On the way to meet Stan, I called him to make sure he was there. He said he wasn't, but that he too was on his way there so we decided to meet somewhere else. We said hi and then a few minutes later, one of his friends, Lee, joined us in walking to the AJ's which was about a 15 minute walk.
Since I had already had three Bacardi Breezers by this point, I could feel my head spinning slightly, although since I was out in the open air and it was lightly raining, I thought it'd wear off by the time I got to the AJ's, or at least stay at that level and not get any worse.
On the way there, I asked Stan who was in the AJ's and he told me. Quite a few people. My friends, along with their friends as well. Once at the AJ's, I found there to be 9 people altogether:
Jamie, Dave, Stan, Carl, Lee, Mike, Glenn, and maybe another two who I can't remember the name of. Claire joined us a while later.
I pulled up a seat to where everyone was sitting. Jamie was amazed to see me. Amazed that I had finally agreed to come out. Stan offered to get me a drink so I said I've have another Breezer. It was really nice to be out with them all, finally, just sitting about chatting about various things.
While Jamie was talking to me, he said that he was determined to get me drunk. I said that I didn't really want to get drunk, to which he replied that he at least had to buy me a drink because he'd wanted to for ages now to make up for all the times that I haven't been out so he got me another Breezer. By now, my brain was feeling as if something was pushing down on it. It wasn't an uncomfortable feeling or anything, but I knew that I was definitely feeling the effects of what I had been drinking so far.
By this time, it was about 9pm I think and Dave said he wanted to get me a drink. I said I was ok, but he insisted so another Breezer was put in front of me.
Ten minutes later, I decided to buy everyone a round, although out of the 9, only four actually felt like another pint so I got them in. The bar maid was hot. Jamie had pointed her out to me earlier on and I told him she was nice as he helped me get the four pints. She came over to our table after a while to collect the empty glasses. Dave commented to her that she had a lovely voice - which she did indeed. I turned round to talk to her too, asking her where she was from and other small talk questions. Not much, but just being friendly. She was cool.
By 9:30pm, my tally of Bacardi Breezers had got to about six and since I've never drank before, I was pretty tipsy by this point, but I was determined not to act like it and asked Dave/Carl if I seemed drunk to them. They said slightly. It was weird, because I could see properly, speak properly...but not walk properly. Ha! I went the toilet and found myself wobbling a little as I did so, almost bursting into laughter as I managed to get myself into the cubicle, steadying myself against the wall while I had a pee.
Dave was in the cubicle next to me. Earlier, he had said that he was going to ring Sarah for me, who is his ex, who I fancy. I had met her at his party. Once out of the toilet, he told me about the conversation he had had with her on the phone.
He had said that I had told Dave that I had found Sarah attractive and Dave had asked Sarah what did she think of me. She had said that she didn't really talk to me enough at the party to make up her mind but that if we spent more time together, then maybe.
I walked back to the table we were all sitting at, by this time pretty sure I was probably acting a little different because of the booze.
Me, Jamie and Dave began talking. They were saying about how what I was drinking wasn't a manly drink. I said I wasn't arsed. They said I should get a pint down me, but I said I didn't like it. Jamie said I should try some Jack Daniels, but I said no to that too, since I didn't like the sound of it. He then said that he was going to get me one. I said he could, but he'd be wasting his money because I won't drink it. He went the bar regardless, but came back with two glasses of luminous liquid.
"What's in them?", I asked him.
"One's Aftershock and the other is WKD", he replied.
I took a sniff of the green, luminous liquid and sniffed it. It smelt kind of minty. Jamie was quite confident that once I had drank it that it'd blow my head, but I wanted to prove him wrong so down my throat the Aftershock went, and then I realise it was aniseed. It was quite nice. I turned to Jamie and explained that I could drink anything and it wouldn't bother me. He then asked me to drink the WKD one too, which was luminous orange and smelt like Irn Bru, but I said no, not just yet. Five minutes later, however, I did and again, Jamie was waiting for me to show my discomfort from it blowing my head, but I proved him wrong again.
It was about 9:45pm by this time and throughout the night, we had all been trying to convince Jamie and his friend Mike to come to the club we were going to after the AJ's. I was specifically trying more than the rest, simply because I wanted all my mates to come. He said he didn't really fancy it though because the club we were going to was supposedly too scary. He had been saying that ever since he went once. Because he was saying it was scary, kind of made me paranoid about going as well, since I had never been to a club before and only had my friends' word on what it was like in there.
Jamie and his friend Mike didn't end up going to the club in the end, instead leaving the AJ's around 10pm to go home.
About 10 minutes later, the rest of us left too and began our walk down to Le Bateau's, which is the name of the club we were going to. I was very wary of the fact that I may not even get in, since I wasn't really sure if I could pass as over 18, EVEN THOUGH I'M 20, and since I had no ID, I was worried that I'd have to simply go home.
On the way down to Le Bateau's, I could tell I was now more than just tipsy, but drunk. My eyesight wasn't all that good and my legs definitely weren't either. I knew where we were going and where we were, but nothing was really making that much sense. I was still communicating with everyone pretty normally. I could hold a conversation with Carl, for example, whereas Dave was...full of life, shall we say. He seemed more drunk than I was.
We stopped off to get some food from somewhere, although I didn't eat anything. I wasn't quite sure if I was hungry or not, but I did see that the place we went to had chicken wings and they sounded quite nice, although I didn't have the energy to get up from the seats and go and order them, instead choosing to sit inbetween the rest of everyone while they ate, starting to feel a little tired, but at the same time, trying to wake myself up so I could actually stay concious and alert at least enough to see what it was like in Le Bateau's.
After they had eaten, we made our way down there. They all went in before me and I went in behind them, expecting the bouncers to put their hand in front of me and deny me access. However, they didn't. I thought that you might pay the bouncer the admission fee but they told me to pay inside. That kind of made me feel a little dumb, but hey, I was inside!
I knew what was going on around me by this point. I had sobered up a little, just enough to be aware of my surroundings. I put my coat with the rest of my friend's coats in a holding place, before walking through some corridoors and down some stairs, which were scattered with people and then we got to the club part.
It wasn't as dark as I thought it'd be, but it was indeed dark, lit by deep red lights bouncing off the light mist of smoke that was prevalent throughout the club. To the right where tables and stools, to the left was a well lit bar, with lots of people standing at it and at the end of the room was a dancefloor, which everyone went to to sign a piece of paper. As we neared the dancefloor, the music was deafening, but the effects of the alcohol that I had had meant that it really didn't bother me that much. I asked Dave what it was that he was writing and he said it was to request a song. I didn't really care what was on.
After that, some of us stood inbetween the tables and stools, before Dave and Stan spotted a free table and we all sat down around that. You can't really have much of a conversation in there, although I did try to talk into the ears of Stan and Dave a few times to tell them things, along with Carl. I think Stan offered to go to the bar for me to get me another Breezer so I said sure, but after finishing that, I thought that I was getting a little too drunk and gave Stan some money to go to the bar for me to get a bottle of water, which I drank in one go. A few minutes later, I then asked one of them to go get me another Bacardi Breezer and a bottle of water. I drank the Breezer, and put the bottle of water over my head.
I kept asking whoever was around me to go the bar for me because I had pretty much lost the use of my legs by this point. I was just about managing to stay upright on the stool. I remember asking Carl to get me a Bacardi Breezer, but he came back with a glass with ice in an some liquid. I drank it anyway, and then ate the ice, before seeing another one of these drinks by me and I drank that too, even though I think I knew it wasn't actually mine.
I remember Dave and Stan coming back and forth from the dancefloor to keep me company. They had asked me once or twice to come up with them, but I had said no, because I was just about managing to stay awake by this point.
Around 12:45am, I remember asking Stan to show me where the toilets where and I just about managed to get up and walk up some stairs, following behind Stan. He showed me where the toilet was and I closed the door behind him. Even though I was absolutely pissed by this point, I was still thinking straight, it's just that my body wasn't and I could feel myself wobbling all over the place. Stan shouted to me through the door whether I was ok and I remember shouting back to him that I was fine. He came in after a few minutes and I asked him to hold my glasses while I splashed water on my face, not that it done anything.
Stan led me back down to where we were sitting and I reassumed my sitting position, by now rocking my head from side to side to the music that was on - not that I had any idea what was actually playing, or even rocking to any beat of the music. Two girls asked if some seats were taken by me and I said no and they sat down at the same table as me. I was the only one there, as the rest of my friends had gone over to the dancefloor. I seemed to be happy simply rocking my head side to side and pretending I knew the song well, whatever that song was. I was tempted to say hello to the two girls who sat across from me, but decided it was too much effort to do so and continued rocking. Also of note is the fact that since it was so dark and I was now completely wasted, every single person in there looked pretty hot.
I remember Blink 182 - All The Small Things coming on and this was one song I did actually know. I decided to start singing along with it at the top of my voice, even though I didn't actually know most of the words, just the chorus. I remember Dave sitting across the table from me, looking at me weirdly, but I wasn't bothered.
I recall looking at my watch around 1am, thinking to myself it was still pretty early. I could also feel myself falling asleep, so much so that I was almost falling off the stool I was sitting on, only for the fact that Stan was sitting next to me to push me back up again. He shouted at me to wake up, and although I clearly heard him, didn't really want to and I think I said to him that I was ok. I done the same thing with Dave as well and because I was now completely out of it, he said that he was going to get me in a cab. I don't remember saying yes or no to him, but simply following him when he asked me to with great difficulty.
Outside, to my drunken surprise, there was already a cab waiting for me. Dave handed me some money, but I pushed it away saying I had money, and he insisted I take it. I got in the cab and I think I shouted to the driver where I wanted to do, before letting my head fall onto the back of the seat and falling asleep while he took me home. He asked me which part of Kirkby I lived in and I managed to slurr out where about, and then managed to somehow regain some conciousness to show him exactly which house was mine. I also managed to pay him and get out, stumbling towards my front door.
I fumbled around in my pockets for my key, taking a few tries to actually get it into the lock, before letting myself in. I knew the house was empty, since Laura was away and my mum was staying in Garys.
I went upstairs and threw my coat onto my mum's bed, before going into the toilet. I was stumbling all over the place and had my eyes closed most of the time as I was doing so. As I stumbled, my hand hit my big bathroom mirror and it in turn hit the wall and smashed. For a second, I contemplated clearing it up, but then decided to forget it, turn around to face the toilet and have a pee, before throwing up in and around the toilet a few times. I then turned around to the sink again, and attempted to put some toothpaste on a toothbrush so I could brush my teeth, since I now had vomit in my mouth. I succeeded in doing so and then decided that it would be a good idea to get a shower. I had an overwhelming urge to get one so I got undressed and stood in the shower for a bit and I think I must of fell asleep for a minute or two, before getting out of the shower, and walking to my bedroom naked and wet to find a towel and dried my face and that's about it, before throwing myself onto my bed, climbing under the covers and falling asleep.
One hell of a night.
The next morning, I woke up around 10am, wondering how long I'd slept and if I had just dreamt all of that or something. I somehow managed to get into a sitting position, and then decided that that was an extremely difficult thing to do because my head was spinning immensely. It felt like I was still drunk! I lay back down again and tried to wake up, before managing to stand up completely and wobbling all about my room and then to the kitchen to find some food. The only thing I could find was some chicken in the fridge so I had that, then went to the toilet and remembered about the disaster I had caused in there. Then I went back to bed.
I awoke again around 1pm, struggling once more to keep steady when I was walking about. I got dressed and got a drink, before clearing up the broken mirror and clearing up the vomit.
I then came online for about an hour, before deciding I needed to go back to bed again and didn't resurface till 6pm by which point I was feeling as if I was actually normal Neil again. Also by this time, my mum had returned home as had Laura. I went to talk to them in the living room and told them about my night.
So, PLENTY of firsts for Friday night. I did enjoy it, regardless of the breaking the mirror, throwing up and passing out a few times throughout the night. Not to mention spending about �30 altogether. I would definitely go out with my friends again.
Today has been a pretty quiet day, thankfully. Because I had slept a lot on Saturday, I ended up going to bed this morning at about 8am, which meant I got up at 7pm today. Laura then told me that Gary had called and wanted me to work tomorrow! I was actually quite pleased about that.
My mum called about 8pm and she said she was with Gary currently and she asked me for a yes or no about working for him tomorrow. I said I wasn't sure, because I realised that since I had only just got up, I'd find it very hard to get back to sleep tonight which means that I wouldn't get up in the morning. I told her that I didn't want to let him down, but she said she understood and she'd tell him it was a no.
However, she rang me around 10pm and told me that she had told Gary about what I had said and he said that he'd like me to work Tuesday instead then. I said that was fine and I'd definitely be there.
It's coming up to 3:30am just now and although I don't feel that tired really, i'm going to try and get some sleep and perhaps even get up at 8am and go to work, even though I've said I won't be there. Laura's going in there tomorrow as well. To be honest, i'm not quite sure what Gary wants me to do if Laura's back now. Laura said it was something to do with helping Colin out, which probably means constructing furniture. I guess i'm ok with that really as long as there isn't a lot of lifting heavy stuff involved.
Sitting here just now, i'm actually feeling quite pleased with myself for finally managing to find the courage to go out and have a nice time with my mates. Even the aftermath was worth it. I'm actually looking forward to the next time I go and do it.
This post is perhaps a very fitting way to mark my 900th entry.
