Jeff arrived at his friend Pauly's house parking on the street and sauntering up to the quaint suburban home as if it was his own.
They had been friends in high school, went to community college, shared a class and subsequently notes. Paul had received a windfall inheritance at 19 when a great-great uncle died. Breaking convention he passed his money to the youngest few distant relatives, having no children of his own, but making some family members bitter in the process.
The money apparently came with a letter full of ramblings on trying to set up a family dynasty and advisements on tax loopholes. It was all way over Paul's head and his parents weren't knowledgeable enough to actually give him guidance. So instead of dedicating his life to cultivating a family fortune it was spent on an expensive car, paying off student loans, a hefty down payment on a nice house, nice things to fill the house, and what little remained went into investments.
Jeff let himself into the house announcing his presence. He was greeted by a few guys with mixed drinks deeply into a board game spanning most of the table. "Yo! Grab yourself a drink, you can join next game."
Jeff smiled and went to the freezer gabbing the hard liquor and pouring himself a drink as he had done plenty of times before. Before he knew it he was watching the game unfold before him... within half an hour more arrived and the group had finished their game.
Everyone retreated to the garage for the highlight of the night, where a poker table had been set up. A propane heater was set up. Hands were dealt and played, over its course drinks were drank and cigarettes were smoked. It wasn't inside the house where smoking was off limits and the garage door was able to be left cracked, allowing fresh air in, but also keeping the warm enough to enjoy.
Jeff generally thought smoking was gross but mid hand he realized he was just a 16 year old drinking, playing poker, and entirely accepted as an adult, he realized now would be the best time to try one so he asked to bum a cigarette. Since Pauly didn't know where people would sit and the local thrift store had ashtrays and coasters for cheap, every spot at the table had one of each. Jeff awkwardly lit up taking a puff and trying to act normal.
Jeff held the cigarette in his hand unaware his personal timeframe was still being accelerated, so his slow and awkward first puff quickly became a weekly tendency to bum smokes at game night. Halfway through he was a full on mooch and would bum cigarettes from anyone any chance he could, a few minutes after he finished his first cigarette he pulled another from his own pack having finally accepted that until he buckles down and stops himself, he is a smoker, which he isn't ready to do yet. Once that one was done he'd been smoking pretty regularly for the last few months and doing so was no longer a blip on his radar.
Jeremiah, the youngest of the group officially became 21 about a week ago and it had always been the group joke to call him out for drinking because he's too young. Now fully legal he pulled out a case of cigars to celebrate his "real" adulthood and made some statement about how he valued the group. He was already completely blasted and everyone was getting out their final jokes about his age "Oh, let me get you your first drink! Now since you've never drank before, you should go slow and feel out your tolerance to it."
Shortly after 8pm Jeff turned 23 and his ties to this group were shifting, his main connection was moving towards Pauly's older brother Frank, who is 25 but had moved away a few years ago... Jeff grabbed himself another cocktail and the group played various games throughout the night, Jeff did end up trying a cigar and in doing so almost immediately became the most experienced of the group. By 11pm Jeff was 25 and had switched to drinking beer having learned how to pace himself at a slew of parties much like this one.
Jeff chatted and gamed with people, Jeff was actually pretty engaging as any time something Jeff thought was cool came up he had a relevant story about it. What was really happening was that as soon as he made a plan to look into something he would age several days, and have looked into it, or acquired it. Tattoos were brought up and appeared on his skin, a trip to a cool hiking spot, he was there. As Jeff became 26 around 2am he was getting tired and having switched to beer, was the last man standing, he decided to sleep here and find a couch, pillow, and blanket.
Around 8am Jeff awoke to a quiet house full of sleeping kids, as a 28 year old he wondered how he got roped into a party hosted by a bunch of 21 year-old kids. Right, nothing better to do... Last night was a blur but he had fun despite his current regrets and the telltale light/motion sensitivity. He missed being able to sleep more than 6-7 hours in a go.
He got his coat and shoes on and went into the garage snatching up 3 more of the cigars for later, he had 2 last night and two other kids tried them. Jeff was the only one who appreciated them and there were 15 left. Jeff had a cigarette before getting in his car since he was trying to be better about that. He felt like shit and stretched feeling his small but obvious beer belly press against his shirt. What is he doing with his life?
"Venti white mocha, hot, no whip" he ordered trying to wake up for his 1pm shift... Jeff had made the move from food service to trying to make stable adult money at a call center. It worked out to less pay but instead offered things like holiday pay, sick pay, and annual raises and retirement. He was ready to make sacrifices to make ends meet and hated every minute of it... but he got by, crashing parties hosted by his friend's rich younger brother apparently... working a collections call center was absolute shit, but it paid the bills. Frank was shifting out of Jeff's circle of friends and last night's antics were being replaced by a night in with video games, a handle, some beer, and some cigars.
Jeff went home to his apartment after grabbing some fast food and trying to not to notice how his belly folds over the seatbelt. After eating he took a shower which served to wake him up. He stepped onto his 4th floor balcony, sipped the cool remainder of his latte, lit up a cigarette, and questioned how to improve his life. His much older brother seemed to find his stride. He had a house, a wife and daughter...
Jeff felt he was always in Mike's shadow, it was interesting how different life was for him. Being 10 years apart seemed so trivial but everything changes so much in that time. College tuition, expectations, and life as a whole seemed to favor Mike significantly over Jeff.
By the time Jeff actually went to work he was 31 and by the time his shift ended he was 34. Throughout his shift though memories of relationships piled on, he went from customer service rep level 1 to 2, then to team lead, to supervisor and with his years of service he was in the running for the next management position that opened up, and by the end of his shift he got it and no longer had to work the 1-9pm shift. By the time he got home his wardrobe had shifted towards professional and the promotion was no longer new but he was in a good mood and went to his back patio to enjoy a cigar in his back yard, having purchased the house after making supervisor.