Four For Friday - The River Part Two

The reason I was visiting my friend is we were going to hang out at one of our favorite spots. His parents owned a home on a river and it had been the sight of some glorious debauchery that we hoped to replicate. The house was massive and empty and far enough away from neighbors that it would take some noise approaching the level of a tornado siren for anyone to notice.

Although the house was spread over multiple levels with balconies on each level facing the water there were very few bedrooms. Three or four is my recollection and in the living room there were several pull out sofas. So, my friend did what he always did. Anyone could come to the party. Hundreds of people showing up was fine with him. The only hiccup was that his close friends were guaranteed the bedrooms. Everyone else had to fight for floor space if they stayed the night.

Interestingly enough this was not to be elitist or anything like that. All of us were perfectly willing to crash on the floor. My friend learned early on though that his parents would cut off access to the house if things were broken or turned up missing. As a solution he started putting everything breakable or valuable into the bedrooms. His friends used the bedrooms simply to keep everyone else from taking or breaking anything. The entire process of moving things into the bedrooms and back out again was an hours long process but the parties were so amazing that it was well worth the time.

One of the people going to the party was ML. Because she was a roommate of my friend, she was also assigned bedroom space at the house. She also volunteered to help move furniture and breakables. The ride to the house took about an hour. Because the number of people exceeded the number of available seat belts in the few cars driving there, people were piled on top of each other. ML was piled on top of me. I was jammed against the backseat window in a two door car with the front seat pressed against my knees. ML still somehow found room to sit there, using the handle built into the door interior for balance. For an hour, through sharp curves and bumps over back country roads, she held on to the handle with one hand and rotated herself and was involved in a conversation with almost everyone in the car. She was friends with everyone and made each person feel special.

I will save you all the setting up pre-party stuff, but we got along really well. So, fast forward to the party.

These parties were all about the booze, about that booze. Oh, and the fastest way to get that booze inside the body. I actually was going really slow because I knew from past experience this would be a very long night. Plus, the night before was still lingering in my mind. I found myself at a table with ML and some others playing quarters. It turns out that ML is probably one of the world's foremost quarters players. Seriously, if they had an Olympics for quarters, this is the person I would have wanted representing the US. She could do a regular quarter bounce or down the bridge of her nose. She could make the quarter bounce twice before hitting the cup. She only missed when she got bored or tried some new trick she wanted to practice.

One of the people seated at the table was a few years older than the rest of us. Little did we all know what an important part of ML's life he would become. No, not a husband or anything like that although she has been married.

Let us call this guy SL. He sat at one side of the table and kept trash talking ML and that she was getting lucky. 8 shots later directed his way and he was telling her how good she was and they were going to be best friends. They were friends for a few years and when he gave her a break, it was an homage to that table in the living room of that river house. Later on in life, things went back and forth with their friendship, but at that time they did become very good friends. He is A list, just not in the same way as ML. It was during this round of quarters that I started asking ML some personal questions. It turns out that she had a huge crush on some hair band singer and was hoping she would be able to hook up with him when he came to town to perform. She didn't, but did hook up with several other rock stars the next few years. Things certainly have not changed much with her. If you are a singer or musician, she will love you.

Also at the party was someone a couple of years younger than everyone else. Let us call him DW. I honestly don't remember him being there. I know he was there because later on in time my friend told me he was and ML told me he was. I honestly don't remember it, but apparently DW and ML got to know each other at the party and this led to some bad times for ML down the road. All of you know who DW is.

Even though  didn't know it at the time and it was just a party, it actually was kind of a seminal point in time for the three people there who met each other for the first time. Just some random chance of fate in this house on the river.

So, what happened between myself and ML? Despite my hopes at some kind of romance, that didn't happen. The next morning, I went with a different group of people than ML and didn't see her again for several years.

As is the case with many things in my life like this, GG was at the center of it. She got me some premiere tickets to a movie. GG was a part of it and ML was in it. I'm inside the theatre. I look up and see ML smiling at me. She took her arms and made the same gestures she had made in the bathroom years earlier. I didn't get to talk to her that night. I didn't talk to her for several years. She just took off way too fast too high and left everyone else in the dust. I ran into her about a decade ago and we had lunch and dinner several times and got along really well. When i started doing this site she learned about it from a mutual friend and decided she needed to keep her distance. I know she knew that I would never use anything she gave me here, but I think she thought people would think she was. I totally respect that decision and at some point in the future maybe we will be friends again.