“Are you okay, Rosie? I mean, after the whole incident at Louise’s house?” Sal spoke softly. Before she could answer, Carl returned with beer, vodka, and tomato juice.
Rosie smiled and nodded. “Did you rob a liquor store?” Rosie said, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t ask,” Carl said, walking past them, clutching the plastic bag containing the goods. “Come on—there’s too many people here.” They stumbled to a deserted park bench at the far end of the park.
“What will it be: Bloody Marys or a beer?” Carl asked.
“Bloody Mary is me, I suppose, so hit me,” Rosie answered, matter-of-factly.
Carl mixed the vodka with the tomato juice in a paper cup.
“Coming right up.”
“I'll have a beer, thanks,” Sal said, but he was unsure. He'd never had alcohol before, due to his commitment to basketball.
Carl tossed him a cold can of beer and said, “Let’s board this crazy train,” with a smirk.
Sal took a sip of the beer. When that first drop of bitter, malty drink hit his tongue, his mind and body were taken to another place, one that was wonderful and carefree. The buzz soon hit Sal. His whole body felt warm and cozy. He felt like one giant, vibrating being. Everything seemed to be more exciting than it was a half an hour before. Even the party’s conversations felt more important, and they were significantly louder.
“I'm leaving,” Carl said out of nowhere.” I'm going where she is.”
Sal gazed at Rosie, his intoxicated mind unable to fully comprehend. “Louise. He means Louise,” Rosie said, blinking a few times.
“Oh, okay. Yeah, of course. You guys are like Romeo and Juliet.” Sal knocked over a vodka bottle and bent swiftly down to pick it up.
“Oh, my God, Sal, control your limbs,” Rosie said, patting Sal on the head. “How many girls have you slept with?”
Sal sat there with a goofy expression on his face. “I don’t know.”
Rosie stared at Sal disapprovingly. “You're such a slut, Sal. Carl, your brother's a slut,” she said drunkenly.
"Don’t I know it,” Carl answered without paying much attention to the words.
“Are Louise and I really like Romeo and Juliet?”
“Yes, you are. It's you two against the world. I’d wish I had what you two have,” Rosie answered reassuringly.
Carl’s blue eyes were hidden behind his hair. He held onto his beer as if it were his only anchor. “I…like…love her,” he said quietly.
Sal knocked over another bottle in amazement.
Rosie sat petrified, looking at Carl. She sighed and broke the silence. “For god’s sake, Carl, you're worse than Jack.”
“Wow, Rosie, what do you say about me when I’m not around?” Carl said, pretending to be hurt."
Rosie ignored him. "Are you for real, Carl?" she asked. “I mean it isn’t some sort of infatuation you are experiencing?”
“Maybe, but I don’t want a lover in every corner in the world like Sal—I want her.”
“You do know I can hear you, right?” Sal said, looking at Rosie and Carl.
Carl rose from the table and took a few steps away from it. He stood with his back turned to Rosie and Sal. “Go and talk to your brother,” Rosie mouthed to Sal.
“I would if I could, but it seems that I'm somehow stuck to this table,” Sal whispered back. “Man, I’m drunk.”
Rosie crawled under the table to survey the damage. Sal’s foot had somehow gotten stuck between the table leg and the bench he was sitting on. She yanked his foot free. In the meantime, Jack had shown up next to Carl. He stared inquisitively at the scenery by the table. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“Shut up, Jack!” Rosie crawled out from under the table. “You’re free, Sal.”
Sal tried to stand, but he tumbled away from the table instead. “I'm not as think as you drunk I am.” He laughed hysterically.
Jack chuckled. "I’ll say this to all of you: with this much vodka in your system, don't be surprised if you wake up with a Russian accent.” He helped Sal up from the ground.
“The girls are beginning to wonder where you are.”
“Rosie thinks that I am a slut, Jack.”
“Aren’t we all, Sal,” Jack said. “Aren’t we all?”
“Anyway, the concert's beginning soon, so please make your way to the stage.” Sal took the beer cans and vodka bottles, put them into the bag in which they'd arrived in, and he tossed the whole thing over the fence surrounding Giantsfair.
“Let’s go,” he said.
The quartet wandered off in the direction of the concert, Sal with his arm around his brother.
“Let’s find Louise," Carl said. "I mean when I’m sober and can walk in a straight line.”