Chapter 6 - Tyler

Noah huffs, “When are we going to celebrate us graduating?  It has been over a week now, and we haven’t gone out to have a drink with our friends.  I want to go and have some fun.  After all those years of studying, we deserve at least one night of fun.  Come on.”

I continue to scan through the job postings online.  It has been a week since classes have ended, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy.  Besides making sure that the Dean has food every day, I have been looking for a job.  However, I’m quickly finding out that it isn’t as easy as what I thought it would be.  Most companies don’t want to hire someone with a doctorate degree.  They are happy to hire someone with a master degree, but they don’t want to pay that additional money for the higher degree. 

I’m actually starting to get a little worried.  What am I going to do to if I can’t find a job right away?  Do I move back home to my parents’ house? 

NO!!  I refuse to do that.

I shake my head.  “No.  I need to find a job first.  I can’t be without work for too long.  Plus, I don’t have the money to go out and go drinking.”

Noah grabs the laptop from my lap.  “No.  You can go out for one night.  It isn’t going to hurt you.  Don’t worry about the money.  I’m going to pay for your drinks.  Now, go get changed.  We are going out and having some fun.”

I turn towards Noah and hold my hand out.  “Give me back my laptop.  I need to find a job.”

He slaps my hand away and huffs, “No.  We are going out tonight, and I’m not taking no for an answer.  Now, get up off this couch and go get ready.  If you don’t start moving, I’m going to have to call our friends and we will force you to get ready.”

Oh, why am I friends with him? 

After a few moments of a silent stare down between the two of us, I finally sigh and stand up.  “Okay.  I’ll go get ready.”  I look down at Noah and huff, “You better not do anything too crazy.  I don’t want it to turn into something that I’m going to regret tomorrow.”

A smile instantly pops out of Noah’s face.  “Oh, don’t worry.  You aren’t going to regret anything.  Now, hurry up before we are late.”

Late.  Why would we be late?

Confused, I look at Noah, but I quickly ignore the comment and head towards the bathroom.  Oh, I hope I’m doing the right thing.

I glance around the crowded club as Noah and I push our way through.  I’m not sure exactly what Noah has in mind, but I’m not liking it so far.  I squint as the bright neon lights flash from the dance floor at the front of the club.  However, the dim lights at the other end, where we are at, barely gives us enough light to see where we are going. 

Noah knows that I don’t like crowds and being shoulder to shoulder with everyone is what I would call crowded. 

I sigh and tap Noah’s shoulder in front of me, as the heavy bass vibrates through my body and echoes in my ears.  My nose scrunches and the edge of my lip slightly raises as the strong smell of alcohol fills my nose.

Why am I here?  I need to learn to tell Noah no, especially when he offers to pay for something.  Free isn’t always that good.  Tonight being one of the many examples. 

My eyelid twitches as a new song blares through the sound system and my ears throb. 

Why am I here?  Oh, yeah.  Noah is buying me a drink. 

Noah glances over his shoulder and shouts, “What?  We are almost there.  The group is waiting for us.”

Group?  What group? 

Noah hasn’t once said anything about us meeting a group tonight.  Ugh…

I open my mouth, but soon close it.  There is no use in talking over all these people and the load music.  I’ll wait until we sit down. 

As the crowd gets thicker, Noah reaches back and grabs my wrist as he winds through the maze of people.   After working ourselves all the way through the club, he stops and finally releases his hold on me in front of the corner booth.  I glance around the table and only faintly recognize one, maybe two, people from our department.  The rest are people that I’ve never met before. 

Luckily, the music isn’t as loud here, but it still sends small vibrations through me.  My ears have a faint hum, but I can’t tell if that is because of the music now or the load music blaring around me on my way to the table.  It most likely is a combination of the two. 

I turn my attention back towards Noah, as he points towards me and smiles.  “Guys.  This is Tyler.  Instead of only celebrating my graduation, we are now celebrating both of our graduations.  Let the party begin!”

Party!  I thought we were going to come and have a few drinks and leave. 

I should have known better than to trust Noah. 

Before I can protest, Noah shoves a drink in my hand.  With a wide smile on his face, he shouts, “Drink up!  The night is young!”

The night is young?  The night may be young for him, but I have a growing feeling that this may be a very long night for me.  Plus, I may even end up having to take care of a drunk Noah.  I don’t remember even once agreeing to take care of a drunk friend.

I glance at the blue drink in my hand.  I don’t even know what this is.  On the rare occasion when I do go out and drink, I usually stick to beer.  It is usually safe. 

I sigh.  I probably don’t want to know what is in it. 

Gulp. 

This is definitely going to be a very long night. 

My mind begins to run through a variety of ways for me to sneak out of here, but before I can decide on any one particular plan, Noah pushes my drink up to mouth.  “Drink with me to celebrate the end of our college life!”

I raise my eyebrow and glance back down at my drink.  Do I really want to drink this?  How bad could it be right?  It is blue with a cute little pink umbrella in it. 

I lean a little closer and sniff.  Ah, a fruity smell.  Fruity drinks are good and don’t have much alcohol.  Right?  Well, I hope that I’m right.

I go against my better judgement and nod.  However, before I can take a drink, a few of Noah’s friends dash around the table and stop me.  One petite girl with long wavy black hair and a button nose holds her hands and her drink in the air as she scurries towards us.  “Wait!  I want to drink with you too!”

As few more people crowd around us, Noah raises his glass in the air and shouts, “It is finally over!  We have finally graduated!”

I glance around the group and follow along with them as we raise our glass.  I timidly shout with them.  “To graduating!!”

Without thinking, I chug down most of the drink in one gulp. 

Once again, I glance down at my drink and lick my lips.  Berries.  I love berries. 

I wonder how much alcohol is in this.