Warning: people get drunk in a bar. YAY! Lol. On with the story.
Oregon, 1995
Roxanne was crying into her coffee cup. That was the only reason I agreed; see her tears mix with that beautiful, top of the line, coffee…
I had gotten the coffee from my last girlfriend as a birthday gift. Granted, that was nearly three years ago, and if coffee had an expiration date then it would be beyond expired, but it was a matter of principle.
"Well," I said awkwardly, "I have to go out to California tonight… but I could call my sister and see if I can get out of it…"
Actually, there was no way in Hell I was missing the thing, but I wasn't about to let Roxanne know what a shallow, self-centered person I was.
Kidding.
Roxanne lived in an apartment two doors down from me. This was the third time this month she'd found out her boyfriend was cheating on her, and personally, I didn't know why she'd let him even have a second chance. She was pretty in a second-choice-to-the-prom sort of way, with dark blue eyes and brown hair.
She grabbed a Kleenex. "California?"
I nodded. "Most of my family lives there."
"Why d'you have to go tonight?"
I reached behind me to grab another box of Kleenex. "My sister is having a formal meet-the-fiancé party. But, really, it's no big deal."
"No… no, go. I'll be okay."
I laughed. "Sweet of you to think this is such a big deal. This is her third."
She looks confused. "Third party?"
"Third fiancé." After a second, I added, "This year."
"Well, still, you should go…" She gave me a look that every woman thinks is the most subtle hint, but in reality is pretty much a neon sign.
"I guess you could come…"
She tried to hide her happiness with another tissue. I bet she thought because we lived in California that my parents were rich movie stars and my sister was marrying a Hollywood legend's son, or something. If only. Danni had just finished college and was looking for a permanent job, Mom was "thinking about retiring" from her job as a part-time maganize editor (which she'd been thinking about since before I was born), and Jordan was doing things at Sacred Heart too boring to comprehend.
The ride to California was silent. We rode towards the sun, just beginning to set. By the time we got there, a dingy bar three blocks away from the hospital where my dad had worked (and where Jordan had taken his face), the sun had receded enough that a hazy dusk had fallen over the place.
When we got out of the car, Roxanne started walking off into the distance, away from the bar.
"Roxanne!" I called.
She looked confused. "But… I thought we were going…" She pointed at a posh Italian restaurant across the street.
I laughed and pointed at the bar, where a drunk stumbled out and promptly vomited into the bushes.
She followed me cautiously into the bar. I spotted my dad talking to the bartender, and Jordan making out with a fantastically gorgeous guy. Danni and Mom had to be around somewhere.
"That's Jordan," I said, pointing to Jordan's blue dress, which was cut just low enough to reaffirm to herself that she was not, in fact, almost thirty.
I started to walk over to her, but Roxanne grabbed my arm. "Wait. I can't go over there."
"Why?"
"Her fiancé's too gorgeous. What if I, I dunno, start flirting with him?" She was in the first stage of a freak-out. I knew I could stop it, but I'd have to work fast.
"Okay, Roxanne, breathe… breathe, breathe, breathe…"
She took a deep breath. "Sorry, Ben. It's just…"
I shrugged. "No worries. That guy isn't her fiancé anyway."
She looked so confused. I had such a strong urge to take a picture of her face that I had to physically clamp down on my arm to stop myself.
"But… she was… they were…"
I grabbed an abandoned beer from the next table. "Welcome to my family."
I took a swig, and when I lowered the bottle I saw my mother looking at me. "Ah… hi Mom. This is Roxanne," I said, and motioned from her to my mom. "Roxanne, this is my mother."
Her face contorted into something that could have been mistaken for a smile. "So Benjamin, you finally got yourself a girlfriend?"
"No."
"That's a pity."
I turned back to Roxanne. "Um, I'm gonna find my sister Danni… and you can… talk…"
"Over by the sorority sisters," my mom directed.
I wandered over to the place where all the blondes with Greek letters plastered to their chests were sitting and playing truth or dare. Danni was wearing her old Delta Phi Epsilon sweatshirt.
"Funny, I thought they made you give back the sweatshirt when they kicked you out."
She turned to me. "Hey, Ben. Didn't think you'd show up."
"Make out with me?" I asked.
"No."
"Please? The girl I brought already got freaked out by Jordan and her making-out-with-anyone-that-makes-her-feel-relatively-younger act. I just want to see how far I can push her before she freaks and before she freaks and calls her mom to pick her up." I actually didn't want to make out with her, but I liked torturing her in front of her pigtail buddies.
She perked up. "So you finally have a girlfriend?"
"No." Why does everyone use the word finally? "So where's the fiancé who hates himself enough not to have stormed out already?"
"Over by the bar." She turned back to the Barbies long enough to laugh at a joke.
"And you didn't give him a warm Sullivan welcome?"
She shook her head, her pigtails swishing. "He has crazy eyes."
I rolled my own not-so-crazy eyes and walked over to the bar. Nine people: a blonde babe, a red-haired guy drowning himself in scotch, two guys and their girlfriends, a black-haired guy checking his watch, a Latina woman, and a girl flirting with the bartender.
I started eliminating down: not any of the girls (unless I had been very wrong about Jordan's intentions), none of their boyfriends. That left the black-haired guy and the borderline alcoholic. I looked back and forth from them. The black-haired impatient guy caught me looking at him and started at me. His eyes were two different colors, but other than that they were very mundane. Borderline alcoholic it is.
I walked over to him. "Are you the guy that's marrying Jordan?"
He looked up. Danni was right, his eyes were crazy, but the crazy was shielding something else. "Yup. Want a drink?" Before I could answer, he motioned for the bartender to get me a drink. "She still making out with that guy?"
"Brown-haired frat boy?" I asked, glancing back.
"Nope, must be a different one."
I snapped a quick picture of the bartender. The sudden burst of light seemed to, for just a second, light everything just enough to see things what they really were. Jordan was just a commitaphobe like the rest of us, Danni was afraid of growing up and leaving her ex-sorority sister college personality, Mom was mad to see her only son watching life behind a camera lens without actually interacting, Roxanne was here, not because she wanted to forget about her cheating boyfriend, but because she wanted reaffirmment that there were relationships out there more messed up than her own. And Jordan's fiancé? He was here, not because he was mad at Jordan, but because he was mad at himself for not loving her enough to forgive her.
I paused, then held up the glass into the air. "Cheers." I took a sip. "You're name's Perry, right?"
He nodded.
"What's that short for?" I asked, taking another sip. I wasn't usually a cautious drinker, but I still had to drive back. Oh, what the hell, I thought, and threw it back.
He motioned for two more drinks. "Don't ask and we'll be best friends forever."
