C.J.'s story

I was 17 when I first got drunk. It was graduation night and a bunch of the guys wanted to celebrate in style. We drove downtown and to all our surprises, got into a bar and a waitress took our order. The next thing I saw was a line of pitchers going across our table filled with beer and several shots of schnapps.

The other guys started gulping their drinks and I felt kind of pressured to follow -- afterall, this was our BIG night. Besides, I reasoned, if we got this far (and actually got served), I didn't want to spoil the fun.

I was surprised at how smooth the alcohol felt and went down. This encouraged me to keep drinking. The next think I knew, I had consumed about a dozen or so glasses of beer and several shots of schnapps. I was feeling very good at this point. Very mellow. A bit frisky; I remember coming on to women in the bar.

We were sitting on the second floor of this bar and I decided it would be fun to try and balance full mugs of beer along the ledge overlooking the first floor.

It kind of happened in slow motion, one of the mugs tipped over and before I could grab it, it fell. The next thing I heard was a woman scream in pain and the shatter of glass.

Without looking back, I darted, the woman's crying blasting in my ears. Outside I was still feeling quite invincible and restless. The next thing I knew, my friends and I were inside a strip joint. Again, I was amazed we got in! We drank some more. I wanted to keep up with my friends. It was important to show them I was having fun and could keep up with them...

I woke up the next day and tried desperately to recall everything that happened the night before. I blanked out after remembering the strip joint. I panicked: how'd I get home? Who had helped me back? What had happened to my friends? I called up my bestfriend. His mother told me the police had found her son in the back alley of the strip joint; he had been mugged and beaten. Where was I when all this happened? She demanded through angry tears. I told her I didn't know. I felt awful. How did I lose control of myself like that? Why couldn't I remember how I had gotten home?