Noah's Lifeline

We Like To Party

Noah's POV 

'Outside. Wya' When was this party getting started?

I couldn't believe it was August again, the return of my favorite season was upon us and I was determined to make the best of the beginning of my senior year. Madden and Naveen were meeting me at the cantina south of the campus. It was that specific cantina that was the rowdiest at sunset and had just enough chaos to get the night going.

If I'm to be honest with you I wasn't even sure I'd live long enough to see this semester but my life found a new meaning after my father died. And before you even think that; no I did not resent him and was happy my old man kicked over. In fact I was so close to him that it nearly crushed me into a place I thought I'd never rise from again.

It would be five years without him soon and my stomach lurched at the thought of him not being in the stands with the rest of my family during graduation. All these years and the loss still felt fresh, the memories hazy.

I do remember that it was the day of his funeral when my uncle Sawyer had suggested swinging by the ring my father owned on MLK boulevard after the service .  I'd basically grown up there following in my old man's footsteps but it had ghost town written all over it after his death -the same halls I grew up in made me sick at the sight of them without dad.

Now that I think about it,  I was so strung out on drugs and alcohol that I said whatever he wanted to hear just so that he'd shut the fuck up and let me grieve in silence. Imagine my surprise when he popped up on my ass the next sunrise claiming  I'd said yes and my conditioning session  with him started now.

I won't say I fell in love with the sport again  immediately but over time it helped soften the pain that my father's passing had imprinted. I would mostly go to beat the shit out of some undeserving punching bag but a small percent was spent stifling tears in the locker rooms and recalling better days of learning underneath my dad's expertise.

It was at the ring where I turned from a boy into a man, where I felt the most balanced and let the darkness consume someone else. It was also the reason I met my two best friends through a strength and conditioning program for all incoming athletes.

In middle school, dad's gym had sponsored the athletics department and held strength and  conditioning  classes  for all the boys from grades six to eight. I started off with Naveen and Madden playing football outside the gym and conditioning with dad all summer  at thirteen. 

The  physique really started to show out when I turned 14 and I got more confident in and out of practice. Still, I decided to ditch the field for a ring  after being bewitched by boxing. Boxing was where I watched my dad knock fuckers on their ass and push his body to the limit.

And at 15, that was what I wanted more than anything the world had to offer. To be the best and move past whatever limitations I currently worked against both physically and mentally. What more could  ask for with dad right there to teach me?

I still hung out with the boys after conditioning season because they were a damn riot and knew how to ignore the shitty parts of my psyche. The little shit Madden was our very own stand up comedian; forces us to live a little in the chaos that is life a hundred percent of the time.

 You ask Madden to be your wingman and that asshole would actually bring wings to the double date and ask if you wanted him to come back with that side of ranch. I can always count on him though so putting up with his shenanigans is secondary for the greater good.

But of course I was the real greater good. So good that he and Madden followed me to college, even if they're adamant their legacy ties and sports scholarships were the reason. I will always give them hell about it but we'd been close for awhile now.