Chapter Ten: Blood rites
A strange room surrounded me as my eyes fluttered opened to thin shadows. A strange bed squished. I was on a mattress, on the floor, and the gray sheets stuck to my hands. The sheet peeled off to reveal blood. My hands were plump, swollen with pain, and it was hard to make a full fist.
Drapes hung behind me so it must be a girl’s room. I was fully clothed except for my shoes. My jeans were strangling my private parts. I could see my pulse throbbing in my eyes.
After locating a mirror next to a closet, I saw the damage. I didn’t remember injuring myself and I didn’t think I got into a fight. Alcoholic amnesia, I couldn’t be sure what happened to me. I was a mangled, mixed up, melancholy mess.
Four vertical scratches raked across the left side of my face. My hair was matted with dirt and blood from what I could tell. I hoped it was blood and not something left by one of the professor’s dogs. Nausea began to push its way up through my chest. I just wanted to get back to my room and sleep but first I needed water.
My lips and mouth were made of scales.
Wasn’t sure where I was or what time is was but each hall had a water fountain. If I was on a girl’s hall at the wrong time I could get nailed. After locating my shoes I sat down on the mattress and put them on.
The door lurked opened. A yellow flash went past my sight. The light hummed on. Thank God! Elyssa. Her shimmering white silk pajamas floated around her and I had to push my dick to the side so she would not see it moving.
“Finally up. You snore like a muzzled dog. Here,” she said and handed me a large plastic cup of water; she was my savior.
“I thought you would be dehydrated after last night’s adventures,” she said with a sigh rolling away like a distant whistle.
She sniffled and tugged gently on her nose. I didn’t think she had a cold.
“I need to get back to my room and clean up. I am sorry for the inconvenience. Sorry about the snoring. Is your RA patrolling?” I asked. Her face brightened and she smiled.
“You’re not going anywhere Mr. Patton. Terry is right down the hall. I can clean you up now,” she said and found some alcohol wipes in a drawer.
She was gorgeous even without makeup as she grabbed my head and rotated it forty-five degrees. She said, “Be still.” and cleaned my wounds. The alcohol from the tissue thin wipes sent a penetrating pain from my chin to the arches of my feet and I sucked air through my teeth. It only took a couple minutes to tend to my hands and face, but during this questions arose.
Like where was her roommate?
“You’re done, but I’m not touching that hair. It’s grimy and has blood in it. The cut on your scalp is clean,” Elyssa said and went over to click off the light.
“Why did you call me Mr. Patton? What happened to me?” I asked.
She covered her mouth to muffle her laughter as she hopped on her bed.
“You don’t remember last night?” she asked.
“I remember going to the second party and finding everyone. There were guys passed out in the kitchen and that is about it. How did I get here?” I asked.
She shook her head and said, “You must have blacked out. That explains a lot. Let’s see, the party ended when the beer was gone and the entire place cleared out. On the way back you wouldn’t stop complimenting me and right before we reached the campus you started singing. First it was a Jane’s Addiction and then Alice in Chains. Your voice is great by the way but you kept singing Faith No More’s Falling to Pieces over and over. We all got to the top of the hill next to the chapel, you stopped and pointed to George to finish the lyrics, which I love by the way, but he didn’t so you yelled, ‘I am Don Quixote’ and somersaulted down the hill into the bushes. Everyone died laughing. You burst out of the bushes and screamed ‘Look I am bleeding from my hands like a stigmatic.’ I guess those are those guys with the Jesus wounds? Donner Hall was right there and I was drunk so I said screw the rules and took you up to my room because I didn’t think you’d make it make back. I didn’t notice it before but you kinda look like Mike Patton.”
Being under an imploded building would have felt better.
“I cannot believe I did that. Thanks for helping me,” I said.
“Don’t worry. All of those nice things you said more than make up for it, even if you don’t remember. Where did you learn to sing?” she asked.
“I was forced into the church choir by my father when I was six.”
“Oh, I suppose you’re going to take some slack for this when you get back to your hall aren’t you?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” I said and then added, “Thank you so much for this.” She smiled widely and said, “It’s nothing. I’m just glad everything is fine, but we have to be cool until you can sneak out. You might as well go back to sleep and I’ll get you when Terry leaves. I’m going to go talk with Erin down the hall and I’ll be back soon.”
“Cool.”
She left.
I fell back to a dreamless sleep to be awakened later by Elyssa shaking me. She was fully dressed, tight jeans and a tiny form fitting t-shirt with little roses circling the sleeves, and made up.
“Terry is going to leave soon. You can take off in a few minutes,” she said with tight lips. I fixed my Calvin and Hobbs t-shirt.
“You seem nervous. Did I do something?” I asked and yawned. She spun like a top and said, “No, no, but you wanted to leave before.”
“I am sorry. Is your RA there?” I asked. Once again she left and did not come back for ten minutes.
Her door opened a sliver and she slipped in.
“She’s leaving right now so just wait two seconds and you can go,” she said. I nodded and in silence. Tension bound the air to the ground and I couldn’t understand why. As I waited, she went over to her roommate’s chair.
A knock at the door splintered the silence and she motioned for me to go in the closet. It had to be her RA. She slid the closet door open and I was inserted in between the pressed clothes. I stood motionless on top of two pairs of shoes warping under my weight. The end of the charade was upon me and I had to pay for the crime. The door’s hinges rubbed together and created a low buzz that reverberated into my ears. The person at the door was about to discover my presence.
Nothing was going to conceal me.
My doom was set so I wanted to see my captor. There was a space between the door and frame so I peered through the slim opening. Elyssa was hugging some wiry guy in the doorway I had never seen before. My pulse dropped and anger surged as her behavior revealed itself to me. The infiltrator spoke, “Hey Elyssa, you look good so are you ready to go to breakfast?”
“Uh, hold on there’s something I have to do before we leave. Joaquin you can come out it’s not Terry,” she said.
I pulled the clothes off me and kicked her shoes back into their spaces as I unstuffed myself. The guy at the door, wearing gear like he was going to play golf, was taken back for a moment. His chest swelled up and he said, “Who the hell is this? What is he a freshman? You’re fucking kidding me!”
“Just calm down Justin, I took care of him last night because he fell and was bleeding. It was late and we both passed out. He was just waiting for the RA to leave,” she said like I was a discarded rag in the wash. I didn’t like the name Justin.
“So, this guy couldn’t handle his liquor and fell down and went boom,” Justin said with a baby voice. He pointed his finger at me.
“Just get your shit and go,” he said and waved three times.
My nostrils flared.
My sight zoomed in on his narrow face.
The hair on my arms stood at attention.
“Do not point at me,” I growled and the back of my head tingled. He let out a forced laugh.
“Or you’re going to do what?” he said. I took a step closer and prepared a face to meet the face.
Elyssa got between us and put her hands up. I looked around her.
“I will make it so yo
u never point again.”
He jumped back a foot and said, “We’re going. This is irrelevant. Let’s go Elyssa.”
He went farther out in the hall and had a smirk on his cracked mug.
“I got the message. See you around,” I said as I looked at the floor. She stopped me and said, “I didn’t think you were going to be here this morning and I said, ‘Yes’ to Justin last night after I thought you left at the first party.”
She paused, looked down and then said, “I wasn’t thinking and being drunk didn’t help. This is my fuck up so I hope you understand.” I looked at her and she said, “I rushed you out because I didn’t want Justin to think we were together last night because some girls already have reputations they won’t be able to live down. That’s how rumors get started.”
“Again, I am sorry. We barely know each other anyway. I will calm things down with Justin all right,” I said.
My emotions got the better of me and I vowed it would not happen again. I walked out the door and up to Justin.
“I was expecting you as much as you were expecting me, so I have nothing against you,” I said.
He stood silent, looked at me and nodded.
I ambled down the hall and I could hear them talking. Into the hesitant day I tumbled as the sun beat down on my head and shoulders. The pangs of pains immerged and I made the walk of shame, without sex, empty.
People passed by going to the Kaf but food was the last thing on my mind. Taylor hall was a cemetery. My room was cool and dark, a perfect hole. I got my cup and filled it at the water fountain. Dread poured into me as I gulped the water. I didn’t want to tell these guys about what happened. They would ridicule me for not having sex and I didn’t want to hear “Oh man, you were so fucked up last night” and “You were so funny dude!” either.
My guitar string ring went in the cubbyhole next to the copy of Less Than Zero and my shoes came off at the heels with a flick of the opposite toes. I wrapped my blankets around in a cocoon, a chrysalis, hoping to change into an opalescent butterfly. It didn’t happen in some weird Kafka-esque way. I would capture Elyssa but I wasn’t going to put my heart on my sleeve to be shredded and stained. Sleep however couldn’t be denied.
I was stirred from slumber by boots being thrown on my back by George and James.
“What time is it?” I asked as I grabbed a shoe and threw it at George.
“It’s four thirty man, time to get up and get some food,” George said as Tim and Cyrus stopped behind him.
They wanted to hear what happened last night. So, I gave them an edited edition of the story and omitted the part about the morning. James blacked out too and ended up sleeping in the lounge. George said he remembered me tumbling down the hill but was not aware of the wounds. Tim didn’t think I was that drunk last night probably because he blacked out but did not want to admit it that. Cyrus told me he puked for an hour and then sat in the shower for a while until George pulled him out. George heard about some kid at a college in Boston had died in a shower recently. They told me Jack stayed in his room and didn’t say a word.
Next, I needed to get a shower and clean the dirt out of my hair and fiddled with the gash on my head. George told me to hurry up so we could go eat. We had to get primed up for tonight’s festivities. I showered as fast as I could. The meal was soggy noodles and watery Ragu but I took some baggies with me to snag some bread and deli meats so I could make a sandwich later. It was less of a hassle than ordering pizza. Time pulsed by in seamless fragments and it was only a few hours until we all went out again.
The first house was rented by three girls, seniors, and they let us in for two bucks so we thought the night was starting on a good resounding note. We went through the large split level house, crammed like a can of olives, to get to the backyard and the living room struck me as impressive for a college house. It had a huge television and nice furniture, much too nice for college, so I tried to be careful and not break anything with my clumsy hooves. We get to the backyard and filter to the keg as usual, and I began to get a beer when James started to say something to me, but he paused, but decided to speak.
“Joaquin that girl you were with last night is over there around the corner of the house with some dude,” he said and I turned to look. To my displeasure it was Elyssa with Justin. She looked at me for three second and then looked back at him. Things had gone from treading water to being caught in an undertow. I wasn’t going to approach her but I hoped she would come to me. Lacking harmony, I went to hang inside with George and the girls that lived there.
George and I stood in the same place near the large TV for a while and just talked about what might be possible for Spring break. He kept sucking on the inside of his cheek and made sharp whistling noises through his teeth. No one paid him any attention though. Curious, I decided to see if she was still outside so I told George, “I am going to the bathroom. Back soon.”
The kitchen window overlooked the backyard clad in tissue paper curtains so I separated them and leaned in. The wind tossed hair up in a gust so I threw caution to it. The corner of the house was obscured by the teaming masses of cajoling students.
The backyard was dense with kids bouncing to bad beats and the volume of the music would attract the cops. I chugged my beer determined to get to the other side where I thought she would be. I knew time was my enemy so I took the opportunity that opened up in the swirling currents of people. Swept away, I spun and played bumper cars until I saw a break in the action. I navigated to the section where my drinking compatriots were and asked around if anyone had seen Elyssa. They just poured vinegar on an already sour mood as I received a collective look of, “I told you so” and then James responded.
“Sorry bud, left right when you went inside. That dude was pushing her to leave. Looked like she wanted to go inside, but he said something and they just took off.”
I was in disarray.
“That dude reminds me of a guy I went to high school with, but I don’t think he came here so forget it,” he said.
“The guy’s name is Justin. I do not like him,” I said with a snort. James’s jaw dropped and he almost spilled his beer on his flannel shirt.
“It’s the guy I went to high school with. Justin Miller. Fucken pretty boy tool. He’s three years older than us. I wonder why he’s going after a freshman chick? He had a reputation of being a real scumbag with girls. Man it’s a shame she’s with him. How do you know his name anyway?” James asked.
I paused.
“It is a stupid story but I ran into him today. I am going into drinking mode now so fuck the chicks and commence the drinking activities, all right,” I said but then Tim had to step in over the growing party noise, a sea of static.
“I told you so. Dude, forget about girls who play head games. They are just weighing their options until they find what they want and then you lose. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about,” Tim said as his face began to spasm and he puckered his cheeks.
“I am not going after girls tonight. I want to go somewhere else were we can just tweak until we are freaked,” I said but Tim nudged me and motion with his head to follow him.
I went with him to the side of the house. Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta Love” began pumping out of the open windows as the scent of cigar and weed bellowed down on us from above. I looked up to see the fiery tip of a blunt burn like a cherry in the third story window.
“Wanna do some bumps with the girls who rent the house? They have vaults,” he asked.
“What the hell is a bump?” I asked.
He laughed as he put his left hand on his forehead.
“It’s a fucking line Buster. The girls get good shit, premium price level. Much better George’s bunk. It’s cut with a little crank so it keeps you vibrating and on your toes. You in?” he asked.
We went inside to run over some speed bumps.
We couldn’t find the girls and the house was beginning to fill to the rafters, the sink, the foyer and the breakfas
t nook. Tim waved his hand for me to follow him up the stairs on a narcotic safari. The lights were off, reminiscent of another excursion. In the second floor hall, dust covered the sideboard and antique chair that obviously came with the house and I hoped my allergies would not rear their ugly heads. I didn’t want to spend any twenty-dollar sneezes. The old house plaster smell had my nose twitching. Voices from the end of the hall penetrated a flimsy door where there was a sign I could not read.
Tim knocked and the floor rumbled with the sound of heavy furniture be pushed around. The door creaked open a sliver and the backlit face of a girl, who I noticed George speaking to downstairs, peered through the crack.
She sighed.
“You scared us. Come on in,” she said and the cabal was visible through the doorway.
The three girls who rented the house sat on a low green couch with scarlet cloth pillows behind two old coffee tables pushed together and a stout guy with red hair and freckles I had never seen before flanked them squatting on a upside down wooden wine crate. At the end was George, sitting on an oak rocking chair, with a smile on his face the size of a bent hotdog.
George began to rock and suck his cheek harder and asked me, “So where’d you run off too? Thought you’re going to miss this. You went after the girl didn’t you? Ha! Grab a seat kid. Tim what the fuck took you so long?”
“Place got mobbed. It’s hard to get a fucking drink. What’s the deal?” Tim inquired and rubbed his hands together.
“The deal is you should have come with me,” George said and pulled out a case of beer from behind the couch.
“Ha, fucking ha, the other deal is ten bucks up for an all you can eat buffet. It’s time to get zoot suited baby!” said the guy I had never seen before as he winked at Tim. I wondered if he had a crush on Tim?
I sat down on the couch next to the only girl I had talked to before named Jill. She was cute, naughty librarian cute, and she didn’t take any shit. I liked her even more when she grabbed a large oval mirror from a drawer in the coffee table and passed it to Tim as he knelt on the floor. Two sandwich bags filled with white powder followed. In the mean time, I retrieved the ten dollars for the narco-gluttony.
Tim’s grin invested a sheer sheen of mischief into the room. He plucked a soda straw from his pocket and took his Swiss Army knife and sliced a diagonal cut at the tip. My head tilted with a curious dog’s concern and an epiphany sparkled across my mind. He created the bevel to give him scooping assistance when snorting the powder after it was finely chopped on the mirror. Tim poured piles of powder, granted us a look upon the razor blade and set up the bumps with a sculpture’s finesse.
A serious silence took over as everyone waited their turn to get down to business. There was no discussion among the participants. My turn came and the substance was a mix that I had never encountered in my earlier drug days. It shot through my system tingling every nerve on the way. My heart raced and the room rang.
The world began to buzz.
A mystery powder laced joint was then passed around. The room choked with smoke as others lit up cigarettes too and waited for the full effects to present themselves.
My nose went numb and a caustic drip of chemicals was going down the back of my throat and even when I swallowed it would not go away. I could feel every cell in my body scream as I entered the anti-gravity period when everything went on automatic pilot.
It seemed like only a few minutes but we had put an hour into the grave and were out of treats, which was a good thing because I couldn’t take anymore without asking Hamlet’s question from the soliloquy. I saw George’s face spazz out. Tim was shifting his jaw back and forth. I then noticed my mouth was opening and closing. In between, I rolled my lips like a chimpanzee at the zoo. Face dancing was in full effect, so I decided to grab a depressant to stop the escalation. I told Tim and George that I would meet them outside.
After tangoing through the mob, I arrived at the backyard and found James and Cyrus right where they were before putting back the hop juice. They handed me a cool beer in a blue cup. Another cool beer came my way and then another cool beer and another.
One great man said “Hell is other people.” It’s the price we pay. Right before it went black, I vowed not to let anyone make me jester again. Problem was, I was the court jester and didn’t know who the king was but I was going to find out.