Tequila
Sunrise
That
sharp, gacky taste hit the back of my throat and I grinned into the
mirror. I wiped the sink clean and gave
myself a gummy. I’ve been awake for over
three days and the last time I slept was the only time I slept all week. Seven solid hours for seven days. An hour a day and my nerves are shot. Mexico was so much better than Lenny let it
on to be. We had sexy ass brown round at
the villa all week. That plus the sick
llello and you got a fucking amazing time.
I’m the only one awake and I have enough left to get me through Tuesday.
I
take a lap around the house, knowing all the girls have left except for the two
Lenny took to bed. The only chance I had
left at getting my dick wet was if one of them was wandering. Amazing how a regression in season from
primavera to invierno makes these chicks flash their chochas, and like I said,
I have enough to make it snow.
The
house is quiet and dark. Fuck Lenny and
his parents’ money. Well, God Bless them
too! How I’m in a place like this right
now I’ll never know.
I
find the heaping pile still out on the share plate in the middle of the
table. It’s a shame how much drugs we
will need to waste, but there’s no getting this back stateside. I’d stay, but I have class tomorrow and I
can’t fuck around. A few short weeks and
we’re home free. Does that mean the
party starts or ends? All I know is that
I will never get these experiences or
anything like them ever again. Maybe
when I get back home I can find a normal job and finally get this band
together. Maybe.
Holy fucking shit, Nick! Lenny!
Someone!
When
I got to the room all I saw was Jay, and I knew. I fell down and crawled in. Joel was standing next to the door. His mouth gaping, sleep lines embedded in his
face.
Jay
was propped up against the wall, somewhere between sitting and laying. There was a pile of vomit on the floor and
some stained down his wife beater—yellow with the faintest tinges of red. This can’t be. I’ve puked more blood and bile than this
before! He was wearing his shades and
the rising sun was beaming intensely through the open window. I crawled to Jay and looked more
closely. His chest was still and there
were cold beads of sweat collected around his forehead and temples. There was a wax bag on the floor and it all
made sense.
Lenny
sauntered in as I picked up the bag. His
eyes shot wide open.
What the fuck happened in here?
Jay is dead.
What do you mean Jay is dead? How is Jay dead?
I
got to my feet and held up the bag. He
must’ve sniffed some dope last night.
Motherfucker was speed balling.
Either of you know about this?
Know about
this? Are you fucking kidding me? I was very clear on the house rules—only coke
and weed! I wouldn’t even let you
assholes roll when you wanted to. Like
trusting Mexican ecstasy was a bright idea.
Heroin? You think I wanted heroin
in here? Are you fucking kidding
me? Heroin is for dirtbags, it’s not a
fun time. We were here to do some blow
and fuck some Latina bitches, it wasn’t that hard. You fucking idiots couldn’t just follow some
simple instructions and have a good time?
Who the fuck are
you calling an idiot, bro? I’ve never
even touched that shit.
You sure as shit
knew what it was just by looking at the bag, didn’t you?
Just because I
know what it looks like doesn’t make me a junkie. It’s called being street smart, Greenwich,
knowing my business.
Oh, big bad
Queens boy, Mr. New York! Go fuck
yourself! You’re probably the one who
sold it to him. You’re the drug dealer
here anyway, right?
None of the
drugs in this house are mine! You’re the
one who insisted on using your guy out here.
I never would have brought H into your home!
Hector wouldn’t
have either. He’s too fucking
smart. He knows I would have popped him
in the fucking mouth. You don’t bite the
hand that feeds, and my three weeks a year here pay for that guy and his entire
family to stay fat, motherfucker.
Guys, calm
down. Fighting and losing our heads now
isn’t going to fix this.
Fix what? This can’t be fixed.
Let’s go into
the kitchen, hit a bong and try to figure out what to do next.
Next?
Mr.
Idea Man sat there in silence packing the bong while Lenny and I grilled each
other. This is pointless, we’re fucked
and that’s just it. What could Joel even
mean by figure it out? We have to
contact the authorities; we have to get him home to his parents so he can be
buried respectfully.
Joel
hits the bong and slides it across the table to Lenny. He chokes out a few coughs and clears his
throat.
I know you’re
both tight, because you think we’re fucked.
But the truth is, we’re not fucked yet.
Lenny
stares vacantly at the bong, playing with Joel’s blue lighter. He slams the lighter on the table and slides
both aggressively towards me.
Yeah, Joel, how the fuck you figure
that?
I’m just saying…we have options
still.
Options? What the fuck do you mean by options?
Well you know,
nobody knows he’s dead yet. Nobody but
us. Maybe…maybe the three of us can
brainstorm, figure some other way of taking care of it without involving la
policía.
Without
involving the police? Taking care of
it? What are you saying? You want to chop him up, bury him or some
shit? That’s our friend in there! He deserves better than a shallow grave in the
Mexican dirt.
Wait, no, Joel
is right, Nick. Nobody knows…
We know! Besides, how the fuck do we explain it when
we get back? He decided to make a life
for himself in Mexico?
We say we got
into a fight. He stormed off. Didn’t come back before we had to leave.
I am not burying
him.
Who said
anything about burying him? Maybe we
could just push him out of the car somewhere remote. They’ll find him eventually, get him back
home.
That is
bullshit, Joel. Push him out of the
car? Leave him to rot in a ditch? You think some Spaniola is just going to
happen by and call it in? They’re going
to invest Mexican dollars and effort into identifying him and send him back to
the US? You think anyone would report
this? That would be some bump in
Mexico’s tourism industry: Hey guys, we found a dead American, come to Mexico!
Maybe we can
leave him outside the hospital.
Fuck that.
Why, Lenny? It’s perfect.
Perfect? What if someone sees us? You don’t think they’re going to be waiting
for the Volks at the border? Fuck that. It’s too risky. Besides, he’s dead, the hospital can’t help
him now.
Maybe we could
take your dad’s car.
The Rolls? Are you fucking retarded Joel? Three twenty-one year old, unarmed gringos
riding around in a Rolls Royce through the Mexican countryside! With a body in the car! You even know where the hospital is? I don’t.
Maybe we can stop somewhere in town and ask for directions. Are you fucking stupid?! If we even pulled out of this complex in that
car all four of us would be as good as dead anyway.
I
ripped the bong hard and my eyes swelled red with tears. Through my choking I couldn’t hold back, it
sputtered out:
I’m going—hech hech hough—uh huff uh
hum. I’m going to the cops.
And how the fuck
do you propose to do that, Nick? You
gonna walk? You think I’d ever let you
leave here?
And how, Lenny,
how would you fucking stop me?
I’d put two
slugs in your back and bury both of you out there if it was what I had to do.
It’s like that
Lenny?
Woah, relax
guys, nobody is killing anybody here.
You think my dad
doesn’t have guns in this house?
No, no, Lenny,
relax. Hit this, chill out. The three of us are in this shit
together. We have to stay cool, we have
to figure this—
Fuck you and
figuring this out, Joel. It isn’t your
house. It isn’t you guys who are going
to have to eat this, so the fucking negotiations are over. I graduate in seven fucking weeks,
goddammit. My Trust—ten million fucking
dollars is mine. I start Goldman-Sachs
in October. You think I would let any of
that go for this? Are you guys fucking
crazy?
But Lenny—
Shut the fuck
up. I thank God every day. Every fucking time I wake up. I am an attractive, affluent, white man with
no deformities or disabilities. I have
the world by the fucking balls—every bit of advantage and good fortune you
could fucking dream of. Do you think I’m
going to throw that all away, because some junkie couldn’t handle his shit?
I
looked up just as Jay walked through the door.
He opened the fridge and took out a bottle of milk.
