Chapter Twenty-Two
The pub is buzzing with its usual evening energy – voices raised in laughter, clinking glasses, and the faint scent of booze and pub grub lingering in the air.
We’re sitting at a corner table, surrounded by a mess of empties and shot glasses filled with a suspiciously neon blue liquid.
Mel, ever the life of the party, is standing on her chair, gesticulating wildly as she tries to explain the rules of some convoluted drinking game she seems to have invented on the spot.
‘Okay, so, if I ask you a question and you get it wrong, you drink,’ she tells us. ‘If you get it right, you make someone else drink. But if it’s a question about a movie, and it was made after 2010, everyone drinks.’
Angie looks baffled.
‘Mel, that makes no sense.’
Mel waves her off.
‘Just go with it,’ Mel replies. ‘Okay, Leah, what’s the capital of Brazil?’
‘Erm, Brasília?’ I say, fairly confident.
‘Wrong! Drink!’ she shouts.
‘But that’s right!’ I protest, laughing as I bring the shot glass to my lips.
The blue liquid is sweet and sour, making me scrunch up my face as it goes down.
‘Adam, what is 1984 x 823?’ Mel asks, turning her attention to him.
Adam grins at me, shaking his head, before throwing back his shot like it’s water.
‘Mel’s game, Mel’s rules,’ he says. ‘I’m not sure any of us could have got that one.’
Mel is already moving on to Angie.
‘Okay, Angie, what’s the name of the third instalment of the Twilight Saga?’ she asks.
‘Ooh, Eclipse, Eclipse,’ she says excitedly.
Mel looks momentarily stumped.
‘Right, okay, erm, make someone drink?’
‘But the movie came out in 2010,’ Angie adds. ‘So don’t we all drink?’
‘Oh boy,’ Mel says. She thinks for a moment. ‘No, no, I said after 2010.’
Angie points at Adam, who chuckles and downs another shot.
The game continues, each question more absurd than the last, but we’re all having a blast, and to be honest, the drinking game is probably more fun because it makes no sense.
As the night wears on, the DJ turns up the music, and the thumping bass fills the pub. Mel jumps up.
‘Everyone on the dance floor!’ she commands, like it’s a rule of the game.
Si glances at his watch.
‘It’s getting late,’ he says.
Adam smirks, nudging him.
‘Come on, Si, you’re not that old.’
Si’s face darkens slightly at the comment, and he stands abruptly.
‘This is just sad, I’m going home to watch a movie,’ he tells us.
Si low-key storms out, and Adam calls after him.
‘Come on, bud, it was a joke!’
The girls giggle, but I feel a pang of guilt.
‘I’ll go check on him,’ I tell them.
I catch up with Si just as he’s about to cross the street.
‘Si, hang on a sec,’ I call after him.
He stops, turning to me with a sigh.
‘He’s right, I’m too old for this, Leah,’ he tells me. ‘Drinking all night, grinding on the dance floor – it’s not my scene anymore. If that makes me old and past it then I guess I’m old and past it.’
Si is not old, by any stretch of the imagination, but I suppose I can understand why he feels it lately.
I reach out, touching his arm gently.
‘I get it. And, honestly, it’s not really my first choice of activities either,’ I reassure him.
‘Come home and watch a movie with me?’ he asks hopefully.
I think for a second.
‘Yeah, okay, sure,’ I tell him.
Honestly, I would rather stay and have fun, but I feel a bit sorry for him.
‘Great,’ he says. ‘Come on, let’s go. You can pick.’
As we head home the roar of activity from the pub fades into the distance. There will be plenty of other opportunities to have wild nights out but, for tonight, I’ll hang out with Si. I’m sure I owe him that much, for giving me a place to live.