Error: An Unexpected Journey

I didn't mind the smell of the place. Not at all. The drunks that had been thrown out in the middle of the night, the piss and shit being cleaned up for the next day's rush, it all just reminded me of my college days.

I wasn't even a regular in this hole in the wall. I just happened to be talking to one of my old buddies from school, who happened to be a bartender at some dive bar called "The Ox Gullet". It was hard to get anywhere in life with his name, but he had gotten pretty good at making drinks so he stuck around with it. At least that's what he told me. Of course there were other reasons why I had never heard of this place before. Especially in this trendy part of town.

I got up after polishing off my first beer and walked over to the bathroom as I felt another on its way down. After taking care of business I washed my hands and checked myself in the mirror above the sink. I didn't look too terrible for someone who hadn't shaved in a few days and had just finished crawling out from under his bed after a very rough night.

A young kid walked into the bathroom behind me, stumbling about like he was about to fall over any second. He swayed back and forth and tried to find his balance before finally leaning against one of the doors in front of him. He took a deep breath, looked over at me then started coughing violently into his hand.

He finally stopped and flopped down onto one of the seats next to me as I dried my hands off with a towel by the sink. He looked over at me with wide eyes, and tried his best not to look like he was staring at me while still trying to see what he could see without it being too obvious. Knowing how that feels made me smirk underneath my beard and slight eye-bags as I turned towards him. His eyes darted away quickly but not before his gaze met mine which prompted an awkward smile from him followed by an even more awkward silence between us both.

“So um...” He said hesitantly, clearly not used to finding himself alone with strangers in bathrooms “Are you here alone?”

“Yeah, you?” I replied back casually as if this sort of thing happened every day for me. Which it did so let's not go too crazy here folks, shall we? He seemed to lighten up now that we had something else normal to talk about, which is probably what they tell you is supposed to happen if you want people to feel comfortable around you or something along those lines...

“Yeah! Me too, actually! Yeah!” He responded almost too excitedly “I'm meeting some friends here though! I mean... not right now because they're probably all passed out somewhere but! Yeah! Y'know?” His rambling went on for several seconds as I began looking for a way out of this conversation without seeming rude or judgmental or whatever it is people who don't care are supposed to do...

Before he could continue though another guy came walking into the bathroom behind us and approached the mirror next to me where he proceeded to fix his hair and fix whatever else needed fixing up until he noticed us both sitting there staring at him like deer caught in headlights (without the deer). The new guy took one look at us both seemingly waiting for something then looked back over at his friend who was still going strong “Blake? Are you okay man? What're you doing in here?”