Holiday Inn Hang Over
It was March of 1995 and my friends wanted to rent a room and have a wild party for the night. I went with Erica and her friend Stacy to pick up Mark. We were only 18 at the time and Mark was 21. We swung by a store to pick up some liquor, including a bottle of 90 proof Vodka for me. We paid for our hotel room and went up to the second floor.
Now, Erica was engaged Mike, but was cheating on him with Mark. Stacy was engaged to Ridge, but was cheating on him with Rob. I, however, could not cheat since I was not seeing anyone at the time. Erica was trying to set me up with Mark’s friend Toby.
That night we started drinking pretty much as soon as we settled into the room. We ordered pizza and had some dinner. After everyone had had their fill, we decided to go down to the indoor pool. We all put on our suites and took the elevator to the basement. It was then that I got the first glimpse of Toby’s hairy back. I hadn’t been particularly interested in him anyway, but that was definitely a turn off.
After a dip in the pool, we went to the Jacuzzi. While there, I lost the key in the bubbling hot water. That was before everyone switched to the card keys, so this was an actual metal key. A gentleman who was in the Jacuzzi as well dove down into the hot water and retrieved the key for me. I thanked him, embarrassed that I did such a thing. But I was drunk after all!
Once back up in the room Toby sat in the chair, going on and on about how he buzzed. Every time he mentioned that, I slapped him on the hand with the TV remote and told him that he wasn’t buzzed, he was drunk. He didn’t seem to mind the constant raps across the knuckles.
Eventually, I closed my eyes and was just listening to the TV. Somebody tried to change the channel and I yelled at them. I found Brad Pitt’s voice comforting in Cool World even though I was too tired to keep my eyes open.
That night I also managed to lock everyone, including myself, out of the bathroom. We called down to the front desk to get someone up to our room to unlock the door. Management told us to call Maintenance. Maintenance came up and took a look and said it was a Management problem. But while they were there, they drank some of our liquor with us. Later, Management came up to unlock the door. They too drank with us. And viola! The door was unlocked.
The next morning I awoke with a huge hangover. My head was pounding. I stole some of Toby’s cigarettes and made a cup of coffee. Now normally I don’t smoke or drink, but a hangover is the exception. I watched movie Satisfaction with Julia Roberts, Liam Nieson and Justine Bateman on TV. When that was over, I decided to explore the hotel a bit. I crept out of the room while everyone else was still passed out.
I got on the elevator and took it down to the first floor and then back up. On the third floor the guy who’d retrieved my hotel room key stepped onto the elevator. He looked at me and said, “Wow, you look different with your clothes on!” Everyone in the elevator turned to look at us as if to say what they were doing last night. Sheepishly, he added, “You know what I mean. You had your bathing suit on.” I smiled and nodded since I remembered meeting him in the Jacuzzi the night before. I stepped off on the second floor and went back to the room, hoping the others were up.
Later that day the others wanted to go swimming again before we checked out. Since I didn’t sleep well the night before I curled up on a deck chair and dozed off under the morning sun streaming through the sky lights.
carilynn27 