Suicide and Keg Stands - Epilogue - April 14, 2008

I had missed a final but when I went to see my academic councilor, he took the class completely off my transcript citing "the emotional stress of losing a professor." I didn't even have to say anything. I just turned up for my appointment and when he saw my transcript he took care of everything. That class plus not having gotten credit for my internship put me eight units shy of graduating. I got a job as a bartender at CJs and enrolled in summer classes.

Lynn stayed in town that summer. We got an apartment together, a sublet on a one bedroom. She'd been working with one of her professors on research and decided to stay on for the summer before moving west to start "my big girl job" as she called it. Her professor had gotten her the gig, she was going to be a researcher for a tech company. Neither of us had any idea what she'd actually be doing.

Ryan ended up moving to the east coast. After all his talk about getting out of consulting he had decided to stay when his group got transferred.

"So you're still going to be an analyst?" I asked him.

"Yeah. I don't know what I want but going east seems like a good change of pace. Plus if it sucks I can always quit and find something else."

He wasn't even pissed that I missed the party. From what I heard it was a smashing success that ran all night until it was shut down at ten the next morning. Ryan was so drunk that he didn't know if I was there or not and when the cops came to tell them to break it up, he was passed out in the bathtub. Since they couldn't find anyone who actually lived in the apartment the cops said forget it and didn't write up the noise complaint or the underage drinking.

John ended up joining the Peace Corps. He had to promise his parents that he would apply to law school the second he got back in the country, but they let him go. We had a going away thing for him over the summer. John, Georgia, Lynn, Jimmy and I sat around drinking beers at CJs one night after my shift was over. He didn't want it to be a big deal and outside those of us who where there that night, I'm not sure anyone else knew.

"So how'd you end up in the Peace Corps?" I asked him. None of us had heard anything about it until he announced that he was going.
"My parents wanted me to get a job as a paralegal this summer. They said it would look good on my transcript. It's the firm my dad was a partner at before he opened his consulting business, so I just had to meet with one of the partners as a formality.

I get in there for the 'interview' and this guy goes on and on about his law school days and about how lucky I was that I was about to start and how it was this great time in his life. Then he starts talking about how before law school he was in the Peace Corps. I could see that being a paralegal was going to be as about as interesting as internal hemorrhaging and I hadn't really thought about the Peace Corps before, so when I got out of there I drove over to school and picked up the application. It's my parents' fault really. If they'd let me get a normal summer job, I'd probably still be headed to law school next year."

"So two years of freedom then you're back to this shit, huh?" I asked him.

"Fuck no, I only told my parents that so they'd let me go. Once I'm out of the country I'm never coming back."

Georgia and Tim ended up moving to Berkeley together. Tim is still a fucking moron but he makes Georgia happy. She works in an art gallery and I have no idea what he does. He's probably a motivational speaker.

After summer school was over and Lynn was done with her research job we took her final week and went back to the coast. We packed up the apartment and I shipped my stuff to my dad's. Her company was paying for her to move and once the movers left, there was nothing left in the apartment. CJs didn't want to give me the time off.

"It's a busy time of year for us, with the students coming back and we're going to need every member of the team here, alright buddy?" My manager said when I told him. I just laughed and walked out.

We ended up going south this time, far from the cold foggy days I was used to. It was fun and even though at the end of the week we were essentially breaking up it didn't feel that way. When I dropped her off we were friends and she made me promise to come visit her once she was settled into her new place.

It was our last day on the coast. I was driving Lynn to the airport the next day before setting off for the east coast and we were just finishing up dinner at a fancy seafood place. She had insisted for months that I owed her dinner, ever since that day at the Seaside and I wanted to take her out to celebrate.

"So do you think you're fired from CJs?" She asked.

"I don't know. I'm not going back either way. It was just a summer thing."

"What are you going to do?"

"You're not going to believe it." I told her.

"You didn't call Ryan for a job?"

"I did."

"After all that shit you talked about not wanting to end up like him, he still found you a job?"

"What can I say, he's a better person than I am."

"What are you going to be doing?"

"I'm on their IT staff."

"IT? Do you know anything about computers?"

"My resume seems to think so."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"So you're going to be a productive member of society after all." She said.

"I guess so."

The End

---

Chapter 23 | Suicide and Keg Stands Index |

---

I want to say thank you to everyone who read, commented, and / or emailed. I've wanted to tell this story for a long time and I had a lot of fun living with these characters during the six months or so it took to write this. I can only hope you enjoyed reading it.

I'm currently working two projects. One is a short story that I'll post when it's finished and the second is my next novel which I'll begin serializing here when it's finished as well. I hope you'll come back for both of those projects.

~~If you check back in a week or so, I'll have a PDF version of Suicide and Keg Stands so you can download it if you prefer reading it that way, as opposed to on this site.~~ You can download a PDF of the whole novella from the S&KS Index Page.

-Ben

Posted by Ben Corman at 9:29 AM

Print Friendly · Digg it · del.icio.us · StumbleUpon · Netscape

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.festeringass.com/mt/mt-tb.fcgi/2299

Comment Policy:

Anonymous comments are allowed. All anonymous comments and comments from those not registered with TypeKey are moderated. They WILL NOT appear until they are read and approved by a moderator.

It is strongly encouraged that you sign up and login with a TypeKey account. Once you do that, your comments will be immediately posted.

Comments

This was great, and the novella in its entirety. I stumbled upon your site right around the time when you posted the first chapter. Your writing style has made me want to write more. I enjoyed how you were able to use such a level detail in the story without ever making the main character seem overly detail-oriented himself. Somewhere in the middle of being obsessed with situations to being a hapless victim of circumstance, there is a line that he walked. To me, this allowed the reader to be side-by-side with him as the events unfolded, rather than just reading about another person talking about their life. Good job.

Posted by: Micah at April 14, 2008 11:19 AM

damn now what am i supposed to read on Mondays. great story, though not so sure about the ending. any way looking forward to reading more of your work

Posted by: h at April 14, 2008 11:37 AM

good stuff

Posted by: zach at April 14, 2008 12:49 PM

Man, this was a great read and it kept me pretty interested- kept me checkin' your site and a lot of the stuff you write about I agree with (the social networking stuff, etc.)

You're a great writer, I can't wait to see what you write next.

Posted by: Tedd at April 14, 2008 01:41 PM

et tu, adderall girl?

great story ben. please don't be pissed if i write a series of adderall girl children's books (adderall girl goes the the psychiatrist, adderall girl fills her prescription, adderall girl gets her degree, adderall girl gets married, adderall girl refills her prescription, adderall girls searches the carpet fibers for leftover pills, adderall girl loses her job and husband, adderall girl turns to street drugs, adderall girl becomes a hooker, adderall girl gets knocked up with her pimp's baby, etc.). it's just such good material and i'll totally credit you!

Posted by: kate at April 14, 2008 02:37 PM

Kate,

I can't even tell you how happy it would make me if you spun that character off into her own series. The fact that you like adderall girl enough to give her a life of her own would be a cool statement on S&KS.

Posted by: Ben Corman at April 14, 2008 02:43 PM

Please please do a chapter a week of 'Hawaii' next.

Posted by: ml at April 14, 2008 02:46 PM

I promise, Hawaii is coming. I just have to finish writing it first.

Posted by: Ben Corman at April 14, 2008 02:48 PM

Boy, that was a hell of a 23 chapter detour before the protagonist - whose name I don't remember reading and, in any case, can't quite recall - got back on the proverbial track.
The ending reminds me of "Fight Club": the way the protagonist just watches the end of all the shit and continues on in life following society's standards.

Thanks for the many weeks of insightful and emotional Monday evenings. I look forward to your future projects.

Posted by: Sora at April 14, 2008 02:49 PM

just want to thank you for writing this, especially since its free. i would have paid for it

Posted by: Anonymous at April 14, 2008 04:23 PM

Thank you. Honestly. S&KS was amazing. Keep at it, you're a great writer.

Posted by: SM at April 14, 2008 09:59 PM

Ben,
Great writing. You had touched on the topic of what is your writing worth or something similar. Why not do a test run with S&KS? Offer it up in PDF, in a pay what you think medium, ala radiohead's last album. Offer it for free but people can purchase it for what they feels it's worth. Just a thought. Looking forward to your next work!

Posted by: bbbraun at April 15, 2008 04:58 AM

Actually that's not a bad idea at all. That might be the way to go if I can figure out an easy way to make it work.

Posted by: Ben Corman at April 15, 2008 11:46 AM

Great story, fantastic voice-you're going places man. The ending caught me a little off guard though. Any thoughts about making it a real book?

Posted by: Ben at April 16, 2008 06:00 AM

Hey Ben,

I'm looking into a number of options for this story but I'm not really sure what I'm going to do yet. Thanks for reading and when I know, I'll of course let all of you know.

Posted by: Ben Corman at April 16, 2008 08:19 AM

Definitely try and set up a pay as you like for a PDF. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and had to go back and re-read the previous chapters for the whole feel of the characters. I was pleasantly surprised at how they improved with a second reading and I can't wait for Hawaii.

Posted by: Joe at April 16, 2008 07:31 PM

Ben,

Hee, hee, the ending kinda made me giggle.

Kidding aside, I've never read anything like S&KG before. It is sufficiently dark, and it draws me in like nothing else.
Now Mondays will just be Mondays. Unless you come out with your new series soon, lol.

Congratulations on a job well done, Ben.

I look forward to reading more of your work.

Posted by: Mel at April 19, 2008 02:18 PM