The Night the Tables Turned
By Beth Miller
Julie went running out of the room. She was upset over some comment someone made about her being drunk, even though it was fairly obvious she was. Pete went to the door.
"Isn't anyone going after her?"
Kate and Melinda told him to. Kate was just frustrated at the whole evening and not feeling very well. Melinda had a little much to drink and was not in a condition to find their slightly more drunk friend. Jeff had just started drinking, so he didn't want to leave.
Pete came back to the room.
"Kate, Julie wants to get into your room."
Kate got up, but heard Julie's footsteps running down away down the cement hallway. Annoyed to no end, Kate left to help Pete find Julie. She guessed Julie would be okay and come back, but she didn't want to be around with Melinda, Julie, and Jeff completely drunk. It had been too many nights of drunk friends for her to handle. She had to get out of there.
Kate wandered around the resort where the five friends were staying on vacation from college, just calming herself down. She was sad that it was dark and she didn't feel safe enough to go for an actual walk away from everything. She walked on the sidewalk inside the resort aimlessly. Suddenly, she noticed she was outside of the room Jeff and Pete shared. She looked between the cracks in the patio curtain into the room, from her view on the sidewalk. From that distance, she thought she saw three people in there, and also thought she heard Jeff saying Julie's name as if he were talking to her.
As she walked around the building to knock on the door to check out what was going on, a stray cat caught her attention. She bent down and stroked it a couple of times, then stood up. As she walked on, the cat walked with her. It felt nice to have company when she was feeling all alone, even if it was only a cat. But after a bit, the cat stopped. Kate went into the hallway alone.
Walking down the hall, she thought she heard two shrill, drunk female voices. She knocked on the door and Melinda and Jeff answered. Their faces were those of two completely drunk people trying to act serious.
"Is Julie in?"
"No, she's not," Melinda said, bursting out in drunk laughter.
"Okay," said Kate, completely frustrated. As Julie was hidden under the bed, Jeff and Melinda thought they had fooled Kate. Little did they realize that she just felt left out; almost as if her presence was unwanted and they prefer she not be there. After all, earlier that evening Julie had yelled at Kate for being a spoilsport "voice of reason." And honestly, Kate did not want to be with them anymore that night.
She wandered around for a while, walking through the hallways. There was no one else in them, and it was quiet. It gave her a lot of time to think about how she was feeling. She was tired and didn't want to have to deal with drunk friends. She was simply irritated and perhaps a bit angry. Okay, she was angry, but was it too much to ask that they not get completely sloshed every single night of their vacation? Drinking, fine. But completely hammered to the point of absurdity was beyond her. In the beginning stages of their drinking, she could enjoy playing cards and goofing off with them, but once they started getting beyond the slight"buzz", it just wasn't any fun for her to sit and watch them get drunk.
After a circular trip through the halls, she realized she was cold. She didn't have shoes on or her glasses. She walked to her room-grateful that she had the key-and silently opened the door. She knew if her friends found her, they'd insist on her joining them. And right then, she didn't care to see them at all that night.
She got her shoes, glasses, and windbreaker and left the room, quietly shutting the door before running away to avoid detection. She kept wandering around halls near the pool area-but staying hidden to avoid detection, but not so hidden that she was in danger. She thought of her options. She could just go back to her room and wait for her friends to come back for the night. However, they'd be drunk, and the later she stayed out, perhaps the more sober they'd be when they returned. She also knew they'd want to come back as soon as they knew she was back.
She was sick with a cold and didn't really want to be out walking around, but there was nothing else she could do. Passing the swimming pool for the third time, she heard a song she liked being played at the bar at the end of the pool. She went and sat on a chair to listen.
After a little bit, she saw a guy, approximately her age, walking towards her from the bar.
"Are you all right?" he asked her.
"Yeah," she answered, not knowing what else to say.
"I just saw you sitting over here all alone. You looked sad, and I don't like seeing sad people."
"No, it's just that all my friends are drinking and I don't drink. I was just getting annoyed and had to get out of there." Sometimes it's easier to give a vague explanation than to try to avoid the issue.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Kate shrugged. "Yeah."
"You want to talk?"
She did want to talk to someone, and it was apparent that her friends definitely wouldn't understand. She found he was staying near where she was, and said they'd walk back to their rooms together.
The two walked down the sidewalks, talking. Kate told him about all her frustrations with her friends, and how angry she felt this one particular night, although it didn't usually upset her too much when they were drinking. They talked about how stupid people act when drunk, and then talked about how sometimes trivial things become so important.
After a 45 minute walk (they were enjoying each other's company), he walked her back to her room. She really didn't know too much about him, other than his first name and where he came from. But she realized how much she needed someone to talk to and how much she appreciated his being there and listening.
Back in the room, Kate realized she didn't even want to face her friends at all that night. She was so angry with them that they had, although not directly, forced her out of her room when she only wanted sleep. She didn't want to talk to them. She wished she could avoid them the next day, too, but knew that was impossible, and decided just avoiding them that night would help a lot. She knew they'd apologize, and knew that remorse was not a usual attribute of drunk people.
Quickly, Kate undressed and put her pajamas on. She was in the bathroom brushing her teeth when someone knocked at the door. Kate braced herself for silly drunks.
"Jesus, Mary Mother of Christ! Thank God you're here!" Pete exclaimed when she answered.
"Hi."
"I'm so glad you're here. Now they can come back."
"Do they want to?"
"Yes," said Pete, already running to his room. "I'm getting them now."
Kate felt a little sad at that moment that she had left Pete all alone to deal with these drunk people, but at the same time, she knew she couldn't handle it that night.
With great haste, Kate shut off all the lights. She was dead intenton not seeing those two. She got the lights out and into bed just in time. No sooner had she switched off the light when they came laughing and stumbling through the door. Being "alcoholicly simulated," they didn't have too much concern in being quiet to keep from waking their friend. They did ask if she was mad. What else they were expecting, Kate couldn't imagine, but she give them a non-committal "Yeah" mumbled into her pillow. All she wanted to do at this point was sleep. But the other two kept talking, occasionally making loud whispering comments, "We should be quiet, because Kate's sleeping," which Kate imagined even people in Japan heard.
Then Kate heard Melinda run to the bathroom to throw up. Inwardly, she winced. Kate and Jeff had sat up half the night with Melinda being "sick" just two nights ago. She did not enjoy the prospect of doing it again and alone. But as great as her anger was, her sympathy made her go to her friend.
"Go get Jeff," was all Melinda could say, panting and heaving.
That was exactly what Kate did not want to do. When they came in, Julie and Melinda had been laughing about how drunk Jeff was and how funny it was. Well, maybe it was funny for them then, but it wouldn't be to her right now. She had never seen Jeff drunk before and did not relish the idea. Jeff was a more serious, considerate person. It was usually him who was the other sober person with Kate, helping her with the others when they were drunk. Of course, Pete was usually the first one drunk, and drunk the most often, and tonight he was sober. Everything was totally backwards...
"Are you sure you want him?" Kate asked Melinda.
"Yes. Yes. Go get him," Melinda panted over the toilet, tearfully waving her off limply.
"Okay," Kate answered, wearily. Melinda and Jeff were best friends. Maybe she needed him urgently for something.
The walk between their room and Jeff and Pete's room never seemed so short as it did now, when she didn't want to go.
Pete answered her knock.
"Melinda's sick. She wants Jeff to come," Kate said, as if reciting the times table for her calculus teacher.
Pete got Jeff. Jeff could hardly walk. Kate had to guide him down the hallway back to her room. Once they got there, she realized how utterly pointless and stupid it was to have him there. People who are drunk and trying to hold a serious conversation is not a pretty sight. Kate let Jeff say about two sentences before taking him by the arm and dragging him back to his room. Not that he didn't want to go, but he was so drunk he couldn't walk on his own.
Back in her room, Julie said she'd care for Melinda and ordered Kate to bed. Kate knew it wouldn't work, but she went to bed as directed. She got out her stationery. She needed to write to someone; tell someone how she was feeling. She heard Julie checking on Melinda occasionally. When she finished her many-paged letter, she realized she hadn't heard any noise in a while.
Checking out the situation outside the bedroom she and Melinda shared, Kate found Julie fast asleep in her bed, and Melinda half-asleep sitting on the floor by the toilet.
"Come on, Melinda, I'll help you to bed."
"Not yet. Not yet," Melinda answered, gasping again.
Kate sat on the edge of the bathtub, patting Melinda on the back. She kept repeating to Melinda that she should go to bed. Melinda kept saying, "not yet." After a half hour of this, Kate felt too tired. She couldn't stay up ALL night, and she couldn't go to bed until Melinda was in bed, even though Melinda kept telling her to go to bed. It was a little after three already.
"Okay, Melinda. At 3:30, you are going to bed. That's 25 minutes away."
Those 25 minutes lasted forever. Kate was tired, and still a little angry, but Melinda was her friend, and she couldn't let her stay like this.
Finally 3:30 came, and Kate demanded Melinda go to bed. Slightly surprisingly, to Kate, Melinda didn't fight her command, but Melinda could tell Kate was tired and wouldn't take "no" for an answer anymore.
Once Melinda was in bed, Kate needed to relax a little before going to sleep herself. She wrote a final addendum page to her letter and read a little bit. At 4:30, she was finally ready to go to sleep.
Her greatest wish was that she wouldn't have to face those three in the morning. As she knew that was impossible, she just wished they wouldn't talk about the night at all, but she knew they would reminisce about it with laughter and gaiety. She wondered if they'd ever know how she felt, but she knew they'd only know if she told them, and she'd prefer it was forgotten.
ergo...ergo...ergo