BEFORE YOU READ THIS STORY, it is a 100% fiction. None of the characters are real. Except for me, I'm really a bartender. I must say, I was inspired to write this since I wanted to know how sad one's life could be in a year. Specially for a college student. I made up Mark as this Asian Christian kid who feels like he needs to connect with someone while being drunk. That someone just happens to be me. Many people at the bar share stories all the time. I decided to make one up for the heck of it. I didn't put in anything specific, even schools or occupation. It is covered in < and > just for your imagination. My comments are in ( and )… AND I was lazy... Enjoy! (ALSO, a break from My First Date story)
Story with A Stranger in 2013
- By Stanley Jay
Wattslick
“ Hey, you!” were the
first words I heard from this strange drunk man’s mouth. He was short, Asian,
and from his state of mind, confused. Now, as a bartender, I’ve got some clue
why he’d like to talk. You see, bartenders are like therapists; they listen to
you but they make you drinks. Besides, it was already last call in New York
City in the last day of the year, so what the hell? Let’s listen to this
drunkard now, shall we?
“Hey, you…” He
slurred out with difficulty. “ You got time for a story before last call?”
“Yes, I love to hear
a story, sir.”
“Alright, but never
call me “sir” ever again… that’s just too formal for this story.”
“Alright… What’s your
name?”
His name is Mark. Before I go on, you must
know that this man never allowed me to post this. From here on out, this is Mark’s story.
My name is Mark. I’m eighteen years old and I love getting
drunk. Why? Not a good reason, that’s why.
You see, the year 2013 wasn’t a nice one for me. Since I’m
a paying customer, do you mind if I start in January? Good. Thanks. Another
scotch please.
Back in January, I was optimistic about everything. I have
a job that was decent and I was enjoying my freedom from O levels that I took
last year. The O levels is this type of exam in Singapore. Anyways…
So I
was free. I’m gonna have a new start this year and it’s gonna be LEGEND- wait
for it… - Dary!
I became self-conscious about everything of course. I
wanted this year to be awesome. But it didn’t. When I got my results, it went
downhill. I felt lost and truly, it was a horrible day. I spent the night
wondering why in the world would I get such results… I was never going to Poly
and I’m just a foreigner. So I decided to do something else. I wanted to be a
writer for the longest time, but I always end up dry. I even signed up for an
online course but it never worked out; I just gave up.
With nowhere else to turn, I gave in what was truly a
curiosity to me. I wanted to go to <THIS SCHOOL>. Here are my thoughts
about it and hopefully, no one gets to hear this (Sorry, Mark) but I don’t see the point of <THIS SCHOOL> in Singapore.
<THIS
SCHOOL> is a college. I went for the Open House to sign in for a course
that made me decide to pursue it. After all, I can’t do mathematics nor can I
design to save my life at will so I guess being a <OCCUPATION> sounded awesome. Scotch, please.
So I signed up. I had to do this project to impress the
Head of Department (HoD) that I worked on for two whole months.
Stupid right? Well, the HoD was mildly impressed from the
looks of it. The Dreaded Wait was in order. I had to wait for the “YES” from
<THIS SCHOOL>. Then, two weeks and
one day later, I got the signal. I was going to <THIS SCHOOL>.
It was April when I got the letter. I’ve been asked by my
only adult friend to work on projects on lighting and that I agreed on. I love lighting. The
problem was, as much as I love operating, I love experimenting. When I was
given the chance to actually do the lighting design, I spaced out to Facebook.
That, I regret a lot and ever since then, I had a feeling he never trusted me
with the lights. It hurts, but I sucked it up, knowing it was my fault anyway.
The first project was for his son’s, Great guy, he’s
awesome with the guitar, school band’s performance. That wasn’t what I
expected. I only realize now that the work I do during that time was what I’m
going to experience in real life next time. I didn’t make any new friends nor
did I have that much fun. Everything was rushed and there were new programs I
was not aware of. I held my tongue, however, since I respect my friend and he
was gracious enough to let me even touch the controls.
Once that was done, another concert for the youth band in
church. You see, this man was, at least in my eyes, like a David to me. Right
hand side of God. He’ll never admit it, but he’s awesome Well, actually. He
would but still.
We did that concert too and I was having fun. My friend
from the States was back and I was having a good vibe. The only thing that
disturbed me was that he liked this girl that I didn’t really get to hang out
with him. Nevertheless, I supported him. Bro’s a bro right? So yeah. Scotch
please (At this point, I gave him water with scotch. Poor guy didn’t know the
difference and I gave it for free too).
So there I was, enjoying my time in that booth. Moving the
lights and programming it to my liking, distracted only by my thoughts and
excitement. When I was asked to put on these headphones, I accepted. However,
my Tito (At this point, he started calling this friend “Tito”, sigh… Asian.)
Became mad at me. I tried to explain but he didn’t listen. I explained again
much later and we became solid afterwards but at that moment, he was treating
me like any kid that did something bad.
I respect this man for one thing: He believed in the youth
as God’s future. It was his vision from God that made all this possible.
Despite that experience, I’m glad it happened. I was becoming prideful and lost
focus. Something I still need to work on apparently. Water, please.
So
after that, everything was set up. Invitations were sent and I was ready to
praise God with what I was asked to do. Long story short, it was awesome.
Not much happened in May, other than the anticipation for
June.
June was the day I was finally going to meet her. You see,
I had this huge crush on this girl when I joined the youth back in church. The
stupid part was that it all happened on Facebook. The first time I saw her profile picture, I
was amazed that such a girl even existed. Sure, I had minor crushes in the past
but man… This girl was just gorgeous beyond all words. I can tell you how we
started talking and how each night for one month felt like a dream and a
blessing. But then again, it’s last call, so long story short, she and I became
friends but she just didn’t feel the same way, you know? Yeah… She’s my reason
why I drink. Not proud of it, but she is.
Anyway, June.
June was the turning point. It was the moment I thought I’d
meet her. Everyday, I was nervous. I was also quite sad. I remember this was
during the time my Tito and his family was packing up for Oregon. He was taking
the lighting equipment with him and I couldn’t feel sadder as I was. June was
the preparation for yet another youth concert. The problem: I was not doing the
lights.
Now, I love dancing. In fact, before I flew here, I was
given the random showcase of my talented friend, Jerusalem (Yeah… this guy is
definitely Christian…) of his dancing, but to imagine me, dancing? Yeah right.
Nevertheless, I accepted the challenge to become two things: a dancer, a
protagonist for a play, and a spoken word guy. Yikes.
I practiced hard and I was enjoying myself. I was even
happy I got the steps right. Forgot them now though but I know I looked good.
Coffee, please (Finally, something to sober him up…). I practiced even during
the Great Haze of ’13. It was terrible. I came to practice, coughing and
wheezing. I was still nervous, of course.
July. The youth concert finally turned up. Oh boy, that day
was long… I had to dance, act and talk rhythmically for six straight hours. All
the while she was watching. Speaking of she, we’ll call her Angel. An ironic
name for the personality she now has.
I wanted to go to the toilet. I went up the stairs and like
a stupid cliché movie, time stopped. Now people would deny that fact, but I
swear that’s what really happened. To this day, I still remember it. She wore a
black blazer that covered her intricately designed white floral top. Her hair
was straight and she wore black jeans and covering her feet were those ballet
looking slippers girls like to wear. Let’s be honest here though. Her make up
covered her beauty. I couldn’t deny it.
She was however, still gorgeous. SCOTCH PLEASE… ( This was a painful memory,
apparently.)
The concert, despite how nervous or anxious I was, had to
go on. Now, I’m going to skip to the part about dinner. Since there’s only
about two hours left for this conversation. Dinner was the time we all
gathered. We were separated in two booths. I, of course, was not sitting with
her. She was with her best friends. Guy friends. Specially my supposed friend,
Paul.
About Paul… we played basketball together. He was better
than me since his dad trained him and along other factors why he was better
than me doesn’t matter now. I don’t play a sport anymore. Oh well.
I didn’t have a best friend and Paul was the closest I can
have. He plays basketball, he loves basketball, and he’s funny. But then when
it’s serious, he’s nowhere near someone I’d call friend. I’d say we had a fall
out this year. I don’t talk to him anymore and I just don’t think I’d want to
for the next ten years. I love the guy, but I can say I made the fall out
majorly. Pride may be in the way? I’ve no idea. But I know that no one at that
time was closer to me than Paul. Besides Raguel, Jira, and Raymond of course
(are… you serious…). Water, please!
NOW! Back to the story.
Angel and Paul have been best friends since… I’ve no idea
actually, but I do know since young. I was sitting with the guys, while those
two, along with other people, were at the other side. All day, I tried to talk
to her. Nothing would come out of my lips. I was just looking at her and the
more I do the more I died a bit in the inside. At the end of dinner, we all
said good bye and left Angel and Paul alone. Jerusalem skipped the bus the last
minute to hang out with them. She and him had a thing before (which is actually
why this story is being told, actually. Guy had a rough day… c’mon. Give him a
break).
All night, I stayed up. I didn’t know what to do. I did the
most stupid thing imaginable. The Agreement must be broken. I had to tell her
something. I typed out a long stupid romantic shmuck of a message to her. I
told her how I felt and all that non sense. It was horrible. The next day, I
got rid of all my poems and diary entries away. The next day was the “ moving
on” process.
Monday of a July. Everyone was busy. I asked Paul what he
thought of my move. He was honest enough to say I blew my luck to ever being
friends with her ever again. Scotch, please. He was right. I did. Another long
story short, it was August. The month I’ve been waiting for.
See, my birthday was in August and I secretly loved my
birthday. This birthday was special. It was my 18th birthday. My
friends all remembered my 17th birthday last year and I felt
blessed. This birthday? Let’s hear it, shall we, Mr. Bartender?
21st August was a hump day. I was just starting
out school and I was already studying for the theory classes I had. The exam
was easy for me. I wasn’t much of a person in my class, but outside of my
course, I made friends with international people. Bryan and Jazz, my good
friends.
Jazz’s girl, Amy, wanted to give me the “best 18th
birthday ever” since she was like a sister to me. Evil at times, but actually
caring. You know, a sister.
What
she meant was that she wanted me to experience being drunk. I allowed it. To
this day, I regret getting a Long Island Iced Tea. Good thing I control myself
by drinking coffee. By the way… Make mea Long Island Iced Tea!
(I
gave him a regular Iced Tea. He was too drunk to even notice.)
The day after that was just fuzzy and I had a “whatever
works” attitude. The other part of me felt kind of upset that my own friends
from church never remembered my birthday. I forgave them for it, but I’m still
sad by that fact. Sigh, my life, right? Horrible! Scotch, please. (He drank
that Iced Tea with astonishing speed.)
Oh! I forgot something. I agreed to the whole drinking part
because I was partially upset about this one night. The night at the Chevy’s.
It was the closest thing I was ever gonna get a prom night. It was a girl’s
debut.
The debut was a girl’s special night. This was the time she
became 18. After gathering intel that Angel was attending, the first thing came
to my mind: Panic. A formal dress party, with everyone in suits and dresses.
Now, Angel in a dress? Dang..,
Angel wore a cream colored dress that night. All through
that night, we avoided each other. She sat with Paul as usual. I tried to look
for alcohol. Then again, it was a Christian girl’s debut so the closest I got
was apple cider. (This guy’s pathetic…) When the night was drawing to a close
and everyone wanted to take picture picture (seriously… that’s what he said.) I
went to her. She was going to leave the next night and it was time to use the
YOLO card again. Other time was during the concert, but it was only a picture
with her.
She was standing there, looking for her sister. I appeared
before her, blocking her view. My mouth opened and out of my mouth came out… (
I was actually leaning over to hear this) Nothing. ( I dropped the Colin glass
due to the thought of how pathetic this guy was)
Yes, Nothing. I muttered yes, ummm, so… yeah…, Oh and
because. Those were the words my first sentence had to her. It didn’t make
sense. I explained it to her clearly when she smiled and asked me what I wanted
to say. Long story short, I was moving on and if we could be friends again.Her
literal last words to me would be “ I’ll talk to you later”.
Mr. Bartender… There was no later. (wow, no drink? I know
right?)
The next night, she flew off and instead of being a good
boy, I ran to Chevy’s. Why did I run, you ask? I ran for five hours straight,
partly because I was lost and partly because I was upset. I made it to Chevy’s
and sat on the sofa next to the hall the event took place. There, I imagined
her, still in dress. Now, I can’t be proud of what I did but instead of going
to the airport (she didn’t want him there.)
I talked to this mute Angel of my imagination. Talking to her until I
was done.
Anyways, the next few months, I was focusing on school. Her
illusion would always haunt me. It followed me around the whole school. Just
mocking me. Balancing on what I want in life and just trying to be happy. I
became a bit more rebellious and I attended the college group in church for the
sake of it. I started to become spiritually lazy and I’m going to regret that.
I began drinking casually and I liked it. I got overboard drunk once, but for
the sake of last call, we’ll skip that.
Just like that, vacation smacked me in the face. I was
having a good time and I went back to that job I quit earlier. It was December.
I never had a peaceful Christmas yet since Angel’s birthday (or so I am told)
is on the 16th of December.
I
was working that day and I considered it a day when beautiful evil was born.
The signs of her were everywhere. Even though the illusions disappeared, her
name or her country would always flash in front of my face.
Can you believe that it was only a few hours ago I decided
to run away? (“What? Why? How?” I asked.) Good question, my good man!
You see, it was the 22nd of December of this
year, 2013. She was coming back in my life and I was really not in the mood of thinking
of her. I ignore it most of the time. After all, it wasn’t real, this feeling
towards her. Why bother thinking about it? Well, it was when I found out her
first kiss was with Jerusalem did I snap. I broke my one of my rules for this
year : no more video games. I became addicted to this MMORPG since I maxed the
level capacity. Now all I had to do was talk strategy with my friends, who
played this game too. Jerusalem was one of them. I didn’t expect the whole
gamer talk to suddenly about kissing.
He kissed her at the back of the stage, behind the chairs
and whiteboards. I was listening with a heavy heart. Why would we suddenly talk
about this? We’re gamers… Besides, I hate it when they start talking about
their childhood. I was jealous in a sense, but also remotely curious. I
couldn’t really take it so I drank the nearest thing: Water. I treated it like
alcohol because I kept going back to it. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I
decided to go downstairs and grab a cup of coffee.10 cups actually. By the way,
coffee would be nice!
I was high on caffeine when I reached home. Playing the
game wasn’t important anymore. I slept for a while and woke up. Next thing I
know, I stole my dad’s credit card, took the next plane out of Singapore to
America, and here I am… Until I’m deported back, of course.
Mark’s story ends
here. He was deported back to Singapore and I never heard anything from him
ever again.He told me the whole story of 2013 in his life. Albeit weird and
normal but the one thing I’ve learned from Mark from his story is that he never
gave up. I sometimes wonder if he was still praising God for what happened in
his life. He was on the verge of drunkenness when he asked me,
“Have you been
saved? Despite the stupid things that you did in a year, like what I’m doing
now, God forgives. Strange saying from a drunk idiot? Yes. Saying from a drunk
Christian? Well, you decide.”
It’s amazing what
people could do in a year. No matter how weird or painful it was, a year is a
year full of lessons. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to
good people. That’s how the world works. That’s how God designed it. Never
regret a year, NAY, a second in your life. Your story might become a famous
story full of lessons one day. That was what Mark the drunk storyteller taught
me.
So… How did your year
go?
