Get out and never come back!

Time: 2008
Place: The Hookah House, Boulder CO

It started off just like any other night. We sat in the parking lot pre-gaming our usual almost entire bottle of Burnett’s. We mixed the rest into our sodas and went into the Hookah House. Hookah puffs, cards, cigarettes and drunken conversation consumed our night. The later it got, the more intoxicated we got. A group of guys at another table started engaging us in conversation. We got friendly and before we knew it, we were the only ones left in the place at closing time. But we were busy doing lines of blow off the tables in plain site, too fucked up to care about the consequences. It wasn’t long before the owner of the bar came over and aggressively told us to “get the FUCK out! And never come back!”

Julie* and I reached the point of intoxication that we hit most nights where our tempers started to flare for no apparent reason. It may have been something I said or she did, we never really knew, but before we got from the hookah house to the car her fists started to swing and my mouth started spewing words to egg her on. She jumped in the car and peeled off, leaving me bloody nosed, fucked up and alone in the parking lot on a cold winter night. 

I came back a few years later, now sober, to apologize to the owner for all the times I had betrayed his trust. I was sipping a Vitamin Water as I walked in. I locked eyes with him, and his smile quickly vanished as he stormed over to me. He snatched my drink out of my hand faster than I could get a word out, twisted the cap off and took a long sniff... “okay, you’re good” he said, as he was reassured there was no alcohol in my bottle. I proceeded to explain to him that the reason I was there was to ask for his forgiveness and make it right. His smile came back as we chatted for the next few minutes. He told me how happy he was, that all he wanted for me was to stay sober and continue to right my wrongs. As I turned to walk out, with a big smirk on his face, he exclaimed one last thing “oh and Terin, if you do blow in my bar again, I’ll kick your fucking ass!” He winked.

*named changed to keep privacy