There is a moment in my life that will stick with me forever. It is the peak of my stupidity and feeling of teenage invincibility and also the most life altering moment of my life. I think about it every day although it has been months since the incident and I try to reflect and make myself a better person from this mistake. I got lucky this one time, and I'm making sure that I never get in this situation again.
The picture in my head that I always see is my friend Mo and myself sitting in Mr. McKiernen's office with Mr. Shattuck, two police officers, and our mothers on a Monday night. We were just about to get breathalyzed under suspiscion of us being under the influence of alcohol on school property. They were correct. I remember every minute of this day so vividly. It actually scares me how well I know the events of this day. I've never remembered something this well.
I came home from an easy Monday cross country practice, took a nap, and was just prepping for the game. Mo, Kostial, and I were supposed to eat before the game as it was not wrestling season yet. I recieved a call from Mo. I answered expecting to hear Mo, but it was Jon screaming into the phone. "Crazy Levi! Its Crazy K. Me and Mo have got Four Loko's with your name on them!" I chuckled and replied "ok haha I'll see you soon." I sit in my living room for just a few more minutes. I laced up my PF Fliers, hopped off the couch, and ran out the door to the car. The backseat of the SUV I will never enter again.
We say our "what's up's" and just start to drive down the road. Immediately Kostial tossed me a large can and told me to drink up. It was watermelon flavored. For those who don't know me, I love watermelon. I looked at Mo and just saw him with his receding hairline and smiling with his West Allegheny Soccer gear. Kostial has his hair all spiked up with some hockey jacket on. It was blue and waterproof. They were laughing singing the Rhianna song we remixed for the occasion: "Cheers to the freakin Monday! I'll drink to that." We slugged back our drinks and the taste of mine was tremendous. My favorite flavor of anything. It tasted like I just bit into a huge watermelon slice. My mouth tingled from the carbonation and after time my head became light after time. I was feeling young, wild and free.
We pulled into the school. The West Allegheny High School sign was displaying "WA Soccer Senior Night Tonight!" Everyone was all pumped up. Kostial drove into the student parking lot where the marching band was practicing for Friday's game against Montour. We just sat their, continued to drink our colorful cans, and listened to hardcore rap. We still had about 45 minutes until game time.
Mo suggests a McDonalds run. I was feeling good and careless and quickly agreed. That was big mistake number 1. We drove 3 minutes down the road and parked in the away from the building because there was more room. I was starting to feel the alcohol's affect on me after I left the car. Walking was slightly more difficult but everything else was controlled. I ran into a big problem. Tanner's mom was right there. I try to have a short conversation to avoid a screw up. (I later found out I seemed very odd and not as normal as I usually was. She was suspiscious of me.) We go into McDonalds and all ordered the same thing. Two McDoubles (ketchup only), a hot fudge sundae, and 2 apple pies. We sat down and finished our meals inside before hanging out. Back to that damn vehicle I should have never entered.
We parked in the upper parking lot (mistake number 2) and just sat there until the game was closer to starting finishing our very large cans of alcohol. We calm down for a little until Mo says: "I'm going to throw up." This was just the worst possible thing that could have happened. Mo opens the door and throws up, comes back in, and says "let's go." We got out of the car and started to walk. At the exact time, Mr. Shattuck got out of his truck and shouted to us "How's it going guys?" I replied "Pretty good. How about you?" The others kept walking to the game. He started to walk to the car as we were gaining distance from it. My heart raced as it was only a matter of time before we were going down hard. Finally I hear a shout "Levi, could you please come over here? My heart dropped.
I walked over and was immediately bombarded with questions. "What's going on? Who are you with? Were they drinking? Were you drinking? Where did they go?" I replied quickly "Just going to the soccer game, Mo and his friend Jon, no and no, and They probably went into the game." I tried to seems sober as possible and kept my mouth low so he couldn't smell my watermelon breath. He walks me to the car and shows me all the cans in the parking lot the Kostial threw out without us knowing and made me walk to his truck. I then lied and told him Mo and Jon drank and they picked me up without me knowing what was going on. He made me walk to his truck and while we walked, Kostial ran to his car, jumped in and turned it on. Mr. Shattuck immediately ran to the car with me behind him pounding on the windows. Kostial did not stop, hit Mr. Shattuck with his mirror and drove away. He faced no punishment in the end, but I knew that Mo and I were screwed.
I was forced to call Mo and get him to meet me with Mr. Shattuck. When Mo was questioned, he answered truthfully but never said I did anything wrong. We then had to walk into Mr. McKiernen's office as we waited for the police officer. While waiting we called our parents to come get us for after the matter as we were not allowed to go back to the game. When the officer appeared, I knew that I had to stop lying. I admitted to everything and accepted my fate. Mo and I were both breathalyzed and blew identical BAC's. .094. I couldnt believe I allowed myself to get this bad. I was not just embarrassed. I was disappointed in myself beyond all belief. They explained to us the consequences of our action and that we will be recieving letters in the mail soon. I saw Mo crying. This was his second underage. I stayed strong as reality has yet to hit me. Everything was good until the ride home.
I got home and sat in my room and thought. I did not cry, but I sat there and thought about every possible situation. I was scared of every consequence. Detention, fines, community service, just everything was scary. I then started to think about myself. I realized there is no one to blame but me. I needed to change my ways. I've been easily influenced and I need to make sure I don't make the same mistake again. This was my 180 in life. Since then, I've been clean, denied every opportunity I have had to drink, and have been doing all of my court ordered work. My life is changed completely. I feel like a better person in life now. People look at me differently in 2 ways. Some people won't forget about the underage, other people have decided to accept the new me and treat me just the same. I feel like my life is for the better.
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