40 Ounces and an Acid Tab...

Ring Ring.... Ring Ring.... Ring Ring... Ring "Hello?" A groggy voice answered.

"Hello, Mr. Kelan, it's Andrew." I said quickly.

"Andrew? What in the blazes are you doing calling this late?" He said, slightly more irritated.

"I'm very sorry. I need to talk to Jason, it is very urgent, it can't wait, sir." I hoped my politeness would make Mr. Kelan give the phone to Jason quicker.

He let out a tired grunt. "Well, alright. I'll go get him."

"Thank you..." A few minutes Jason's familiar, yet tired voice came to the phone. "Andrew?"

"Jason..." I said, already choking up a little. "Uhhh... my dad... he just died..."

For a second, I heard nothing over the phone. Then a softer version of Jason's voice said, "Wow, Jason... I'm.. I'm really s-"

"Stop! Please God Jason don't say sorry. I am going to hear enough of that at school (My school was making everybody come to school Saturday because of having off Thursday.). I really need to get out of the house. Can you come and pick me up? We can go anywhere, I don't care."

"Sure, I'll come, I'll be there soon." Jason sounded very sad.

"Okay, thanks. See you soon."

"See you." He hung up. I went to check up on my mother, she was sleeping. I went to wait outside.

When Jason showed up he simply said, "hop in..." I did as he requested and we sped off.

"So... where are we going?" I said with a hint of curiosity.

"I got just the right place..." He said with a solemn sounding voice.

We drove, for what seemed like hours, we were in the mountains, and we rounded the corner, and I could see a large body of water in front of me. Lake Erie. I hadn't been there in years. It was one of our favorite places to go when we were kids. We found a way to sneak right up to the water at night.

"Wow, Jason! I didn't even think that-" he interrupted me.

"I know...let's go see if our little passage way is still there" We took a trail up to the little cave, which was much smaller than I remembered, and through that, we got spit right out beside the docks.

We took a seat by the lakeside, coming dangerously close with the water. "I just.. I can't believe it man. Your dad was like a second father to me..."

"I know, he was like a first father to me..." I joked sadly.

Jason laughed at that terrible joke, I think just because he felt bad, because even I didn't laugh.

It was a very peaceful time. It was like the opposite of how I felt.

Jason said, sounding as though he was guilty of something, "You know, I'll tell the guys that we should have the acid later, you paid the ten bucks and you deserve to partake with us."

"What do you mean? I still want to do the acid tonight. In fact, I think that's exactly what I need" I said, feeling sure of myself.

"Are you sure?" He said, in disbelief. "You have been through a lot, it might not be the best thing. Especially with your mom."

"I'll send my mom with some of her friends, she'll need that anyway. I really am going to need to unwind, and I think the acid is the perfect thing." I said, feeling even more sure.

"Okay.. well, we better get back now then." He said, checking his watch.

I didn't want to go, but I knew he was right, so I said "Alright... let's go. I suppose I need to check on my mother anyway."

The drive back was uneventful, we just mentioned a few things to each other, but no full on conversations. We listened to Queens new album most of the time, and if not, it was just silence. I guess we were both tired.

When I got home, I checked on my mom, still fast asleep. After that, I decided to just get ready for school since I was up already anyway, and it was around the time I would've gotten up and gotten ready.

When I got to school, it was practically deserted, which made sense, because nobody wants to come in on Saturday.

"Oh My God! Andrew, I am so sorry! I can't even believe it!" My friend Alice was saying halfheartedly (It's not like anyone could relate, so everyone said it this way.)

I pretended like that wasn't what I had been hearing all day and just said thanks. The only person to really cheer me up so far was Jason. I met up with Lindsay Weir a little while though the day, expecting another round of "I'm so sorry", but she surprised me.

Not only did she not say any of the other bullshit that everybody else said, but she actually made me feel better. She knew what I was experiencing and just told me she was there if I needed to talk, and that's it.

I also ran into Daniel and Nick, and they made sure I was still cool for acid tonight, which I reassured them I was. They didn't really mention my dad dying, which was better then saying "I'm so sorry, Andrew. Are you okay?" so I took it. All of my other friends didn't know how to react, because the hadn't been through something like this themselves, so I just heard sorry after sorry.

There was only one other person to cheer me up a little, Janice Wensy. She said sorry just like every one else, but from her it was different. She told me to meet her in front of the school after I get out, and I suppose I couldn't not be exited for that. I was getting more attention from her than I ever did before. It was odd, but I wasn't about to let a good thing go.

In English, Nick seemed very distant. He looked like he was in very deep thought about something -- or someone. It made me curious. Who or what was he thinking about? I decided I would talk to him after we got out of class.

"Hmm? What? Oh, Andrew, hey, sorry, I was just thinking about something. Uhmm? What did you
say?"

"Oh, yeah, well, are you exited about tonight?"

"Oh hell yes. The stuff we have is the best I've ever had. It's pretty amazing."

"Alright... yeah cool. See you... at your house?"

"Uhh, no actually, my dad and I are fighting a lot right now, so, no. Ken's house. Here, actually, let me write down the address."

"Alright."

He scribbled address down on a piece of paper he got out of his pocket.

"You are going to pick up Jason and Lindsay, alright?" He said nonchalantly.

"Lindsay? Where does she live?" I said, Surprised.

He got out another piece of paper and wrote down the address to her house too.

"Okay. You cool?" Nick said lazily.

"Yeah. Thanks." I replied.

Right after school, I rushed out to the front and Janice was standing there waiting. I tried to keep my cool, but she has told me multiple times since then that I was very "noticeably nervous, but in a cute way."

"Hey Janice!" I said nervously.

"Hey, Andrew." She said with a smile.

"Hey. So, um, what did you want me out here for?" I said happily.

"I don't know. I thought we could listen to music or something. I have an an Abba album that we could listen too, I mean, if you want to." My mouth twisted lightly into a frown. I hate Disco. Always have, always will. "Uhh, you know what. I don't really like Abba, but if we hop into my car, I could play some Pink Floyd." I said smiling. Her lips curled into a slight frown.

"Oh, well, Pink Floyd isn't really my thing." She said disdainfully. I could tell then we wouldn't share very common music interests. "Well. You know what, I should be getting home actually. I am helping my mom cook dinner tonight for my family." She said, smiling slightly awkwardly.

Shit, my only chance to get the girl of my dreams. I thought as she walked away.

When I got home, the house was quiet. I walked into my mothers bedroom, which was empty. I checked all over the house, but there was no sign of her. The last place I checked was the garage (Which my father and I had converted into a man-cave a few years ago.)

My mother was sitting in my father favorite chair, listening to his favorite band (The Beatles), wearing his favorite jacket, and just crying.

"Mom?" I said, creeping into the room.

"Oh... hey Andrew, come here. We haven't really had the chance to talk since..." She said to me, I guess trying to help me through this.

"Listen mom, We can talk later, I promise, I'm fine, but we will talk later. You are going to go out with some of your friends tonight to talk with them, and hopefully have some fun. I think it will cheer you up." I could tell she was going to slip into some sort of depression if I didn't help her.

"Okay... maybe that will help me." She said, trying to pull off a slight smile. She was hurt very bad.

"On Sunday, I am going to talk with you about everything and take down some of dad's stuff so it isn't around to make us feel sad. Okay?"

"Okay." she replied.

I helped her up, she took a shower, got dressed and she was off to meet with her friends (Which I had set up yesterday.)

I got ready, drove to Jason's, picked him up, drove to Lindsay's, picked her up, and then headed toward Ken's.

I was in a weird position.

What I think would happen if someones father died, is he would stay home from school, the mother would stay home from work (if she had any), and they would talk about, clear out all the fathers belongings, call in to his work, talk to everybody who needs to know, and various other things.

My mother and I were doing the exact opposite of that. She hadn't really did anything since we got the news, to be more honest, so to be exact, I was doing the exact opposite... and on purpose.

I didn't want to accept my dad dying, so I kept going to school I went out with my friends, I sent my mother to go out with her friends, and I shoved off getting rid of his stuff for a long time (I said Sunday, but I didn't really get around to it until about three weeks later, which didn't help my mothers state.)

So, there we were, in my car, Zeppelin blasting out the windows (It was an open to car, so it was really just blasting out.) This night was going to be legendary!

I looked over to Lindsay, who was in the front seat. She looked stunning. She was pretty yes, but I didn't know her situation. Was she single? A couple? Did anyone else in our little group (that was the first time I had thought of us in that way, "our little group") have interest in her? I was wondering if I should just try for her, but ultimately decided against it.

We pulled up to Ken's and we strutted inside. His house was... trashy, to be honest, but still, we didn't need a nice home to drop acid. In fact, better it was pre-messed up.

When we walked inside, Daniel, Ken, Nick, and Kim we all sitting on one of the couches, and I could see the acid, and a bottle of Malt Liquor on the table in front of them. We greeted each other and then just kind of dove right in.

The first thing we did was each take a swig of the Malt Liquor, next we put on The Dark Side of The Moon by Pink Floyd, then we each peeled of a tab, stuck it on our tongues and kind of just went with it. It tasted pretty gross to me then, but I've gotten used to it.

Now, there are three parts to this story:

Mine, Nick, and Ken's, which most of it was spent at Ken's house. (Regular)

Daniel, Kim, and Lindsay's, which most of it was spent in Daniel's car. (Italic)

...and Jason's, which was spent in Ken's room. (Bold)

Let's dig in, shall we?

"Alright," Nick said enthusiastically. "Let's fucking do this." He was already grinning, with wide eyes.

I flipped channels over to MTV, and they were all okay with it, all except for Kim Kelly, who must of not really liked MTV. She just let it go, though.

About thirty minutes in, we were all feeling the affects, and some were taking it better than others. Jason, for one, had already locked himself in Ken's room. Daniel and Kim decided to head out to get some wine, because they felt like "getting super fucking fancy." Lindsay said she would tag along.

Lindsay, for some reason was being really cool about all of this, which I was surprised at, because I figured she didn't like drugs very much. Well, I mean she took the drugs in the beginning, which was around the time she stopped being very cool, and started being very fucked up.

'Shit', he thought. 'Shit shit shit', he continued thinking. 'Oh Jesus, what the hell is happening? I'm not supposed to be here. Ahhh! I should be at home.' He thought while he ran into Ken's bed. "WAIT!" he exclaimed out loud. 'Yes, yes. I know how to fix it. I need to start fucking writing, yeah. I'll write a story for my English teacher. Fuck. Yes. Then my parents won't get angry.'

(I found it interesting that he was taking the acid so badly, being the guy he is. His favorite drug WAS ACID. I guess there was just some shit in it that he didn't anticipate. It gave me a good laugh.)

"Alright, get in guys." Daniel said.

"Daniel. Daniel. Are you sure you can drive wile you are high, erg?" Kim asked.

"Dude, it's good. Just get in."

"Alright. I trust you." Kim reassured him.

"Lindsay, you good?" she asked Lindsay. Lindsay was really high by this point.

"Yeah, let's fucking party!" she yelled. She then proceeded to kick Ken's mailbox.

"The acid was making her fucking crazy" was the way Daniel and Kim put it.

"Alright! Let's go. Where are we going?" Lindsay said excitedly, while getting in the car.

"To the supermarket. We are going to get some wine! I got my... Thingy with me. Ya know, the I.D. thingy man!" Daniel said.

"Alright, good. Good. Let's go then." Lindsay said, again, in an exited tone.

"Okay guys. Those idiots didn't take the booze with them. Let's drink this shit up!" Ken exclaimed excitedly. "Yeah, and, OH! Guys... guys.. I got some weed with me. We should totally smoke it dude! Guys!" this was probably the most excited I had ever seen Ken.

I started laughing my ass off while shaking my head yes, and trying to say through little giggles, "yes."

Ken didn't say anything else, as he was temporarily mesmerized by the music. He started singing along.

"For long you live and high you fly. But only if you ride the tide. And balanced on the biggest wave. You race toward an early grave." He said, trying his best to harmonize with the singer.

Me and Nick rolled a joint and started smoking. For some reason I couldn't stop laughing. Ken came out of his trance, took the weed, and inhaled a very large amount of it, held it in his lungs for about thirty seconds, then let go, coughing while he was at it.

"Holy shit!" I laughed. "We, heh, we are going to get so fucking stoned." I kept on laughing, I just couldn't stop.

'Yes. Yeah.' "YES, FUCKING YES!"

'Yes. totally. Oh my God, I am a fucking genius.' He was thinking to himself, while writing his story. (We reviewed his story later. Most of it consisted of drawings, scribbles, made up words, and it had no story line at all. Most of the words he didn't make up were spelled wrong. Only about 5% of the whole thing was an actual story.)

'Oh yes... yes....no.....yes....ye-.... What the hell is happening to the walls? What in the fucking fuck is happening to the fucking walls right now?' "SHIT! THE WALLS! THE FUCKING WALLS! KEN! YOUR WALLS ARE FUCKED UP MAN, THEY ARE FUCKED, UP!...WAIT! NEVER MIND! THEY ARE FINE! WAIT! SHIT NO! THEY ARE BLEEDING AGAIN! FUCK ME HELP OH GOD."

Daniel, Kim, and Lindsay were cruising along to the supermarket when they saw something off the side of the road.
"Daniel, look!" Lindsay yelled and pointed. "Over there, pull over, look!"

Daniel pulled over right in front of the thing Lindsay was referring too. It was a deer. A dead deer. They sat and just stared at it for a while. Then Lindsay said in a panic. "Oh my God, did we hit that? Guys, did we hit that?!"

"Oh shit! We did!" Kim said.
"We need to take care of it. Let's go pick it up and put it in the car trunk! If we hit it, we can't just leave it here." Daniel said frantically.

"Ew, no, I'm not going to pick that thing up. You do it Danny." Kim said, grossed-out.

"Okay fine, Lindsay, will you- Wait. Did you just call me Danny? You never call me Dan- you know what, never mind. Lindsay, will you help?" He said awkwardly.

"No." Lindsay replied quaintly. "Fine, I'm just going to go pick it up my self then!" Daniel said, matter-of-factly. "You guys suck." He mumbled as he was crouching down to pick it up.
"OH... Damn, this is, this is really heavy. Woah, SHIT WOAH." He said as he dropped the deer.

I inhaled a huge puff of smoke, and then immediately continued laughing. "YES, FUCKING YES!" Jason called from the other room. We didn't pay any attention.

"Guys!" Ken shouted. "Oh my God! Guys, let's stop the music, but then keep singing, and see if we can mimic the sound!"

"But, hehe... but it's on The Great Gig In The Sky...YEAH...there is no, uhh, there is no music." I said, returning to laughter every once and a while.

"Whatever!" He exclaimed convincingly. "There is shouting! Let's just do it!"

Me and Nicholas both looked at each other, and then said together, "Yeah!" We both started singing along, and then Ken stopped the music.

"Oh uh, oh uhahhhhhhAHHHHH OH UH-AHAH OH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH AH OH OHO OH AHH OH O-OH AHH!" We sang along. It sounded terrible, but I finally stopped laughing for the rest of the night.

As we were singing, Jason was screaming something about Ken's walls, which we promptly ignored. We flipped the music back on and we finished off the bottle of Malt Liquor and the joint at the same time.

"Holy shit." I said. "I can't believe we dropped acid, toked, and finished a bottle of liquor all in he same sitting."

"Yeah..." Ken and Nick agreed.

"You want to drive and go get some more?" I asked.

"God yes, let's go." Nick said. "Yes, please." Ken added.

"Finally." Daniel sighed when he loaded the deer into the truck.

"I still can't believe you hit a deer, Daniel. How could you be so careless?" Kim said as he got back into the truck. "I don't know, but let's just go drop it off..."

"Where?" Lindsay inquired.

"Where do you think, dumbass? At... uhh.." Daniel replied, stumbling over his words.

"Hey you know what Daniel? Fuck you, you are the dumbass, you can't even find a place to drop it off." Lindsay said back harshly.

"Hey, I'll think of something, alright?" Daniel said defensively. "Alright, alright." Lindsay said, brushing him off.

"Hey, you know, we could just lay him down in the woods right here. It's probably where he came from anyway. Just go in a little ways and lay him down." Kim said suggestively.

"Yeah. Yeah that might work." Daniel said. "I'm going to need help carrying him over to the woods though."

"No." Kim said.

"Aaaaand, no." Lindsay chimed in.

'Walls... That would be perfect for my story! The walls aren't closing in on me, they are closing in on my mind! Yeah! God, I am a genius. I should go into writing. Fuck playing guitar. In fact, fuck Direct. You know what... Fuck Andrew. He is always telling me what to do. I fucking hate him. I FUCKING HATE HIM'

"I FUCKING HATE HIM" Jason roared. Jason shot up in a rage and punched a hole through Kens door. He then opened it and fell through the doorway, to the floor.

"God, I fucking love this song, turn it the fuck up, would ya?" I asked. Ken obliged and turned it up.

'Traffic in the city turns my, head around' , the singer sung. It was Commotion by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

"Dude, so, like, how many bottles of this shit are we going to buy?" Nick asked curiously.

I turned around and looked at him very seriously, then said, "Fucking. Millions." He busted up laughing, and I followed suit, while sharply avoiding a tree.

"Woah! Andrew, watch the fucking road, asshole!" Nick yelled playfully.

We were high on acid and marijuana , not to mention pretty drunk...also, I was driving. I was thankful there were no police out on the road tonight.

"Fuck you, Nick. I am driving, just fine, uh-thank you very much." I said back, jokingly.

We drove up to the market, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. We bought six bottle of malt liquor and a bag of skittles for Nick, which for some reason, he loved. We were walking out when some guy- and yes, quite stereotypically- in a trench coat.

"You guys...Have you been taking drugs?" The mysterious man asked.

"Shit, no." Nick said with an awkward smile and laugh.

"Uhh, no. No sir." Ken said, trying to be smoother than Nick.

"Yes, sir, we have, do you by chance have some more?" I said quite plainly.

"You fucking idiot!" Ken yelled.

"Yeah...I uh, got some mushrooms here, if you guys are willing to pay the price for it." The man said.

"Oh... yeah we'll have three of those." Nick said. "Sorry for yelling at you, Andrew."

"Whatever. We are getting some fucking shrooms! Hell yeah! We are going to be so fucked up tomorrow. It's going to be AWESOME!"

Yes, we were actually quite fucked up, but no, it was the worst experience of my life.

We payed fifteen bucks per gram of mushrooms. We drove home to see Jason laying on the floor, passed out.

We all sat down around the table, counted "1...2...3...GO!" and popped 'em in.

"Fuck this man, I'm not going to carry this fucking ten ton deer all the way in t-" Daniel began.

"Daniel, you have too, we can't leave it here. You are the man, you are the one who hit it, you are going to carry it to the fucking woods. You only have to go in a little, then drop it there. No one will know." Kim argued.

"FINE. Fucking Christ! I'll carry it." He said angrily.

He rushed over to the trunk, opened it, and with all his might, lifted the deer up, carried it into the forest, dropped it, came back, sat down, put the car into drive said, "Finally, we can go get the wine." He pushed on the gas, and stayed completely still. Just then, all the lights went off.

"The. FUCKING. BATTERY IS FUCKING DEAD" He exploded, while hitting the steering wheel.

"Ahg, don't touch me, don't touch meeeeeee" Nick trailed off. We were all on edge. we were hallucinating, throwing up, and just generally paranoid.

"Guys, fuck this, man. This was just, a terrible fucking idea. Fuck me, we are dumbasses. Fuck this." I said shakily.

"AHH!" Ken just yelled in response.

"Let's just fucking. Let's just fucking go to bed, you know. Let's just. Fuck this let's just go to bed." I said frantically. "I'm... I'm going to bed." I finished.

We all gave in at just around midnight and fell asleep.

"I fucking hate this car. Piece of shit. Piece of..... shit.." Daniel yawned. "I'm just so done with this day. This was way better with Sandy. Way. Fucking. Better."

Daniel yawned again, and looked back to see Lindsay sleeping, and Kim nodding off. "I'll...I'll just join you guys." He gave in. They all fell asleep at just around midnight.

That night, I will never forget. It was fucking, the best night of my life (the ending was kind of a drag, but nevertheless, it was awesome.) Tomorrow morning, however, was the worst day of my life.