Escaping Reality

Chapter 37: Shot Relays

"Give it your best shot," I responded, accepting the unspoken challenge that had been proposed.

We walked into the house and the first thing I noticed was the smell. It was a thick mixture of alcohol, marijuana, perfume, and body odor....not a great combination. Some drunk girl stumbled out of the way and fell right into David's arms.

"Hey aren't you that Soundcloud rapper...uh what's your name, you know, u something, knee, u-knee, u-neek!" She said in a drunken slur.

"Yeah that's me," David responded, with a fake laugh shrugging the girl off him.

"U-NEEK is here" she screamed as she ran back into the crowd.

The place seemed to raise about ten-decibel points. People started screaming his name and rushing to give him hugs and kisses. Apparently, he was a pretty popular guy around campus. Darron asked around and found out who was in control of the music. Gregg had ventured off and pulled some posters out from his backpack. Within minutes we had become the most popular people at the party, had control of the music, and had hung a couple of dozen promotional posters.

"WHAT'S GOOD PARTY PEOPLE" Derron yelled over the microphone that had been hooked up to the speakers. "MY BOY U-NEEK AND MY NEW FRIEND 'JUST LUKE' RECORDED A NEW SONG TODAY! WHO WANTS TO HEAR IT?"

The house erupted in drunk cheers and screams. Give the people what they want I guess. I looked at Derron and could tell he was comfortable up there, he liked having the mic in his hands and people's eyes trained on him. He was an attention seeker maybe even more than David. A true hypeman.

"Alright, the song doesn't officially release for another two days so after this you guys gotta hype it up to all of your friends. Sound good?" He said trying to connect with the audience of wasted college kids.

There is always that one guy in the crowd. The guy who yells first and everybody just kind of looks at him and then follows along. Well, this party was no different. In this case, the kid was a redneck who looked like he was wildly out of place among the sun-kissed bleached hair kids of Miami. He screamed "HELLS YEA, PLAY THAT SONG" which inspired a wave of shouts, "PLAY THE SONG, PLAY THE SONG, PLAY THE SONG."

Derron had no choice and played the song. That deserved a shot I thought, David thought so too. We both went over to the table and knocked back two shots of the strongest stuff in the cabinet. The competition had begun. I looked him in the eyes and decided to raise him one knocking back another shot. He responded with two. People took notice and soon everybody was knocking back shots.

In my early stages of drunkenness, a thought crossed my mind. I was thousands of miles away at a party. I help write, rap, and produce the song playing. On top of that everybody was watching me as I was about to go head to head in a shot drinking competition. Two weeks ago on a Monday night, I would probably just have finished up my homework and been crawling into bed.

I grabbed the shot glass and examined it, it was from Mount Rushmore, from my home state. I tipped it back once more and watched David match me. I didn't even know what number we were on anymore, but I kept going, determined to win.

By now the playlist had switched to some of U-Neek's other music. It wasn't half bad, it fits well in the party setting. Suddenly, my stomach started to turn and my mouth began producing more saliva than usual. I wasn't a seasoned drinker but I knew what was coming. I vigorously swallowed and tried to control my breathing.

My efforts were no match for whatever liquor I had poured down my throat in large amounts. I slowly walked away, offering a half bow to David, crowing him champion by default. The further I got from the shot station the quicker I began to walk. I needed to find a bathroom ASAP. My steps had picked up to a light log as I searched the corridors of the house looking for an available bathroom.

Finally, a door gave way and I somehow managed to lift the toilet seat before hurling my guts into the bowl. Then the second wave came, hitting even harder than the first. The buffalo chicken sandwich did not taste so great coming up. It would be a while until I could bring myself to eat another one, I thought with my head halfway in the toilet bowl.

Eventually, my stomach settled and I decided that I needed a little bit of a break from all of the excitement. I crawled into the bathtub, my drunken state prohibiting me from fully realizing how nasty a fraternity bathroom would be. I could feel my eyelids getting heavy and decided it was time to shoot Lola a text.

I concentrated as best as I could but my fingers weren't moving how I would have liked them to. A half English, half gibberish message was the result. Lola was smart, I was hoping the basic message got through to her. I was at a frat party, I was okay, I would see her tomorrow. I wondered what David and the guys were doing but the bathtub had become quite comfortable and I figured I would meet back up with them in a little after a quick nap.

My eyes fluttered a little before closing as my body slipped down further into the tub and the background noise faded to nothingness.