Lexicon Chapter 11: A Tribute to My Best Friend

by JudgeDreadz

I arrived at the party with Danny around 9pm and it was surprisingly busy. The big backyard was full of people and the combined smell of beer, second hand smoke and the perfume of a large handful of eager to please women in their early twenties.

“Time to get to work” said Danny, rubbing his hands together and looking into the crowd “but first, let’s get some drinks into us.”

Danny pulled a bottle of cheap scotch out of his backpack and mixed it with some black cola looking drink.

He gave me a glass. I took a sip and almost spit it out. It was awfully strong and really bitter. The only thing that stopped me from spewing the contents of my mouth all over Danny was the fear of looking uncool in front of everyone, especially the girls.

In about ten minutes, Danny had finished his drink and was pouring himself another one. I had barely taken a sip since my first mouthful.

Danny swaggered away in search of some girls to hit on. The swagger and his tall, skinny frame made him look like a tall red headed clown on stilts. The kind of clown that all the kids are scared of. “Sup, hotties? Wanna jump on this?” he propositioned a group of girls who were smoking by the edge of the large elliptical pool. Some of them giggled, but not at Danny, but at the object of Danny’s affection.

She turned her back to Danny and looked really annoyed. I saw Danny’s flamboyant antics were getting the attention of two large, muscular and most importantly, surly looking guys looking to win the favour of the girls Danny thought he was entertaining.

Before I could think about it, I rushed in there and pulled my friend by the shoulders.

“I’m really sorry. He is normally really cool if you give him a chance. I will take care of him” I said to the girl making sure I didn’t make accidental eye contact with the meatheads.

“Hey man, what are you doing?” protested Danny “she was totally into me. She was just playing hard to get.”

I knew better than to argue with Danny when he had a few drinks in him “I know, buddy. It’s just that I feel like a bit of a loner and I need you to just stick with me a while so I can find my feet”

“Yeah sure man, I can do that. So you wanna-” Danny was cut off by someone jostling him that made him spill some of his drink on the back of my t-shirt.

“Oh shit, man.” Danny said to me apologetically. Danny’s facial expression changed to one of anger as he turned to his assailant who actually looked like a dark haired version of Danny, at least in the dim backyard lighting of the party.

Before Danny could open his mouth, the guy said “Sorry buddy, just trying to get through here. Here, you want some of my vodka?” He offered Danny the bottle.

As the guy reached down to get the bottle out of his bag, I saw that familiar silhouette, it was Mindy.

I don’t know why, but I looked away. And I think she saw me look away. I decided to stick to the plan and looked back up.

“Hey…Mindy”

“Hi” she said. She was responding exactly like I thought she would, not giving me any closure, not giving me any chance to relax. It seemed like an eternity before the silence was broken.

“Hi, I’m Charlie” said Danny’s nemesis.

“Hi, I’m Lex” I said shaking his hand trying to appear civil when jealousy was eating me up inside. It had not even been a week and Mindy had found someone else.

“Oh, you’re Lex” said Charlie cheerfully “I’ve heard so much about you. Nice to finally meet you.”

What was that supposed to mean? Mindy had obviously been talking shit about me behind my back. Was nothing sacred with her?

“Nice to meet you too, Charlie” I said as calmly as I could. I needed an excuse to eject. I looked around for Danny, he was getting himself into trouble again. Even when he couldn’t help himself, that guy was my greatest asset.

“Danny,” I called out to him like an owner calls his pet puppy “Let’s talk later” I said to Mindy over my shoulder before running out to save Danny from himself.

It was the same group of girls and this time, the two meatheads were involved.

“They asked you nicely to get lost. Now get fucked” said the less solid of the two. Danny’s eyes were glazed over and did not seem to comprehend what the smaller meathead was saying. Danny was taller than one of them but he was giving away a lot in pure mass and testosterone. I did not like his chances. What’s more, both of them were looking to stamp their authority on this pseudo harem, and dispatching Danny would be the perfect way to do so.

My heart was racing. The meatheads didn’t look like they understood more than non verbal grunts. Closer up I could see that the bigger one had a tattoo on his neck that said “Fuck da police.” Clearly, we were out of our depth.

“Hey guys. He’s just had a little too much to drink. I’ll take care of him. Enjoy the rest of the night. Take care.”

As I yet again put my arms around Danny’s shoulders to lead him away, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and fell forward, almost taking Danny with me. One of the meatheads had punched me in the back of the head. In his drunken state Danny attempted suicide by going after them. Fortunately, I managed to grab his ankle and send him crashing to the ground to join me.

“What are you doing? Those fuckers sucker punched you.”

“I know” I said nursing the back of my head “and they will do a lot worse to us if we start throwing punches”

“Come on, get up funny man” said one of my assailants.

I had one hand on my head and one hand on Danny’s pant leg. “Let go of me” he said. I was doing my best to hold him back. Danny was tall but wiry and I remember I always won the arm wrestling matches we had. Danny always told me he let me win but his scrawny famine-like forearms said otherwise.

Usually so laid-back, alcohol fuelled a rage producing machine inside Danny. Thankfully, I did not have to hold him back for long as some of the other guests started forcing the two meatheads out. While Danny thrashed his way free, the wall of people around our attackers stopped him from getting into more trouble.

After a couple of minutes, it seemed like some semblance of reality returned to Danny. Then, he started laughing hysterically “Can you imagine…ha ha ha, can you imagine what they would have done to us? They would have destroyed us. Like really, really KABOOM.” Danny continued laughing while I gingerly rubbed the swelling. At least I wasn’t bleeding.