"Vodka, Cigarettes...and Two Old Friends"

Friday nights, in the ever-growing town of Washington in the North-East of England, allow you to get drunk, smoke and have a good time. On a recent Friday night I’d been invited to my friend Jason’s birthday party, even though his birthday was on the Tuesday.

While I was getting ready, the phone rang. It was Madeline.

“Hi Noah, do you still want me to buy you some Vodka and cigarettes for Jason’s party?” She asked me.

“Yeah that would be great Madeline.” I replied.

We discussed what size bottle of Vodka and what cigarettes I wanted then she said:

“Ok, well my mum’s taking me so I’ll meet you there.”

“You’re coming?” I said, obviously shocked.

“Yeah, Jason said I could. In fact, how are you getting there?” She asked.

“In a taxi, with Jasmine and Kayla. You could probably get in with us.” I said.

“Yeah, that would be great Noah. My mum doesn’t know where it is. What time will I meet you?”

“Um, Jasmine is coming to mine for 6:30pm so just for then.”

“Ok, great, I’ll see you then.”

“Bye.”

I put the phone down. I know the reason Jason hadn’t invited Madeline to his party until she confronted him about it. He knew it would be uncomfortable for Madeline, Nathaniel and Laila. Madeline and Nathaniel had this whole history and it would be true to say that everyone knew Laila, Nathaniel’s present girlfriend, was not happy with it. Jason, being as smart as he is, knew things would get tense and chose Nathaniel and Laila over Madeline.

I had a thought: Why did Jason choose Nathaniel and Laila over Madeline in the first place? It turned out the Jasmine had already arrived at Kayla’s house so Madeline and I walked down there. Madeline had bought me my Vodka and cigarettes and had also bought some sort of Vodka drink for herself with her pack of twenty Marlborough Lights.

The taxi took us to Jason’s house and after searching for five minutes; we finally found it. Madeline, Jasmine, Kayla and I were introduced to Jason’s ‘other friends’, who we didn’t know.

At around 7:45pm, everyone turned up. Madeline and me stood by the door, that leads to the back garden, while Laila and Nathaniel, surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, ignored us.

Madeline and I decided it would work out best if we got drunk. Out came the plastic cups and diet Pepsi, plus the bottle of ‘Glen’s Vodka’ that Madeline had bought me. I got drunk. Sometimes it feels like I want to escape, and in drinking and smoking, I found out how too...it was my escapism. Madeline and I went and stood outside while we smoked our way through several Marlborough Lights, something we did quite often that night. We talked about things and Marissa Bushnell, the girl in our “clique” who gets drunk, then gets emotional, and then cries, and her present boyfriend, who is also one of Madeline’s ex-boyfriends, Joshua Williams came and joined us. Marissa soon went back inside and I stood and watched Joshua and Marissa catch up. I thought to myself in my drunken state: How sweet.

It turned out that Joshua and Marissa were having another fight. Joshua later told me:“We were in the bathroom and I was going to fuck her, but, I couldn’t get it hard, you know how it is? I'm drunk so it’s probably because of the alcohol. So she just said ‘Fine!’ and stormed out, as per usual.”

“Yeah. I understand. I’ll stick up for you man.” I slurred my words as I spoke.

The night was drawing to a close. I was thinking to myself: Thank God nothing between Madeline and Laila has flared up. I guess I spoke too soon.

Laila’s brother had come to pick Laila and Nathaniel up. I went out and spoke to him, as did Skye, and Aidan. We’d met him at Nathaniel’s surprise party, back at the start of December.

Back in the house, I saw Laila walking over to Madeline. I knew something was going to happen. I was right.

Laila was pointing her finger in Madeline’s face shouting, “You ever call me a man again I’ll come after you, right?”

Madeline was obviously confused, saying, “What? This is the first time I’ve ever met you or spoke to you.”

“No, you called me a man on the phone.” She replied.

“What are you doing? You’re in someone else’s house. He’s not even your friend. You’re with Nathaniel. Have some respect.” Madeline later told me she, Laila, didn’t intimidate her.

“Come outside then!” Laila shouted.

“What? Look at yourself Laila. You’re acting like a fool.” Madeline responded.

At that point Nathaniel came and took Laila away while I pushed Madeline into the kitchen and shut the door.

However nice Laila was to me, I told Madeline: “She’s not worth it, leave it.”

“I know she’s not worth it,” Madeline said to me, piecing bits of her mobile phone together so she could phone a taxi to come and collect her and me.

The situation between Joshua and Marissa grew worse as the night went on too. I sympathised with Joshua, even though I was Marissa’s friend. Marissa’s other friends took on Joshua, making him out to be the bad guy. I thought to myself: Did they really know what was going on? Would they think differently if they did know? The majority of her friends being female, I don’t think so.

By the end of the night, I invited Joshua to get in the taxi with Madeline and I. He accepted. It was only on the way home did I say we should all go to Madeline’s house and have pizza. She didn’t seem to mind so we did.

Joshua and I stayed at Madeline’s house until around 1:30pm. Joshua and Madeline mostly did the talking. I tried to absorb their conversations as much as I could. They talked about everything that had happened since they last spoke. I felt out of place a little, but it didn’t bother me that much. I sat and ate pizza, and observed two old friends, become new friends.

Maybe this would be Madeline and I in the years to come, after she’d moved to Darlington and I’d moved to Manhattan, although at the party, I'm sure we mentioned ‘Manhattan’, ‘together’, and a ‘studio apartment’ in the same sentence. Maybe we wouldn’t have to catch up like Joshua and Madeline did because we would still talk to each other. Maybe, just, maybe. Who knows?