Growing Up is Hard to Do

            Urh! Urh!Urh!, “SHUT THE HELL UP!”  Crash!  Batteries and plastic crash all over the wall, as Jake chucks his alarm clock across the room. “Goddamnit!”  Jake realized he didn’t need to be awake and was still feeling strung out from a night of partying.  He rolled back over to shake his pounding headache, when he felt something wet and squishy against his cheek.  “Damnit, Damnit, Damnit!”  Angrily he jumped up too  remove the light bulb in his bedroom, and he carried it to the bathroom, so he could see to wash the puke off his face.  Jake stumbled, still very disoriented towards the bathroom tripping over a pile of dirty laundry, dropping the bulb on the floor.  As he heard the only source of light smash against the floor, he decided  to just flip his mattress over and fall back asleep. 

            Jake awakes to a pounding headache, drenched from sweat because of the summer heat.  An all too familiar dizziness hits him and he frantically scrambles to the bathroom to vomit.  Having forgotten about his early morning mishap, he trips over the clothes again and slides across the broken glass with his chest.  Screaming out in pain, Jake just hurls vomit all over the floor unable to contain himself any longer.  Out of frustration, he reaches over to an empty liter of vodka and throws it at the door to his apartment.  Upset about his situation he covers the vomit with the dirty clothes except one shirt he uses to wipe the blood from his body.  Everything about this moment is a little extreme but all too familiar to him.  Knowing that it is to hot in his apartment for him to fall back asleep he decides to take a shower and begin his day.

            After getting himself cleaned up he decides to clean up the vomit, blood, and broken glass.  Wanting to beat his painful hangover he grabs a beer out of the fridge and starts drinking.  “S**t it’s not even noon yet.”  Not really ashamed of drinking this early, as it has become a common occurrence since high school, but drinking alone sucks is the conclusion Jake draws upon.  He slammed his first beer and opened a second trying to figure out who might have some pot they would want to smoke with him.  He lights a smoke and turns on the TV having decided to catch a good buzz before leaving the house, so the hangover wouldn’t conquer him throughout the day.  Not being able to find anything on to watch, Jake walked over to the fridge grabbed another beer and sorted through a stack of game cartridges on top of the television set.  He popped in NBA Jam for SEGA, and sat back down still thinking about who would be awake and have a bag.  Playing round after round and polishing off a couple more brews, Jake decides he is messed up enough to go on his journey. 

            He quickly sorted through piles of dirty laundry to find something that didn’t smell to awful to wear.  Jake quickly decided he was going to stop by Jenny’s house, if she didn’t have any marijuana she would at least have food and would probably be willing to have sex.  Jenny was Jakes high school sweetheart and still carried a torch for him, it’s been 3 years since they broke it off, but she will still drop everything for him.  Getting close to noon, the summer sun just pounded down on Jake as he made the mile long walk to Jenny’s parent’s house.  When he arrived he walked around the perimeter of the house to make sure that her father wasn’t there.  He walked in on them once in high school and chased him out with a baseball bat. Since then Jake has been sneaking in the window, regardless if he was home or not.  Once noticing the coast was clear, he circled around to the back of the garage and set up a latter he stole from a couple houses down when he first started sneaking into Jenny’s room.  People who have daughters must always put their room on the second floor to be a pain in the a*s, Jake thought as he was getting ready to leap from the garage to Jenny’s balcony.  Starting to feel hung over again from the walk over Jake carefully planned his jump remembering falling off the balcony once when he was drunk.  He stepped back and got a good running leap grabbing the railing and pulling himself up.

            Jenny popped her head out of the kitchen window downstairs having watched the whole event and started laughing at Jake for not ringing the doorbell.  He knew the balcony door would be open, she always left it open just in case he would stop by to see her.  Jake liked Jenny just fine, but would only stop by to get high or for a booty call.  He walked through her room noticing pictures of them in together back in high school on her desk.  She was such a tidy person, not a traditional girl who had clothes scattered about her room, or makeup strewn all over a dresser, he often wondered what she saw in him.  He walked down the stairs passing a bunch of family photos now.  Something about his dropping blood alcohol level and the sight of her father caused him to hawk up and spit on a photograph of him.  Jenny called up to him, “hey what are you doing up there”, “nothing” he quickly responded.  Once in the kitchen he walked up to Jenny to give her a hug and kiss.  “Hey babe how’s it going?”, “fine” she answered.  He continued with the small talk noticing she was making some Hamburger Helper for lunch.  Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to finish even a normal helping he was prepared eat everything and not let anything go to waste.  Without even asking he started rummaging around in the fridge like he owned the place looking for some beer to keep that hangover in check.  He cracks one open and helps Jenny finish cooking, before partaking in the free meal. 

            After they had eaten Jake finally pops the question, hoping that his journey is a complete success.  “Yo Jen, you wouldn’t happen to have any smoke, would you?”, “yeah, but I only have a couple bowls left and I was saving it for Shorty’s party tonight.”  “Oh s**t I forgot all about that, it’s tonight huh?”  “Yeah, do you wanna go over with me?”, “sure thing.”  Knowing that he would be getting high later, and that he would be partying all night he decided it was time to slow down with the drinking.  “Well hey Jen grab some food and some of your pop’s booze, we should chill at my place since your folks will be home before the party.” She quickly agrees and asks if he has gotten an air conditioner yet, complaining about how warm it was the last time she was there.  Having admitted that he did not yet acquire one, she told him that her dad put their old one in the garage and she would give it to him.  Jake excitedly ran out and loaded it into her car, along with the couple bottles of liquor and a case of beer her father had in the garage fridge.  He sat in the car and listened to the radio until she was ready to leave.

            On the way to his apartment building they stopped at the gas station to grab smokes and mixers for the liquor Jenny had swiped from her father.  After acquiring the essentials for the evening they traveled to his place to relax for awhile.  When they arrived Jake immediately set up the air conditioner while Jenny put in a movie she had grabbed from her house.  Jake grabbed a beer and offered to make her a screwdriver, hoping that once she loosened up she would be willing to smoke a bowl with him.  She agreed to the drink and Jagerbomb with him, they slammed the shot, and somewhat quickly drank their first beverages.  After three shots and finishing two screwdrivers, Jake asked Jenny again if she would be willing to smoke some pot with him.  She agreed this time making Jake very happy, in fact he was pretty content with how much better this day had gotten from its start.  They passed the bowl back and forth until it was empty, only the background noises from Freddy Got Fingered could be heard in between coughs.  They tipped back another shot and continued to watch the movie, being a little to messed up to talk to one another, but still capable of laughing hysterically at the movie.

            Jake found himself nodding off before the movie was even finished, he knew that he needed to do something immediately before he passed out and was finished for the evening.  He asked Jenny if she was ok to drive to his parent’s house feeling confident that he could scam some money out of his mom and swipe some Adderall from his little brother.  Unfortunately, Jenny claimed to be a little too tipsy to drive, putting him in a predicament of having to drive without a license.  Jake cleverly stated his mom would love to see her before asking if he could drive.  It was probably the truth, Jake’s mom thought Jenny was great and put up with too much crap from Jake, and he was lucky to have her in his life.  Apparently that was all the motivation that Jenny needed because she agreed even though she was in his car when he crashed drinking and driving before.  They got in the car and decided to bring along the booze so they could just head to Shorty’s after that.  Luckily his parents didn’t live to far because he was swerving a bit on the way there.  This made Jenny a little nervous but she kept her mouth shut and half danced to the music in the car. Jake was a little concerned about Jenny being mad, but more worried that his mom would notice he was driving and that he was doing so messed up because then they would just get into an argument about safety.  He parked in the street hoping that she wasn’t looking out the living room window at all.  Everything went smoothly upon their arrival, he walked right up and got a big hug from his mother whom complained about not seeing him enough.  He half way agreed to come by and see her more, but kept her happy by stating that he was busy looking for work and that consumed all his time.  Then after a little bit of visiting he asked his mother for some cash to get by for a bit, honestly he just want to score his own bag and hoping he could find some extacy at Shorty’s party.  She agreed to give him 100 dollars for the next two weeks.  When she left the kitchen to get the money from her purse he ran to the medicine cabinet and grabbed 8 of his brothers Adderall.  His mother returned with the money and Jake claimed that they were running a little late for dinner with Jenny’s parents and had to leave.  She felt that he was lying, because she knew Jenny’s father didn’t care for her son, but had high hopes that things were working out, so she didn’t question anything. 

            Jenny had to drive this time knowing that Jakes mom would go absolutely berserk if he was driving without a license again.  She stood on the porch and waved them off as they drove away.  Jenny was excited about having some Adderal and asked for two pills in exchange for the pot she was sharing with him.  Since Jake did not have any pot of his own he agreed and they each popped two.  They made it to Shorty’s house around 6:30 hoping that Shorty would be cool with them showing up so early.  They knock on the door until Shorty opens up.  “Hey dawg what’s happening, oh Jen hey girl your looking fine.”  Even though Shorty was pale white and talked like he was 50 Cent, Jake and Jenny were still pretty close friends with him.  “Yo, you cats are early, what’s crackalackin?”  “Ah man, you know just getting twisted, chillin out you know” Being around Shorty made Jake speak like a hip hopper for some reason. “Cool, Cool, well ya wanna get your smoke on wit me?”  “Hell yeah dude, it’s up to Jen but we will match you a bowl”  “I just want a hit or two, but yeah I can match you” The band of misfits smoke a couple bowls of pot and start to drink a bit.  While playing am uneventful game of higher or lower Jake asks Shorty if he knows where he can get any extacy for tonight.  Shorty claims to have some for sale.  Jake jumps on the offer and buys 3 pills for 60 dollars, he gives one to Jenny and keeps the other to for himself.  “So hey man when’s this shindig kickin off tonight” “aw man in like an hour or two b*****s be showing up” “Cool deal”

            About an hour goes by and the trio continues to party on their own before people show up.  Eventually Jake helps Shorty carry in a keg of beer and set up stereo equipment.  While this is going on, people start showing up by the carload.  “5 bucks a cup” shouts Shorty as people funnel into the kitchen to get beer.  Shorty put Jenny in charge of the music knowing that she would have a good idea of what the females would want to hear and dance too.  After roughly thirty people showed up Jake and Jenny decided to take the extacy that they had purchased earlier.  They washed it down with a mason jar of swamp water, a mixed drink with apple pucker, apple rum, 100 proof rum, lemonade, and sprite.  Before they started rolling they wanted to socialize a bit, and made their way over to the beer pong table.  The table was very unique compared to most other beer pong tables; it had a glass top and was filled with strobe lights, black lights with black light posters inside of it.  They were quick to challenge the winners of the current game happening, which looked like it was going to be two guys that went to high school with them and went to the local university in their town.  They were right and took their place on the table as the challengers, they were sure to win this bout having played many games of beer pong over the years.  Jake made sure to use his female companion as a distraction in order to win the game, every so often pulling her shirt down so that one of her breasts would fall out and their opponents would miss the shot being distracted with the pleasant sight in front of them.  Not only was this working to their advantage, but Jenny was a great shot and sank ball after ball into the cups until victory was achieved.  Having a few cups of beer left on the table they each split them into a party cup and surrendered the table because they could feel the extacy kicking in and both of them wanted to dance. 

            Once they were dancing around all the people in the basement and could feel their temperatures rising they instantly peaked off of the drugs.  They day seemed so perfect to Jake even when he reflected his early morning patheticness.  He danced with Jenny hugged and high fived strangers for the next couple hours, screaming out and proclaiming his love for everything.  About three hours after the extacy had kicked in Jake had found himself up stairs waiting in line for the bathroom.  Shorty walked up to him, “hey man, how are em rolls treating you?” “Shorty!” Jake bellowed out jumping across the room up to give Shorty a hug, “they are great man thanks, I f****n’ love you dude, you’re the best.”  At this point Shorty was very happy that everything was going great, in fact he was already making money on the keg of beer and selling some fun party drugs.  He stayed in line with Jake for the bathroom telling him he had something to show him in private.  Once they got in, the bathroom Jake did his business and Shorty pulled out a large mirror from the linen closest, and dumped a couple bags of powder on to the mirror.  “What the hell is that?”  Jake asked having already known what Shorty was going to say next.  “Man I gots dis blow, been saving it for a while now, jus seems like the perfect time to hit a few lines, ya know.” With no hesitation Jake was on board thinking nothing could ruin this night for him.  Shorty had about 2 grams on the mirror, and they split it half of a gram per nostril.  Shorty hit his first instantly feeling Superman, Jake practically skipped and over rolled up a twenty he had jammed in his pocket and took down both lines in the same nostril.  The people outside waiting anxiously to use the bathroom started pounding on the door as they cleaned everything up and were ready to join the rest of the party.  Jake followed Shorty out of the bathroom and back to the kitchen, but suddenly WHAM! 

            Jake hit the ground completely unconscious, Shorty knowing that Jake was overdosing started to freak out a little knowing that if he called for help he was going to jail, and if he left Jake alone he would more than likely die.  Quickly reacting to the situation Shorty moved Jake into the bathroom that was connected to his bedroom, planning on having to clean up a lot of evidence if Jake died there.  While in the bathroom he ran some cold water and splashed it in his face to try and sober up, wondering if he was making the right decision.  He suddenly remembered that he might have a chance to save Jake without getting in trouble, he put the plug into the tub and ran some very cold water so he could attempt lower Jakes body tempeture.  After he had filled it up he stuck Jake in hoping that this would save his life and they could all laugh about this in the morning.  Jake appeared lifeless but his body flailed around in the cold water as if he was getting electric shocks, but he was still noticeably unconscious.  Shorty knew that he had to keep straight face and tell Jenny that Jake passed out in the bathroom, because if she knew the truth she would wig out and immediately call 911.  He returned to the party and tried to put the unfortunate circumstance behind him, hoping that his friend would eventually rejoin as well.  Jake never returned to the party or any party for that matter, the overdose didn’t kill him, in fact Shorty had the right idea and almost saved him.  Shorty made a critical error that night by filling the tub up and Jake drowned in while he was unconscious.   

Author's Note

Please leave feedback I love hearing what you beautiful people have to say.