These Four Words

“Let’s go!” John calls to his friend from the across the room. They are at Steven’s end of the year party, and are officially high school seniors.

“But this is my favorite song!” She whines. Sarah didn’t even know what song was playing; she just didn’t want to go home. John knew what she was doing.
He doesn’t respond, and grabs onto her wrist gently pulling her to the door.

This is how all of the parties they attended together went. One of them is the designated driver, and the other gets smashed. It was Sarah’s turn to drink.

She knew they had to leave because her parents would flip if she missed their ‘generous’ curfew of 12:30. The extra half an hour was tacked on because it was a ‘special occasion.’

“You need to get home, Sarah.” John says to her once they were out of the house. She had started dancing in the front yard, and his patience was dwindling.

“Okay, Mom!” She joke yells at him. He can’t help but give a small smirk. When one of them is drunk and being cared for by the other, they call each other mom.

He unlocks his truck and rushes to the passenger side to open the door for her. It wasn’t a romantic gesture; they always pretend they are the other’s chauffer.

“Milady,” John says in a fake British accent and bows.

“Thank you, kind sir.” Sarah says to him back in a posh accent.

No matter how many times they had the same dialogue, they thought it was funny. If you are the drunk one, you think it is funny because you are drunk. If you are the sober one, you think its funny because the other person is drunk.

When the two friends go to a party with a group of people, they like to get someone else to DD so they can drink together. Their other friends were at other parties or grounded this weekend.

John starts up the car and pops in an old CD. Sarah was too drunk to recognize the lyrics or even who the artist was. When she was drunk, most music sounded the same. She loved music, but it wasn’t her passion like it was John’s.

“I had a lot of fun, John.” She slowly says to him making sure the words came out the way she wanted. She sometimes had trouble talking in coherent sentences.

“Me too Sarah, But remember, I get to drink at the next party.” He says in a mock serious tone.

“Yeah, yeah.” A brilliant idea popped into her head. “Or we could get Jared to DD!”

They both laugh because they knew that was what was likely to happen.

“I am glad we are friends, Sarah.” John had been friends with her since they were in grade school. They grew up together on the same street and when through all of the same schooling. He had nothing but platonic feelings for her even though most of his friends were convinced there was something else going on there.

“Me too. But you know you couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.” She says with a goofy grin. She really was glad that they were friends. Since Sarah is an only child, it was nice to feel like she had a brother and a best friend. John was always there for her, just like she was always there for him. She would be lying if she said she didn’t have any feelings for him. She knew he didn’t feel that way about her, so she was fine just being friends with him.

They just sat in comfortably in silence the rest of the way. Sarah was too sleepy to talk and neither of them had anything to say.

By the time they got to her house, the clock read 12:28. Perfect timing.

“Bye Mom! Pick me up tomorrow at 1.” Sarah jokes.

“Be safe Dear.” John says in a falsetto.

Sarah laughs trying to compose herself before she walks into her house. She lives in an adobe style home. She absolutely loved it. The architecture in Arizona was beautiful.

Sarah would tell her parents that she just had one beer, even though she had quite a few shots, and then go off to bed.

“Did you have a good time, sweetie? I hope you didn’t make a fool of yourself.” Her mom says.

“No Mother, I only had a beer.” She lied almost laughing.

“That’s my good girl. Are you and that boy dating yet?” She asks.

“Wait? Do you mean John?!” Sarah was shocked to hear her mother ask.

“Yes. I don’t know how many times I have to say that you would make a cute couple.” Her mom had never before said that.

“God no! We are just friends. We don’t like each other in any way besides platonically.” She hoped that sentence made sense; words were all jumbled up in her head. Also, part of her agreed with her mom.

“Whatever you say. Go to bed, Hon. And congrats on finishing up the school year.”

She let out a sigh and dragged her body up the stairs.

Her relationship with her mother was strange. Martha was one of those women that in Sarah’s opinion should not have kids. She isn’t a very good mom, but they get along for the most part. After she was born, Martha realized she was not cut out for mothering, so she got her tubes tied to prevent any more pregnancies.

Sarah’s father was the stereotypical protective father. She wondered why he was not up to grill her, but remembered he was on a business trip.

She changed into her pajamas and passed out on her bed.