You can picture how lame playing a drinking game with eggnog shots is. And even worse, you can picture how lame it is to know you got tipsy from eggnog shots. But I'm gonna blame those eggnog shots (because I don't really feel like admitting our stupidity) for what we decided to do next: go buy some real booze at the supermarket.
Now, you may be wondering why it was such a bad idea. This is the thing: teenage drinking has it's rules: 1- you don't buy it in a place you can be recognized. 2- you do it away from (strict) parents. 3- you don't do it in a public place. 4- even better, you don't it at all. We were planning to break each and everyone of those sacred rules.
I'm not pretty sure whose idea it was, I just know that all of us (somehow) thought it was a good idea... okay, not really.
I did know that wasn't a good idea. But to be honest, I really wanted to know what was gonna happen. I wanted to know how it felt to be the bad girl for once. I wanted to be the girl who has stories to tell for once.
Real talk here: I was tired of being the nerdy, good girl that never did anything without her parents' permission. I was tired of being the way to nice girl who never gets into trouble. I didn't want that. I wanted to be that girl who has stories for ages and makes everyone around her laugh about them. I wanted to be that girl that every time has a new story to tell. I was looking forward being that girl: the one with the funny stories. I think that's a nice goal in life.
The only problem was that this girl was pretty anxious; in the way that I hated to get into trouble, hated making my parents feel disappointed and hated being seen as stupid. And sadly, sometimes that stuff is necessary in order to make a good story.
So this part of the story, the preamble, was the worst for me.
"What if my parents find out?", "What if my friend's parents find out?", "What if someone gets lost?", "What if someone dies?"
Yes, those are the kind of stuff anxious people think about. Like there was a tiny mom inside your head warning you about your stupidity. But I'm a great faker. I could fake confidence and chillness in this type of situations the same way I could fake beauty with some makeup.
So I was the first one to say "HELL YEAH, LET'S DO THIS".
And hell yeah we did.
Our plan was simple. We were going to tell my mom we were going to see the Christmas lights, we were going to the town's supermarket (because the mini-market in my neighborhood didn't sale booze), Grace and Jane were going in together, Grace (with the flawless makeup and the high heels) would use her flirting skills in case the cashier asked for an ID, we were going to the town's plaza, we would drink, and we would go back to my place to eat what my mom had prepared us. Easy.
Little did we know about the complications coming ahead.
We did as we planned and told my mom we would go watch the Christmas lights, which was not entirely a lie because we really wanted to see them, and started walking. My neighborhood was actually pretty nice and had good lighting. But outside of it... was another story.
Nothing actually bad happens in my town. But that exact part (the ugly part) we had to go through in order to get to the supermarket, was lonely, silent and dark. It had a lot of wastelands, plantations and poor lighting at night. There are a lot of stories about robberies happening in the ugly parts. And my best friend was the most paranoid woman I knew.
"Duude, we are totally getting killed" Sam said as soon as we got out of the nice part "We are totally getting kidnapped. This is were we die".
"Sam, we have walked through here hundreds of times" I said.
"Yeah, during the day" she replied
"Actually, we used to walk here even later at night" said Jane.
It was true: the both of us, with our best friend, Jake, used to walk around here when we were coming back from communal service. Everybody knew about our technique when we were afraid someone was about to kidnap us: Jake would walk about 20 steps behind Jane and I so it seemed like he was chasing us. This way, if someone was about to rob us, they would say "oh dammit, these two are already taken" and would just pass by. That's how we would go through the ugly part safe and sound.
"Yeah, but you had an 8ft-tall friend with you!" she answered.
"Oh come on. What are the chances of us getting robbed or kidnapped? We are six girls and plus, there are houses besides the road. Nothing will happen to us" I said trying to calm her.
"ALICE, DON'T YOU GET IT? WE ARE GONNA DIEEE" Sam shouted.
The five of us sighed.
I knew there was no way of making her change her mind about getting kidnapped and raped. So I did the only thing that could calm her: I held her hand.
She kinda calmed down for three or four blocks, but then... we got there.
To the UGLIEST part.
The only block with wastelands at BOTH sides of the road and no houses in between.
The block where we almost got kidnapped once.
