So then, after already completing The Most Boring Summer Ever at community college, I begin my Even More Boring Summer Ever of going to endless AA meetings.
I go every day. I go to a lunchtime meeting. Then I sit around by myself at the coffee place and go again to the afternoon meeting.
I go early. I introduce myself to people. I sweep the floors and help stack the chairs. I get to know people. I get to know Claire, who makes pottery and does yoga every morning at 5:00 a.m. I meet Missy, who is a cashier at Safeway and has female baldness issues. I meet Brooke, who is eighteen and lives on the street because her parents burned down their trailer when their meth lab blew up.
Oh, the fun, the fun.
I also meet Susan. She’s a housewife. She wants to be my sponsor. So then I have to hang out with her and call her all the time.
The whole thing is a royal pain in the ass. But whatever. I just do it. Why not? What else do I have to do?
The one fun thing is the Young People’s meeting. This is the same one Trish went to and Stewart still goes to occasionally. Now I go every Monday night at 7:00.
It’s hilarious. Everyone goofs around and says outrageous things. There’s a gang of cute skateboarder guys who are always getting in trouble and showing up with black eyes from street fights and stuff.
They’re like Jake and Raj and Alex, except they’ve actually done the stuff those guys dream about. They hop trains to California, they skateboard everywhere, they live in an old squat house in the industrial district. They are some serious badass boys.
Of course I totally want to hang out with them. I meet this girl Antoinette who is friends with them, and she and I hang out a little. She’s a chain-smoking, multi-pierced, train-wreck type. But we hit it off.
Anyway, the skater boys barely notice me until one night we’re all standing around in the parking lot and for some reason I mention Stewart. They all know Stewart; he’s sort of their idol, so that’s big points for me. So then I jokingly say I was sort of in love with him and they all laugh and say every girl is in love with Stewart, and then I consider saying something else, like, no, I was really in love with him, we were together, but that doesn’t seem wise and I shut up, and then they invite me and Antoinette to go skating with them. We end up wandering all over the city until four in the morning, and it turns into the best night of my whole summer.
After that, Monday night becomes what I wait for all week.
But by then, summer’s almost over.