Past, Present and Future

1976-The Year Of Screw-Ups, Break-Ups And Mistakes

It was January of 1976. Ace had just let it slip that he had a girlfriend. This news was taken not so well by Gene who now felt betrayed. In typical Gene fashion, he scowled and left rehearsal abruptly. I knew Gene was boiling mad and so did Paul. Ace, being Ace, just expected Gene to be okay with it.

I looked at Paul and motioned to the door. "Let's go." I mouthed, hoping he'd get the hint. We left as quickly as possible, hoping to avoid Gene and Ace. "Paulie, I think rehearsal is gonna be tense tomorrow."

"I know, Pete. Maybe we should just call it off until Monday. We can let them cool off over the weekend."

I took Paul to my favorite Italian restaurant and we slid in to our booth we always sat in. I think Paul was expecting me to ask him to be his but I couldn't. My wife and I were planning on having children and Paul didn't fit into those plans. How to tell him we could just be friends bothered me.

"Peter, I want to know if you want to go away for the weekend." said Paul suddenly. "We could go some place special." He looked at me with his big brown eyes waiting for my answer. I had no idea what to say. Taking a big sip of beer, I had no words. After a few minutes of silence, Paul got up and left. I paid for our food and cursed my dumb mistake of not answering.

I went outside to smoke until I could figure out how to right the wrong I had just committed. "Why couldn't you just answer?" I asked myself. "Damn, Pete!" I chastised myself.

I finally got in my car and headed towards the apartment. Luckily my cat still loved me. I had managed to lose someone near and dear to me in the span of an hour.

When I arrived home, Ace was sitting on my door step. He truly looked upset so I let him in. "Did you and Gene finally have a fight?" I told him what had happened at the restaurant. "I think we both screwed up."

"The funny thing is I don't even have feelings like that for Gene unless I'm drunk. I got all those flowers for my girlfriend but had them delivered to Gene by mistake." admitted Ace. "I think he's too uptight for me."

I rolled my eyes knowing Ace and I would just wind up wasted but I told him to have a few beers any way. We managed to go through two cases in about thirty minutes. When my wife came home that night, she found beer cans everywhere mixed in with cigarette butts and the two of us passed out on the floor in the living room.

I vaguely remember hearing the door slam a few minutes later and some Italian cuss words being tossed my way. Oh well, two mess ups in one day. It would just the first in a long line of my future to come.