Hazel's Hitchhiker

2: End of the Summer

Joey

"Dude, I love you," I announced to Phillip who had his shoes off as he tried to step on our glass bottles left on the ground.

"Me too bro," he replied back. "Come help me break the glass." Everyone else hooted like hyenas watching him hurt his feet.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to join Phillip in stepping on the glass. But at that moment, my own brain couldn't remember how to take off shoes. Instead of taking off my shoes, I took the keys out of my pocket and asked Phillip if he wanted to race with our two cars. He accepted and got in without his shoes. The other six stood there watching and cheering. In the heat of the moment, our cars took off and sped through the field with my window open. Never had I driven so quickly before. Even though I was drunk, I could feel the air blowing through my face. Something inside of me felt freedom. With all that freedom, I just drove without care. Phillip's car was out of sight. Where the hell was he? At one point, I could've sworn I saw flashing lights from a distance.

With the summer passing on, I and the boys continued getting drunk as much as we could. We did a lot of stupid things like sneak into a zoo to feed the animals. A few other things included breaking into buildings, peeing in a public park at night, and prank calling people. But the weirdest thing about all of this was that as the summer went along, we had fewer guys with us. Where were they? Was I too drunk to notice?

...

In a shocking turn of events, I found myself awake in a bed. For the first time that summer, I had awakened in my own room on my bed. My head was in massive pain. All I wanted to do was scream. With my entire body in pain, my feet got out of bed and noticed a water bottle on the nightstand. Taking it, my mouth drank the entire thing within less than thirty seconds. I needed more water. All I could do was sit on my bed wanting to puke. A buzz went off my phone. An alert reminding me that I was supposed to leave in two days for the University of Austin, Texas. Maybe this was a good time to stop getting drunk every night and start getting ready to leave.

About an hour later, the pain in my body started going away. It was easier to get out of bed. And with that, I headed to the kitchen for cereal. To my surprise, the kitchen looked like a tornado came in and tore the place apart. Most of the dishes weren't washed leaving only one clean bowl for cereal available. Getting the bowl, no time was wasted in finding cereal. There was barely enough for a bowl of Cheerios.

"You up son?" asked my dad from the living room as he sat on his recliner.

"Yes sir," I responded back pouring milk into my cereal.

"Come here for a minute. And bring a beer from the damn fridge."

There was only one beer left in the fridge and it was a Corona. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed it and walked to the living room full of empty beer cans and bottles of empty liquor and handed it to him. With his butt stuck in his favorite recliner, his eyes were glued to the television screen until the beer reached his hand.

"Damn it, I was saving the Corona for last. Are we already out of beer?" His hands didn't hesitate in opening it and taking a sip."

"Appears so. Guess you'll have to call Lupita to go shopping this afternoon and maybe also wash the dishes. The kitchen looks like crap."

"Take a seat on the couch boy," my father commanded. Once I took a seat, he turned down the volume on the television. I couldn't help but notice how big his gut had gotten since the beginning of the summer. Without looking at me, my dad spoke.

"You may or may not be aware, but Lupita quit last week. Apparently, she had one of those damn babies pop out of her and she ain't returning." A silence took over the room for a little bit. "Never liked that damn girl anyways. She was a lot like your mother."

What came out of my mouth next was a question that caused my heart to race. Was it smart to ask this question? "What are you going to do now?"

He sat there in silence for a few seconds. "Hell, like I know. It doesn't help that they're cutting my hours at the factory again. About to become one of the part-timers. Maybe you could get a damn job this summer and help out a little."

Without any hesitation, he had to be reminded of the truth. "I'm actually leaving in a couple of days to Austin."

Immediately, his throat was choking on the Corona for a couple of seconds. "Those damn liberals in Austin. I swear that city is the worst part of Texas. And you're a damn idiot for choosing to go there. Why don't you pick a real college? A college like the University of Dallas. Dallas is a damn good place. I swear, if I could get the hell out of California and get to Dallas, I would. Your mother was such a damn liberal. And I'll bet you anything that Lupita was also a damn liberal."

How was I supposed to respond to that? Everything in me wanted to walk out of the living room. Another part of me wanted to make a joke. "Maybe you could start taking care of the place once I'm gone?"

It was rare that I ever heard my old man laughing, but here he was taking humor to what I just said.

"Why don't you shut the hell up boy?"

Wow! Sounds like Joey has a great father! Thanks for reading! Don't forget to comment and vote! New chapter next Saturday! 

(Note: Joey and Hazel's fictional hometown Tres Rio is close to San Jose)

What's your family like?

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Should Joey have gotten a summer job?