Chapter 442

• Now it was my eighteenth birthday, a Friday in the middle of hot, humid July. The sun was starting to go down, and the party that had been going on all day was dying down as well. Rocco, my friends and I had spent the entire day having a cookout, playing games, drinking beers, smoking weed, and all that stuff, just having a whole lot of fun. I had gotten several gifts, including T-shirts of my favorite artists, several bags of weed, and (from Rocco), a brand new Cadillac. Now night was starting to fall, and my friends were going off to do their own things. It was shortly after 9:00 when everyone was finally gone, and Rocco and I were left to clean up the post-party mess. Still stoned and slightly drunk, I made to start cleaning up, but then Rocco stopped me.
• “I think we can save the tidying up for tomorrow, Jesse,” he said with a grin; he was just as high as I was. “Why don’t you come up and smoke a joint with your old man?”
• “Sure,” I said with a chuckle. With me, there was no such thing as “too much weed.” So we went in the house and went up to his bedroom, a large and spacious room with a king-size bed. At the moment, I didn’t realize how hot it was in there; apparently his air conditioner was off. But I was so stoned that I didn’t feel the change in temperature that much. We sat down on the bed and Rocco pulled out a nice fat joint and lit up.