Old Friends

Old Friends

 Nothing made Vic want to come back here. What was there to come back to? His parents had retired closer to him, so he and his wife had their family close to their home in sunny Cali. That’s where their lives are. Being back in this Jersey hick-town made him all the more confident that it held nothing for him. It’s a truth he knew since, maybe, middle school. He didn’t come home of his own volition. An invite to an old friend’s wedding nudged him this way and his wife pushed him the rest. While Vic hadn’t spoken to his old Jersey friends in years, having left them and this town behind when he graduated high school, his wife pleaded with him to give it a chance. 

“Maybe they miss you.”

She’d suggest.

“It’s been fifteen years. There’s probably plenty that’s changed. You might have missed it.”

All lies, but a happy wife leads to a happy life. So he was off.

After getting off the plane and picking up his rental(a ‘20 Accord. Probably the nicest car the town’s ever gonna see)he was driving down beat-up backroads that he’d come to know and tolerate over the duration of his youth. Each bump brought back old memories he’d wish he could forget again. Memories of dull nights, aimless, gas-guzzling, mind-numbing driving. Counting the minutes waiting at a railroad crossing. Amazing how a place with such little going on it had so many trains…

Finally, he’d pull onto a gravelly parking lot next to a shack of a bar. More bitter memories, predominantly of repulsive, overpriced foods. Back in the day, some kids he’d hang out with would try to finesse a drink with a garbage fake ID, which was promptly confiscated and put on a wall of shame. Vic walked in and immediately found the man who dragged him home. Louie was by the bar, laughing and cheering with some other patrons, a pint of musty booze raised overhead. Louie is the poster child of the cliched high school athlete that never made it because of some injury. His playing prowess from over a decade ago still has people worshipping him as a deity, despite having done nothing noteworthy since. He’s still wearing that same, beat-up football jersey. The musty air of the bar made Vic want to puke.

“Yoo, Vic!”

The cheerful Louie’d wave him over. Louie brushed the dirty blonde bangs from his eyes. Aside from his hair maybe getting a little darker, his mullet had hardly changed.

“C’mon and hav’a seat! Join the festivities.”

He’s already drunk. Or maybe still drunk from the past day? It wouldn’t surprise him.

“So, this is the Bachelor party?”

Vic would ask, gesturing around the dilapidated bar they were all seated at with a nod. 

“Yeah, man.”

Louie would boast.

“We’ve all had some good times here. What better place to reflect than here?”

Louie asked rhetorically. The men around him, none of which Vic recognized from their childhood, clamored in drunken agreement. Vic took a seat on one of the bar stools, hearing It squeak under his weight. It felt like he was sitting on screws. A tall boy with some grotesque pint of beer was in front of him the second he sat.

“Just water, please.”

Vic asked

“Shit, more for me.”

The drunk to his side snatched the glass and began drinking. Vic looked away, back to the mastermind of his suffering.

“Sooo, what have you been up to, Louie?”

He’d ask, trying to make time pass.

“Same old, same old, Vic. Chels’ and me finally decided to tie the knot.”

Lou replies as nondescriptly as possible. It wasn’t intentional. There’s just that little going on here!

Chelsea was their high school’s head cheerleader. Louie’s life is a walking cliche, so why wouldn’t he have gotten with the perky, blonde cheerleading captain, too? 

“Really? After, what, ten years? What made you finally decide to step up-?”

Vic bit his tongue. While he had nothing but disdain for his hometown and its people, he didn’t want to come off as too rude. Louie seemed to pause for a moment. Was he…scowling? Did Vic manage to offend him? A calculated look before a calculated reply.

”Well, we ain’t getting any younger. Figured it was time t’grow up, y’know?”

He’d ask rhetorically, and take a sip from his beer. Vic nodded.

“Good on you, man. Good on you.”

Vic couldn’t say much else. Because there wasn’t much else to say to Louie. 

Louie kept his gaze fixed on Vic. He spoke up, asking.

“Soo, what is it you’re doing with yourself now, dude? It seems like right after graduation you just vanished up in smoke.”

There was a tinge of venom laced in his words, dripping off of his tongue.

“Well…”

Louie had caught Vic like a deer in the headlights. 

“I…”

He stammered further, taking a long sip of water in an attempt to bide his time as he searched for an answer. He’d never thought he’d ever come home, let alone be passed on his actions. As far as he was concerned he didn’t have many friends or family or anything left here.

“I…”

Finally, it came to him.

“I guess, I just wanted to see what the world had to offer me.”

He’d reply simply, raising his thin shoulders in a shrug and letting them fall.

“I mean, there’s so much more to life than the place you grew up in.”

Louie nodded lips on his glass. He’d hum as he slurped up some booze.

The crowd at the bar had thinned considerably. Drunks had either passed out or waddled away to(presumably)use the bathroom. Aside from two passed-out men reeking of cheap liquor, Louie and Vic were the only two men left conscious(save the barkeep, of course).

“It’s a shame you never kept in touch with anyone back here. I’m sure plenty of people woulda loved to see ‘the rest of the world’.”

Louie mocked, catching Victor off guard. 

“So, what DID the rest of the world have to offer? What couldn’t you do here in Jersey?”

Lou asked. Vic shot him a side glance as he drank his water.

“I wanted to go away for a better school. I got lucky and found that. A degree in comp. Sci. evolved into meeting the love of  my life and…well, I never looked back.”

He’d smile at the thought of his wife back home.

Lou nodded.

“I’m happy for you man.”He said without much emotion in his voice. Then added,

“I just wish  we all coulda saw ‘the rest of the world’ too…” 

“What…What the fuck are yo-”

“Don’t bullshit it, Vic.”

Louie hissed.”

“You vanished on all your friends back home chasing some bigger new life.”

Vic blinked in surprise.

“Friends? What friends? Everyone in this trash town was wasted out of their mind or-”

Vic began.

“Me, Tori, Matti, the rest-”

“They were YOUR friends, not mine-!”

Vic shot out of the stool, nearly knocking it over.

“Y’know, when I came back here, I figured nothing would have changed. But one thing did. You. You’re a fucking baby. And ALL because I didn’t keep in touch after school? I’d say grow the fuck up-”

Vic reached into his pocket and tossed an envelope onto the dirty bar counter.

“But that clearly didn’t work for you. Congrats, asshat. Enjoying living and dying in some small-town shithole. You all deserve it.”

Victor marched out of the bar, leaving Louie’s attempts to reconcile with an old friend(or someone he thought of as one)utterly futile.