A sharp wind belying the gentle
nature of summer screamed past me as I walked down the deserted curvy road. My
arm was covered in blood and my sock had turned red from the constant flow of
blood streaming from the cuts below my knee. As I walked past the Deschutes River
I considered washing myself off to lessen the amount of red that someone would
see on me when they rode their bikes by. A couple people stopped and asked if I
needed a ride to the hospital or if I needed help, but in my state of confusion
and shock I paid them no heed, just kept walking down the road. I started to
think how this happened, why I hadn’t just stayed home, who should be blamed,
where I was headed, and what the fuck happened, but that would have to be
explained from the beginning.
It was a normal summer day in
Bend, Oregon, 80 degrees sliced upon occasion by a slight wind chill from the
North. The sun was out and crystal blue skies were clear and cloudless—it couldn’t
be more beautiful of a day. Little did I know what was going to be in store for
me on a day like today. It started with my parents telling me they had to take
my sister overnight to one of her soccer games in Portland, about 2 ½ hours
away from Bend. I immediately made plans to have 5 of my good friends, Tyler,
Lucas, Justin, Clayton, and Leo, join me for festivities to begin right after
my workshift at Subway.
So I started off to work at about
1:30 with my Subway gear on (hat and apron), riding my bike to work about 2
miles away. I got to work about 1:50 and started my usual routine with an AMP
energy drink and a sandwich. At about 6:00 that day I asked my co-worker who
was leaving to buy me some beer for the next 2 days and I would buy her some
liquor from the Ray’s next door. She was hesitant at first but eventually
accepted my deal for a bottle of Jager and some super dank for 72 Pabst’s and a
case of Mickey’s grenades, all of which I stored in the back cooler of Subway while
I finished work.
Once 10:30 approached I called my friends who
were leaving the Safeway a couple blocks away. They had just grabbed a couple
24 packs of Natural Ice, Miller High Life, and Coors Light, literally. With the
shopping cart full of beer and a bunch of food they had taken from the shelves
and from the frozen food section, I saw them running down the street from the
scene of the crime.
I finished work at about 10:45
and pulled my beer out of the cooler and put it with the rest of the collection.
Justin, the only one who was 16 at the
time and therefore could drive, loaded his car full of beer and food while I
activated the alarm and locked up the store. Once that work was done, the night
was still young and we looked forward to commencing the binge drinking which
was about to take place, I still had to bike home with Leo while the other 3
drove back to my house. We met them there a little while after they had been
there and it was no surprise to see that they had not unloaded the beer at all
but were taking them one by one, drinking them on my back porch. I yelled at
the lazy fuck heads for not taking initiative and began to process of unloading
the car and stacking the beer boxes one on top of the other. Leo helped me
while the other three sat there talking a bunch of bull shit until I opened the
doors and loaded everything inside the fridge. “Don’t work too hard over there”
we told them, and they didn’t. Now it was time to get it started, we loaded the
table full of cups and started the process of preparing the beer pong table.
Once the first game was completed,
I started getting blown up by people who heard we were having a little shindig,
and wanted to come eat the food and drink the beer but I wasn’t having any of
that. A group of girls that Justin had invited came over in one car and rang
the bell. Tyler walked over and let them in and things started to get crazy,
blasting music and pounding beers. About 12:30 the girls had to leave because
one of their moms busted the whole story for staying at another one’s house.
None of them could drive so Tyler drove Katie’s car while Justin drove behind
them to pick him up. Lucas, Clayton, Leo
and I decided we should just keep drinking even if these suckas had to go home.
And we did.
At about 1:30 am the others got back to find us slowing down a
bit and gave us shit for not putting more of a dent into the second 24 pack of
Pabst we had in the front fridge. The pyramid we were building with the empty
cans kept getting bigger and bigger until there was a stack of red, white and
blue cans out on my back porch the size of a small child. At about 2:00 in the
morning Clayton and Lucas were ready to pass out while the rest of us were
sitting around talking shit to one another. Justin was the first to decide to go to sleep,
while the rest broke out cigars and the super dank I had from earlier.
Tyler wanted to be the one to
roll it up and took over the duty until he broke 2 wraps and we were forced to
find other means. There was nothing else that was available to be used except
for a brown paper lunch bag and this idea made Lucas and Clayton pass on the
idea of smoking and just went to go pass out. Leo, Tyler and I were the ironmen
who wouldn’t succumb to the major feeling we all shared at this
point--sleepiness.
Using a brown lunch bag, we rolled up a small spliff and smoked it about ¾ of
the way before Leo decided this was it for him and he went to go find a place
to fall asleep. Tyler and I were not going to be a bitch like the rest of them,
so we stayed up despite the feeling of laziness in the eyes and constant yawning.
At about 6:30 am, we decided to make a trip to
7/11 to get some munchies and energy drinks to stay awake and prepare for the
next day of drinking. Tyler insisted that we drive there and wanted to do the
driving himself so we took my parents Ford Expedition down to the 7/11 about 3
miles away and picked up some taquitos and buku energy drinks. About 7:00 we
headed back to the house but he decided to stop at the gas station and have the
attendant put $20 of gas in so we could drive a bit more; I had no idea was in
store for me at this point.
After worrying that the attendant might figure
out we were both 14 years old and that fact we both stuck like a bar the
morning after, we jammed out of there. Tyler thought we should drive out to
Shevlin Park, a long road that featured a killer S curved with some straight
away stretches designed perfectly so we could “see what this car can do.” I had no objection in my tired and buzzed
state. Tyler started burning out in the gravel and dirt doing doughnuts and
spinning around with 180 turns. I took over for a bit and slammed on the brakes
to start power sliding and even hit a jump out in the cuts.
After we mobbed around for a bit
we saw a biker start to pull out his cell phone and scream at us so we took off
down the road, Tyler took over after a bit and headed for a long straight away
and cranked the car up to 90 while we rocked some Andre Nikatina. He started to
get closer to the bend and wasn’t really braking until we got about 100 feet
away from the bend. Suddenly starting to panic, Tyler began to brake hard but
in his haste he sent the car into the gravel in the side of the road and was
forced to crank the wheel hard to turn. Blackness filled the next few minutes
or hours or days-- I had no idea how long it had been. As the fog cleared my
head, I realized we were suspended upside down, hanging mid-air secured by our
seatbelts we had somehow remembered to put on in spite of our tired and
half-drunk still state.
Tyler got out first and started
yelling at me from the other side of the window,”Matt” making sure I was still
alive and trying to get me out. He kicked the window and I elbowed the window
until it shattered. Probably not the best plan but then again, in my confused
state the best plan had already been long abandoned…to stay at home. We both
stood outside as I scanned my body for any injuries but only found a deep cut
on my leg and a few pieces of glass in my hands and small cuts, we starred at
the car which lay upside down on the opposite side of the road and looked in
horror as we began to realize what had just happened. Tyler immediately said “I
got to get out of here” and I told him to leave and while I called my parents
and walked down the road. A man who was working on pipe underground was running
to help us from down the road, I couldn’t muster up anything to say because it
seemed so surreal but Tyler had his bullshit story of leaving his phone so we
had to go back to the house. As we walked down the road I called my parents and
told them what had happened and they were horrified with what I had to tell
them, my mom said “you stay right there I am calling the neighbors to come get
you.” But the way this all seemed I couldn’t just sit still; no this had my
heart racing even though I was totally calm. Tyler made sure that I was okay
and if I would tell everyone he wasn’t even with me when this happened and I
just gave him a wave of the hand as if he was a butler and I wanted him gone
from my sight. As I walked down the deserted curvy road with the wind whistling
at my back all I could think about was getting into a nice warm bed and just
forgetting all of this had happened but right about then I saw our neighbor
Bill pulling up in his Honda and immediately checking me to see if I was okay,
then driving me straight to the hospital. Once we arrived I was placed into the
emergency room and as I laid there feeling like I was exposing myself to
everyone who walked by and saw me laying in a gown that almost covered me to my
knee, I couldn’t help but feel better to close my eyes and drift off to
somewhere else. But then I heard footsteps coming my way, “Good morning
Matthew” and I woke up to find the doctor standing above me while a deputy from
the sheriff’s office stood right behind him.
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