Entry for 3/25/17

When I was in high school, sometimes my friends would throw parties- but I don’t recall them only being called parties.  Sometimes people (the one I remember being named Kaitlin) used to call it “having people over.”  Sometimes Kaitlin would say that her parents had said that it was ok if she had people over, if I remember correctly, on weekends.  Kaitlin’s basement was sacred to me- it was very comfortable, with comfortable places to sit, a pool table, and, if I remember correctly, a television.  I remember sometimes I would go to her house to get together with people that I had just met my freshman year.  I remember, at least on one occasion, I went to a get-together when my friend Lianna and my friend Nora were there; it might have been at the same time, or two different times, or more than once where they were both there at the same time, I don’t remember, but I do remember Lianna and I were acting stupid in front of people while playing pool.  I love pool; when I lived at a nursing home for eight-plus years I played it with my nursing home friends, but I am far from being a pro at it- all I used to try to do was break up the colored/black balls by slamming the white one into them as hard as I could.  And I still lost, most of the time. 

Anyways, I remember one time at a get together Nora almost shoved me into a boy’s lap (I don’t remember if it actually happened), who was sitting on a couch.  This was the same boy who I remember had a face kind of like mine because of a certain picture that I took (was taken?) of him during freshman year, of him sitting down, I think, if I remember correctly, in the student center, where me and Lianna and sometimes Nora would hang out (Lianna more than Nora- they both broke up with each other at a certain point in my high school career, I think sometimes before they broke up we all used to hang out there, if I remember correctly- I was friends with Lianna longer than I was with Nora).  I think I remember Nora making a crude comment as I almost fell on top of Simon, and it was probably one of those times where I was almost embarrassed to death- or maybe it was one of those times when I didn’t care because I was being ignorant, or maybe it was some kind of combination of both.  Among some of the other actions going on at the party (or parties- I think there was at least two) was someone crashing into a closet-  I think some boys broke the door- if I remember correctly it was wooden.  And I remember Lianna flirting with a boy by, if I remember correctly, laying down underneath him and the chair he was sitting on.  Lianna would do that sometimes- attract attention in odd ways.  But hey, I guess I did the same- sometimes. 

The get together, or having people over, that sticks out most in my mind, is one that Nora had at her house, in her backyard/porch/alley area with a basketball net, during the summer before sophomore year.  So much happened, but what I remember as the most magical was what happened when I was mingling/standing around with people near the basketball net.  Nora had a big backyard (to me) and near the alley area was the basketball hoop/stand thing, and under it was cement, with, if I remember correctly, lines that separated it into four squares of cement.  I saw a guy with (if I remember correctly) green eyes that I didn’t recognize, so in my mind, now, I associate him as being from another high school, an all-boys high school, like St. Pat’s or Notre Dame.  Maybe he just “came to play” basketball (this is a phrase that I associate with a boy from the third high school I went to, who said it (don’t remember if it was the exact words, but it was the same idea) while he was talking about, if I remember correctly, how he was going to try out for the basketball team even though he said, if I remember correctly, that he knew he wasn’t going to get on the team). 

At one point in time that night, at the same location, either before or after I saw the green (pretty sure it was green) eyed boy playing basketball, I saw a girl I had never seen before.  I am not sure if Nora invited her, I think it was then Nora met her for the first time, because the girl asked Nora her name, and when the girl said that she had never heard of her, if I remember correctly, I kind of got the vibe like there was a sense of stranger-ness between the two.  The girl who I remember “having people over” was there too, Kaitlin, and the girl that asked Nora's name, Patricia, recognized Kaitlin, and went up to her and hugged her.  The next thing I remember is a boy who I used to have a crush on got sprung off of something (if I remember correctly, he was sprung, dribbling a basketball), and he disappeared into the area in the alley to my left, as Patricia beckoned him, saying something along the lines of (not sure of the exact words), “Come on, Brent.”  I think Patricia followed him as he disappeared into the alley, to my left.

Even before the party something happened.  A girl I knew from school (the first one I went to) was walking in my direction, with a boy to both her sides.  If I remember correctly, the one to the right had more of a happy face going on.  The girl’s name was Becky, and I didn’t recognize the two boys, at the time, but after going to four different schools, if I had the chance to go back in time and see their faces, I just might recognize them.  But I still don’t know who the two boys were.  I was walking to Nora’s house and they (if I remember correctly) were walking away from it, or past it- I can’t remember exactly the location they were at when I saw them.  I saw Becky, and if I remember correctly, I invited her to the party (I don’t remember if I may have just invited her or all three of them). But they didn’t go, I’m pretty sure- I don’t remember seeing them there.  Looking back, I was kind of like a bouncer- of a club- but looking back I know I shouldn’t have invited them because it was Nora’s party- Nora should have been the one to invite them. 

It’s true that high school parties can be fun.  These instances are what stick out in my mind as my most dominant (not including one or more times when I hung out with people from my grammar school and it might have been considered a party/parties- I think I should classify this as the one party my friend Cherry from grammar school had- a party at her house in sophomore year, before I became super depressed and then transferred to the all-girl school she went to) high school experiences of parties.  I wonder if I’ll ever feel like I used to when I was a kid- only the future can tell.