Jeffrey Contreras

Period 3

Memoir

I felt a strong vibration in my right pocket as I pulled my brick out to answer it.

“Hi Jeffrey, what are you up too” said Cloud.

“Nothing much, why?”

“Do you want to come with me to another party today? My parents won’t let me go alone again.” I felt a beg in her voice, but at the same time it sounded demanding.

“Sure, let me just ask my mom real quick. I’ll call you back in five.”

After receiving an approval from my mom, I called her back to let her know. She gave me gratitude and came with her mom to my house to pick me up. Her mom drove us to a house about fifteen blocks away and stopped next to a sky blue house. I didn’t see anyone outside, though I heard loud music exploring out of it. Cloud and I got out the car and began walking towards the house as her mom drove off around the corner. I followed her behind her, I expected the same concept as every other party where everyone was dancing in the house, to my mistake I saw people just sitting and laying on the wall drinking out of red plastic cups and Corona bottles. To stay safe from drunks in the room, I stayed near Cloud to secure my safety.

The smell of alcohol was driving me to a curiosity of its taste. “Could I try a bottle?”

“Are you sure? You know if they find out you were drinking, we will never be able to go to another party alone.”

With confidence I said, “Don’t worry; I’m sure I can handle it. Anyways it’s just one bottle, that’s not enough to get me drunk”

“Ok, but just this bottle and no more.”

I gripped the bottle in my left hand and removed the cap with a bottle opener with my right. Slowly I leaned the mouth of the bottle towards my lips, closed my eyes and took a sip. Yuck! I lowered my arm and set the bottle on a shelf.

“Here, let me help you”, Cloud rose the bottle and took a big gulp. I could see her esophagus flex the beer down her neck, it made it seem delicious. I tried not to seem like a pussy, so grabbed the bottle from her and took a gulp. The bitter taste was not as foul as the first taste, I liked it. Finishing it up, Cloud congratulated me for drinking my first bottle. I also felt proud, about it and being an eighth grader made it more macho. I couldn’t wait to tell my friends, when Cloud told me that there’s another party in Richmond, that we should go there instead of staying in this one since one of her uncles was here and could tell on us. I agreed.

We walked towards a white car where two of her friends were and we climbed in. The driver stomped on the gas and drove off towards the freeway. When the driver pulled out a bottle of Corona, he drank it all while driving which scared us all. What made it even more terrifying is that he threw the bottle out the window on a busy street.

After getting off the freeway, the scenery around me began to twist and blur. We drove into a parking lot behind a liquor store where other cars began to gather around us. The driver got out the car and leaned towards the driver side of another car. By the way they were showing movement, I figured that we were not going to stay here for long. He walked back and told us that they were invited to another party on a boat at the marina in Emeryville. Since we had no where else to go, we went with them. Again we got on the freeway and got off in Emeryville. When we got there, the boat had already left and was floating in the water.

I felt a little tired and sleep, I looked at my watch on my phone and I could barely make out the numbers, they seemed to vibrate in position. It was already 11pm. Cloud and I got out the car and slowly walked towards a group that seemed to be blowing smoke out their mouths. She asked for a cigarette and lit it. Looking at me, she could tell that I wanted to try it and handed it over to me. I inhaled a little and choked myself in the smoke. Coughed myself to normal, I tried it again to see if I can successfully create a cloud of smoke, I did.

We waited on the shore for a while to see what we were going to do next. My phone rang and spelled out a name…MOM. What could she want? If she knew that I went somewhere else from where I told her she would kill me, if she knew where I was! The phone stopped ringing mindlessly, I turned it off. Bored of the crowd with smoke, I walked toward the car. Opening the door, I saw Cloud texting on her phone. She told me earlier that she just got her phone from her uncle, I was jealous since mine wasn’t even a flip phone.

“Do you want to go home? You look bored and tired.”

“Not yet, I’m having some fun, besides if I went home dizzy like this they’ll probably never let me out again. Let’s just go somewhere else.”

“Ok, let’s just wait here for the other two and see where they’ll take us.”

We waited in the car, I noticed from the interior of the car that it was the same type of car as my moms’, old. But I liked her car, it had more of a racing car look to it. The door opened and scared the shit out of me since I was distracted by my thoughts.

“Do you guys want to go somewhere else since obviously there’s nothing to do here?” The driver stared at us, his eyes blinking once or twice. At first I thought to myself that maybe that’s how he is, but slowly became a creepy thing. Cloud and I looked at each other with a nervous look, Cloud spoke out and told her that he could drive us to Fr…I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but knowing her, I knew that we would probably go to maybe one of her friends’ house. I didn’t care where, just somewhere else from this place.

The other guy didn’t want to leave, so we left him there. Driving onto the freeway, I found myself a little sleepy. I didn’t want them to think that, so I made it look more like a yawn of boredom. Outside my window, I could see the taillights of other cars leave a trail of blur. I thought to myself perhaps I might need a new pair of glasses.

The freeway trip seemed short and now we were riding on very wide streets. We did many turns and U-turns that I lost track on where we were. Finally we got to a street that seemed familiar, but I wasn’t sure from where. I noticed a lot signs had Spanish words written on them yet I still couldn’t figure out where we were. I gave up on the guessing game and sat down quietly waiting where we were going to stop. Suddenly, we stopped in front of a Smart & Final, and that’s where it hit me, we might be in Oakland. This is the only place in the world that I know that has this store. Another car that looked almost the same that we were riding on came up close to us, Cloud walked over to the car and began a conversation.

She turned around and looked at me, her head shook towards the car. I followed her into the car in the front seat. I sat on her lap since the car was already full in the back seat occupied by three guys. I turned around and recognized one of them, Luis. This familiar face made me less nervous and a little more safer.

“Jeffrey? What’s up man, I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

“Nothing really, just spending time with Cloud.”

I looked down at his hands where he was holding a round bottle with a small neck. It was passed around and with each person it was handed to, the bottle was getting lighter. Finally it got to me, I looked at the label and noticed the brand name Hennessy. I’ve heard of this brand but I couldn’t remember from where, I lifted the bottle with a chant and finished the rest of the drink. I felt the burn in my throat but it did not bother me as the beer that I drank earlier. I noticed my vision slowly hazing in front of me. I noticed it immediately but I didn’t want everyone to know since I did not want to feel like a kid around them, I wanted to feel like a man.

The drive felt longer since the time was going slower. The rough driving made horns sound every second, I thought it was the driver. The road moved with the car, yet I didn’t feel scared, in fact I liked it. We stopped at a side of a very dark road with no lights near by. I thought they ran out of gas, but I didn’t bother asking. Everyone started talking, but I spaced out since I what they spoke of was to much slang to understand. One of the guys pulled out what I thought was an old cigarette without the brown mark on it. When he lit it, a strong aroma flowered the car, it was nasty at first, but I quickly felt attracted to it. Again, this object was passed around to everyone and when it got to me, they told me not to smoke it all. I guess it was precious to them, so I inhaled lightly. The taste was simply, yet I felt already felt like I wanted to do it again, but the second time it went around, it was already all gone.

One of the guys told the driver that he had to go home, so he started the car and began driving. The rough driving was still attached to the car and in moments it hit a mound. The car was stuck, it didn’t move, I got out the car and on my first step I felt a wobble. At first I thought the road was moving, but the blurring vision made it clear that I was drunk, I didn’t care. I pushed myself to the front of the car and began pushing it off the mound, and in seconds the car was moving again. We got to the guys house and dropped him off, there was an empty seat which Cloud moved to fill, I stayed in the front seat.
I figured since one of the guys left, maybe everyone else will go home, yet in a moment he parked in front of another house with a lot of people sitting in the front. Cloud held my arm to hold me up. When we found a seats, a semi-over-weight guy wobbled towards me and offered me a drink, I told him I would love one.

“Hey, want…want to play a game? Well, the game is who ever finishes their drink before the other person, the winner gets to punch the loser really hard.”

I thought about it for a moment, and right before I was about open my mouth to say yes, I thought about it again clearly and told myself that this is crazy! My conscious was back from it’s break and began sighting the situation and everything around me. I began to feel nervous, the feeling of danger. I was shaking, the cold wind was being identified by one of my senses, but I was wearing a sweater. I was scared and stood up. I fell to the ground head first. Cloud got me up and told the driver that he needs to take us home. He agreed but he advised that they squirt cold water at my face to wake me up from the deep alcoholic toxic. They laid me on two chairs and hosed my face. I felt like dying, my stomach felt like it was shrinking. My mouth opened and the beer, liquor and drugs water out. I felt like screaming, but my lungs were to occupied catching the air they could. Cloud lifted me up and walked me towards the car, the driver opened the door.

I felt the car moving, the motion made my stomach hurt even more. I told them to pull aside, I opened the door and continued throwing my stomachs remains. The driver lifted me on top of the car and aligned my face with the stars. The cold air rushing through my face massaged my pain, I felt calm. I looked aside and I could see Cloud looking down covering her face and telling the driver that she’s too scared to go home. Home, the place I wanted to be. I wanted to get off the car, I did and fell again head first. The two ran towards me scared that I cracked my head, but the lack of blood on the ground made them laugh a little. I felt better, but I still couldn’t stand up alone. I opened the door and sat inside. I thought through what I went through, what seemed so stupid of myself to do. I wondered why I did it. I couldn’t figure out why until we got in front of Cloud’s house, I purposely lacked my conscious to fit in the crowd. How stupid.