I apologize, for I must deviate from the usual "Get drunk, see guy, have awkward hookup with guy" stories for tonight. Although, I can promise that this one is far more entertaining than anything posted.
The night did not start out on a positive note. After trying to round up friends to go to one of the various parties I had heard about, I had essentially given up. I was in my friend's dorm room watching The OC when I got a call from some girls who live on my hall. My favorite fraternity...we'll call it "Sigma Epsilon Chi"...was having an off campus party at an active's house. Before we go any further, I need to give those of you who don't have experience with college Greek Life the 411.
Active - a member of the fraternity who has already been initiated.
Pledge - a future member of the fraternity who has been selected to join but has not been "initiated" yet. Pledges go through a period of time, usually several months, before they can be initiated to become full members. A pledge may be dropped from the fraternity at any time before initiation as the actives see fit.
Initiation - a highly secretive ritual during which pledges become actives. The ritual itself changes from fraternity to fraternity. It can include anything from dangerous hazing, such as forcing the pledges to drink unsafe amounts of alcohol, to a simple recitation of the fraternity's code of conduct or another secret document.
Hell week - the week directly preceding initiation where most hazing goes on. Hell week is essentially a part of initiation. Pledges are usually initiated into the fraternity to become actives at the end of hell week.
Sig Ep Chi's hell week had just ended, and the brothers were ready to let loose. The party was rumored to be definitely worth the off-campus drive, and we were all beyond excited to have secured invitations.
We arrived at the active's house fairly late in the evening, around 1:30am. A decent amount of people were still there and, even though they had ran out of beverages, we decided to say, mostly because I wanted to spend time with the guy friend who had invited us.
Name: Boston Boy
Age: 18
History: We met through mutual friends at the beginning of the school year. We had attended a few parties together and talked as we saw each other around campus, but the friendship was not especially close. He's a very genuine guy - polite, cute, funny and a blast to hang out with. For those of you who dated the class clown in high school, Boston Boy's merits are undeniable.
The Catch: Boston Boy is famous for probably partying a little too hard. During the last Sig Ep Chi party I attended, for example, I witnessed him a) take a face plant on the cement outside of the fraternity house, get up and proceed to chug an entire mixed drink, b) pick up my friend, throw her over his shoulder and carry her back inside when she tried to leave, c) try several times to kiss me. He has a history of out of control behavior but, before that night, it had never been necessarily destructive. Just entertaining.
Soon after we arrived at the party, I began to search for Boston Boy to say hi. As I made my way into the kitchen and spotted him, it was obvious that he was in the middle of a heated situation.
The first thing I noticed was his level of intoxication - bloodshot and watery eyes, drool, a constant struggle to remain standing, and a bottle of whiskey attached to his hand. As Boston Boy leaned against the refrigerator, it was obvious that hell week had gotten the better of him.
Second, I noticed the crowd of boys surrounding him. None were as drunk as he was, and he seemed to be engaged in some sort of argument. I heard raised voices (his slurred almost incomprehensibly) and saw a threat of physical contact between the other boys and BB.
I attempted to make my way across the beer-soaked floor to talk to him when I noticed dried vomit surrounding BB. As I tried to near him, I was stopped by one of the fraternity members. As it turned out, BB had spent the evening taking one shot after another. One of the boys surrounding him had clocked him in the mouth, and he was bleeding. After the fight, BB broke a window in the active's house and proceeded to cover the kitchen floor in vomit.
Needless to say, it became increasingly apparent that it was high time for him to leave.
Once I noticed that the hubbub had subsided, I approached him. He seemed distressed but thankful to see a friendly face. As he began to explain the situation to me, I noticed that his foot was in a cast. Wonderful. He had been stumbling around the house in a drunken stupor when he was barely even able to balance himself in a sober state. Don't you just love college?
I tried several times to take him outside for some fresh air, but each time we began to head out the door something stood in our way, such as another fraternity member trying to engage in some sort of physical or verbal altercation. Once, someone tried to hand him a bottle of Crowne Royal. Needless to say, I had to make it clear to the offerer that now was not the time for him to further imbibe.
Finally, his friends approached me and told me that, if he wasn't taken from the neighborhood soon, he would undoubtedly be asked to leave in a less polite way. I was somehow able to convince him that it was time to go back to his dorm, rounded up my friends, and headed towards the car.
Once we at the car, my friend told me that one of the actives also needed a ride home. We all squeezed in the car - BB on my lap in the backseat, my friend next to me on the active's lap, with three more people somehow squeezed in between the backseat, driver's seat, and passenger's seat of the small sportscar. Not a recommended way to travel, but sometimes you just have to make do.
As drunk college students always do, my friends made it clear that a McDonald's stop was crucial before we dropped BB off at his dorm. As we made our way to the fast food restaurant, BB was, as you might imagine, in a foul mood. "FUCK Sigma Epsilon Chi!" he yelled. "I don't need to pay for friends! I hate fraternities!" He made it quite clear that being initiated was not high on his list of priorities for the coming days, or at least in his inebriated mind.
By the time we pulled into the fifteen-car drive thru line at McDonald's, the active had heard enough. "Look man," he said. "If you're going to talk shit about Sig Ep Chi, then you're dropped. You can't trash an active's house like that, talk shit, and expect to be welcomed with open arms." BB pushed open the car door, fell out onto the asphalt, and hobbled away towards the grass. We figured that he just needed some fresh air, and possibly a consequence-free place to vomit, and thought nothing of it.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him make his way towards the street - the main road in my college town, leading out to a major highway. "Just let him go," my friends said. "Let him find his own way back to campus." However, I was the only member of our party who had known him before that evening, and I couldn't let him risk getting into that much trouble. I bolted out of the car and chased him across the road, through oncoming traffic. When I finally caught up with him, we were standing in the parking lot of a hotel.
"Just let me walk back to campus!" he yelled. "I've got nothing left to live for now! Fuck Sig Ep Chi! I don't pay for friends!"
I steadied him by firmly planting both of my hands on his shoulders. "I can't let you do that. Please just walk back with me to the car. Everyone wants to see you."
He wrapped me in a tight hug, lifting me off the ground. "Listen, listen. I know you're cute and all. And you're probably the best girl friend I've got here. When I need someone, you're there. Do you know that?" he slurred. "But just let me go. I don't want you out here right now. It's cold."
I looked the boy square in the eyes. "If you think I'm going to let you, with a broken leg and impaired judgment, try to find your way two miles back to campus, you've got a prayer."
He kissed me. "You're such an amazing friend." Then, I saw his eyes ignite in pure anger. "But, I can't believe I just wasted four months of my life on fucking Sigma Epsilon Chi! Fuck all of those homos! I'm dropping the fraternity!" he screamed.
At that point, I noticed that the woman who was working at the hotel's front desk had been standing just outside of the doorway leading into the hotel, watching the entire thing.
"R, do you need some help?" she asked. It seemed that she had learned all of the details of the situation from his rants and my pleas.
I shook my head. "I am so sorry, ma'm! I know he's disturbing you. My friends are stuck in the line at McDonald's. They're coming for us right after they get their food."
"BB," she said. "You need to let R here take you back to campus. I'm sorry about Sig Ep Chi, but you've got no reason to cause this much of a commotion over it. Public drunkenness is a crime, and I could call the police right now..."
BB immediately grew quiet. "No ma'm," he whispered, tears welling in his eyes. "Please don't call the police. I've already spent the night there once this year. Please, please."
She buried her head in her hands. "Okay, BB. I will make you a deal. Will you listen to me?"
He meekly nodded. "Yes, ma'm."
I was relieved. It seemed that this kind lady understood my situation and was willing to take pity on the two of us.
"If you sit here quietly on the curb with R until your friends come to get you..."
Suddenly, I heard a noise, almost like a faucet running.
Yes. BB had begun to urinate all over the parking lot.
I looked up at the lady in terror. "Ma'm, I am so sorry about my friend. I know that this is now indecent exposure. Just please...he's going home as soon as our friends are through the line. Please. I will control him."
She softly chuckled and nodded, casting her eyes down. "BB, listen to me. If you sit here quietly on the curb with R until your friends get here, I will not call the police. If you continue to stand here and make a commotion, I am going to have to. Okay?"
He was speechless, so I answered for him. "Ma'm, if you so much as hear any sound from your desk, please call the authorities. I will keep him quiet."
She turned to open the door to the hotel. She stopped just short of the entrance, and looked over her shoulder. "Oh, and BB? You have a lot left to live for." With that, she returned to the hotel's desk.
"Yeah," I said to no one in particular. "He really does."
I helped BB over to the curb to sit down. He leaned on my shoulder. "I really fucked up this time, huh?"
I noticed that his nose was running, so I offered up my sleeve. "No, BB. I'm glad to be here for you."
He buried his head in the crook of my neck, tears streaming down his face. "I've never had a friend like you." With that, he curled up in my lap and bawled like a lost child.
Between gulps and hysterical hiccups, still nestled in my lap, he slowly provided more pieces to his puzzle. He told me about his family, and how his parents didn't seem to really care for him. He told me that his dying grandmother seemed to be the only person in his life that he mattered to. He told me that the past few months of his life had been the most difficult of his life, and that he felt the onset of a fairly significant depression. He told me that, once he decided to pledge Sig Ep Chi, he lost most of his original friends. And now, that night, he had lost his new group of friends, too. I tried to sympathize with him, but I felt as though anything I might say would feel wrong.
He held me tight. "Please don't tell anyone," he whimpered. "No one else can know how weak I am right now."
I stroked his hair and softly rubbed his back. "I'm your friend, BB."
"I know you are, R. Do you know what a great person you are? Do you know who else would sit here in the cold with me crying like a little girl? No one. I love you."
I felt tears of my own welling. I know that it might have been the alcohol talking to me and not the real BB, but I had never meant this much to someone in my life, and my heart seemed as though it might burst with compassion at any moment.
(to be continued...)
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