I opened my eyes a little bit, they were mostly squinted. I'd just woken up and the morning light was more than I could handle all at once, so squinting was fine for now. My room was oozing with the stench of musty alcohol. I slowly sat up in my bed, rubbing the morning crust from the corners of my eyes. Once my vision had focused, I realized I wasn't in my room.
"Hey partner! How ya doing?" a tall man leaning on the door frame asked me. It was obvious that he'd just gotten out of the shower, as his light brown hair was sprinkled with water droplets and he had a towel wrapped around his waist. I shrugged and groaned in response. He smiled, like a laugh without sound. "Rough night, I guess. Man, you were a machine last night!"
I tried to recall the events of the previous night. It was my 19th birthday, and my friends treated me to the biggest drunken excursion of my life. There were so many cases of beer and bottles of booze in my apartment, it looked like a liquor store. After we'd done an adequate amount of pre-drinking, we stumbled around town getting kicked out of many bars. The last thing I remember is my girlfriend Michelle telling me she wished I was dead, before I poured another beer down my throat. I don't know if she was serious or not, but I had more important issues to deal with at the moment: my massive headache, and my unknown location.
It became apparent to the man that I had no idea who he was. "Oh, excuse me... I'm Jason," he started. "I'm a cousin of one of your friends, Daniel." I studied his face. It did seem likely that he was related to Dan; they had similar facial features. Trusting blue eyes. "I'm sorry, I forget your name, though."
"Oh, I'm Aaron Markovic," I said. I don't know why I told him my whole name, he didn't tell me his. He nodded. "Uh... where exactly am I?" I felt like a complete moron, and he just laughed, told me he had to get ready for work, and walked down the hall. He left me sitting on the edge of the bed in my boxer shorts, wondering what the Hell was going on. The only thing I knew to do was to get dressed.
Minutes later, he came back. He stood in the doorway with a crisp, charcoal suit on, with a nice pair of fancy shoes and a briefcase in his left hand. His hair was slicked back with an abundance of product. He reminded me less of Dan now, and more of my grade 11 Business teacher. I hated that guy.
"You need a ride?" Jason asked me. He seemed to have bottled up all the confidence in the world and just finished taking a big swig of it. I nodded. I really didn't know what to think of this guy. "Alright then, let's go."
I followed him through the house and out the front door. He directed me to his car and I sat in the front passenger seat. I felt kind of nervous sitting next to this business guy in his nice car. I don't know what kind of a car it was, I just know that it was really expensive. He tried making small talk with me, asking me how I knew his cousin and stuff like that, and I answered with as few words as possible.
He dropped me off a block away from my apartment-- I didn't tell him that it wasn't where I lived. He flashed me that salesman-esque smile before he drove away. 'Jason. What a sleaze,' I thought. Then, I walked home.