by Michael Padbury

Created on: March 03, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

I consider myself a law abiding citizen; in that I abide by the laws that I consider fair. I do not drive illegally or murder people. Nor do I steal or commit tax evasion. However, I think our drinking age is too high, and I should be able to legally smoke anything I wish. Having said that, the way I spend time with my friends isn't what you would expect from a guy like me.

The night began like every other night, but with a larger guest list. Friends after friends came through the door and down to the basement. The fridge was empty at the beginning of the night, filling up as everyone arrived, and then began to empty once again. As the fridge emptied, the table began to fill with empty bottles and ashtrays with butted cigarettes. The gathering of people was concentrated at first with everybody staying together, but soon they branched out. Teens began sitting upstairs or outside, and that is where the trouble began.
Clumsy girls are clumsy, sober. Intoxicate them and they become as responsible as girls half their age. While a pair of girls were getting some air out front, one of them sluggishly dropped a vodka bottle. The bottle shattered against the cement, covering the street in broken glass and giving the poignant odour of booze. That was one of the dead giveaways that caused a visit from the police. It was that, or the excessive noise coming from the premises, or the neighbourhood hoodlums setting off firecrackers in the coul-de-sac. Despite everybody dropping by we never expected the cops would show. We never experienced problems in the past. We had an adult supervising under the roof as well, so we were more like The Untouchables than typical teenagers.
The second word spread that the police had arrived, panic erupted. Drunken sensibility replaced our carefree attitudes and everyone tried to make the situation better. Some began putting empty bottles in cases, others more selfishly began to hide their illicit drugs, and I lit a cigarette hoping the nicotine would focus my impaired mind. Our plan was better than most, and having a parent supervising helped. The officers came through the house and basically picked out everything illegal. A few of our friends were "spoken to". Both ended up in handcuffs and one met with the pavement face first at the hands of a male officer. I lucked out without a ticket or a call home, despite everyone's information including mine being taken down.
I woke up the next morning almost in disbelief. I didn't think that this sort of thing could ever happen to us. We were unstoppable, invincible, and in one foul swoop we were stopped, caught, and given a stern warning. Nothing was ever the same after that night. Some guests never came back, some were warned, and some of us began hanging out with new crowds. Now that night is just a legend of us, The Untouchables; who were all touched in different ways.

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