Weekends; Days and Nights

The business of another Thursday had ended. A test for Calculus was the final task for the week. I had... or at least tried to study all day for it. However, Carmen stopped by my place around 2pm. We talked about how I might go to Vegas with her on Saturday and the usual talk as well. Then, as we usually do, we drank. I probably shouldn’t have because of the impending exam, but it was only four shots of Sake; no big deal. After a while, she left so I could get back to my studies. I had a couple cups of Yerba Mate to counteract the Sake, studied more, and hyped myself up to kick this test’s ass. When I get down to the testing center I discover that half of the test deals with the topic I had studied the least. So, I’m fairly confident my grade will fall between fifty to seventy percent correct. After that bullshit, I rode back to my place to have a much-wanted cocktail. Which I did, and then another, and then another, and then another… and then… you get the idea. Around 8pm, I walked over to Tuts and hung out with Jess, Mick, and Nancy for a bit. Then I came back to my place to have more drinks with Layla, Mick, and Jess. Mick and I snorted some Vicodin, and then Jess showed us the picture of a girl who was at Tuts at the time. She wanted to hook Mick up with her, so we went back over to check her out. We walk into Tuts to find much more people than before, and Derik had shown up as well. We sat there for a while smoking shisha, and rating the girl Jess wanted to show us. Mick and I had decided that it was time to go to the store to get more beer, a bottle of vodka, and a bottle of whiskey; inviting Derik, Samir, and whoever else over on the way out. On the way up to my place we told Jim to come on up and drink with us. Fast forward an hour or two, and we have Mick, Jim, Samir, Jess, Layla, Derik, and me getting very drunk. Shots of whiskey, quickly drank beers, music, religious discussions, and bullshitting. At some point during this, Benny called me up and said we should go on a tour of Southeast Asia in September. I told him this was funny, because Craig and I had already made plans to do this at the same exact time; so now Benny was in. Later on in the night Jim had left, Derik was passed out on the couch, and Samir was sending Jess upstairs. It was time for a change of pace. It was time for Mick, Samir, and myself to head out to East Phoenix. Why head into the wasteland at such a late hour? Why else? Drugs. We cruise through, check out a couple of spots; nothing. Samir decides to go to the spot where he and I went a week ago. It may have been 5am, but they were chilling. A crew of crack heads. Homeboy from last week was in the back, another two dudes up front, and a couple of crack-whores. One of the girls had smoked so much rock that her voice sounded like one of a burly man, but she looked like a starving Ethiopian. We chilled for a bit while she casually spoke of how she doesn’t ‘sell her pussy, just rents it out’. Samir was getting a little uncomfortable, so he got some more to go, and we went back to my place. After an hour, we had finished what we got, and it was time for bed.
I wake up around 1pm to the sound of typing. I step out of my room to find Derik still at my place. So, we went to Harlow’s for breakfast/lunch. The drive there was actually somewhat funny. On the way, Derik says, “You know, I’ve never driven on the sidewalk before.” So, we did, and we got a stare of disbelief from a guy who was in the middle of washing his car. Then when we were getting ready to turn onto University Drive, some guy did this horrible u-turn, Derik felt obligated to show him how it was done. He speeds out into road in the opposite direction we were going and does a high-speed, tires squealing, massive u-turn on University during mid-day traffic. This got us more stares of disbelief from the packed outside patio of Dilly’s Deli. When we got to Harlow’s the food was excellent as usual, and Derik harassed our waitress, as usual. But she kept talking to us so much that the hostess had to keep telling her to get back to work. Before we left, we pointed out to her a table of fat business people who all had those silver cell phone earpieces on. We commented on how they looked like cyborgs, and then she told us how they come in twice a day, always order off the menu, and are hated. After we left, we cruised around for a while. Got gas, got Derik’s paycheck, and hit the bank; all while intentionally playing cheesy music, and harassing people we encountered on the road. We drove by Mill and discovered the Arts/Music Festival was going on. So we came back to my place, showered, got dressed, and went back out there. We had some time to kill before I had to meet Viki and Stephanie at Margarita Rocks for happy hour, so we checked out the arts fest scene. Which was… disappointing. So we went over to the bar early and took advantage of the free buffet; I just love free dinner. Halfway through our first drinks, Viki and Stephanie show up. I introduce them to Derik, and then I ask Viki if I can hitch a ride with her to Vegas the next day, so I could hangout with Carmen and go to the Nine Inch Nails show. Her friend Chastity was driving, and Chastity and I have a past, so Viki wasn’t sure if she would be willing to take me. Then Jack shows up, we drink more. Not Jack though, as he was driving he and I to a housewarming party way out in Glendale. We all make plans to meet up later, and then Jack and I split, grabbing Vodka and Marlboros on the way to the party. When we get there, I fix myself a drink, and head out to the patio to have a smoke. I go back in, fix myself another drink, and then ask Bonnie if she’d like to come back out on the patio with me. Now I haven’t seen Bonnie in seven weeks, we went on a few dates, and the last one ended with us making out on my couch. We go outside and engage in our usual witty banter, discuss politics and school, then I ask her if she wants to go out with me next week; she accepts, and then leaves the party. Jack and I hang for a little longer, watch Damien and Crystal play shot checkers, and then we leave. Once back in Tempe, we go into Tut’s, so I can get myself a gyro, as I was starving. First off, I see Jenny, and she calls me over. We end making plans for her to come over my place in a bit and drink some beers. Then I order my gyro, and go sit over by Derik. Jack gets up to make a phone call outside, but actually ends up leaving without saying goodbye. Layla comes in and sits by us; we talk about some party that's going on, but decide not to go to it. On my way out to get beers, Jenny tells me she is going to go to that party, oh well. Layla and I come back to my place and drink some beers. Then we go down to Jim’s, play Punch-Out, and drink more beers. Derik comes by, and he and I drink more beers at my place, while Jim and Layla play an electric guitar so loud you can hear it throughout the complex. Eventually Jim and Layla go to bed. Derik and I stay up all night finishing the beer, moving onto Sake, and watching three movies in a row. Around 8am I call up Viki to try to secure my ride to Vegas; no answer. Derik and I end up passing out until a quarter to 2pm.
When I wake up, I have two text messages. One from Carmen asking if I’m coming to Vegas, and one from Viki saying that Chastity is sick, and they’re not going; so in turn neither was I. Derik and I realize that it’s nearly two; closing time at Harlow’s, so we can’t go there. Instead, we decide to go to Chili’s of all places. At Chili’s we drink massive Blue Moons, eat large sandwiches, and of course, Derik harasses another waitress; but they all love it. From there we walk down to Buffalo Exchange to see what they got; we buy nothing. We walk through the arts festival—which was better then the previous day—on the way to Zuma. There we have a couple of quick drinks, and see the old alcoholic we sat next to the day before at Margarita Rocks. We leave, on the way out some guy tries to get us to sign up for some singles night; fuck that. Then I get the idea to head over to Casey Moore’s for a cool Guinness. We enjoy our drafts and decide to go back to my place to see how Jim was coming along with working on his seventies Landcruiser. On the way back to my place two girls who know Derik spot us on the road, we tell them to follow us to my place. We pull up into my parking lot, and Jim is not working on his truck. The two girls—Tristessa and Britney—follow us in, and Mick and Nancy pull in about a minute after them. After some quick talk, we decide to head down to Safeway for beer and Vodka. We get back, and start mixing up drinks. After a few hours of depleting bottles of vodka, getting acquainted, and listening to music, most of the group heads over to Tut’s for some shisha. Mick and I hang back, and I tell them I’ll join them shortly. While finishing my drink, Mick and I discuss relationships, and I get a phone call from an old flame; we make plans to hangout in May when I return to New York. Nancy comes by; I leave her and Mick at my place while I go over to Tut’s. When I get there, Derik has left to go to a rave. After some hookah smoke, I bring Cory, his friend, Tristessa, Britney, and Layla back over to my place. We drink more; Tristessa and I, Britney did not drink all day, and wouldn’t all night, but Layla would later. After fucking around with Myspace and listening to some music, the three girls and I decide to head out to Mill. When we get out there, arts fest is over, which presents a dilemma, because all of these girls were under twenty-one. Jack calls me and says he’s in the Cue Club with Woody. I tell the girls to wait outside while I grab them. Once we’re all outside, we figure out that we can get into Ra because it’s busy and they don’t check I.D. at the door. At Ra, we all hit the bathrooms first before making our way to the outside bar. It’s packed and I squeeze my way into a small spot to get Sake bombs for everyone. The guys whose spot it was comes back and tries to start some shit with me; I stay there, telling him I’m just getting a quick drink. He continues to be a prick, and I was pretty drunk by now. Then Jack starts talking some shit to him, at this point I was consumed by an anger I had not know for the past six years. One more word out of him would have prompted me to turn around, grab him by the throat, and repeatably beat his head into the wall until I was stopped. Luckily, the guy just walked away with his girl. By the time our fifty dollars worth of Sake bombs had arrived, I calmed down. All of us but Britney tore through them quickly and shortly after left. I was very drunk by now, and things were hazy; we had lost Jack and Woody in the shuffle. The three girls and I, along with some new guy I think Tristessa picked up at the bar went back to Tristessa’s car. When she was pulling out, she fucked up the fender of her car on a pillar in the garage, which prompted the guy to drive, and her to cry. When we got back to my place, Mick was hanging around and we drank more. Tristessa was still very upset, so I consoled her, tried to put things in perspective and make her feel better. Shortly after, Tristessa left with the guy, Layla went somewhere else, and it was just Mick, Britney and I left. Now, for the past few hours Britney was making it very clear that she wanted to do something with me, and in my very drunken state, who was I to let her down. We were messing around on the floor in the main room with Mick sitting on the couch, so she got up and went into the bedroom; I followed, closing the door behind me. Once in bed we started making out right away. This went on for a bit, and then out of the blue Nancy and Casper burst into my room and dragged her out. It happened so fast, that in my ridiculously drunken state this was all very confusing to me. I walk out, look at Mick, and ask, “What the fuck just happened?” He didn’t know, so after talking about it for a bit, we went over to Tut’s. While I waited for my food, Jenny called me over and asked if I wanted to hang out with her the next night and get drunk. Sure… Why not? She told me to meet her at Tut’s the next night at 9.30; I never went. We came back, I ate, time passed. Later I went back to Tut’s with Layla, and we hung out with Derik until closing. After Tut’s, Derik and I went over to some girl’s house and hung out with her and her friend until the sun came up. By then, he went back to her dorm; I came home, fucked around on the computer for a bit, and slept.
Sunday. What? Derik came by to return my shirt, and we watched a couple movies. Then we went upstairs, talked to Layla, harassed people with a laser pointer, and he left. Layla came downstairs and we watched a movie. 6am; we went to sleep.