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    Chapter 19

    tab Ooooh...My head...What happened? The world came back to me in a blur of cotton hairs. I pressed down my fists against the ground, struggling on up to my wobbly feet. Gah, I felt horrible. Man, what did happen? Obviously, it wasn't just because I was tired that I got dizzy, fell down, and fell asleep pretty much instantly. There was a reason...with an emphasis of a "duh".
    tab I checked the time. 9:03 in the morning. That meant I slept a good 17 hours! Man, what the heck happened that made me randomly fall asleep for so long? That was no cat nap! Suddenly, I remembered.
    tab Oh...oh shoot... Quickly, I rushed over to the refrigirator. I threw it open, looking up and down, searching for the Budweiser labels that I looked for so often. With trembling hands, I drew each one out. I placed them adjacent, to me. Each one of them...
    tab Was already opened.
    tab An immediate thought crept into me. This was how the murderer did it. He opened my beer and drugged me through that!
    tab Thinking back, that was what must've happened. Being the drunken and addicted lard I was, I drank a beer can that had been drugged...
    tab And even before that...

    One week earlier...

    tab The doorbell rings. But as I get up from the couch, I see that my already unlocked door swings open. So much for ringing the door.
    tab "Oh, hey there, Chad!" Seeing Charles there of all people...doesn't really surprise me, but even so I put a question mark at the end of my statement,
    tab "Charles? What are you doing here?"
    tab "Well, hey, don't beat down on me 'cause my phone's not working."
    tab "Here to throw another random party?"
    tab "And what would clue you in on that?" I shrug.
    tab "Just a hunch."
    tab "You say too often, man." I come back,
    tab "You throw parties to often, kiddo." He laughs.
    tab "Kiddo? What, you my grandpa now?"
    tab "Shut up and come inside. We can discuss your...whatever without you freezing to death in the cold of midnight." He walks in with a large, phony, childish smile on his face. And it wasn't going to be until a couple days later that I'd realize just how phony it really was.
    tab "So, what is it this time?" He's digging through my refrigirator. Thirty seconds and counting...
    tab "Charles? You listenin'?" He takes out two Budweiser cans, and says with a smile,
    tab "Oh, yeah. Sorry, had to find a can." He hands one to me, and goes on,
    tab "Here." I take it, of course, and joke,
    tab "Yeah, you're going to have to come up with a better excuse than the phone one if you really just want to have beer." He chuckles, and replies,
    tab "No, seriously, man. I just wanted to invite you and your wife over to a fancy resturant with me. All on me."
    tab "You can afford that?"
    tab "'Course I can! What do I look like, a beggar to you?"
    tab "Actually..." He quickly cuts in before I finish my sentence,
    tab "So, yeah, tomorrow."
    tab "Wait, why? I mean, why are we even going to this returant?" He points out,
    tab "Hey, you're the one accusing me of throwing random parties. Why not randomly going out to eat?"
    tab "I gotta discuss it with my wife. After all...well, this is rather uncalled for." Charles finishes gulping down his beer, and while wiping off the residue, he says,
    tab "Sure. I'll probably drop in a call later."
    tab "Knowing you, I'll probably be asleep."
    tab "Counting on it." And as he left me pondering that statement, I do the thing that I would regret so much later on.
    tab I drink the beer. The world gets a little dizzy as I wobble to bed. I look at my wife one last time. The very last time I'd ever see her. It is a clumsy, drunken look, a look taking for granted what I had.
    tab And then I fall asleep, right on the spot.