Bonfire

When was this? I stared at the blurry photo of myself, sitting next to Andy in a sticky booth in a bar I’ve been to a thousand times. Why don’t I remember this? Could’ve been drunk based on how many empty beer cans were on the table but why do I not remember Andy either? 

Flash forward to the beginning of the night…

I didn’t even want to go to this bonfire tonight. Not sure why though. I wasn’t feeling particularly antisocial or anything, and despite the long week I wasn’t necessarily tired, but something in my bones told me I shouldn’t go. And I ignored it.

I also knew my friend, Rick, would be pissed if I bailed. This was his housewarming party of sorts for the whole group, even though I had been there countless times. Due to his poor planning skills, I practically set everything up and bought all the food, so perhaps I was a little more annoyed than I should’ve been, but I digress.

Around 9 p.m., everyone else started showing up. Rick and I were already two or three beers in, sitting on these tiny foldable chairs as each of our friends joined us one by one. Now that it was nearing 11 p.m., I was thankful for that fire. The bright orange flames swirled around as the wind picked up, and when the flames finally cleared I saw an empty, extra chair.

“Whose chair is that? Everyone’s here.” I asked Rick. 

“That must be mine.” A voice behind me muttered. I jumped in my seat, nearly falling out while the man sat down in the last remaining chair. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No worries, just didn’t hear you walking up.” I answered, though my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest.

I stared at the man, not recognizing him in the slightest. Admittedly, I wasn’t the best at recognizing people, but I had no clue who he was. I leaned over my chair to Rick’s, and not as quietly as I would’ve liked, I whispered, “Who is this?”

Before Rick could respond, the man answered, “I’m Andy?”

Andy settled into the chair and took a beer from the cooler, cracking it open and taking a long swig. He then looked at me, squinting his eyes to take a better look at me. I narrowed my eyes, a weird sensation flowing through me that wasn’t the effects of the alcohol. 

“Andy, quit staring you’re starting to creep everyone out.” Rick said, his voice a little slurred.

“Sorry,” Andy said, his head ticked to the side. “I know you. Do you not remember me?” 

I pointed to myself. “Me?”

“Yeah, you.” Andy set his drink down and started going through his phone. 

The rest of the guys weren’t paying any attention to this interaction, Rick was the only person besides Andy and I that was engrossed in this conversation. 

“You don’t know him, man. I’ve never introduced you all until today.” Rick answered for me, although that was going to be my answer too.

“No, no, I know I’ve met you before, several times actually.” Andy got up from his seat and sat down on the damp ground ahead of me and Rick. “Why would I have pictures of you on my phone if we’ve never met before?”

I narrowed my eyes “I must’ve been drunk every time or something.”

“Not that I recall, maybe like once.” Andy replied, he passed his phone to me and I began scrolling through the cluster of pictures. 

At some point I had lost count on how many pictures I scrolled through. Some pictures were us at bars or concerts or just dinners together.

“This is just weird.” I practically threw the phone back at him. Confusion ran through me, how come I don’t remember him?

“Are you sure that’s even me?” I asked, even though I knew it was a stupid question. Of course it was me, there was no denying that. But it wasn’t like me to blatantly forget someone.

“You sent most of these to me, dude. I’m sure it’s you.” He handed his phone over to Rick after his relentless pestering. Rick’s eyes went wide at the photos.

“Well clearly Jack doesn’t remember.” Rick looked at me, looking as perplexed as I was. “Where did you meet him for the first time then?”

“At Henry’s Tavern, maybe about six months ago?”

Rick looked over at me and I shrugged my shoulders, the mentioning of the restaurant did not jog my memory in the slightest.

Andy took a long swig of his beer, if he was annoyed with my lack of remembrance he was trying his best not to show it. He blew out a long breath and then asked, “Okay, well we went to that bar on Smith Street a few times. What’s that place called again?” 

“Kilter’s?” I answered which appeared to give him false hope.

“So, you do remember?”

“I just remembered the name of the bar, not going there. The last time I remember going there was for New Year’s Eve, I don’t remember stepping foot in that bar after then.”

Now I was really starting to get concerned. Why am I missing these last few months? And more specifically, why is it only my interactions with him? Could I be forgetting other things too? 

“You don’t have a twin brother, do ya?” Andy chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood. I appreciated his attempt, but hundreds of questions were running through my mind at this point.

“I don’t.” I answered shortly, even though he already knew that. 

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, but we’ve clearly met each other several times. I wouldn’t just edit these photos.” He slid his phone back to his pocket, though I had a strong urge to flip through each photo in hopes of jogging my memory. I knew it wouldn’t, so I refrained and just sipped my beer and tried to forget it all.

After several minutes of awkward silence, Andy announced his departure. I felt some relief when he left, though Rick immediately brought the pictures up again. “That was weird, man. You seriously don’t remember any of those?” 

I shook my head. “I just don’t understand why I don’t remember any of them.”

Rick shrugged his shoulders and threw down his empty beer on the grass. A smile grew on his face as he said, “Well at least you’ll remember the ones we took tonight with him.”

My face paled. “We took some tonight?”