Summer of '07

Super Bowl

Chapter 8

February 2019

~TRAVIS~

I arrive at Elijah's place at around 5 PM and find his home to be rather posh for a 28-year-old banker. The house is two-stories tall and has a swimming pool in the back, and quite frankly it makes me wonder how he can afford all of this from just a banker's salary. Though I suppose it's none of my business anyways.

I step into the luxurious house as I'm greeted by the man himself. He hugs me as I walk in, and don't ask me why but for some reason, that hug made me really uncomfortable. He smiles at me and gives me a brief tour of the place before leading me into the living room where everyone else is at. I see about six guys I don't recognize and three women, one of whom I recognize from Elijah's Instagram. Elijah leads me over to her and he introduces me as his "friend from high school."

"Hi, I'm Michelle! I'm Elijah's wife," she says with a friendly smile as she quickly draws her hand for me to shake. At first, I had previously predicted that I would hate her but after seeing her kind and friendly personality, I now feel bad about thinking that. Never judge a book by its cover, I guess.

"I'm Travis," I reply as I shake her hand awkwardly.

"It's nice to meet you! So do you also live in Sacramento or are you just visiting?"

"Oh, I'm just visiting. I live in Daly City now, which is still pretty close to Vacaville... where we... used to go to school at." I don't know why, but talking to her makes me feel really nervous for some odd reason. Normally I'm not like this... or at least I haven't been in a while. I guess going to house parties where you only know one person can make you feel that way.

"Oh cool. So how'd you guys get in touch again?"

"He found me on Instagram and so I decided to message him," Elijah answers, despite the question being directed at me. "So how did you find me on Instagram?"

"I just typed in your name." How else?

"Well, I mean like, why now? It's been over a decade, so what influenced you to search me up?"

What is this? Twenty questions?

"My friend and I were... looking through one of my old photo albums and she noticed that you were in a lot of my pictures so she asked me if I still kept in touch with you. I told her that we weren't still in touch and she thought it would be a good idea for me to get in touch with you again... or at least follow you on Instagram."

"Ah. Well that explains a lot now!" Does it really though?

"Oh, well that's nice," Michelle says, grabbing a bottle of wine from the fridge and offering me some.

"No, thank you. I'm good."

"Want a beer?" Elijah asks me, to which I still respectfully decline.

"No, thanks."

"Not much of a drinker?"

"Not since college."

"Too bad... cuz we've got a keg coming tonight," Elijah says enthusiastically, as he pulls a couple of beers from the fridge.

"Wait, how many more people are coming out tonight?" I ask him, realizing that a keg must mean a bigger crowd is on the way.

"A fuck-ton, dude. It's Super Bowl Sunday! It's gonna be a party!" Damn, I thought I left the keg parties behind in college.

And Elijah sure as hell wasn't lying about that. Within the next couple of hours, more unfamiliar faces came pouring into the house, not even people I knew from high school—thank god. Guess he didn't care about his friends from high school any more than I did. Though, that brings up the question, why am I here, since I am indeed one of his friends from high school?