On the 30th of September 2017 I turned 18 years old, which meant one thing: I went to the closest bar with some friends and got smashed. In the past, I had managed to drink alcohol a few times, either by paying older classmates to buy me cheap beer (the fee was a can of cheap beer for them, too) or having champagne on New Year's with my family. But now it was serious: I could walk into a store, show my ID full of pride and buy whatever the hell I wanted; and that's exactly what I did.
The barman seemed amused at my lost expression when he asked what I would like to drink. 'Uh-no idea' I looked at the collection of half-empty bottles behind him. 'Just give me something sweet' I decided to trust his suggestion. After carrying my glass of vivid red drink, Armin's berries cider, and Mikasa's rum and coke, I sat on the uncomfortable chair and raised my glass. 'Here's to being 18, single, and done with High School.'
'No more Mrs Michaelis, thank God.' she said and heavily breathed out.
'It wasn't all bad, don't overreact guys,' Armin said, clicking his glass on ours. 'If you didn't give her a hard time she wouldn't be so strict on you, anyways.'
'How is expressing my mind bad? It's not my fault she is narrow-minded.' The thought of our History teacher wasn't exactly pleasing, so I changed the topic.
'What's even better than not seeing her again, though, is not seeing our pretentious, blood-sucking, sexually confused classmates.' I tapped the table a little harder than necessary. 'No more awkward dates and horny teens. I'm telling you, I will find myself a hot boyfriend at uni in no time,' the alcohol had kicked in, relaxing my body and slowing down my tongue. 'He will know what he wants and how to make me orgasm.' Armin chocked on his drink and Mikasa slapped the back of my head.
'Your mother would be so proud,' she rolled her eyes.
'As if you are not looking forward to meeting someone.'
'You little shit,' she laughed, and raised her half-empty glass again. 'To our new student lives.'
It didn't take more than two more drinks to make me a nagging, loud mess. 'The fuck he thinks he is, anyways? I'm not your toy, you can't test if you are into guys by fucking me,' I said a little too loudly. Mikasa looked around to make sure no one heard me and proceeded to hit me again.
'I think the guy in the back didn't hear you, why don't you yell a little bit more?' She glared. 'I love you Eren, but don't blame anyone for your poor relationship choices.'
'I don't have any options though, do I? It's like, where are all gay people hiding?' I was starting to become quite loud so Armin went to ask for a glass of water.
'Come on, drink. We can't let Grisha see you like that.'
'Why do people always drink water when they don't feel ok? Like, are you crying? Drink some water. Are you drunk? Have some water. Did you break your leg? Here, drink some water.' Still, I drunk all of it.
'Look, I really don't know what to tell you. I'm not the most experienced person when it comes to dating. But if it's so difficult to find someone, why don't you try a dating app?'
And that's when it hit me. To be honest, I thought about it a few times but changed my mind after watching Catfish. However, my drunk self didn't care much about that. 'Armin, that's it.' My confused hands looked for my phone and as soon as I got it out of my pocket, Mikasa held me still.
'This is not a good idea. Armin, you are not helping.' Even when tipsy she didn't lose her protective behaviour. 'What if you start talking to someone and when you meet he is completely different from his pictures? Or if he rapes you? Or steals your kidneys?' She scolded.
'I will make sure to video-chat him first. And if you still don't trust him, you can follow us on our first date, what do you think?' I tried negotiating, and it worked.
' You can be quite an idiot; do you know that?' She shook her head with disapproval. Still, I saw the smile she was trying to hide.
'Why thank you. Now, help me find a dating app.' And that's how I made an account on Grindr, on my eighteenth birthday, in a bar.