the evening had first started out with a terrible bout of homesickness that hit the three of us at the same moment (weird). when i say homesickness, i actually mean the terrible longing for american food because none of us actually miss home all that much because we are living in FLORENCE, ITALY. for days all i could think about was chipotle, teal would jump off a building for some ranch and christine would take a bath in some french fries if the opportunity came up. we decided to make our way to the hard rock cafe and eat some good old greasy american food. teal was sitting across from me when we decided on this plan- she jumps on the interweb and looks up the menu at hard rock. reading aloud to me our options, we were giggly in a fat person way. she looks at me in the most serious manner and says "there are so many options alex. we have to make the most of this and im worried that when i sit down, i may cry because i am so overwhelmed with this. this is the biggest decision ive made in a really long time. the grilled chicken sandwich or the pulled pork sandwich? everything in my life could be altered with this decision." no words can express how hard i laughed at these words- she was stone faced and legitimately thought that choosing either chicken or pork would affect her life. i hope you all find this as funny as i did.
fast forward...
fully bellies and smiles on our faces. we get ready and head out to the first bar. and then the next. and the next. we end up at twice, a dancing, get jiggy with it sort of place. (this is weird off the bat cause i dont get jiggy, i like bars). we start dancing and teal gets tapped on the shoulder by a bouncer who invites us into the VIP section. here, we are served bottle after bottle of grey goose and champagne that came our way with firecrackers on top- literally. we were confused and delighted about the fact that it was free but a guy behind us laughs and says thats not free, jacob is buying it. i ask who is jacob? he points to the swedish guy ive been dancing with for the last half hour. oh, snap. HA, our lucky night. jacob (who was ridiculously cool) let me pop the champagne bottles into the crowd every time we got a new one (10 total i think). i swear it, i felt like p diddy.
the next morning...
these words come from teal's point of view because it is best read that way, and then ill tell the details about her train of thought.
"i wake up and without even opening my eyes realize that i have no pants on. i feel around my body and notice that i am wearing a fancy sweater (one that i did not wear the night before) backwards and inside out. i roll over, open my eyes and look at the floor next to my bed. there are crackers everywhere. an empty jar of peanut butter laying on its side and multiple peanut buttery spoons stuck to the floor. there is an empty bottle of grey goose at the foot of my bed. i feel so confused because i cannot remember details of why any of the things im seeing are as they are. i look over and see that alex is not in her bed and in a rush, i panic. with my panic, i sit up fast as lightning and see a mattress on the floor. christine lays on the mattress sprawled half on and half off. at that moment, i burst out laughing like i have never laughed before. what happened last night?"
during this train of thought, i was in the kitchen getting myself some water and hear uncontrollable laughter. what teal does not remember is this- upon arrival to our apartment after finding laura (i have left this part out of the story for laura's dignity because the most ridiculous decisions were made on her part that night) we brought every jar of peanut butter in the apartment to our room, sat on the floor devouring them and washing it down with our stolen bottle of grey goose (christine has a nasty habit of snagging bottles of liquor). i decided that i could no longer deal with the distance between christine's mattress and mine so i told her to dress teal and i would be right back. i return with her mattress, plop it down and the floor and tell her in a get-your-ass-in-the-corner-scolding sort of way that she will keep her bed in my room (which is only about 12x12) for the rest of the semester. her bed has been in teal's and my room since that night.
and that, my friends, is the story of the epic night we lost laura.
