It's Saturday night. Two of my best friends and I are passing around a flask filled with bourbon as we drive in to the historic part of Endicott. You know the exact moment that you're in the historic district because you feel the car beneath you adjust from smooth gravel to the gray cobblestone, which lines every bit of the 10 block strip of this part of town. Tonight will be the first night in 5 years that I'll step foot in this part of Maryland. The last time was the summer after my freshman year at Georgetown. After college, I found a job there along with my two best friends, and there wasn't ever really an occasion to go out and party here. We decided to come here tonight because we had been on a week-long business trip in Baltimore, just 20 minutes away. Christian and Mason were with me, my two best friends. It just so happened that Christian's younger sister had just graduated from a college nearby the day before and were all going out in Endicott tonight. We figured we'd stop by and celebrate with her for a bit and call it a night. We were all pretty excited about the whole idea because we knew we'd probably see a bunch of kids from high school who decided to stay local.
We parked and started walking towards The Phoenix, the biggest and most frequented bar in Endicott. We're not even 20 feet from our car, and already we can spot kids we went to high school with making their way into the bar.
"Hah, is that fuckin' Eric Rietzel? I love that kid."
"No shit! That kid was hilarious. I'm definitely getting him a shot."
We started talking and reminiscing about all the parties and shenanigans we got into in high school as we made our way up the street. After a few minutes, we came up to a building with a fluorescent gargoyle and a statue of a phoenix perched on the roof. We show our ID's to the bouncer and make our way in. After a few steps, we stop for a second and survey the room. Right away, we see familiar faces and we can feel the bar almost stop and take notice of us. A few surprised faces here and there, probably realizing that they hadn't seen us in half a decade. We went to the bar and order shots to kick the night off. After a few minutes, I see Christian's little sister Kirsten making her way to the bar. She's all smiles as she gives him a bear hug, almost causing him to spill his beer.
"Where have you been?? You took forever to get here!" she says.
"Relax, it's not even 10. What are you drunk already?" Christian shot back.
"Hah, whatever. I bet I could drink you under the table, grandpa."
Christian rolled his eyes and turns to the bartender to order a beer for his sister. As he's about to start ordering, Kirsten interrupts.
"Can you get a beer for my friends, too?! You all have jobs already, and we don't," she says with a grin.
That's when I noticed that Kirsten had three girls with her. One of them was her best friend from high school, who we all knew. The second girl, she introduced as her roommate from college. However, the third one, I wasn't completely sure. I felt like she looked familiar but I couldn't quite figure out who she was. I must've been staring pretty long because she shot me a confused look.
"Is something wrong?" she said, smiling wryly.
"Oh, no, sorry... It's just.."
"You don't remember me, do you?" she said, still smiling.