Bottoms Up

Avery sat by herself in the far corner of the club in an attempt to get as far away from the drunken idiots that swarmed the bar as possible. If it weren’t for the fact that her best friend had just won a huge division game, she wouldn’t even be there.

Plumes of cigarette smoke surrounded her and the smell of alcohol was beginning to make her feel nauseous. She hated coming to places like this, but she couldn’t resist Tyler’s pouts and pleas for her to come along with him for a “small celebration”, as he called it, with the team. Avery thought that this little get together with his teammates would take place at a small pub, not some techno-raving club. Of course, Avery knew that in the back of her mind she should have expected nothing less.

Avery stared in bewilderment at the boy across the club, who was seated at the bar. Tyler was supposed to get her a bottle of water and an alcoholic beverage for himself, and then return back to the table. How Tyler managed to get away with buying alcohol at only the age of twenty still stumped Avery, but she figured that with a little fame and money, Tyler could just about get anything he asked for. From what she could tell, however, he got caught up with a few of his teammates that decided to show up. A couple of shots were passed around amongst the group and that soon turned into a never ending string of beers and hard liquor that Tyler just couldn’t pass up. That boy never learned how to say no.

From Tyler’s body language alone and they way his steps were slightly off balance as he walked back toward the booth Avery had been glued to for over twenty minutes, he was pretty inebriated. His slurred compliments to the ladies he passed by definitely didn’t go unnoticed by Avery. He leaned over the table she was situated at and lazily smirked.

“Let’s dance baby.” Tyler reached out and tried to grab Avery’s hand. Without hesitation and a look of disgust, Avery slapped his hand away and grabbed her clutch off of the table.

“Can we just go back to your apartment? I really don’t want to be here anymore.”

Tyler groaned at his best friend’s request. It had only been a half hour since they arrived and the party was just getting started. Avery noticed his hesitation to leave and added, “Please Ty?”

“I’m gonna go let the guys know we’re leaving,” he grumbled in response. Avery followed his figure as he walked back towards the bar. As he was shaking hands, preparing to depart from his friends, a few more teammates joined the group. Tyler greeted them and it wasn’t long until another beer was shoved into his hand. At that point, Avery knew that she was in for a long night. Once again, she would have to watch her best friend drink himself into oblivion and make sure he made it home in one piece. It seemed like with every visit, she felt far more like his babysitter than his friend.

Avery noticed the group of hockey players shift to the dance floor. Girls wearing skimpy clothing that barely covered their bodies surrounded and threw themselves at the boys. When one of the girls started grinding on Tyler, he grabbed onto her hips and sloppily placed kisses on her neck and cheek. The sight alone made Avery sick to her stomach.

This was not the Tyler she knew. This was not the boy that she had grown up with. This was a product of a career that had gotten to his head and made him think that he was far more superior and glamorous than he truly was.



Tyler woke up with a splitting headache, unable to recall how he even got back to his apartment last night, let alone ended up in his pajamas and in bed. After debating with himself about whether or not to get out of bed, he finally pushed off his comforter and let his feet fall off of the side and onto the floor. Feeling slightly woozy, he stumbled into the kitchen and found Advil and a glass of water already on the counter. In one swift motion, he shoved the pills into his mouth and gulped down nearly half of the glass.

As he approached the living room area, he saw a very solemn Avery sitting on the couch.

“Morning,” he mumbled as he plopped down onto the open space next to her.

Without so much as a hello, Avery retorted, “We need to talk Ty.”

“Can this wait until my head stops throbbing?” he asked, massaging his temples.

“It’s about your drinking.” Tyler dropped his hands to his sides and gave Avery his full attention.

“What about it?” Avery had told herself earlier that morning that she was going to keep her composure and stay calm, but the pent up anger she harbored from her previous visits over the past year weighed far too heavily on her and his simple question set her off.

“You turn into a complete fool when you drink,” she spit out, a tad harsher than she had intended. Tyler was completely caught off guard by her sudden mood change and didn’t even know how to respond. After a few minutes, he went with the only answer he could come up with.

“I like to have a good time, what’s so wrong with that?” Although making Avery angrier wasn’t his intention, his question pissed her off even more.

“Drinking one or two beers is having a good time. Getting completely shit faced is not,” she yelled out, flailing her hands into the air. “It never used to be this bad, but whenever I come to visit it always ends up like this. You drinking, me having to haul your ass home, and I’m sick of it!”

Tyler groaned as his head began to throb even more and he ran a hand over his face. “You’re over exaggerating here Av.”

Avery narrowed her eyes and intensely glared at Tyler. He was so stuck on himself and in his own little world that he had no idea how far he has spiraled out of control.

“What the hell has happened to you?” she questioned in disbelief. Tyler wanted nothing more than to put an end to this conversation and go back to the comfort of his own bed.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’re not the same guy I knew two years ago!” she exploded once more.

“Yeah, well people change.” Tyler’s voice stayed monotone and it came off to Avery that he wasn’t even fazed by her accusations.

“You certainly have,” she quickly shot back and rose from the couch. “Do you even remember what you did last night?”

Tyler’s silence and blank stare was an easy indicator to Avery that he couldn’t remember a thing.

“Of course you don’t. As I’m sure you don’t remember half your nights since you’ve been in Boston.”

Tyler finally had enough. “What the hell is up your ass Avery?”

Avery’s face began to heat up and she pointed at Tyler accusingly.

“You promised Ty. You said that you wouldn’t let the fame get to you, but look at what you’ve become! You’re well on your way to becoming an alcoholic and you’re not even twenty one yet!” She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down some before she had an asthma attack, and then continued, “every time I’m here with you, it’s nothing but a constant party.”

Tyler threw his head back and closed his eyes. “What do you want me to do Avery? Just stay cooped up in this damn apartment all of the time? If the guys go out for a couple of beers, yeah I’m going to tag along.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s more than a few beers.”

“It’s none of your fucking business! Lay off!” Avery’s eyes darkened and in that moment Tyler knew that he had said the wrong thing. Avery quickly turned away from him and started walking off toward the guest room she was staying in. Tyler scrambled to his feet and followed after her. Just as he made it to the doorway, Avery rushed past him with her bags in tow.

“Av—I’m sorry. I just…” he started to apologize, but stopped short when Avery whipped around and glared at him.

“Do you want to end up like Danny?” Tyler could see the tears that clouded her eyes and he was completely speechless. Since his accident, Avery never talked about her brother. He could tell that saying Danny’s name instantly brought back all of the heartache and memories. “I’m not going to put myself through that again.”

Avery turned away from Tyler once more and briskly walked to the front door. She had every intention of opening the door and walking out without so much as a goodbye. Turning the door knob however, she felt compelled to leave him with one last thought.

“You know how I feel about that poison you carelessly fill your body with, and I’m not going to sit here and watch you destroy everything you’ve worked so hard for.”

And then she was gone, leaving Tyler standing in the middle of his living room feeling numb.



Avery stared down at the white flowers in her hands, wondering why she even bothered buying them in the first place. They were going to look pretty for a day or two and then slowly turn black and die.

He would love them, she kept telling herself as she slowly followed the stone path to the one place she hadn’t been to in years. As she neared the end of the path and stepped onto the grass, her grip on the flowers tightened and her stomach was in knots. She walked down by the small pond and the familiar line of gravestones came into view. She stopped in front of one in particular and immediately fell limp to her knees.

“Hi Danny,” she softly whispered, running her fingers over his gravestone. A few tears began to trickle down her cheeks and she traced his name. She had so much she wanted to say to her brother, but she didn’t even know where to start. She wanted to tell him how much she missed him and how much she needed him to comfort her, but words failed her.

“You should have known better than to be so reckless Dan,” she murmured as she stared down at his gravestone. Avery closed her eyes and she could almost picture Danny nodding his head in agreement. She wished that she had someone else to blame for what happened to him, but didn’t.

One stupid mistake ended his life. One party, a few beers, driving drunk, racing another truck and swerving into a light pole ended the life of her brother and no one was to blame but him.

This could be Tyler, she thought as she looked at the gravestones around her. It had been a few months since she had last seen him and she feared every day since then that she would get a call similar to the one she had received about her brother. Seeing as it was officially offseason for him, Tyler was due back home soon and Avery didn’t know how to feel about that.

Avery lost track of time as she sat beside her brother’s gravestone. The breeze had picked up a bit and the sun was starting to set. She had spent nearly half of the day at the cemetery and although she was hesitant at first, she was happy that she had decided to go. For now at least, she was at peace with everything.
Unbeknownst to Avery, however, a lone figure slowly crept up behind her with flowers of his own. It wasn’t until he leaned down next to Avery that she finally noticed that she wasn’t alone. She was startled at the sight of hands placing flowers next to the ones she had brought and when she turned to look at who the hands belonged to, she was shocked to see that it was Tyler.

“Wha—what are you doing here?” she stuttered. Tyler remained silent and instead Tyler pulled Avery into his arms and kissed the top of her head. Avery was so tempted to question him once more, but something told her that it would be best to just keep quiet.

“I’m so sorry Avery,” Tyler finally whispered after minutes of silence. Avery could hear every ounce of regret in his voice.

“I’m just worried about you Ty,” she muttered into his chest. Tyler pushed her away a bit and frowned when he saw that she was crying.

“I haven’t had a drink since that night.” Avery raised her eyebrows and asked if he was being serious with her. When he nodded his head, Avery threw her arms around his neck.

“Promise me you’ll be smarter than he was Ty.” As Avery pulled away, Tyler looked down at the auburn-haired girl in his arms and brushed his thumb across her cheek to wipe away her remaining tears.

“I promise.”