twenty-something

Make The Man | A Story By Patrick Raymond
Part One, Section Five: "Curdled"

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Allison and I cheered along with the crowd as my boyfriend, the third baseman, tagged out the runner, scoring the third out. At least I think that's what happened. I've never been into baseball that much, and I was starting to feel buzzed.

I took another sip of the Kaluha-and-milk in my travel mug and nearly gagged. We'd recently discovered the drink earlier after ransacking my roommate's liquor stash and fell in love with its sweet taste. Without much thought to the weather, we headed off to the game with two mugs full of the stuff.

It was a hot May day, and that was a bad idea.

With a gurgle in my tummy, I turned to Allison and, over the dull roar of the other spectators, revealed, "I haven't told Duncan yet."

She turned to me and slapped my arm, twice, hard. "Sam Spencer!" I deserved it, and worse.

"Yeah, I know. I'm the devil."

She moved herself tight next to me on the bench and put one arm around me. "Look at him, Sammy," she said, pointing as Duncan waited on deck. He saw her, and us, so she waved and he gave a little smirk out of the side of his mouth. "He looks really good in that outfit. And he looks really happy."

"I know."

She hit me again. Harder. "And you leave in the morning!"

I rubbed my arm. "Gee, I almost forgot."

"I don't know about your memory, but there's something obviously wrong with your brain if you're leaving school forever and you haven't told your boyfriend."

We both became aware that some of the sports fans surrounding us were giving looks. "Stop saying forever," I whispered. "It's not forever. Just... for now." And with that a pause set in, a pause that became a silence, which became uncomfortable. I could stand it no longer. "Well, it's done now."

"You did it?"

"Withdrawl? Yeah. I stopped by that office after I left his place."

"We're officially college drop-outs, eh?" She pulled a familiar-looking yellow carbon copy out of her back pocket. "Nice souvenir. Although I wish it was orange." We had done it, fulfilling our late night vow to both "take time off" from school and find our true paths. Neither of us seemed as excited about this as I suspect we thought we should have been. Withdrawing seemed much less glamorous while drinking warm milk-based mixed drinks in the half-empty stands of a college baseball game.

Duncan was on base now. I had been so caught up with Allison that I didn't even notice him at bat.

"I meant to tell him. I did." I took another sip from my mug and then spit it back in. "I think my milk's curdled."

Allison rubbed her stomach and groaned. "Oh, thank God. I thought it was just me."