Summer of '07

Super Bowl

Chapter 8

February 2019

~TRAVIS~

I arrive at Elijah's place at around 5 PM and find his home to be rather posh for a 29-year-old banker. The house is two-stories tall and has a swimming pool in the back, and quite frankly it makes me wonder how he can afford all of this from just a banker's salary. Though I suppose it's none of my business anyways.

    I step into the luxurious house as I'm greeted by the man himself. He hugs me as I walk in, and don't ask me why but for some reason, that hug made me really uncomfortable. He smiles at me and gives me a brief tour of the place before leading me into the living room where everyone else is at. I see about six guys I don't recognize and three women, one of whom I recognize from Elijah's i********:. Elijah leads me over to her and he introduces me as his "friend from high school."

    "Hi, I'm Michelle! I'm Elijah's wife," she says with a friendly smile as she quickly draws her hand for me to shake. At first, I had previously predicted that I would hate her but after seeing her kind and friendly personality, I now feel bad about thinking that. Never judge a book by its cover, I guess.

    "I'm Travis," I reply as I shake her hand awkwardly.

    "It's nice to meet you! So do you also live in Sacramento or are you just visiting?"

    "Oh, I'm just visiting. I live in Daly City now, which is still pretty close to Vacaville... where we... used to go to school at." I don't know why, but talking to her makes me feel really nervous for some odd reason. Normally I'm not like this... or at least I haven't been in a while. I guess going to house parties where you only know one person can make you feel that way. 

    "Oh cool. So how'd you guys get in touch again?"

    "He found me on i********: and so I decided to message him," Elijah answers, despite the question being directed at me. "So how did you find me on i********:?"

    "I just typed in your name." How else?

    "Well, I mean like, why now? It's been over a decade, so what influenced you to search me up?"

    What is this? Twenty questions? 

    "My friend and I were... looking through one of my old photo albums and she noticed that you were in a lot of my pictures so she asked me if I still kept in touch with you. I told her that we weren't still in touch and she thought it would be a good idea for me to get in touch with you again... or at least follow you on Instagram."

    "Ah. Well that explains a lot now!" Does it really though?

    "Oh, well that's nice," Michelle says, grabbing a bottle of wine from the fridge and offering me some.

    "No, thank you. I'm good."

    "Want a beer?" Elijah asks me, to which I still respectfully decline.

    "No, thanks."

    "Not much of a drinker?"

    "Not since college."

    "Too bad... cuz we've got a keg coming tonight," Elijah says enthusiastically, as he pulls a couple of beers from the fridge. 

    "Wait, how many more people are coming out tonight?" I ask him, realizing that a keg must mean a bigger crowd is on the way.

    "A f**k-ton, dude. It's Super Bowl Sunday! It's gonna be a party!" Damn, I thought I left the keg parties behind in college.

    And Elijah sure as hell wasn't lying about that. Within the next couple of hours, more unfamiliar faces came pouring into the house, not even people I knew from high school—thank god. Guess he didn't care about his friends from high school any more than I did. Though, that brings up the question, why am I here, since I am indeed one of his friends from high school? 

    He introduces me to a few people, and by the looks of it I seem to be the only person at the party that he's known since childhood. Makes me feel kinda special for some reason, despite the fact that we've been estranged for quite some time. Most of his friends seem rather cocky—which would explain how they came to be friends with Elijah, since he was no different than any of them.

    We all hang around the living room as the game unfolds, but to be honest, I've kinda lost interest in football over the years. I haven't played it since the seventh grade and have pretty much lost touch with most things football related. Now that I think about it, I don't really know why I came out to the party tonight given that I knew that it was a Super Bowl party. I didn't really have anything better to do but seeing as I don't know anyone here but Elijah, I probably would have been better off staying home tonight.

    Once I start seeing other people go outside, I follow them to get away from all the commotion surrounding the game and the ridiculous new commercials. I sit out beside the pool and watch as people come and go, having their little conversations as they drink either wine or beer. I'm still not drinking either, especially considering I drove here... don't want to be driving home drunk, did that before.

    My loneliness by the pool soon comes to an end as Michelle comes out and notices that I'm by myself. She takes a seat beside me and begins asking me questions about myself... I guess to get a better feel of who I am.

    "So how long have you known Elijah?" She asks me.

    "My whole life, pretty much. I knew of him in elementary school. We were also both on the football team in middle school," I reveal to her. " We didn't become friends though until high school... cuz of... a girl we both knew from summer camp."

    "Oh really? Yeah, Elijah doesn't talk much of his high school days, so I'm sorry for not knowing who you are."

    "Oh no, you're good. I don't like to talk about those days either. High school wasn't the best time for me."

    "Totally understandable. High school can be a shitshow for some people."

    "What about you? How long have you known about Elijah?" I ask her.

    "Since our senior year of college. I was 22."

    "Oh cool. I thought he said 24 though."

    "Yeah, he was 24. I'm two years younger than he is." Interesting... Elijah remembers how old he was but not how old his wife was when they started dating.

    "Interesting," I mumble, as she turns her head to look over to Elijah standing on the other side of the pool as he converses with some of his other friends.

    "Yep, we've been together for six years. Best six years of my life," she says, as if bragging.

    "Cool," I mutter beneath my breath, as I follow her gaze and look over to Elijah, whose line of sight quickly connects with mine. Not Heather's—I mean, Michelle's.

    "So are you married?"

    "Oh god, no!" I say, as if repulsed by the idea, which I'm not obviously, but... I don't know why I said it like that.

    She chuckles, "Why do you say it like that?"

    "Oh no, I didn't mean to say it like it was a bad thing... I just meant that... I'm not ready for that kind of commitment."

    "Yeah, it's a huge life commitment. But when you've found someone that you truly connect with, it's easy to make that commitment." 

    I look over at her and I see the way she looks at him. I can tell that she's in love with him. Though when I look over to him, I don't exactly see the same thing. He smiles at her, but it's just not enough to indicate that he feels the exact same way that she does. I believe that he loves her, but the extent of that love is... curious. 

    My thoughts come to a halt when Elijah heads over in our direction. He takes a seat next to Michelle and kisses her on the cheek. "Having fun yet, Trav?" 

    "Yeah, man. It's a pretty cool party."

    "You don't have to lie," Michelle says with a smile. "It's kinda lame actually."

    "Well, I didn't want to be rude."

    "Yeah, I remember when I was in college and I went to parties where I didn't know anybody. It was never really fun," Michelle says.

    "Nope. But you know what would make it fun... if you drank from that keg, upside down," Elijah suggests with a smirk on his face.

    "No thanks, man. I'm good."

    "Oh come on, man! You gotta do it, just this one time!"

    "Nah..."

    "Don't be a p***y! Just do it, if you get drunk I'll drive you home afterwards," Elijah insists, just like he used to pressure me into doing things back in high school. I can see that part of him hasn't changed at all.

    "That's assuming that you don't get drunk," Michelle comments.

    "I won't. My tolerance is pretty high at this point." Reminds me of the last time we got drunk together... that didn't end well. "What do you say, Trav? You down?"

    As usual, I cave into peer pressure and let Elijah lead me astray.