Question of the Day

Did your high school class take a senior trip and if so, where did you go and what was the freakiest thing that happened?

I don't know why I had a sudden flashback to this while eating lunch yesterday. There were at least a dozen of us piled into several vehicles for the very long drive from southeast Arkansas to Orlando. I'm not even sure why I went except that it was a chance to get away and maybe have some fun.

There's actually very little I do remember about the trip. I honestly can't even remember if we went to Disney World. I remember riding down there with a guy named Bobby in his Trans Am. I remember drinking quite a bit. I remember having a Tequila Sunrise.

At the time I was very self-conscious about my appearance and didn't think wearing glasses was cool. The glasses I had were definitely NOT cool, so I was wearing contacts.

Any younger readers here may not know this, but back in those days (1978) contact lenses were made of the same shit as aircraft windshields. They were hard and they were not comfortable. They would sometimes pop out if you blinked, and they dried out very easily.

After a night of drinking and partying well into the wee hours of the morning, I could not wait to pop those things out and rinse them with tap water just for some lubrication. I wasn't at the hotel so I had to pursue the only available option. There was so much crusty yellow stuff around my dry, bloodshot eyes, I had trouble even getting them out, like they were glued in there. And I swear I think there was even a trace of blood in my tears. One of my friends took one look at me and said something like, "Dude, did you drink too much because you look seriously fucked up."

But this wasn't even the freakiest thing that happened.

We were sharing rooms to cut expenses. Two beds in the room, two guys per bed. Now before all your minds start roaming, let me cut you off right here: nothing happened between us. I found the guys in my class to be such a turn-off sexually I didn't even want to sleep in a room with them, let alone in the same bed with one of them.

Now, early one morning I was trying to get some sleep and the other three guys were yacking about something, other people were banging on the door, some coming in, some leaving, girls and boys alike. It was a little awkward for me because what if I needed to get up? I was just in my underwear. So were the other guys who were up but it didn't seem to bother them.

As I lay there with my eyes closed I felt the bed rumble as someone got in it. Then I heard a rather husky girl's voice, trying to get me awake. I pretended to be too groggy to open my eyes even though I had been fully conscious for at least 20 minutes.

At this point I felt a hand pulling my underwear down to my knees, and that got me on the move! It was Charlene, one of my classmates. I pulled my shorts back up and bolted out of bed in a flash, grabbing a shirt and my jeans as I ran to the bathroom.

It's kind of funny how much more you learn about people when you spend some time with them (not to mention alcohol consumption) far away from parents and school. And I wonder how many suspicions about me being gay were confirmed right then and there.