friday night out.

(this is an excerpt from an email sent to a friend. please note that names and/or genders of those involved have been changed, except adam.  adam is really adam.)

hey friend,

so yeah.  the birthday celebration got wierdski after you and greg left.  here is the long-ass story...

we stayed at vegas bar for what seemed like forever, although it probably wasn't more than two hours.  which is like forever when you're in a bar that makes you feel geriatric and is full of jersey shore clones.  sam was loaded, although i'm not sure how.  it seemed like she went from fine at the restaurant to tanked as soon as she got to vegas bar. she was nodding off on the stool.  at one point janet thought someone stole her coat and jacket, but we later found that sam was wearing both underneath her own coat. tom was peer-pressuring everyone to do shots (red headed angry sluts or something equally strange and inappropriate) but adam was the only one who ever agreed (bad move on his part).

janet and her boyfriend, mark (who was sober) agreed to drive us back to tom's so we didn't have to get a cab.  on the short walk down park st., tom ducked into j-bar with adam (i.e. dragged adam into j-bar).  this caused a bit of "wtf?" and "where did those assholes go?".  we crushed into j-bar and found tom ordering another pair of tequilla shots.  sam went in the front door of j-bar and straight out the back, which then led to another game of "find the asshole".

we finally got into the car, with sam in the "trunk" of vehicle.  we arrived safely at tom's place.  everyone began more drinking (i had sandbagged my only drink at vegas bar...i had enough margaritas at dinner for a dorm floor of spring breakers in cancun).  tom had a little heart-to-heart with me outside; talking about how he and sam are going to make it work.  he was saying that he needs to work on intimacy and "finding time".  tom was saying that there's this other man that sam has become friends with through work and tom's suspicious that it's more than just a friendship.  tom also said that if things with sam don't work out he's going to "move away".

things seemed cool and i was pretty sure no one was gonna puke.  adam and i went to bed.

that's when tom and sam began arguing.  it was all about this other dude, who sam was apparently texting throughout the night.  from the shouting through the door, we figured out that tom was trying to take sam's cell phone to check the nature of the text messages but sam wouldn't let him.  this went on for a while and the tone of the argument got sad.  it was pretty clear (to me) that sam isn't really invested in that relationship anymore and tom is completely heartbroken and hoping for a miracle.

sam left the apartment (drunk).  tom shouted down the stairs at her, "go ahead and get your fifth dwi".  yeah.  5th DWI.  tom said that sam just got off probation.  i guess she had one of those breathalyzers that are attached to your steering wheel so she couldn't even start her car without proving she wasn't drinking.  obviously, this little tidbit of information is pretty confidential.

tom came into our room a few minutes after sam left.  our "pretending to be asleep" gig was over.  i went and talked to him for a little bit.  he was crying and calling all sorts of people.  he called sam's mother twice (it was 2:30 in the morning) at one point saying that sam needed to figure out alternative living arrangements. he tried calling sam about a million times.  i went back to bed after making tom promise to not touch his cell phone (ha!).  shortly after, tom yelled through the door that he was going to call this other guy which i quickly told him was a very bad idea.  too late.  luckily the dude didn't answer.

adam and i got about 51 minutes of decent sleep.

when we got up (i don't think tom ever went to bed), tom had spoken to sam who admitted to having gone to the other guy's house.  she "slept on the couch".  sam came back to the apartment before we left and acted like nothing happened.  super awkward.

i would say that it was one of the oddest nights out i have ever had.  adam was (and probably still is) totally hung over and miserable.  needless to say, tom's birthday (and his current life) is pretty f*cked.  it's hard to stay positive about sam at this point; both about their relationship and about her as a person.

uggh.  anyway, i am looking forward to seeing you after you get back and return home after your surgery.  we can do something laid-back and non-violent, stay home and cultivate happiness and friendship while eating food and (somewhat) responsibly consuming alcohol.  we can watch a movie or something else dorky and otherwise awesome that doesn't cause the neighbors to be concerned.

reneé