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The Meeting:

There I was sat, facing an empty chair, in a smoky bar. Not much alike a normal bar,this one, the Belgian Bar, had its own brewery and pretty much everything waswooden. Even the regulars. There was art from local artists on the wall, but it was all pretty terrible, all that unconventional stuff and the like, not to my taste really.I had bought myself a bottle of red wine, in preparation for my soon-to-attend friend.I’d already had one glass so far. I sat for awhile longer trying to make sense of a pieceof art which seemed to be chewing gum randomly spat out onto the hide of some sortof animal. I’m pretty sure it had some strong, deep-rooted meaning.This symbolises what happens when one bad aspect of western culture destroysanother. I call it Western culture karma.The imaginary artist, beret and all, poofed from my brain as my soon-to-attend friendattended, now to be known as Amy. I watched her enter the bar, nervously shuffle pastthe bar itself and look around the room. She spotted me and smiled.I wondered if she smiled because she was happy to see me or that she didn’t have tofeel embarrassed about looking aimlessly around a bar any more.Either way, I smiled back.She sat down in front of me. I offered her a cigarette.“What kind?”“Marlboro”“Nah, I’ve got my own, thanks.”“What do you smoke then?”“Camels.”“Ohh, classy.”She picked her bag up from by her feet and rustled until she’d pulled out a packet of Camels and a red lighter.“Can I have one?”“Thought you had some.”“Not Camels I don’t.”She sighed and passed one over to me. I thanked her and lit it, as did she. Once shehad one puff, she poured herself a glass wine.“It’s really been a long time, hasn’t it?” I asked.She looked up and directly into my eyes with a solemn face, and then burst intolaughter. I joined in, although I don’t think either of us knew what exactly was funny.She got out of her seat and came round to hug me.“It’s so good to finally see you again” she said.“Yea, it’s great to see you too, I’ve missed you” I replied.She looked at me, and smiled once again.“I’ve missed you too”.She sat back down to the table and returned to her wine and cigarette.“So, come on, what’s been happening in your world?” She said this with a surprisingamount of curiosity.“It’s a long story.”“All the better. My time is yours to fritter away.”I smiled.

The Long Story:

Well after I last saw you at that leaving party, the next morning I woke up on Joe’sfloor, in front of the fire, for about the millionth time. I staggered to my feet and triedto find a clock. Before I found the time my hangover rushed up from my feet and intomy head. I kind of just fell across the room onto the sofa and laid down. Luckily,that’s where my phone was. I picked it up and checked the time. I can’t remember theexact time it was, but it was pretty late, about 1pm or something. I forced myself up.I’m guessing I’d had noodles before I went to sleep as I could still taste it, along withmy nose smelling like a brewery. As I was about to leave the room I saw someonehuddled on the leather chair in the room. I couldn’t tell who it was, so I just left themthere and got a glass of water from Joe’s kitchen. After that I just stumbled round tothe Esso petrol station. Got myself a bottle of Dr.Pepper and ambled the 45 minutewalk home.

The Meeting:

“I know who that was on the chair.” Amy said.“Who?” I asked.“It was me.” She replied.“How's you end up there?” I questioned.“Can you remember anything of the party the night before?” she said.I hate it when people answer questions with questions.“No, I remember arriving, smiling and that’s it.” I answered.“Well, that all leads up to why I ended up at Joe’s. It’s probably shorter than your story though.”

The Shorter Story:

I arrived a bit early to Luke’s house. I think I was one of the first there. I sat on thesofa with one his dogs for awhile. Luke put on some CD, I think it was AC/DC or something like that. I talked to Luke for a bit before some other people arrived. I can’tremember exactly who, but Oli was with them and he’d brought my alcohol with him.I was still in to all that alcopop stuff then, so I had a nice large bottle of blue sugarystuff to fill up on. I was in an excellent mood at the time, the party seemed like itwould be good and I’d finally finished with Dane Court School. I was drinking prettyquickly and I’d started talking to a few people. After half-an-hour my drink was goneand pretty much everyone was there. I’d managed to get a bottle of wine off of Luke’smum. Unfortunately, in my fairly drunken state I couldn’t find a corkscrew in- between dancing and shouting along to songs. Then, you and Joe arrived, late asusual, both with a bottle of red wine in had. I think yours was nearly gone by the timeyou arrived. You said hello to lots of people, complained about the music and changedit to some mix disc you’d made. I think the first song was that one from the DisneyRobin Hood, Oo de Lally or something. By the time you’d come over to talk to meyour bottle had gone and you’d seen mine.“Wanna let me have some?” you slurred at me with a funny little smile.“I don’t have a corkscrew.” I replied.“Well, if I open it, we’ll share it.”“Deal.”You took the bottle off me and then searched your pockets.

“Oh, one sec.” you said a little dismayed.You walked off out the front door. I thought you’d gone to get one off someoneoutside so I just carried on talking to people. You returned a couple of minutes later.“I lost my corkscrew, but I managed to open it anyway.”I looked down at the bottle to see that most of the neck was missing and the remainswere jagged.“I’m not drinking from that, I’ll get glass in my mouth.” I said kind of angry.You took a swig to show it was fine but in the process cut your lip. You thenwandered off. Once again, I carried on as normal, kind of angry you’d wasted a bottleof wine, but you came back with an empty wine glass, the bottle and a sieve. You took me to a table, put the glass down and then poured the wine through the sieve into theglass. You handed me back the glass.“There you go. Sorry I wasted a lot of it, that’s about half I think.” You said kind of timidly. Your lip was still bleeding and the dried blood looked like smudged lipstick. Ilaughed at you and took the glass. You smiled back and then your face lit up likeyou’d remembered something. You ran off to the front door.After that I only saw you running around looking for things, meanwhile everyone elseseemed to be enjoying the music.Suddenly, you grabbed me.“Hey come outside, we’ve got some absinthe. You’ve got to have some. We’re doingthe fire ritual and everything.” You sounded very excited, even though I knew you’ddone it before loads of times.“OK, I’ll come watch.” I replied.I followed him into Luke’s back garden. There were 5 or 6 of you sat in a circle under a tree.“OK, where’s everyone’s money for this?” you said.A few people got some money out and chucked it in a little bag you had.“There’s not enough here, who didn’t pay?” you asked.“I had to lend some money to my sister, I’ll pay you back for it.” Someone said.“Sorry guv, no money, no absinthe. Amy, you must have some money, chip the restand you can have some.” You said.I’m guessing you’d forgotten that you’d already asked me to have some for nothing.“How much?”“A fiver.”I sighed.“Alright.”I got a fiver from my pocket and handed it you. You smiled broadly, stuck it in your bag and then got a bottle from another bag. It was a different bottle from the normalabsinthe you used to get from Sainsbury.“Right, this is special stuff. This isn’t the cheap replica from Sainsbury. This is 68%and includes wormwood, apparently. Who wants the first taste?” you asked toeveryone there.Everyone seemed kind of reluctant.“Alright, me first then.” You said.You got out all the things you’d been gathering throughout the night. There was amug, some strange spoon, sugar and some other things. You set it all out. Got peopleto hold things while you done it. The final thing was setting fire to the stuff in themug. Pouring water in and then drinking it. You swallowed about half a mug in onego I think.“Fuck.” You muttered gruffly.

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Soon to Attend Friend

*INCOMPLETE* The story of a teenager who sucumbs to extreme escapism and love. Both eventually fail him and he turns to music to give meaning to his life.

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Category:	Uncategorized.
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Upload Date:	01/22/2008
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	love music drugs addiction rimbaud escapism margate thanet Literature-Literature love music drugs addiction rimbaud escapism margate thanet Literature-Literature (fewer)