The bar at this point was absolutely packed, with even going to the bar to get another drink becoming a struggle. Something the others quickly noticed. "Hey, this place is getting way too crowded. We should go somewhere else." Clark shouted.
"Let's go to Underworld! We haven't been there in ages." Cindy moaned, her body draped over Jamie as her lips separated from his. Breaking the ten-minute make-out session they had gotten into.
"It's only been a week since we were last there." Lewis replied absentmindedly, too busy glaring at anybody who got even the tiniest bit close to him, clearly eager for a fight of his own.
"A week too long! Let's go!" Cindy said as she attempted to stand back up. Her hands wrapped around Jamie in a vice-like grip as she used him for support, her legs shaking throughout like those of a newborn fawn.
"Looks like we're going." Alice sighed. "There's not a chance in hell we're going to be able to stop both a drunk Clark and Cindy from going where they want. They're as stubborn as a pair of mules." She giggled.
"Seems like they're not the only ones who are a bit too tipsy, no?" I said, smirking as I looked at her completely flushed face.
"Like you're one to talk. You almost fell over when you went to take a piss." She leaned in, giggling once again while she did so, our faces so close I was able to feel the warmth of her breath against my face and smell the floral scent of her perfume as it suffocated me within its intoxicating smell.
"Hey! Hurry the fuck up you two!" Jamie suddenly shouted, making the two of us jump away in surprise. I looked towards him, noticing he and the others had somehow already gotten up and were ready to leave. An action I soon followed while doing my best to avoid facing Alice and thinking about what just happened. When we were ready, we stumbled our way out of the bar, doing our best to squeeze past the multitude of people now crowded in the bar.
Once we finally got out the door and underneath the darkened black sky, the group immediately started walking, or in a few cases stumbling, forward, heading for the club Underworld. As we made our way there, laughing and joking far too loud, I made a startling discovery when I placed my hands in my pockets for warmth; I had no money left. All that could be felt in my pocket was the rattling of a few coins, my phone and the bottle of pills I had gotten from the hospital, reminding me I needed to take one soon. There was not even enough change for another drink from Sharky's, let alone getting into a nightclub and buying drinks there.
"Shit! I haven't got any money left. I need to run back home quickly and grab some." I shouted loudly, trying to be heard over the shouting match currently taking place between Jamie and Clark.
"How do you not have any money? All we've had is a few beers." Cindy slurred.
"Well, I wasn't really planning on somehow ending up going to a nightclub tonight, so I didn't bring that much with me. Just give me twenty minutes, and I'll race back home." I said, praying that they would agree, not wanting the night to end.
Before Cindy or the others could say anything else, Clark quickly piped in, "Of course mate! We will not move a single step until you get back!" He said loudly and confidently, in direct juxtaposition to the way he stumbled around as he spoke.
Not feeling too confident in what he was saying, I turned to Alice, who gave me a small nod. To which I quickly sprinted down the street back home. Or at least I attempted to. The run back home was precarious, to say the least. If you could even call it a run. In my alcohol-induced state, I had forgotten just how poor my stamina suddenly was and found myself two minutes later lying on the cold stone floor from an unfortunate trip, panting rapidly in desperate need of oxygen. After that, I sobered up enough to eventually get back up and lightly jog home, being careful not to overexert myself again. It seemed, however I still overestimated my ability to jog in the dark while drunk, falling over another three more times and collecting a plethora of scrapes and cuts along my arms and knees because of it.
Finally, I made it back home, feeling more like a damaged war hero than the drunk teenager I actually was. Luckily for me, Dad appeared to still be out at work with his truck absent from the driveway. As I made it inside, I quickly rushed into my room, knowing it had already been fifteen minutes since I left the others, and looked in my bedside drawer for my saved-up cash. It was at this moment, however I realised just how little I actually had saved up, finding only ten dollars worth of loose change rattling around in the drawer after searching it again for the umpteenth time.
Facing a dilemma and not knowing what to do, I wondered if there was any other spare money in the house I could take. And that was when I remembered the savings hidden behind the radiator in the kitchen. As soon as the thought entered my mind, I dismissed it. Yet with every second that passed by, the longer I was unable to think of another way to quickly find money, the more tempting it seemed.
What finally convinced me to do it was the thought of my Dad and the anger and frustration I felt towards him in the moment. So it was with no slight amount of trepidation, as if my dad was about to barge through the front door at any moment, I slowly nudged myself towards the kitchen and stuck my hand behind the radiator, pulling out the old wooden box hidden behind.
The moment I opened it up, seeing the large roll of money placed inside, any sense of guilt I still felt was washed away with unprecedented greed as I rapidly took close to fifty dollars and shoved the crisp notes into my pockets. Just as I placed the box back behind the radiator, I felt the buzzing of my phone coming from my pocket. A buzzing that, when I went to check, was caused by a phone call from Clark which I promptly answered.
"Where the hell are you, mate? It's been over twenty minutes! ... I think." The slurred speech of Clark and the others in the background echoed out of my phone the moment I answered the call.
"My bad, it took a bit longer than I thought. I got some money; just give me fifteen more minutes to get back."
"Fine. But you better hur-" Before he could finish, I instantly hung up, roughly shoving my phone back into my pocket where it collided with the bottle of pills I was still carrying around.
Remembering I still needed to take one, I quickly did before placing the container on the kitchen table instead of back in my pocket, not wanting to lose them while in the nightclub. I then immediately proceeded to race out the door back to where the group was when I left. Hoping they were still in fact there.
By the time I made it back, I was on the verge of passing out, everything appearing blurry through my sweat-soaked eyes. Thankfully, to my relief, everyone still appeared to be there, though they didn't look the happiest with the long wait. That was everyone besides Jamie and Cindy, who I doubted even realised I was gone, having been too busy searching the insides of each other's mouths.
"Finally! Took you long enough! Let's go." Lewis huffed before staggering on ahead, followed swiftly by the stumbling forms of Jamie, Cindy and Clark, leaving only myself and Alice standing around. A state we weren't in for long, sharing only a quick look of exasperation before quickly chasing after them to make sure they didn't do anything stupid.
After only a short but arduous walk we finally made it to the club Underworld. A shining beacon of bright neon lights that stood out in the otherwise pitch-black surroundings, the sound of the deafening music so loud it could still be heard from the very back of the long line we waited in. As we waited, Alice and I tried our best to keep the others under control, a difficult task when one of them had the strength of a rhino and one the energy of a hummingbird. Thankfully, we eventually made it to the front without incident, where we stood in front of a behemoth of a man that looked far more animal than human.
"Uncle Liam!" Jamie exclaimed as I internally sweated in front of the piercing stare he gave us. Alice had told me on the way about how they knew one of the bouncers at the place and that was how we were going to get in, despite our age, however, I had still been worried that something might go wrong. Luckily, it seemed my luck was changing for the better as the gorilla-like man burst into a rumbling laugh as he looked towards Jamie.
"Jamie! It's good to see you lad. Just you and your other five friends here?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, have a good time you lot. And Jamie, try not to get too pissed. The last thing I need is your ma' coming to me with one of her temper tantrums." With that said, he moved to the side, pulling out a stamp featuring a flaming skull that he roughly pressed onto the back of our hands as we entered the club.