Prodigal Son (Part 3).

I reached into Nick's freezer and shifted bottles around until I found a near empty bottle of El Dorado rum. The glass bottle was completely frosted over and the liquid inside had a syrup-like viscosity. I poured some into a white plastic cup by eye and stopped when I felt it was enough. I returned the bottle to the freezer and opened the fridge part to get a can of coke and a pre-sliced garnish. I mixed the drink pretty strong so I take little sips every few seconds. Nick's kitchen is really starting to get messy with empty white plastic cups all over his black and white checkered floor, sticky stains on the wood table, and broken little drink umbrellas everywhere. I notice a little plastic orange hawaiian flower clipped on the edge of the table in the kitchen. I slide it off and put it in my front pocket.

Everyone started piling into the kitchen just then like a congo-line, but only their objective is to get more booze. "Let's go to the bar!" Someone yells out in the hallway. I wait in line for the only washroom in the house, contemplating on just going outside in the bushel. I let a girl in before me and then when she's out I start to go in and see three more girls in line. This is going to be bad, they're drunk... better hurry. I put my drink aside in the washroom, unzip my pants and stare at the target below. I hear yelling outside and block it out of my mind to avoid stage freight. Not even ten seconds into the urination the girls outside start banging on the door telling me to hurry up. I start yelling back telling them that this is a bedroom. They don't buy it and bang some more. I finish and wash my hands, and they bang some more. I opened the door with my belt still undone to scold them and three girls charge into the washroom with me in it, I stumble back into the washroom and squeeze my way out with my drink and they slam the door. I put my drink down on the window sil beside me in the hallway to do up my belt. "Holy fuck." I said aloud laughing.

I wait outside with the rest of them in front of Nicks house. A couple of girls are walking around looking for something on the road, apparently some sort of blue tylenol pill. Yeah right. The white truck outside is owned by someone at the party and while we are waiting he cranks up the stereo. A couple of young girls come up to use skipping to warn that their neighbour will call the cops. He turns off the radio and sure enough a cop call rolls up. I put down my plastic cup on the sidewalk. The one officer talks to Nick and does the usual questioning. Nick gets off with a warning and soon after they drive off we all walk to the bar.

It was predetermined that we were all going to Sin City that night. Of course we didn't all go into the same group as some people didn't feel like waiting for others to get ready, so in total there was about three different groups leaving at different times. I was in the last group with Nick, Kevin and Alison. We wait in line up outside the bar and it is barely moving. Barely turned into not moving at all. We waited and waited while people off the streets just kept coming towards bar and jumping the line up. I'm standing on my toes looking to the front of the door to see if people are getting in. I suggest to everyone that we head to another bar so Alison goes inside to try and get everyone to come out (after some talk to the bouncer). She comes back out 15 minutes later, and we're still in the same spot, and looking distraught because no one wanted to leave the bar. So we head over to the 2nd Floor Lounge where there is no line up.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" I say to the bouncer.
"Sorry, private party, can't let you up." He replied.
"Private party? Who the heck is having a private party?"
"The Liberal Party of Canada."
I start to laugh, "You got to be kidding me." I said. He wasn't joking and I turned to the crowd to tell them we can't get in so they decide to just go to the Trash. I tell them that I'll join them in a sec. I look to see Van who I kinda know through friends and I ask if Kelly is working. I ask even though I know he is. He says yes he's upstairs and says he'll take me up. We walk up the stairs and on the first landing he looks at me and tells me to take off the leis around neck. "Oh yeah, sorry." I said. I continue to follow him into the bar area. There are some people dressed in complete suits, others in very casual dress clothing, some old and some very young. This is probably the busiest I have ever seen at this joint. He takes me to the patio where Kelly is there watching over everyone. He laughs when he sees me and tells me very hilarious stories of these Liberal Party members acting outlandishly. I look around the patio while he's talking to me at all the people outside. The patio of the bar is made completely out of wood, all the way to the tables and chairs, with a small tiki bar on the far side. It is very spacous out here and with very dim lighting. I tell Kelly to yell out something that indicates me as a conservative. We both laugh knowing that if done I would get my ear chewed off. I tell him that I will meet him outside the Rooster at 03:00 hours and that I'll be over at the Trash tonight. We do the handshake and then I walk out of the bar to the street.

I get to the sidewalk and it is nearly complete silence with the occasional yell from a drunkard in the distance. The street lights compete with the neon lighting from the various fast food restaurants for their place on the asphalte. I get to the Trash and make my way inside without having to wait in a line. Which isn't surprising since there is no one in the bar. Strangely enough the big doors were shut that usually leads to the main bar area. I bring this up to the girl at the front who tells me that I have to go through the patio first before going to the bar. I do just that and run into my party out on the patio, which pales in comparison to the 2nd Floor Lounge. Everyone decides to go into the main bar area. There are small groups of people on the dance floor doing their thing, a couple people hanging around the DJ booth, and the occasional waitress walking by with a tray of lab test tubes, each holding a bright coloured liquid inside.

I go up to the bar to order a drink, so I reach in my wallet and pull out the last remaining ten dollar bill and fold it in between my index and middle finger. I look to my right to see a girl ordering a drink. Man she looks familiar, that couldn't be... She looks at me. We both look away towards the counter and then slowly turn back to one another. "Matthew Hunter?" She questions.
"Shannon?" I respond.
"Oh my God, Matthew Hunter!" She says and runs up to me for a hug. Shannon and I were good friends back in high school. When she went off to college and I to University we just lost touch. We got updated quickly on each others lives and who we still hang out with back in Oshawa and then she went off back to her friends and I got my Corona.

We all head to the dance floor to dance and so we get in a big circle. This old guy breaks into our circle and starts harassing the girls. He must be like 75 years old, waving his hand around and smiling. He does these stupid dancing and all the guys are cheering him on. He finally leaves much to the girls relief. However he keeps coming back and harassing them more, I can't believe they let this guy in here. It is always something with the Trash let me tell ya. We all head for the stage where he can't bug us. A couple of the girls take off their grass skirts and place them on the speakers. Nick and I grab them, and in a complete drunk decision decide to put them on over our jeans. A couple of girls took note down below and look sheepishly up towards us with a camera in hand. She finally got enough courage to go on stage and ask to get her picture taken with Nick and I. So we did, with Nick on her left and I on her right. We gave our drunken smiles and a flash blinded us. She thanked us and went back down below to her friends.

After dancing for a long time we all decided to head back home. It was only about 02:00 hours so when I got outside I hung around the ramp for a bit. "Hey why are you such a fucking dick?" Someone says to me. His face is all red and angry.
"Oh I know man, I have no idea." I say back to the drunk guy. He keeps looking back at me as his friends prod him along the walkway crossing Water Street. The party finally gets out of the bar and towards a taxi. They pile into the van taxi cab and bid me to come in. I tell them that I have to wait around for a friend and so they speed off east on Water. I look back and see Alison, Kevin and that other girl with the sparkling wine earlier on today. I tell them that the taxi cab just left and Alison gets upset that they abandoned her. I guess it's been a rough birthday for her. The girl tells me that they are going to have a talk and that I should just go see my buddy. I tell her that I have to wait around for an hour anyways so I'll just hang around by the corner and make sure no one bothers them. She says thanks and they go sit by some stairs and I walk back to the corner of Water and Simcoe, across the street from the trash.

I observe the nightlife by leaning up against a street lamp. People yelling and running down the streets. Girls swearing as loud as they can about something or other. I look down Simcoe and see that same guy that lipped at me earlier walking towards me with two girls and some other big dude. Maybe he has forgotten about me in his drunkeness. I don't usually end up hanging around after the bar alone, in fact, after Aidan got shot in Montreal I made effort to make sure of that. However this time I was alone and as he got closer it was clear that he wanted to talk to me further about something. And then some.

"So why are you a fucking dick?" He asked me again. His face is still red. He is a really big dude, but around my height, wearing a red basketball jersey over a long white shirt and red hat to match. He has broad shoulders and his body fat matches them width wise. "What are you talking about?" I ask.
"What am I fucking talking about?!" He says, "You fucking disrespecting that handicap old man in the bar."
"I seriously don't know what you mean."
"Oh I think you fucking do, you were shaking you head and you wouldn't give him a fucking high five when he came around." He said getting closer to me. Is he talking about that creepy drunk old man?
"Alright man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disrespect him."
"Don't apologize to me! Go apologize to him!"
He continued to talk to me in my face and I got fed up with it so I just walked up in front of his face and stare at him. As he talked I could see his crooked bottom teeth overlaping one another, and his eyes glazed over from drinking. I just stared back, not smiling, not scared, but just staring back intensely. He finally stops talking and stares back at me. What should I do? Sucker punch him? Hit him in the bridge of the nose to water his eyes and run. No I can't run, what if he reconizes the girls and then harasses them. Ok, I can dislocate his jaw by slamming my fist downward into-

"What? Do you want to go?!" He asks interupting my thought.

Ok that's it for tonight, looks like there will be a part 4. Until then.

Peace.