CHAPTER THREE
"Y-y-you know you're free to go, right? The straps are undone." Rick insinuated with his eyebrow still raised.
I blinked once, immediately being brought back to reality with the coarseness of his voice. I stood up and motioned dusting myself off, although there was no dust, I quickly realized. Perhaps for dramatic effect; or perhaps one of the symptoms of being a theater student. Either way, I hoped Rick didn't notice.
"Why did you look at the remote like that before turning back to me?" I asked hesitantly.
"What do you mean?" He asked, perplexed. I couldn't tell if his perplexity was genuine or an act.
"Never mind," I blurted, heading for the door.
I reached the door and turned the knob, immediately being met with refreshing air conditioning and a pristine, quiet kitchen. It seemed like an entirely different world outside of Rick's garage. I swung the door shut behind me and began walking towards the couch, but never actually heard the door close. I turned around and sure enough, Rick had stuck his arm out and held the door open from the garage. His eyes watched me intently, almost suspiciously, as he took a flask out from under his coat pocket and swigged, his eyes never moving nor blinking. I returned the suspicious look, but with dramatic effect and a splash of sarcasm.
"Is something wrong?"
His expression didn't change, nor did the intensity of his gaze.
"Nope." He answered.
"Okay…" I said slowly, accenting the O. I decided to ignore him and went for the couch, where my phone was. When I sat down and picked it up, Rick suddenly appeared in my peripheral, sitting on the recliner next to the couch. What the hell? I didn't even hear him…
"May I help you?" I turned to Rick.
"Don't mind me. I'm just making sure you're not texting anyone." He said with a suspecting glare.
"I told you I wasn't going to tell anybody," I reminded him.
He leaned back and reclined the chair, his black shoes rising on the footrest, eyes still watching me closely.
"Sure you did, but I know you—burp—teenagers. I have a granddaughter your age, remember?" He said through squinted, accusing eyes.
"Summer? Isn't she eighteen?"
"What, and you're not?" He shot with his eyes still squinted.
"I'm twenty-five, thank you very much."
His eyes widened and his mouth pursed for a moment before his face settled in annoyance and finally turned away, looking forward at the blank TV.
"Well. Wasn't expecting—burp—that." He finally said with an emotionless face as he took a swig.
"I'm fairly used to it. I guess I'll appreciate it later, eh?" I joked, attempting get a laugh or at least a smile. He side-eyed me.
"Whatever." He took another swig.
"Do you by any chance… have more of that stuff?" I asked with an apprehensive smile, pointing at his flask. I could feel myself blushing.
He looked at me for a long time, eyes squinting again, as if he was deep in thought pondering the situation.
"Aren't you supposed to be babysitting? T-t-that's a bit irresponsible, don't you think?" He asked, testing me.
"Morty's doing his homework, like he should be. I mean, he's sixteen," I said with a nervous laugh. "I'm really only here to make sure you don't distract him, according to Ms. Beth. Maybe we could ease up this tension between us and loosen up a bit?"
"W-whatever," he muttered and stood up, walking towards the garage.
I watched him disappear behind the door and turned to my phone. Intending to keep my promise, I erased the text I was working on prior to my encounter in the garage, and began a new message:
Oh my God I think I'm about to drink with this kid's grandpa.
I hit send. As soon as I did, I realized my phone's sound was left on loud and the "whoop" sound as my text was delivered echoed in the living room, at the highest volume, as Rick was returning. My eyes widened as I quickly looked at Rick, whose expression flashed into a scowl, the ferocity behind his eyes returning.
"I didn't tell anyone!" I immediately explained, slightly panicked. "Look!"
I held my phone up to his face, slightly flushing at the fact that I had to show a stranger my phone.
His eyes locked in on the phone screen in front of him, his eyes quickly darting back and forth examining my evidence. He then looked directly at me, a sudden amused look on his face, taking me back unexpectedly.
"Drinking with the grandpa," he snickered, slightly entertained. "T-t-that makes me sound a bit idiosyncratic, don't you think?"
I flushed even deeper.
"N-n-not at all!" I exclaimed. "If anything, it makes you sound super cool, and like, hip! You know?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Or an old man with an alcohol problem," he said as he walked around and sat back down on the recliner, taking his flask out. "Which—burp—I am." He took a swig, and as he was doing so, reached under his coat and took out another flask. He paused after he was done taking his gulp, holding both flasks closely to his sides.
"Just to make sure no fast ones are pulled, I need to see ID."
"Oh, sure!" I agreed immediately.
He didn't want to take any chances, and I completely understood. I reached for my phone and slid the card out of the pocket attached to it, and confidently handed it to Rick. He took it out of my hand and immediately pulled a gadget out from under his coat, holding it up against my ID. A sequence of high pitched beeps ensued for a while, ending with one long beep before it went silent again.
"Alright," he declared, tucking the gadget back in his coat pocket. He handed over both my ID and the flask. "B-b-by the way, this isn't your regular liquor. This is a drink I made, that people throughout the entire galaxy would kill for. A lightweight would probably die after drinking one of these, so take that and run with it." He took a swig.
I opened the flask and sniffed. Immediately, an overwhelming force rocked my head, causing me to actually lean back and hold it up, away from my nose.
"Oh my God," I murmured.
A chortle escaped from Rick. He took another swig as I stared at him. How much does he drink? How is this old guy even still alive?
"You've got quite the liver," I noted.
"Hardest working liver in the galaxy," he huffed. "Believe it or not, it's been—burp—shot once. W-w-wide, gaping hole. It was in the middle of a purge." Swig.
"What? Seriously? How did you heal from that?"
"Made a healing potion. Stung like a—burp—bitch." Swig.
I looked at him as he drank; slightly admiring the fact that he handles his liquor so well for someone his age, and is so effortless and fearless in the way he speaks. I looked at my flask again, and decided to go ahead and take a sip. I raised it up to my mouth and quickly chugged a gulp back, trying to be as fast as possible. It burned down my throat with an intensity like nothing I've ever experienced before, and immediately I felt an impending, unavoidable gag spewing from my throat, begging to be upchucked.
Oh no, don't gag, don't gag!
As soon as I realized that there was no way to hold it back, the burning sensation suddenly vanished. Swiftly replacing it was a cool, minty freshness that soothed my entire esophagus, as if the burning never happened. My eyes widened and my mouth slightly opened in a surprised look of shock.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Rick said with a hint of pride in his voice, a smirk creeping on his face.
"I've never drank anything like this before!" I exclaimed with a smile. "This is awesome!"
I took another drink, holding in the burn until it was immediately replaced with the most soothing, chilling sensation.
"J-j-just keep track of how much you drink," he reminded me. "It would not be ideal for the babysitter to—burp—overdose."
I turned my head to face him, perhaps too quickly because as soon as I did, I felt the oh-so-familiar head wobble.
I literally took two little half shots! What the hell? I'm already buzzing?
I looked back down at the flask I was holding, my eyesight slowly starting to glaze over, and clutched the dangerous metal container in my hands as if it were a grenade.
"Um… I'm literally already feeling the buzz and I've taken two swigs." I told him. "This is amazing."
"Best in the galaxy," he huffed.
After a few moments of silence and another shot, I finally asked him what had been on my mind.
"Is Morty involved with all of your alien activity?"
I expected tension from Rick or even for him to stiffen up a bit at the question, but he remained relaxed and didn't budge a bit. He took another swig.
"W-w-we go on a lot of intergalactic errands together."
"Why do you take him with you? Is it just because he's good company?"
"It's a lot more complicated than that," he replied, this time a little more solemnly, as he stared blankly ahead of him.
For a second, I swore I could even hear sadness in his voice, but it was too difficult to tell. I took another swig. By now it was pretty safe to say I was officially drunk. Not too drunk, but definitely not sober. I could feel my tongue loosening up and knew if I said anything now, my speech would sound slurred. I didn't care and decided to ask him more questions.
"Do you need him for something?"
He looked over at me, a slightly bemused expression on his face as an eyebrow rose.
"I—burp—guess you could say it's something like that."
"Is it something maybe I could help with while I'm here, so he can work on his school stuff?"
My speech was horribly slurred. I was surprised Rick hadn't mentioned it yet.
A corner of his mouth curled upwards as he held his flask up, as if to make a toast or to clink his flask against mine.
"No. N-n-not just because that would be a bad idea, because it is; but because you wouldn't be able to camouflage my genius as well as he does."
I lifted my flask as well and clunked it against his. "Like brain waves or something? Because they're opposing?"
"And that's why you wouldn't be able to." He said amusingly.
Oh my God, that's like, the biggest compliment ever, my drunken mind cheered. The scary man ended up not being so bad! I took another gulp.
"Y-y-you might want to slow down there a bit," Rick said, a bit concerned. "I don't want any—burp—trouble. Beth can be scary."
"I'm fine! I've been way more—burp—drunk before." As soon as I realized that I officially burped mid speech I couldn't contain my laughter. I immediately doubled over on the couch and clutched my stomach, laughing uncontrollably, tears coming from my eyes.
Rick chuckled apprehensively. "You sounded like me there for a minute."
I looked up at him, tears of laughter sitting on my cheeks as I began to wipe them off.
"I know!" I exclaimed, still laughing. "Except my speech is slurred and you're too boss for that."
I suddenly became aware of how thirsty I was, and stood up from the couch without saying anything. Immediately, I realized I stood up too quickly.
It was too late. Everything went black.
