A surreal situation

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."
-William Blake

Once I was at a party, and this girl had the hots for me. She was eyeing me and flirting and all that wonderful stuff and I was feeling quite handsome, although her eyes were glassy and she had been drinking quite a bit. I was twenty.

Well, I kept asking questions, trying to make conversation. Where you from? Ohio. You go to school? Yeah. How old are you? 18. (Yes, this last question is necessary, as the conclusion of this post will prove).


At the same time, some other guy was trying to get her attention, completely disregarding me and feeding her drinks and attempting to be far more charming than me, and to a certain extent, succeeding. And, though I tried, she kept leaving my arm to go to him.



So, after spending much time drinking and sulking, pining for the one that got away, I slept on the lawn that night and I later awoke in the sprinklers. I learned some time later that she and that guy retreated to the bedroom after I’d lost consciousness. I guess she’d come out crying and hysterical, claiming that he’d tried to force sex upon her. It sounded pretty bad, and to this day, I’m quite thankful for my drunken stupor.



Some other partygoers had chased him out of the house—and the entire time I was zonked out on the lawn.



I found out later that she was actually only 15, and I’m not sure what ever became of the guy. It was a complex, icky situation, and though I’m happy that it didn’t involve me. After that, and I stuck to the milder parties. It’s really strange how things work out.