The Big One-Seven
... We took shot after shot until all the alcohol was gone. The Parrot Bay was strong but I took it. The Tequila Rose was gross at first but had a great strawberry after taste. The worst drink of all that night was the 99 Bananas. It was 99 proof, burned my throat, and had a nasty banana taste (I couldn't eat anything with a banana flavor for about a month after this experience). All in all, I don't remember exactly how much I drank. I lost count around the seventh shot. After consuming more alcohol than I ever had before then or in the year since, I went back into the living room to sit down. Shortly afterward, I felt my fingers and toes begin to get tingley and numb, like they were falling asleep. My vision started to warp and the room (or my head) began to spin. That is when I realized that I was really drunk. Suddenly, I felt very sick. I rushed to the bathroom at the end of the hallway, bouncing off the walls like a pinball along the way. My stomach pumped, and I puked for about ten minutes. It tasted like rotten bananas. It was during this time that some of the guys came in to laugh at me. "We're going to tell Coach on you," they said. I can still remember the embarrassment I felt at being the spectacle of the party. They eventually left me alone and Kristen found me still hugging the porcelian. She led me back to the party, and much of the rest is just a blur. I do recall dancing, laughing, and falling. I have no idea how long this went on, but I started to feel very tired. I went into Kristen's dad's room and fell asleep on the bed. It felt like I was sleeping on a cloud; I was so exhausted. I wasn't asleep for long when my good friend Johnathan woke me to tell me that the party was breaking up. "Are you going to stay here or go home?" he asked me. Knowing that my mom would kill me for not coming home, I told him that I had to go. Johnathan picked me up to carry me to my car, but in his own drunkenness, he got tired halfway and put me in the boat sitting in the driveway. The same guys that were taunting me in the bathroom taunted me again as they were leaving. They gathered around and leaned the boat back and forth while singing "Rock the Boat". My already weak stomach had to endure the feeling of seasickness. I burped banana tasting burps. It's a miracle that I didn't throw up again. When they saw me getting sick, the guys left me alone. Johnathan came back and asked me if I could drive. I looked him straight in the eye and said, "Do I look like I can drive?" He carried me to my car and went to find me a sober driver. He returned with Gabriel, who I only knew because he played basketball for our rivals. Gabriel started my car and that's when I saw that it was after 3:00 a.m. My mom always waits up for me w...