By: Bobby Roberts

I walked into the party at around nine. The next thing I knew, I was eating ground and being handcuffed by a police officer with another reading me my rights. I began to think of what happened that made me get arrested.

"Hey Drew, whatchya doin' tonight?" asked my best friend Mitch earlier that day. We were walking to my locker after sixth period Geometry class, that all juniors were forced to take.

"Nothing yet, man. Probably cruise around, go clubbing with Julia, or something," I replied.

"Hey, Pete's having a major party tonight. His parents are out of town, and I heard there's gonna be a lot of chicks and a lot of alcohol!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah that should be alright. Me and Julia will be there at around nine or so okay?"

"Okay, see you tonight then man."

As I drove home from school later that afternoon, I began to think. Did I honestly want to go to this party tonight? There's probably going to be a lot of people there, and with all them drinking, would I want to be around them? I quickly forgot about it, thought of the night as an optimistic one, and decided to go.

As soon as I got home, I called up Julia. "Julia, hey babe, it's me. Pete's having a party tonight. Do you want to go? Mitch says it'll be fun."

"A Pete party? Drew, haven't you heard about Pete's parties? They always turn into an all night drinking spree with everyone either passed out or puking in the bathroom at the end of the night," she said a little shocked.

"Why don't we just go for awhile. We don't have to drink, and besides, I promised Mitch we'd go. We'll leave early, don't worry."

"Drew, you can go. I'll just meet you at Club Gen-X at around 11 okay?"

"Alright babe. I love you. Goodbye," I told her.

"Bye, I love you too."

I finished my homework right away. I helped Mom set the table, and the whole family, Mom, Dad, Janelle, Stephen, and I actually sat down and had a dinner. I told them I was going out to a party, then clubbing with Julia. They agreed to let me go, and I left at around 8:30.

It took me forever to find Pete's house, but I finally found it, and walked in at the height of the party. People were dancing in the living room, talking in the foyer and in the hall that led to the kitchen. I mingled a bit at first, then walked down the hall into the kitchen. The kitchen was trashed. In one corner, a couple of guys were having fun with a beer bong. Some girl opened up the refrigerator to take out a beer. There were many people laughing and having a good time. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey man, glad you could make it. Isn't this party kickin'? Here let me get you a beer. It's quality stuff." It was Mitch, and he seemed a bit out there. I could smell alcohol on his breath, and he was a bit slurred.

"No thanks, I'm leaving a bit later," I told him.

"Man, why do you always gotta be such a dumbass and go early just to hang out with Julia?" he said.

That shocked me a bit. "Shut up Mitch, let me do what I want alright?" I left him to drink in the kitchen. I went to the living room, and sat down on the couch. Before long, Samantha, a girl I knew from English, sat down next to me. We talked a bit. I realized she had been drinking, but not much. She asked me to dance, and I agreed. We danced for a bit, before she sneaked off to the kitchen to grab some more beer.

It was 10:30 by this time and I told myself I would leave in a bit. If you weren't drinking, the party was boring. As I went to grab my jacket, the police burst in. "Alright everyone, party's over! Turn the music off! Everyone sit down and shut up!" Since I was nearest to the door, they grabbed me first, threw me onto the ground, cuffed me, and read me my rights. As I was being shoved into a patrol car, I wondered, "What had I been thinking? Julia was right. I was such a fool for coming to this party. What were my parents going to say? What was Julia going to say?"

I had to think quick on my feet, I had to call my parents in jail to come bail me out. I do not exactly know what to tell my parents. I believe the truth will be the solution to this problem, I believe honesty is always the solution.

They made me call my parents soon after I was arrived to the police station. I told them what was going on and my mom and dad was not pleased with me to say the least. Also they did not believe me that I was not drinking and was making me go to Choices. Choices is an alcohol awareness class that is taught in the area.

I really did not want to go to Choices since I am on the baseball team and going to those classes will interfere with my practice time, and I would get booted off the team. I had to come up with a plan to stay on the baseball team, keep my girlfriend, and stay away from the Choices meetings.

After a long night, I called Julia in the morning and told her why I did not come by to see her, and she was irrate. I smoothed things over with her, and she believed that I was not drinking because she ran into the girl I danced with at the party and totally was sure I was more than sober at the time of the party. So Julia kind of sweet-talked Mitch into calling up some of the other people at the party and telling them to back up that I was not drinking. So as the further questioning went on days later, everyone said I was not involved and my girlfriend saved the day with honesty and a little trickery.

I have learned a great deal from this incident, and I have never been to Pete's house ever again. I realized being with a loving girlfriend and playing baseball was way more important than just getting a buzz or hanging out with the guys. Everything was not worth the risk of losing one or all of those things. "Friends or girlfriend?" I think I shall leave that for another time.