Aug. 07, 2003
16th Birthday Party
The thought just occured to me that yesterday was my friend C.J.'s birthday. I guess I should say it would have been his birthday. If he wouldn't have killed himself, he would have been 21 yrs. old. I know that it would have been a big deal too. We would have had a huge party.
He had a party on his 16th birthay that I went to. The actual party was on Aug. 7th even though his birthday was the 6th. I can remember every detail so vividly from that day.
Mel (my best friend at the time) called my house around 10 to make sure that I was awake. I wore a purple and white striped tank top (the one that I stole from BonTon the summer before when Mel and I got caught shoplifing) and jean shorts. Underneath I had on a purple and white flowered bathing suit that I had just bought at Fashion Bug. Don't laugh, it used to be cool to shop there!
It was the day before my cousin Andy's wedding. My aunt came swimming at my house Kevin and Jules; who are now Andy's stepchildren.
When Mel and I first got to the party, noone would talk to us. We didn't know anyone. Brad, Pat, Kenny, Zach, and Jason were all strangers to us. The only people we knew were C.J. (of course), Amy, and Jenn.
Mel and I sat at one picnic table while the boys sat at the other. They sat there until they brought the cooler over to us. Then, they started being friendly. Jason later told me that bringing the cooler over was only an excuse to talk to us.
We sat around, getting aquainted with one another. Pat told us disturbing stories about how his parents beat him and locked him in closets for days...and how he was in a straight jacket in a mental institution. Interesting, right?
We were at the party from 12:30pm-10pm. During that time, we ate pizza, drank soda, and listened to music. I still think of that day when I hear 'Dirty Deeds' by AC/DC., 'Closing Time' by Semisonic, and Creed's first album.
Everyone swam, and Mel even had a swimming race against Zach. He was beat by a girl! haha
The whole time Mel and I were waiting for Erik to get there. We kept counting down the hrs to his arrival.
"Omigod! He's like, a 3!" Mel says when he got there.
All the guys at the party were rated on a scale from 1-10, courtesy of Mel and I. Of course we didn't tell them we were doing that.
8 people piled into Brad's Maverick and we drove down the street. Some were outside of the car, on the roof, and hood. It was such a stupid, pointless thing to do, but it was fun. It was fun just acting silly like that.
By the end of the night, Mel was going out with C.J. and I started seeing Zach, even though I already had a boyfriend. Zach, Mel and I were the last people to leave the party.
We got home and the 4 of us talked on the phone together. A 4-way call.
That was C.J.'s 16th birthday party. he committed suicide 2 months before he was going to turn 17.
He was such a nice guy and good friend. I could always talk to him when I needed someone to be there. He'd always stick up for me. I miss him so much. There are so many unanswered questions and things I'd like to tell him.