Page 7 of Behind the Lights

We finished half the bottle when Ricky got what he considered to be another bright idea. “This crap you’re trying to feed me sucks. Let’s go to my house and get some real food.”

Upon standing, the room immediately began to spin. I grabbed the desk chair to steady myself. Ricky was hiccupping and broke into an uncontrollable fit of giggles. Somehow, we managed to get down the stairs without breaking our necks and over to his house. We stumbled through the front door, knocking over the end table, sending the lamp careening to the floor. My hands flew up to cover my mouth, but then we both started giggling again.

His mom came running into the room and looked from the broken lamp to us, then back to the lamp before meeting our eyes with that deadly mom stare. Ricky, being the smartass that he was uttered, “Dum, dum, dum, dummm.”

“What the hell is wrong with both of you?” she yelled.

I’d never heard her raise her voice before and I hoped I wouldn’t hear it again.

“We’re,”hiccup, “hungry,” he managed between hiccups, swinging the bottle joyfully in his hand.

I thought he’d left it back in my room.

“Are you two drunk?” She angrily grabbed the bottle from him.

“Uh, I don’t know,” I answered honestly, having never been drunk before.

“I think… Gonna puke!” Ricky covered his mouth and ran for the bathroom.

“I don’t feel so good. Why’s everything spinning?” I moved to lay down in the entryway.

“No, not there. Go join your brilliant friend in the bathroom.” She lifted me up by my elbow and pointed me in the direction he’d gone.

I didn’t want to cause any more problems, and she was clearly pissed, so I did as I’d been ordered. When I got to the bathroom, Ricky was leaning over the toilet puking. Suddenly I was glad that I hadn’t drank as much as he did, but I still wasn’t feeling too great myself. I curled up into a ball on the bathroom rug and passed out, while he finished emptying the contents of his stomach. I came to when his mom came in with two glasses of water and a bottle of aspirin in hand.

“I’m not sure which one of you came up with the idea to get drunk,” she turned an evil eye on Ricky while handing us the glasses, “but I’m certain I know where the booze came from.”

“Mom, I don’t want to drink this,” Ricky protested, handing the glass back to her.

She shook a couple pills out and gave them to him. “Shut up. Take these and drink that whole glass and then I want you both to go to your room and go straight to bed.” She handed me two aspirin as well. We choked it all down, handing her the empty glasses and literally crawled across the hall to his room and into bed.

We slept through the night and woke the next morning feeling like total shit as his mom called us down for breakfast. We migrated downstairs and vehemently tried to pass on the food, but she sat plates down in front of each of us loaded with scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast and demanded we eat every last bite. My head was throbbing, and my stomach was camping out in my throat, but there was no way in hell I was pissing her off any more than she already was.

“I don’t know whether to beat both your asses or to tell your dad what happened and let him handle you, Joey.”

I felt the blood drain from my face and thought I was going to pass out again. My dad and I were finally on the right path and I didn’t want anything to fuck that up.

Frozen mid bite, pleadingly, I glanced at Ricky hoping he could help me out this mess he got us into. Well, he started it, but I didn’t tell him no when I probably should have so I guess it was really our mess.

“Mom, it’s my fault. Please don’t tell Joey’s dad. I found the bottle in the cabinet when we were looking for something to eat yesterday,” he begged.

No matter what, outside of this vodka incident that is, Ricky always looked out for me and did his best to protect me.

“Well, you better not pull this again. And you both owe me a new lamp!” She stormed out of the kitchen, swinging the wooden spoon around while mumbling to herself. I thought I heard her utterdumbassesat one point.

“Sorry, Joey.”

“It’s okay. I could’ve told you no, but I didn’t.” I stood, grabbing both our empty plates and taking them to the sink to wash them.

Mary stomped back into the kitchen, pointing the wooden spoon at us. “Fine, I won’t tell your dad, but I swear to God you two better never pull another stunt like this again.”

I’d never been afraid of Mary before, but the look on her face and the frightful spoon swinging put the fear into me.

We immediately agreed not to do this again, as it was something we’d never soon forget.

“You’re both on yard duty for the rest of the school year. Every weekend, you’ll be cleaning up the yards of both our houses and if your dad asks, Joey, you tell him you wanted to help him out. But I’ll give you guys this, at least you didn’t drink the cheap vodka.”

And so, Ricky’s nicknameStolicame to be. But it was a long time before ourdumbassesgot drunk again.

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