a straight bar/restaurant). We left Hampton in my car and headed down to Skip's in Norfolk.
At Skips, Mark taught me how to play darts. I would have really good throws, and throws that would land two darts on the floor and one on the outskirts of the board. It was looking close towards the end, but Mark's accuracy won him the game of 301 that we played together. We didn't hang out too long before we went back home. I took him to his car, said goodnight, and headed back home.
I left home on Saturday morning around eleven. I made pretty good time getting down to the Outer Banks. I got to Manteo two hours after I left my house. Victoria greeted me from the second story balcony of her uncle's beach house. It was really windy, but would have otherwise been a very comfortable day. Her hair was wavy and unkempt in the wind although it was clearly clean and natural. She hadn't put on her makeup yet. She crossed her arms in an attempt to conserve body heat. She looked so great. I hugged her and pulled my back up to the front door. I finished a cigarette to help de-stress me from the easy but hectic drive. Vic ran in to beat the cold and I stayed until I finished the cig.
When I came inside, I was greeted by Michael, Victoria's boyfriend, who was setting up an elaborate board game called HeroScape. I claimed a bed before anyone else got to the house and hung out at the kitchen table with Vic and Mike. Michael finally got the board set up. I played a game with small figures that looked like samurai's and vikings. I was the viking team and Michael was the samurai's. He kicked my ass and killed every one of my army before I killed the first on his team. It was all about rolling dice and the combination of skulls and shields each player rolled. Apparently someone shit on my dice before I would roll.
Victoria's sister Caitlin was the first to walk through the door after my entrance. After Cait, Cait's boyfriend John came in, and then his friends Lee and Miles (both guys). Victoria's cousin Sarah showed up with a younger unidentified male. Sarah's uncle owns the house. Sarah's guest was none other than her younger brother Roy. Roy was quite a character. Sarah had warned Roy that there would be a gay guy in the house but told him that I was pretty cool and that he'd get along fine with me. After the first few minutes, Roy found Sarah in the crowded house and told him that I was quite possibly the coolest one in the whole house. I was really glad that this small minded Poquoson guy thought I was a pretty fun guy. I worked extra hard for the rest of the evening to keep everyone laughing and having a good time. I felt like I really had to work on Roy to make him realize that all gay people aren't terrible people.
The whole gang emptied plastic and paper bags out into the freezer as soon as they got to the house. There was a rather fast-growing collection of liquor. The freezer became quite the liquor museum. Bottles gathered in the door on three shelves. Two shelves on the interior were inhabited by good men such as Jim, Jose, Jack, and our feathered friend Gray. Malibu was also in the ranks followed by some amaretto and Bacardi Superior. Everyone was getting hungry for dinner but John first wanted to do a shot. He convinced me to do it, claiming it wasn't that bad and that his girlfriend Caitlin had even tried it. Upon this remark of his she spoke up, "It tastes like fingernail polish remover." This was the comfort I'm sure I needed at the moment but I fixed a chaser of orange juice and prepared myself anyways. I had to prove to the guys early on that I was an equal contender and that I was man enough too.
John fixed up five shots for most of the guys. The four horsemen, as it's called, is made of Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, Jose Cuervo, and Bacardi 151 (quite the surprise that this lethal liquor-wonder found it's way to the freezer). The shots were small thankfully. The red solo cups gathered in the center of the kitchen for a quick cheers before their liquid interiors disappeared into separate stomachs to work on and burn. I finished all but a tiny swig on the first gulp. I chased it quickly as a drop or two left the corner of my mouth. It was tough to keep down, but I managed. Sarah found some Duck tape that we used to write our names on and affix to the now empty cups so they wouldn't get mixed up when the real party started after our dinner out.
Five of us piled into John's SUV. Victoria's car contained her and Michael, Sarah and Roy. John's whole crew was in his vehicle and it just so happened that I rode with them to break up the two groups of people. We didn't drive too far down the main road in Manteo before parking in the small parking lot of a tiny independent seafood joint. Nine of us loudly entered making our entrance quite an interesting sight for the staff I'm sure. It's the off season, so I'm sure they aren't used to having parties larger than three or four. We were seated at the back of the restaurant in a larger room. We were getting a little loud. The guys were the main concern since we had quite a high concentration of booze swimming around in our stomachs being soaked up by nothing at all other than our stomach walls. Out empty stomachs growled as we quickly raped the menu's contents and picked the first appealing entree. Orders were placed and a couple salads were dropped in front of the proper females. Before salads were even finished the entrees arrived. Everyone ate and laughed and was entertain. Other tables started to fill up in the room and the staring match began. Other tables in the vicinity started taking an active interest in our table. We finished the food quickly. Victoria passed her uneaten shrimp to Roy who hadn't ordered any food. Sarah and I split the chicken fingers and split the rest of Caitlin's shrimp. Michael's skinny body had already felt the effects of the alcohol. He tipped his empty plate towards his face and slurped the rest of the gravy from his hamburger steak as his girlfriend Victoria tried to not watch but focused her efforts mainly in contorting her face into positions that made me want to vomit more than the sheer fact that Michael was drinking gravy off his plate. Everyone had finished eating but before the checks were dropped, one more surprise would surface. Five servers walked up, one holding a goblet of ice cream and cake with a single candle on top. Everyone sang happy birthday to Victoria. Her 21st is on the 13th but this was the early celebration. Her sister Caitlin had worked out the secret deal with the server somehow without ever being noticed. It was good. Everyone in the dining room watched us, and I didn't feel so guilty for being so loud anymore. It was a celebration and we were here for Victoria. We cashed out and left.
Once back at the house, the drinks started being poured. I decided I was going to pace myself. It was only six or six thirty when we started drinking. We played several rounds of the card game "Kings" and all had quite a few laughs in between. I grabbed beer out of the fridge for Roy, opening each one to prove to him how great of a guy I was, but also pushing him to see if he'd draw a line. He never did, but I wasn't hitting on him either. During a cigarette break, Roy's sister Sarah joined me outside.
"Roy is so crazy, he's a trip. Is he only like this when he drinks?" I asked.
"No, he's like this all the time."
"He's a Leo isn't he?" I asked.
"Yeah, how'd you know?! That's crazy!"
Roy was obviously a Leo. He wasn't even that drunk when he started ignoring the rules to the game, making a scene, and hogging all the spotlight. He was definitely the ferocious Leo that had to have the spotlight. My best friend Ryan is a Leo, so I know enough about them to be able to readily identify them. We went back inside to keep playing. We refilled and refilled and refilled as the drinking game quickly lowered our drinks even though they somehow magically recovered and I never saw the bottom of a Solo cup throughout the night. I was drinking Jack and coke for most of the evening. I mixed them weak so I could last through the night and not throw up. It's a good thing I paced myself, otherwise I'd have never made it through.
Drama sprung up eventually as it does in the middle of all good times. Michael is so thin, he became so drunk he could hardly keep his head up. Roy was being obnoxious and made the poor move of bringing up the subject of Victoria's ex boyfriend. Vic ended up crying at that point but I just ignored it and talked to Caitlin, Lee, and Miles to try to at least keep us buzzed. They worked out their stuff and Vic turned off the tears. Later, on another cig break, I held my cigarette up to Caitlin's lips to ask her if she wanted a drag, but before she could decide, she looked into the house to see her boyfriend looking right at her and he was obviously furious. She ran inside and the second battle broke out. It took a good half hour for those two to recover. The music kept playing and we had a great time. 'Gray Goose' played and we all danced like birds and took pictures of each other taking swigs out of the GG bottle. We drank it straight. That was a trip.
The final round of drama was the sobering moment for everyone. Roy had drank more than his fair share. The next morning, it was determined that he drank about sixteen beers and two to three shots. Roy decided he wanted to fight John. Naturally, John wasn't going to fight. Roy was smiling about it, saying he just wanted to 'throw down'. I tried to level with him once he didn't stop. "Roy, if you want to hit someone, just hit me." He smiled and said he didn't want to fight me. Michael sat him down after another ten minutes of him trying to get John to fight with him. I was starting to get mad so I went to the fridge and grabbed a box of beer. I passed out full cans to everyone in the room as Michael continued to talk to Roy. It was understood that if Roy tried to hit anyone, we would beat him repeatedly in the head with full beer cans until he was out cold. Of course this would have probably never happened but this was my drunken idea of a scare tactic. It was more like a silent protest. I told everyone to just shut up and hold onto the beer.
Then Roy got sloppy. He got up and fell down a couple times. I decided I'd seen enough. Everyone was sitting on couches and we were pissed and quickly sobering up. I went to the bedroom. I was drunk, but still able to lay down. I heard things escalate to new levels as everyone moved outside. Sarah, Roy's brother, who had been in bed was now awake and moving her shit out to the car to take Roy and her home at three in the morning. Victoria was crying hysterically and shouting to Sarah and Roy, "If anything ever happens, I'll never forgive myself!" They didn't leave. I don't know why they stayed, but they did. I heard Michael pull Roy into the back bedroom next to mine. He was telling him that the cops had been called and that the neighbors called to let them know they'd be showing up. The cops never were called, and since the house had no land line, there was no possible way the neighbors could have called to warn us. Michael was obviously tired of putting up with Roy.
"You stay inside this room and if you come out I'm going to beat the shit out of you!" he was yelling now. "If you want to fight somebody, you're going to fight me right now!" That was it. He stayed, and I fell asleep.
The next day I was up around ten. I ate a bowl of Reese's Pieces with Vic. A few other people were awake including Roy, who was laughing and smiling like nothing happened the night before. I tried to joke about it to play it down, but it was obvious that more people than just myself were holding secret grudges. I told Roy, "Man, even I was starting to get pissed. I was literally two seconds away from getting out of bed, putting my clothes on and coming out there to riverdance on your fuckin' face until you bled from the ears!" I shuffled my boots on the floor, made a funny face, and started whipping my head around. Everyone laughed, and I did too until I pulled a muscle in my neck. Victoria showed me the parrot sculpture that she broke the night before when she was cleaning up the piss that was all over the bathroom floor thanks to Roy. She'd already decided that Roy was going to take the fall for the broken parrot, and everyone else quickly agreed that if anything had gone wrong at all, Roy deserved to take full responsibility for everything.
I gathered my things and drove home with one very sore neck. I couldn't even turn it. I had to hold up a compact mirror to check my blind spot before making lane changes. I got home in two hours and fell onto my bed. I had called his guy Ryan on Saturday night to set up a hang-out date on Sunday once I got back. I called him around two when I was almost home. I left a voicemail but never heard back from him. I slept from two until seven. I called him when I got up after I saw that he hadn't returned my call. His phone went straight to voicemail and I was suddenly ready to write him off.
I was wide awake after taking the extended nap. I picked up Miranda and drove down to Norfolk to go to Skips. This time there was a different bartender who decided to be a dick. I ordered a diet coke and he carded me. I was ordering a coke, I mean, was he serious? He told me it was a 21 and up bar. "But I don't want to drink, I was just going to have a diet coke, and you're telling me I can't even just hang out?" I put my cigarette out on a bar chair just to prove a point and it caught on fire. Just kidding. I was pissed but I took my cigarette back outside with me before I put it out in the parking lot. I drove Miranda home but I was still hell bent on going out. I drove to the Corner Pocket. I know I wasn't supposed to go, but it was my last option, and I was not going home. I got there at one.
Frank: NO WAY! (smiling brightly) Baby, where have you been?
I hugged him. I was smiling and I wasn't about to be mean about it. I hung out with Frank and talked to him for the remaining open hour at the bar. I drank two drinks and Frank wouldn't let me pay, but said he'd missed me and it was on him. I smiled and thanked him. We had a really good chat, and since there were only two other people in the bar, we got a lot of bases covered. I left at quarter to two.
I woke up late today but still managed to get to work on time. My neck was still locked up. The bank was all sorts of short staffed and I was actually made to do work. I was pretty pissed about it, but managed to make it through the day without moving my neck too much. I went to my pilates class and got to leave early since I was unable to do the normal movements. I went to my second job and while there, called and set up a doctor's appointment on Thursday morning. I can't wait to get there, I'm in so much pain.
After work, I was laying down taking a nap when I heard my phone ring. It was a text message notification. I had sent Ryan a text today since I didn't hear from him Sunday and a one time last stand just to say what's up and how he was doing. He wrote me saying his phone went dead on Sunday and he was really sorry. I told him to call, and after a few minutes, he did. I smiled and joked as I talked to him, and I could hear him smiling too. He said he was going to be watching movies and just hanging out tonight. He was in his PJ's. He said he didn't really want to watch any of his DVD's since he'd seen them all already. I offered to come over and bring mine and hang out for a while. I have to be at class at 8AM tomorrow, but I did manage to work in a quick nap again today, so I think I'll be fine. He said he'd have to shower and the place was a wreck. At first he said he just couldn't (I could hear him smiling) but eventually said he was going to straighten up and give me a call back. I'm waiting right now. He's been cleaning for a few minutes and may even be in the shower. If he doesn't call me back, that's the last hair. We'll see how it plays out.
0 comments:
Post a Comment