Summer of '07

Beer Bust

Chapter 9

February 2019

~TRAVIS~

I'm upside down as I chug the disgusting liquid down—or up—my throat, and I don't last longer than thirty seconds. Fuck! The beer gets into my nose and eyes and my whole body comes crashing down. I spew the beer out of my mouth as I attempt to catch my breath. I gasp for air as I get up from the ground and fall right back down, this time taking the fall right into the swimming pool. The water is cold as fuck and I feel like the quick transition of my body temperature has sent me into shock. I rush to the surface, and Elijah helps me back onto the ground. I continue my endless coughing as Elijah pats me on the back.

"Holy shit, man! I don't think I've ever seen anyone react to chugging beer like that," Elijah says, which literally doesn't make me feel any better.

"Shut the fuck up," I mumble as I get up from the ground and storm off from the crowd in my own humiliation. Fuck this shit!

"Wait up, Trav!" I hear Elijah call my name as he follows after me. Yeah, thanks for pressuring me into doing that shit, asshole. "Oh come on, dude, you can't go home all wet and shit. Come back inside so you can dry off your clothes."

"Just forget it! Coming here was a mistake! Fuck you!"

"Bro, how was I supposed to know you were gonna react like that?"

"Why the fuck did you pressure me into doing that in the first place?"

"I didn't make you do it. I mean, you didn't have to if you really didn't want to."

I don't reply as I reach my car and think about how wet I am before getting in.

"Travis, just come back inside. You can dry your clothes real quick... and then you can leave. I won't pressure you into doing anything else, I swear."

I finally agree, just because I don't want to drive all the way home soaking wet. I'd ruin my car seats. So I follow Elijah back into his house, all the way to his laundry room. "You can borrow some of my clothes while yours dry. Wait here," he says, running up to his bedroom and leaving me alone for a bit. He comes back pretty quickly and hands me some of his clothes that I assume will fit me. He leaves me to get undressed and I'm surprised to realize that they fit perfectly. I shove my wet clothes away in the dryer and head back out into the party.

As soon as I step back outside, I see Elijah look straight at me as he raises his glass of wine and says, "A toast to my best friend from high school, Travis Tucker! Thanks for coming out tonight, man!"

A few of his friends smile at me and clap for me, some even coming up to me and reminding me of that embarrassing incident where I fell into the pool after I nearly choked on beer. But none of them ridiculed me for it, even despite the fact that I totally made a fool of myself. It was pretty nice actually. Everyone here was pretty mature about the whole thing. It wasn't like in high school where you'd get ostracized or bullied for doing one stupid thing. God, I'm so glad I'm not in high school anymore.

The rest of the night plays out pretty chaotically for me. After finally feeling like I've been accepted by Elijah's friends, I end up getting carried away with the amount of alcohol I end up drinking. One beer turns into two, two turn into five, five turns into one bottle of straight vodka, and before I know it, I'm fucking wasted by the end of the night.

I feel like shit really fast and whenever I run into Elijah I start saying whatever random shit pops into my head and I even consider slamming him with that stuff from twelve years ago. Though for some reason I don't. I mean, I should... considering how fucking wasted I am! But it's like, even through all the alcohol I still can't find the courage to confront him with what I've been dying to confront him about for the past twelve years. I guess I'm not wasted enough!

By around one in the morning, the party has pretty much died down and everyone whose still around has resorted to the living room to socialize. I find myself recovering from all the alcohol in the upstairs living room as Elijah sits with me and gives me water as I clutch a bin to my chest. "Fuck, I can't believe I let myself get this bad!"

"I can't believe it either," Elijah chuckles as he pats my back.

"Aw fuck! I haven't been this drunk in a long time!" I think I started giggling as I said that. "I'm so fuckin' stupid, man!"

"We've all been there, dude," Elijah says. Fucking hell, I know you have!

"Remember when that stupid girl... fell asleep in the shower?! She was so fuckin' wasted, man!"

"I remember. Chick was passed out cold," Elijah laughs.

"What chick?" Michelle asks, as she walks in holding a bag of crackers. She hands it to me and says, "Here, eat this, it'll help."

"Oh, we were just talking about an old friend of ours from high school," Elijah answers her question.

"Old friend? I fucking hated her!" I start laughing as I say that, for no reason at all.

"I know," Elijah says, rubbing my shoulder as he looks up at Michelle.

"Everyone else is gone," she says to him, as she takes a seat beside him on the couch, suddenly reminding me of me, Elijah, and Heather from the summer of 2007.

"Aw, ya know what this reminds me of?" I say to Elijah.

"What?"

"That summer..." I say, vaguely, though it shouldn't be too hard for him to recall which summer I'm referring to, considering...

"Which summer?"

"Oh, you know!"

He just stares at me blankly.

"The summer of '07! With that girl... it was just the three of us... just like it is now."

Elijah lets out a faint chuckle, but doesn't say anything about it.

"That was a crazy summer!" I say, nudging him, hoping to get a reaction out of him.

"It sure was, man."

"Why's that?" Michelle asks.

"I lost my v-card!!" I answer her, despite the fact that I don't think she was talking to me.

"Good to know," Michelle mutters.

"Wanna know what else happened?" I begin, but before we can go any further with that conversation, Elijah puts a stop to it all.

"Alright brother, it's time for you to go home and get some rest. I'll drive you," he says as he rises from the couch and faces me.

"Brother, do you know how far away I live from here?" Ew, I just called him 'brother.'

"I like late night drives, and besides you gotta get home somehow."

"What about my car..." Shit, I kinda drove my car here and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need it to get to work tomorrow morning.

"What about your... oh, yeah, I'll have to drive you back in your car then, and Michelle can pick me up, right?" He says, looking over to his wife, who doesn't look too keen on the idea of driving in the middle of the night all the way to Daly City, which is roughly an hour and fifty minutes from here. But she agrees to it anyways, warning him up front that she's a slow driver at night so she'll probably be a little behind us.

I give Elijah my car keys, and so our little drive back to my place begins.