Spring Break

There’s a black cat on the balcony next to me, and I stare at it, transfixed. It sits down and stares directly at me through the grills, it’s gaze menacing and unblinking. How very ominous for it being a beautiful day in April.

“Babe, can you grab me a beer from the cooler,” Luca calls from the living room. I roll my eyes and grab a bookmark for the novel that I’m reading from the balcony. The salty air is humid and cool, and I was enjoying a break from the sounds of partying coming from the rooms.

We’re all in a hotel suite that Gabby’s dad set up for spring break, in Myrtle Beach. Apparently, this is the place to do Spring Break on the East Coast, so New Orleans was vetoed.

Frankly, I am not impressed so far. Like, at all.

We came down as a group from our college, Kalon U. The 15 of us are spread out on the 4th floor of the hotel, and it’s been four days of pre-gaming in and out of each other’s rooms before we attempt to head out into the night life.

After four days of drinking with my friends and then drinking away my hangovers every day following, I’m trying to be mindful, so I’m taking it easy today.

Luca, however, is not.

He’s been drunk basically since we checked in on Sunday, and now at 4pm on Thursday, it’s looking like we’re on day five of what the girls have dubbed “Frat Boy Fuckery.”

Basically, all of the guys will be too drunk to leave the hotel, instead turning to booze-fueled shenanigans in the confines of our rooms. Sounds fun but is more like horrifying. Guys are weird and gross and even more reckless than usual when drunk in each other’s company.

These idiots never back down from a dare.

Not to mention they all have sex on the brain 24/7, so it’s been…interesting, waiting for the girls to catch up to the guys’ level of inebriation. Lots of swatting away groping hands and trying not to gag while our boyfriends make out with us with way more than necessary amounts of saliva.

I heave a sigh, closing my well-used copy of John Green’s Looking for Alaska, an old comfort read of mine, and resign myself to another night of drinking and trying to bottle feed Luca water between beers. These guys don’t party too hard during the season, which is still going on for all of the hockey and lacrosse players, so now that they are on break for the week, they’re partying harder than ever. If I thought hockey players were wild before, they have nothing on their spring break versions.

I grab Luca a beer, a water bottle, and a white claw for myself because if I have to put up with these crazies, there must be alcohol in my system, or I will lock myself on the roof. Luca is lounging on one of the couches with Chase and Dylan, making grabby hands at me as I walk up and settle in his lap. He’s warm and smells like beer and cologne, and I smack a kiss on his cheek.

“Water first, or we’ll never make it to the foam party tonight.” I kiss him to soften the blow, and surprisingly he listens to me. I look over at Chase and Dylan, taking in the state of them. Chase actually seems fine. I’ve noticed he paces himself and doesn’t get hammered like the rest of them.

“You wanna come take a nap?” Luca slurs, nuzzling into my neck. Yep, I see where this is going. Drunk Luca thinks that sober Lennie is going to let him get a little afternoon delight, and that is so not happening. Last night, Luca fell asleep on top of me in the middle of sex and started snoring. I had to shove him off me so I could breathe.

Talk about a blow to a girl’s ego.

“Why don’t you go take a nap baby, I’m not tired,” I say. He pouts at me like usual when he doesn’t get his way, but he’s buzzed enough that he goes and lays down.

I scoot next to Chase, bumping shoulders. He looks over and smiles, but there’s something sad about it.

“You doing okay?” I ask him.

“I’m all good,” he says, drinking from his water bottle. “I don’t know what I expected out of this trip, but I’m not sure this is it.”

“I know the exact feeling,” I say. “This place is so…I don’t know…gimmicky and touristy. It feels fake to me. And it’s weird to be in a constant party situation when you’re not a huge partier. Like, I feel the need to go with the flow, but waking up sick every day is wearing on me.”

He nods, looking more open now. “Yeah. I don’t drink much, so once everyone starts going HAM, I start wanting to be elsewhere,” he gives me a knowing smile. “Like you with your books.”

It gets quiet again, and I have an idea. He looks a little melancholy and I know just how combat that.

“Want to go walk on the beach with me? This room is not exactly stimulating my senses right now,” I say, getting off the couch.

“Hell yes I do.”

Once outside, we walk quietly for a bit, taking in the sounds and smells. The waves are loud and rhythmic, the seagull cries above and around are nonstop. Once we get away from the hotels, the crowds thin out and we take a seat in the sand, looking out over the sparkling water.

I turn to him, watching his longish, dark hair blow around his face.

“Is this your first time to Myrtle Beach?” I ask. I realize that I don’t know much about him. We mostly have talked about sports, classes, and Kalen life.

“Yeah, it is,” he says, glancing over at me. “I almost didn’t come.”

“Why not?”

“Since I was in elementary school, my parents and I always take a big trip to see other parts of the country during my springs breaks. My Ma grew up traveling all over with her parents, since my grandpa was a writer for National Geographic.

“Woah, that is seriously cool,” I say.

“Yeah, the stories she and my aunt tell me are great. Anyway, she traveled so much and wanted me to have experiences like she did, seeing our country. So we’d go to Yellowstone, to Park City Utah, Key West, that kind of thing. Every April, for the past decade, we had the best week-long vacations.”

I breath out “Chase. You lived my exact dream! That sounds amazing!”

He smiles at me, looking back at the water lost in a memory.

“It was. Being an only child gets lonely, but on those trips we all had each other’s undivided attention. Last year I skipped the group spring break to go with them to Colorado, this little mountain town called Estes Park. We got snowed in and had a wicked time. I remember thinking that I wish I had siblings, or some of my friends to make it an even better experience, so I decided to come with everyone this year. Now that I’m here, it’s lost some of that appeal I thought it would have.”

“Oh Chase, I’m sorry. Those trips sound really special, I can see how this would pale in comparison. I thought it would be different too. I underestimated everyone’s desire to get wasted and stay there, even my own twin!”

We spend the next two hours talking about anything and everything. It’s the most I’ve enjoyed myself on this trip, and I’m thankful that Chase is so grounded and easy to be with. As the sun starts to set, we fall quiet and face away from the ocean, letting the changing colors of the sky slowly wash over us.

“I don’t think I’ve ever just set and watched an entire sunset before,” Chase says, breaking the quiet wonderment.

“I highly recommend doing it more often. Sunsets are my favorite thing on earth. It always feels like a gift from Mother Nature, just for me,” I say. “Well, just for us, right now.”

We go quiet again, watching the dancing kaleidoscope of warm colors until the sun is lost to the horizon of mismatched hotel rooftops, and then head back to the room.

Now that it’s almost eight, everyone is slowly waking up and in varying stages of still half asleep and hungover. Raven and Luca being the most hungover and grumpy.

“Where did you two go?” Luca mumbles, grabbing a water bottle and chugging.

“Just to walk on the beach. I needed a break from the smell of stale beer,” I say jokingly. But also 100% honestly. It smells like a brewery in here.

He looks at me suspiciously. “Just you and Chase?”

I pin him with an eyebrow raise and deadpan “Yep. Just me and our friend, your teammate Chase.” Like there would be anything torrid happening.

He has the sense to look chagrined. After he hops in the shower, I go to Raven’s room and smack her butt to wake her up.

“Lushy lushy, time to get up!”

“Shumph imnop”

“Yeah, not real clear on that. RAVEN! Now, I’m starving.”

She rolls over and gives me a death stare, which would probably be more intimidating if her hair wasn’t stuck to her face with drool.

“My head is killing me,” she grits out.

“Yeah girl, ‘shots! shots! shots!’ will do that,” I say sarcastically. “It’s time to go to dinner!”

That, and I actually really do want to go to the foam party. I may not be a big partier, but I still have some things to check off my list of college experiences.

I should have known that the idea would be so much better than the reality.

***

So. Much. Noise.

Inside the club is madness. Pure, unadulterated, high as a kite and drunk as a skunk madness, on a level of 800 since that is about how many college kids are crammed into Fiesta Loca.

It’s almost midnight and everyone, including myself and Chase, have been hitting the shots and margaritas. There are bodies everywhere in neon shirts, dresses, swimsuits, and everything in between. The stage at the front of the club is outfitted with a DJ and writhing, half naked dancers. And all around, there are glow sticks fashioned into body jewelry, drinks in hand, and bodies dancing, moving, swaying, or in my case, about to get puked on as I narrowly dodge a guy who just started throwing up into his cupped hands.

The DJ pipes up from the booth, his voice projecting above the partiers and music.

“Get loud get loud, what week is it?”

“Spring Break!” the crowd screams back to him.

“I don’t think I heard right, what week is it?”

“Spring Break!”

“Let’s fuckin’ paarrrrttttttyyyyyyy!!!!” he shouts into the mic.

The beat drops as foam starts shooting out from all directions, driving the crowd wild. We’re jumping up and down, shouting and laughing as we’re covered in bubbles.

I’m still soberish, but Luca can barely stand upright, and the others aren’t faring too well. I look around and notice that Gabby isn’t with us. I haven’t actually seen her for thirty minutes.

I grab Dylan and yell in his ear “Have you seen Gabby?”

“Yes!” he shouts back. “I left her at the bar to come find you guys!” He stops and looks confused, looking around. “I showed her where you all were when I left her, she should have been here by now!”

That can’t be good. Maybe she’s in the bathroom?

I grab Chase, Jared, and Cora since we’re the most sober ones and we set out to find her. Did I mention there are hundreds of people here? After about 10 minutes, I’m starting to get a little frantic. We’re in another state, we’ve all been drinking, and we’re surrounded by strangers. My mind starts going down a dark path, when I see a girl with long blonde hair being led by a tall guy, heading toward the back. Her arm is around his shoulders, and he’s kind of propping her up and dragging her along as her head bobs back and forth.

Then I notice the same bright green sandals that I complemented earlier, and I realize that it’s Gabby.

“Oh my God, DYLAN!” I grab his arm and point, “That’s Gabby!”

Everyone looks over and we all lunge into action. Cora and I run up and grab Gabby from the guy, and it’s…it’s bad. She’s almost completely unconscious. She was stone cold sober when we got here two hours ago, and in the short time I haven’t seen her, there’s no way she could have gotten to this level of intoxication.

“What the fuck did you do to her?”

“What did you do to my girlfriend?!!”

“Who are you?”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

The guys descend on the stranger and it’s mayhem. There’s screaming and shoving and punching and I’m scared to get too close. They’re raining down blows fueled by pure male fury and fear of the answer to the question we’re all asking ourselves.

What would have happened if we didn’t find her when we did?

Security shows up to break up the fight and, in the chaos, the guy somehow gets away. There are just too many lights, too much foam, and too many drunk, glowing bodies everywhere. It’s disorienting now that I’m standing still and just got a sober shock straight to the brain.

Cora and I are barely holding Gabby upright, because she’s completely passed out now. Dylan stomps over and takes her from us, gently picking her up into his arms. He pushes past the security guards where Jared and Chase are frantically telling them what happened.

“We called the police and an ambulance, guys. Calm down and take a deep breath.” They escort us while we go grab our friends and head out the exit as the cops pull up, the ambulance following right after.

Dylan gets her situated on the gurney and watches protectively while the EMTs start taking her vitals. The cops start taking statements from all the five of us, and the gravity of the situation is settling over us like a blanket.

I start crying and Luca walks over to me where I’m huddled with Cora, pulling me into a side embrace. “Jesus, sweetheart, you’re shaking.” I can’t get a reply around the lump in my throat. We’re all sweaty and covered in drying soap bubbles, adding to the stickiness of dread that coated my skin when I saw Gabby being led away by that stranger.

One of the officers comes over to all of us, and a stern expression comes over his face.

“Your friend appears to have been drugged. They’re going to take her to the ER, and they’ll test her blood to determine the drug amounts in her system and monitor until her vitals are good enough to release her. I hate to say this, but we see it all the time at parties like this. I was young once and I get it, I do. Away from home finally, having the time of your life with your friends and boyfriend or girlfriend. The reality is that groups like this make people vulnerable. Your guard is down, you’re drinking, doing drugs and having fun…and you’re not paying attention.”

We’re all quiet, shaking slightly as the heaviness of his words sobers us one by one.

“This is the perfect situation for predators. Women are drugged and raped in the bathrooms and behind the dumpsters. They’re hauled into vans and smuggled across the Mexican border or shipped out of ports to other continents to be trafficked,” he continues. “Hear that again; you most likely saved her from being raped or sold as a sex slave. You did good but let this be a lesson to you. These things don’t always end this well. Keep your eyes open, be aware of your surroundings, and stick to a buddy system. The world is ugly, and you don’t always get to learn from some else’s lesson that you alone are responsible for your safety. Alright? Everyone okay? Good. Enjoy the rest of your break kids, and please be safe.”

It’s dead silent as we all take in his warning. Dylan suddenly sits down on the curb, like his legs gave out, cradling his head in his hands, and I know he’s blaming himself for leaving her at the bar.

I guess that black cat was ominous after all.

By the time we’re all trudging into the hotel, the sun is peeking over the ocean’s horizon. I feel tainted, dirty by proxy. Like I’ve lost sight of things over the past week, or who knows, maybe even longer. I miss home and the comfort that it brings me. There aren’t hangovers and evil strangers who view women as a hole to rape or sell for profit, no dirty bar floors or last night’s puke splats littering the sidewalks.

There is nothing here but a good story to tell your friends when you get home, once the sweat and body paint has been showered off and you feel clean and good again. Once the grimy parts start to fade in your memory and the smell of tequila and weed smoke are washing down the drain. When you’re left with the good, the funny, the kind of carefree bliss that only a college kid on Spring Break can experience. Those are the stories that come out of spring break, but now that I have one, I don’t want it.

It wasn’t worth the cost.