Camden Touchtone
A week, almost....at Leigh's.
It was a couple days after Christmas and my father and I had just got back from our annual trip to New Jersey. I remember it was the saddest Christmas of my life as it was the first one without his father, my Pop Pop. I had been casually seeing a few girls from school but I had really started to become infatuated with Leigh in the previous weeks. So, in less than cordial fashion, I let the other girls know I was no longer interested and to kindly fuck off. I’ve since come to realize that trough the years I've been known more for my candor and less for my kindness.
Leigh had made arrangements to make the two and a half hour drive from Charlotte to Fayetteville and let me shack up with her for the week until my newly leased apartment was ready. My Dad, who was the primary lease holder for said apartment, was not excited about this idea at all but was supportive of my decision and said he would meet me with a U-Haul in a weeks time. Looking back, I can’t help but wonder how far me and Leigh could’ve actually gone if I had just stayed in Fayetteville and continued corresponding by phone until my own place was ready. One less story to tell I suppose.
Leigh pulls up to my dads house while he’s at work so we take off without a formal goodbye. He never even ended up meeting Leigh now that I think of it. Probably for the best. It was early afternoon by the time she arrived and I had already been drinking so I took some Adderall to even myself out. We decided since I was familiar with the city and knew the route back to Charlotte, I would drive her car; red Pontiac Sunbird. This was before the days of GPS so she had printed out “Mapquest” directions for the trip down; seems so archaic now.
Off we go! I remember I had two big CD cases and a band called “Pepper” had just released a new album so I popped that in her stereo. A conversation about how her holiday had been so far, or maybe even how her drive was might’ve been nice but I was once again tweaking on pills so I just hijacked her radio the whole trip, never letting one song end before skipping to another one. I would learn later that it was on this drive that she had already begun losing interest in me.
It’s hard to linearly explain what took place in the days to come so I will communicate some key events as best I can. What I do know is that I went from sleeping in her bed at her pre-Christmas party, to now being stationed on the couch. From night one mind you, so it’s obvious something is already off. I get it, I’ve always been a handful, but women usually understood that before it ever got past the courting stage.
Here’s something I failed to mention, I was also broke as shit. My dad had just put down the deposit and first months rent for my apartment so that was my Christmas present from him. I may have had about one hundred dollars to my name, seeing as how I had spent all my Christmas money on clothes and such at all the after Christmas sales. Had I known I wasn’t going to have my dad to mooch off of for the next week I probably would’ve saved more loot. I truly think my lack of funds also contributed to Leigh’s eventual distaste for me. Her apartment was around the corner from both her mother and her grandparents so she rarely had any issues with finance. I remember being invited to a movie with her and her mom but I declined because I was ashamed of being a bum.
Leigh was out and about quite a bit as well so I was left to my own devices alone in her apartment quite a bit. Those devices being booze and pills mostly. I remember there was a convenient store about a mile down the road from her place and I would just find myself making the daily walk to grab ‘Olde English” forty ounce malt liquors to get me through the day. I think I was up to four at this point in my life. She would eventually come back from wherever she was to find me drunk and just loafing on her couch watching her cable. As I write this I can only imagine how awkward and out of place in her own apartment she must've felt. It’s sickening.
It really hit home on New Year’s Eve when I was too broke to go out so she ended up painting the town with another well to do guy friend of hers while I just stayed solo in her apartment. He ended up getting to stay in her bad that night while I had come to grips that I was regulated to the couch for the remainder of my stay. Talk about a major blow to the ego and yet another excuse to get black out drunk and fuel my own depression.
At some point during that week she had yet another house party with a bunch of mutual friends from school and a few people I hadn’t yet met. While outside on the patio I asked our mutual friend Robert if she happened to express to him where I had fucked everything up and I’ll never forget his response: “She said things just weren’t the same after the car ride back from Fayetteville.” Can you believe that shit?! That fast, all bets were off. Makes sense now I must admit. I also met a dude named Sean at this party which will become a major fixture in next weeks entry but for now, lets just leave it that he was a long standing friend of Leigh’s who had made an off the cuff remark while intoxicated of possibly paying to sleep on my couch once I got settled into my own place….Robert said to be cautious because word on the street was he liked to dabble in the crack game but alas, that is for a different time.
Things came to their final head on the second to last day of my stay. It was the night of a big football game and Leigh was having people over for a watch party, at some point, to get me out of the house I assume, she called her buddy Jeff to entertain me for a bit. I met Jeff at the aforementioned party and he was a solid dude. We go to Jeff’s buddy’s house while Leigh sets up the apartment for guests…again. While at Jeff’s buddy’s place it is somehow expressed to me that there is Xanax readily for sale; don’t mind if I do! I don’t remember the amount I took or the amount I drank, the only bit of the rest of that night I remember is being alone with Leigh after everyone had gone home, crying on her couch while she explains to me that she doesn’t care that there is only one day left until my place is ready, I need to be out by the next morning. That’s the thing with Xanax and alcohol, if consumed id such a manner, it is possible to “lose time.” A pattern with me, however, is that along with losing time, I have a tendency to destroy stuff, mostly property and relationships.
The next morning had me frantically trying to figure out where I was going to spend my last day before I could finally have a place of my own. You know its gotta be bad if the chick who has put up with your shit for all but one day can’t even muscle up for another twenty four hours! Luckily, I called my buddy Robert, who lived nearby with his parents and they agreed to put me up for the night. As I was gathering my things at Leigh’s house I realized one of the two CD cases I had was gone! It had been stolen the previous night during my blackout. Serves me right I guess but I never did figure out how, with everyone at the watch party being a close friend to Leigh, she had no idea who could’ve taken it; and why not just take both cases? Oh well, hopefully they got turned on to some good tunes because my music taste has always been impeccable!
So there you have it, my dad arrived with the U-Haul at Roberts parents’ the next morning and we gathered the two boxes, knife kit, book-bag, and now one CD case that was my Charlotte life’s possessions and headed to my new Apartment. I'm still Facebook friends with Leigh, though I think that’s just a formality. Aside from seeing her at a random bar one time and reaching out when Robert tragically passed away from a stroke a few years back, our relationship ended with me crying on her couch begging to stay for one more night.
NEXT WEEK: My first place! Sean IS a crackhead. Wild Wing Cafe. My first time failing out of Culinary School. And, an introduction to
“Red,” the one that got away.
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