Our Bye-Bye-Bob-Bash

My friend Bob was leaving for college the next day and our group of friends threw a "Bye-Bye-Bob-Bash". Our group was a small one, only four teens, all of us odd in our own ways. We fed off of each other's eccentricities. We’d become great friends over the summer and we wanted to go out with a relative bang. Now, we would like to think of ourselves as good kids. We don’t smoke, drink, or do drugs. We don’t sleep either. For an example of our clean but senseless fun, Bob, Jenny, and I used to go to Meijer at anywhere from 2:00am through 4:00am to shop for who knows what. Hey, it was open.

The night of the party, Meijer was our first destination. We were earlier than usual that night, and it shocked us to see people in the store. This was all new to our friend Angie, who had a curfew, so Bob, Jenny, and I wanted to share this with the fourth member of our foursome before we became a threesome. We brought others too, who knew us and Bob, to show them how to have darn good fun on a budget at midnight. We wandered, joked, played with the merchandise, and eventually decided to buy fruit. It didn’t matter what we bought though, it could just as easily been fireworks or duct tape. I felt exotic so I grabbed a mango for my friends and I to share.

We came back to Jenny’s house to enjoy our fruit with our friends. We gave Bob his going away present, a basket of "dorm room essentials" which was basically family planning products, various medical implements, and a Ricky Martin poster.

After the gift was given, Angie’s curfew drew near. For her, this was goodbye. There were tears and hugs for Bob. Angie tried to leave once but couldn’t help come back for another hug. I started to feel something. It was a realization that Bob would soon be leaving. After Angie left, the remainder of the party traded stories of high school. We all got back to laughing and enjoying the night. We all managed to forget that it would end in Bob’s departure.

It was getting to be the time of night that was usually filled with a real Meijer trip. It was around 3:00am. We decided to make another trip to celebrate pi time. Pi time is a festivity made up between my friends. It is just a reason to have a tiny party. Twice a day, at 3:14 am and pm we would celebrate pi time in homage to the mathematical figure. So the customary pi time destination was an all night store. We had done Meijer earlier tonight, so we decided on the local Super K-mart. On the way out the door, another partygoer decided to bow out. This time a dignified handshake and exchange of good wishes was the goodbye of choice. Again the feeling crept in. It was worse now, more real. I shook it off for our pi time celebration though. Off to K-mart we went. We loitered and strolled through the store. and I ended up buying a Snickers bar in the self checkout lane en español. Just then my mother called me, it was 4:00 and she was leaving for work. I needed to get home.

I drove our group home and let Bob use my van to take the rest of the group home and Jenny would follow him to my house to drop the van off. I went inside and waited in a dark living room. I thought in that time about Bob and now the feeling I have twice before mentioned was there to stay. It loomed over me and cast a shadow on any bit of fun that I’d had in the evening. I waited.

Bob knocked on the door around ten minutes later, I reluctantly answered the door knowing that it was the last time for a long time this friend would be standing on my doorstep. It was my turn to say goodbye. I stepped out onto the porch and he handed back my keys. We choked on the lumps in out throats while we struggled to say the usual "Hey, man, see you later.", "Have fun at State.", and of course "Good luck!". With that and a long handshake he left. I yelled a few things at him as he left, trying to lighten the mood, and prolong the occasion, but soon he was in Jenny’s car driving away.

I watched it go down the street and turn onto the next block. The vertical blinds swung back to their positions and I dropped onto the couch. He was gone. His leaving was up until then something that was going to happen. But it had become something that happened. I never knew how close we had become until after he left. We’d been through everything together. For all of the momentous milestones in my life he’d been there. I, for the first time in a long time, bawled. I let it all out. I cried to my empty house for a good long time. I signed on to AOL Instant Messenger as I did every night. I talked to Jenny who had just said her goodbyes to Bob. Her feelings mirrored my own, and online we remembered Bob. He came online briefly to give his mailing address and phone numbers, and to say a last goodbye to whoever was on. Then he had to go. He was leaving early and it was 4:30am by that point. So it was over, the summer had ended. Bob was the first to leave, others followed. It was sad to see such a big chapter in all of our lives end, but a new one is opened now.

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Note: the webmaster would like to add that the views expressed in this short story are necessarily the views which he personally feels also. Thanks Bradd!