living well: how to somehow wind up at the after party of your high school reunion
1. Drive back from Philadelphia with your dad who roped you into going to the wedding of the daughter of one of his racquetball buddies, conveniently allowing you to miss the proper reunion.
2. Receive a text from your oldest friend, she tells you to come into town and say hi.
3. Arrive at exactly midnight. As you walk down the street bump into another old friend who you went to prom with, but who you didn't dance with at the time, because he was hooking up with another boy's girlfriend and kind of grinding up on her the whole night, but who also you made out with sort of recently. Bump into him, and another girl from high school that you never knew at all. Then you can walk together down the street to another place where more people you used to know are.
4. Find your oldest friend smoking outside of the bar with more boys that all hold you in kind of a high regard. Exchange weird elbow high fives, and bum a cigarette, and experience time travel.
5. Wait in line for the bathroom. The boy who loved you in high school, who was also your dear close friend in high school and beyond for a while, who you fooled around with a couple of times sort of recently, comes out of the men's room and you are so relieved to see him and you hug, but then he doesn't really talk to you the rest of the night which is sad, but you get it, sort of.
6. Most parties were at Ben's house in high school. Tonight he has a hotel room for some reason, and everyone goes there, so you go too.
7. Looking at an old photo album that Ben brought, the boys discuss whether or not Michelle's boobs were/are big. The boy who is kind of not paying attention to you, sees a photo of a popular girl and declares how badly he wanted to fuck her back in the day. Your prom date and the girl are kind of making out on the floor, her hand resting on the inseams of his pants. Remember that you are not the right kind of pretty.
8. Look at a picture of you with your ex-boyfriend with his ex-girlfriend from before you were in a relationship with him and the three of you were all friends.
9. Realize that you are at this moment in this hotel room, the exact same person as you were when when you were in Ben's basement in 2005. Silently judging some drunk girl crawling around on the floor. Hearing and laughing at everyone's little jokes so they know you're paying attention. Wanting to be equal to the boys. Wanting to fuck the boys. Pretending you didn't want to fuck them. Knowing how it would all end if you stayed up drinking with these people in this hotel room.
10. You weren't that great at high school and you're not that great at life, but after ten years you know when it's time to go home.
