:: Reunion ::
I was sitting on the couch, sipping on a strawberry slurpee, while watching the tail-end of the Detroit-Edmonton game. Mike was a few seats away, in the middle of a story about the time an old friend of ours stole his dad's motorhome to get to work.
And Doug was lounging in another chair a few feet away, yelling loudly - between mouthfuls of Doritos - at the referee for completely blowing a call.
Nothing really out of the ordinary, if you'd known the three of us since we were kids. Except for the fact that we're all now sporting a few extra pounds and a bit more facial hair than we once did, the scene could very well have been pulled straight from 1997.
That's what it felt like, anyhow.
In high school, Doug, Mike and I were best friends. They'd grown up together since elementary school, and I met them both in Grade 8. We were a pretty tight group back then, along with a handful of others.
We were always together, our group of scrubs. Playing road hockey. Going to the movies. Drinking warm beers smuggled from Steve's dad's fridge. Throwing eggs at houses. And fighting those same people when they did it back.
Without getting into specifics, things went a little south in the later high-school years, and since then I'd completely lost touch with Mike and pretty much everyone else except for a few. And while I saw Doug sporadically and we talked a fair amount, it wasn't anything like it used to be.
Not surprising really. People grow up, move away. Go to far-away schools or develop different interests and friends. Some end up in rehab or anger management. Change just happens.
Then we all ended up at Doug's last night.
It was the first time the three of us had been in the same room together in eight years.
It was a little bit strange at first, really. I've seen Mike in the last few years because he manages a store in the mall, but after enough years things get to the point where you just never expect to re-connect. It's a quick "Hi" and that's all.
So we sat there watching hockey, but didn't do the whole "What've you been up to?" thing. Partly because we sorta each have the jist of it anyhow, and I think partly because it would feel weird looking at a person you used to know so incredibly well and going "So...do you like stuff?"
It'd be like, five years from now, having that conversation with Jeremy, Ian, Chris, Melissa, or Kels. Weird to even consider.
We don't have nearly as much in common as we did in high school - part of the reason me and Doug don't hang out as much. I have my own big group of friends now, and Doug has some of his own, plus a new fiancee. We run in different circles now, basically.
So none of us really felt the need to play catchup, instead we just laughed about all the crazy shit we used to do, briefly interspersed with crazy shit we've done lately, and separately, that the other two might find funny.
We yacked about old high school people we've seen lately, if any. Basically we just did the rundown of which chicks are hotter or uglier than the last time we would've seen them.
Typical guy stuff.
Then we did the update of our former clan, few if any we've seen in the last few years. Steve's still around, but he's the only one.
One bought a house in Aldergrove with another buddy of ours. Another, my ex-housemate Jay, apparently goes to Kwantlen (despite dropping out of Grade 12) and lives in Surrey with his girlfriend. To be honest, I'm surprised he's still alive, although I wouldn't be surprised if his dad is not. A third guy is in AA now, and was in drug rehab before that. Another still is a born-again Christian, married, and probably has a kid by now.
As for some of the rest, who really knows.
Maybe I'll run in to them eight years from now, and we'll sit down and wonder just how in the hell Ryan thought he'd get away with "borrowing" his dad's motorhome when we were in Grade 11.
Actually, considering how much fun I had last night, eight years is too long to wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment