101495
December 9th, 2021 @ 1:46 pm
my best friend sophie – i get a kick out of her. i’ve known her since i was like 5 or 6, but we moved away and i didn’t see her again until junior high school, when we became buddies again. there aren’t many times of the day where she’s not integrated into my life, whether it’s looking at a certain time on the clock, something in the house, a song playing, something i’m drinking or eating, etc. and there’s always some memory attached to it. we’ve had plenty of ups and downs over the years, but we’re still here 30 years later, still being naughty little goons.
* * *
she’s my friend, she’s my alibi
my accessory to the crime
a bond that will never die
until the end of time!
– the bouncing souls
* * *
one of my favorite memories was the first time i ever snuck out of a house (sophie’s). we were 13 going on 14, and i was sleeping over, and of course… looking to do bad things. i guess we were talking to carlos on the phone or on AOL or something, and we decided we were going to go sneak out and hang out with him and his older brother. they didn’t live far from sophie’s house, so we only had to walk a few blocks, but it was a saturday night and very dangerous because my mom was out on the prowl.
mom was probably situated at bridie’s, her favorite irish pub over in flushing (RIP) or donovan’s in bayside (also RIP), so i probably had nothing to worry about when we left the house, but who knows? either way, 10 or 11 PM was a risky time for us to be out and about when my mom had a social life.
sophie’s bedroom was in the basement, and she had one of those right at the ceiling, 3′ x 1′ sized windows that slid open to the side. if i tried to get out of that window now, i’d probably get stuck. at that age, we popped right through.
i remember we were crouching down all of 18th ave and then 149th street, ducking behind cars while looking out for my mother’s silver, mercury station wagon. it was nerve-racking but exhilarating (oh, youth)! we made it over to carlos’s apartment and we waited outside. carlos’s older brother had a car, so we were all gonna go somewhere outside of whitestone. we decided on a park… but which park?
out comes some kid sean from school that was friends with carlos, to my surprise. i had a class with him (ms. koester’s class – i don’t remember what it was, though), so i knew him, too. he went to elementary school with sophie, so she knew him too. funny enough, he ended up being one of my long term boyfriend’s best friends a decade later, but i digress.
we hop into the car and get to the park across from bayside high school. i don’t know where cool spots to hang out are at this point, as i am still a 14 year old nerd. i am outside, without parents, in a park, after dark, and i feel like a baddy.
this is also dangerous territory, as it’s near donovan’s and my mother could pass by and see us if she took back streets vs. driving down franny lew or northern.
i don’t remember anyone else being at the park, and we were just hanging out on the benches. the guys are drinking and sophie and i decline. we were already drinking at that age, so i don’t know why we didn’t that night, other than the fact that i guess we were nervous about what we were doing.
(THE park)
i guess we stayed there for a while and then we went back to carlos’s house. i ended up making out with carlos for hours with sean sleeping next to us and i think sophie ended up in another room with the brother making out. we didn’t leave their house until sunrise. we got dropped off on the corner and walked up the block. sophie’s nosy ass godmother who lived across the street, caught us sneaking back in that morning.
i don’t remember if sophie’s mom ever told my mom about that story, but soph def got grounded, lol. soon after that, we also got in trouble because sophie’s mom was cleaning soph’s room and found pictures from a developed roll of film we had from around the same time. carlos’s brother was over the house and in her room in the pictures.
the night she found the pics, sophie and i were over our friend’s house and then went to my house, and her mom came slamming on my mom’s front door and ripped sophie out of the house and dragged her home.
good times.
RIP aleka.
*~*~*~ thanks for visiting my memory bank! ~*~*~*