DOSE:

oral

Alcohol - Hard

(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

150 lb

No one wants to have the thought that your best friend could be dead. But in an instant, what I thought would be a fun date with two other girls turned out to be the most terrifying night of my life. Before that cold October night I never looked at life the same, because I had never had to stare death straight in the face. Nelson is my closest friend who normally has a good head on his shoulders, but like all of us makes mistakes now and then. I met him in kindergarten and we have been brothers ever since. That's why when his life was on the line I gave every thing I had to keep him alive.

It all started when I got a call from him one night and he wanted to know if I wanted to go out with him and two sophomore girls that we knew at the time. 'Hell Ya!' I said, like usual. I could always count on Nelson to introduce me to cool girls. So like usual he came with his truck to pick me up, and like usual we both brought a sizeable amount of liquor. But in no way was this night going to be anywhere near usual. 'Are you ready to get messed up tonight, dude!' he screamed as I entered the truck. 'Definitely,' I replied, because at that moment I was ready to get inebriated and have a good time, but if I could of seen the future I would of poured out our bottles and stayed at home.

We then headed to pick up the girls at their house. After we got them we spent a couple minutes deciding what to do. I knew of a tree house near some office buildings that people would party at. When we arrived we started to walk into the woods that the tree house was in. I was ready to start drinking when Nelson made a comment to me that I regretfully neglected. 'I'm so ready to get ripped,' I said.

'Oh, I’ve already had 10 shots.' He replied.

'No you didn't, you liar.' I joked with him because I had never known him to drink so excessively that quick. We forged our way through the dense woods on the way to the tree. We finally made it there and climbed up the ladder to a wooden platform with handrails on all sides. We all took our seats and I began to swig my vodka down as Nelson began to speak. 'Man, I’m so pissed that football season is over. I can't believe that I’m never going to play again. And I didn't even get the playing time I wanted this season.' I could tell he wasn't being himself as he started to gulp down his raspberry vodka.

'Dude, calm down on that vodka if you've already had 10 shots.' I said.

'Don't worry about me, I'll be fine,' he replied. But I should have worried about him because I knew the dangers of alcohol poisoning and that the stuff is literally a poison and will kill you if too much is consumed. He took a few more swigs and said, 'I'll be right back, I have to go take a piss.' He scaled down the ladder and little did I know that would be the last time he was conscience for the rest of the night. I just kept drinking and talking to the girls when I realized that Nelson was taking longer then he should. I called out to him below but there was nothing but silence. Peering over the edge I could see him laying stomach down amongst the leaves and dirt. I knew something was wrong if he was passed out at 10 o'clock. I tried yelling at him to wake him up, but got no answer. I Then carefully scaled down the ladder and walked up to him. I was disgusted at the site of him pathetically lying in his own urine, so I grabbed his arms and pulled him out to lay him on his side. The girls eventually made there way down to see what all the commotion was all about. They had obviously never witnessed anything like that because I could tell that they were frightened.

'Nelson!' I yelled over and over again in his ear hoping he would regain conciseness. I have known him to be an extremely deep sleeper and wanted to make sure he wasn't just taking a quick snooze so I yelled at the top of my lungs, 'Nelson, if you don't get your ass up right now I’m going to call the paramedics and you will go to the hospital!' When he was still silent after that I knew something had to be done. I spent a good five minutes hollering profanities and punching trees in anger. I knew the only thing I could do was to take him back to his house and deal with his parents. I got a hold of him and tried to lift him off the ground but I had no leverage. 'Grab his arms and sit him up,' I told the girls. Then I threw him over my shoulder. I never realized how heavy a human body can be, especially when it is hanging over your shoulder limp. We slowly cleared our way threw the brush, while I was having an especially hard time maneuvering through the trees carrying that 160 pounds. His weight was just bearing down on me and I collapsed to my knees spilling his body onto the dirt. I couldn’t bear to pick him up again so I began to drag him up the hill to where his car was. I eventually collapsed and started hitting the ground. I was physically and emotionally drained and was obviously in no position to drive.

I called my friends Landon and Chris and they drove to the office buildings and started heading down the hill towards us. 'Oh my God, how long has he been like this?' said Chris.

'I'm not sure, he was fine one minute and then just out the next.' I slurred. I was still a little intoxicated even though an incident like this can sober someone up very quickly. Now with three of us we easily lifted him and put him in Landon’s car. After all of the commotion he finally showed a sign of life and began to vomit all over Landon’s back seat. Although I felt sorry for Landon, I was glad to see that Nelson was moving around. The girls got picked up by their friend and Landon drove me in Nelsons truck while Chris chauffeured Nelson.

I was mortified when we got to his house. His parents are very strict and his father was not only the leader of our church youth group, but also my Godfather. We went to the front door and rang the doorbell. His mom answered the door and it was well past midnight. The first thing she said was, 'Where is Nelson?' She seemed concerned like she knew something was wrong.

'He had a little to much to drink tonight and he is in Landon‘s car.' I said, trying to soften the blow. We all went out to the car and pulled him out of the backseat. His father was the only thing holding him up while his mom slapped him and yelled for him to wake up, but she was just as unlucky as me in her attempts to awaken him. The only thing left to do was to call an ambulance to take him to the near by hospital. He was now in God’s hands.

After a sleepless night watching Nelson’s house and little brother with Chris and Landon, my mom came to pick me up in the morning before they brought him home. I drove with my mom to the scene of the horrific night where I retrieved Nelson’s cell phone, belt, and shoes which had all been strewn about in my struggle to drag him to safety. My mom told me that he was doing fine, but we were lucky that he didn’t pass away. The hospital had to pump out the excessive amounts of vodka and force fed him charcoal to induce vomiting. That long night of terror turned out to be a turning point in my young life. I fully understood that one big mistake can have a greater effect on the people around me then I might think. I felt as if the recreational use of alcohol wasn’t worth the risk if it had the potential to murder my best friend. Nelson is now attending Texas Tech University and is still drinking excessively, which leads me to believe that even when the correct answer to our problems drags us in the dirt and throws us on a stretcher, we never fully learn from our mistakes.

Exp Year: 2006	ExpID: 55979
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Mar 26, 2009	Views: 18,592
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Alcohol - Hard (198) : Difficult Experiences (5), Health Problems (27), Train Wrecks & Trip Disasters (7), Second Hand Report (42), Small Group (2-9) (17)