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Arin was excited to be invited to his first high school party. It was the end of his freshman year, and he hadn’t ever even gone to a school dance. Once his friend Barry told him about a party at a junior’s house that his brother was going to, Arin knew he had to go. He didn’t want to spend all of high school being introverted and staying in his house playing video games all day.
He wasn’t prepared at all for what the party was going to be like. There were assortments of alcohol on the kitchen counters in countless brown bags, and red cups to their right. Everyone was drinking, so Arin poured a strange bottle that said plainly VODKA, which he poured into his cup. He had never tasted something that burned his throat so badly. After a few sips he decided he didn’t like the way it made him feel and poured it down the drain once no one was watching.
The party was very casual, but Arin felt like an outcast compared to everyone there. Most of the kids were older than he was, and he was wearing a Mega Man t-shirt although most of the other guys were dressed to impress. He realized most of them came with the intention of actually meeting people, something he didn’t want to do yet.
Arin looked down to his phone. Barry hadn’t texted him back, and he couldn’t find him anywhere, so Arin found himself walking around to the living room, sketching the people he saw on a napkin. It was something he liked to do time to time; currently he was working on realism, but he wasn’t really good at it. One boy was much taller than him with brown shoulder-length hair that went wild in every direction. He was talking to a group of people with himself standing in the middle, soaking in the spotlight and smiling through his story. Everyone seemed so interested in him. and Arin found himself staring for a long time, unable to hear his story over the music, but more interested in the way his body moved when he talked and the way his face was so expressive.
Arin began drawing the boy holding a bottle of unknown alcohol with the crowd of people under him. The boy was wearing a leather jacket, and was drinking like a monster. Between sentences he would take another shot throwing his head back. Arin wondered how someone could drink like that, nonetheless on a regular basis.
“What you doing?”
Arin jumped to see his friend behind him. He crumpled the paper, placing it into his jacket pocket. “Barry, where have you been?”
“Do you know how long it took me to convince my brother to let me come? He won’t even let me talk to him while we’re here.”
Arin laughed. “Well, I’m glad you are here. I thought I was going to be sitting alone in the corner all night.”
“Yay, now we get to sit together in the corner all night.”
“Uh, duh dude,” Arin answered.
Barry laughed, but was cut off by a girl turning down the music and yelling.
“I have a great idea guys!”
The boy Arin had been drawing earlier, got in front of her, and was laughing, “No, come on, stop. This is stupid.”
“Danny here says he’s claustrophobic! Who wants to play Seven Minutes in Heaven?” she smiled.
“You bitch,” Dan laughed.
A cluster of people near them started laughing and pushing him in numerous directions. “Come on, what are you afraid of?”
“I was joking. I’m not really claustrophobic,” he tried.
“Oh, so what,” the girl answered, “don’t try to weasel your way out of it by lying.”
“Oh my god, fine!” Dan laughed.
The girl stood on the coffee table. “Everyone write your name down and put it in this hat,” she said pulling the beanie off of a boy next to her, “whoever gets pulled gets to have seven quality minutes with Danny!”
Arin took the napkin out of his pocket and tore off a corner to write his name on. Every proceeded to write their names on strips of napkins and trash, and took turns throwing it in the hat.
“He’s such a flirt, maybe someone’ll get lucky tonight!” the girl yelled, obviously too drunk to not have the neighbors hear her.
Arin and Barry both really didn’t want to do it, but feared being picked on for being too scared to do it. Arin didn’t realize until it happened that what he feared more than putting his name in the hat was having his name called.
“Arin, with an i,” the girl read.
His chest dropped. He stood up, pushing his stool back into the wall once he heard his name, therefore causing everyone to look back at him. “Aw look Dan, he’s so cute.”
Dan looked at him. “You’re Arin?”
Arin gulped. Dan was so much taller than him, and so intimidating. He wasn’t smiling, just staring. “Yeah, I’m - I’m Arin.”
Dan hurdled his way through the crowd and looked down at his level. “Alright, awesome! After this we will resolve that I, Danny, god of sex and lust, am not claustrophobic!” He began moving toward the closet, grabbing Arin’s hand and closing the door behind them, yelling, “Suck it bitches!”
Before he could even realize what was happening, Arin was standing in a dark closet with a kid he didn’t even know. He felt his chest pounding. He had no idea what to do.
“Sorry there’s no light in here,” Dan said.
“Oh, uh, that’s okay.”
“God, please don’t make this the most boring seven minutes of my life,” he sighed. “Talk, say words.”
“Are you really scared of tight places?”
“No, of course not,” he laughed. “I was just telling the guys about how when I was a little kid I got locked in this exact closet for a couple of hours and cried, because that’s what little kids do. But I guess they didn’t catch that part.”
“You live here?” Arin asked.
“You go to parties of people you don’t even know?” Dan retorted. His laughter seemed to fill the air after every sentence, and it was the only thing that Arin hung onto before it filled with silence.
Dan started again once Arin didn’t answer his rhetorical question. “I’m gonna sit down. Feel free to do the same.”
Arin followed the elder’s lead, and the two sat with their backs to opposite walls, knees touching. He felt Dan pop his neck by turning his head to the side.
“So, Arin, you’re how old?”
“Um, 15. You?”
“17. Before you know it, people will expect you to get a job and tell you to find what you want to do in life. Then you’ll do that thing for the rest of your life until you die. And even though you hate your job and life, you’ll tell your own kids the exact same thing. Because that’s the way the world works.”
“That’s deep.”
“Nah, I’m drunk,” Dan laughed.
“You don’t sound drunk,” Arin said popping his fingers on his knees. He remembered the boy’s drinking before and couldn’t be sure anymore.
“Yeah, I guess I don’t get drunk anymore. Not easily at least,” he laughed.
“Do you drink because of the future?”
Dan paused. It was the first time he had missed a beat the whole night.
“Hey how many more minutes!” Dan yelled pounding against the door.
“Three more minutes!” a guy yelled back.
“That’s not that long,” Arin smiled.
“I could masturbate in that time. Hell, I could get someone else off in that time. Three minutes is an eternity!” he hit his hand against the door again.
“Hey, um,” Arin started, “hey, I’m sorry if I made you mad.”
Dan banged his head against the back wall. Arin could tell he was antsy, and definitely did not want to be stuck with a freshman for seven minutes in a closet. “No, it’s not you. I shouldn’t have had a party this weekend is all. I should’ve just powered down this week.”
Arin nodded.
“So!” Dan said nearly changing his mood completely, “What do you like to do? Make the next two minutes of my life super interesting.” Dan put his head in his knees and stared at Arin through the dark with his big, brown eyes.
“Well,” Arin said passively, “I like to draw. And play video games.”
Dan nodded. “Make it more interesting. Like, what do you like to draw? Video game characters?”
“Sometimes. I like Pokemon and Mega Man. Sometimes I draw real people. I’m starting to get into realism,” he felt the crumpled napkin in his jacket pocket. He knew that Dan didn’t really care. That they were just talking because seven minutes weren’t up and once they were that they would never talk again. However, Arin felt like this was better than sitting in silence next to an unpredictable man who seemed to be happy one moment and sad the next.
“Cool dude. Like celebrities or random people on the street?”
“Both. Whatever, or I guess whoever, looks interesting enough to draw.”
“That’s interesting.” He ran his hand through his hair and bounced his head into the wall again. He banged his hand against the door again. “How we doing on time?!” he yelled.
No one answered. The music had been turned up, and no one was standing near the door anymore. Dan stood up to turn the knob but it had been locked from the outside.
“Hey!” he yelled. “Open the fucking door!” He banged his hands against the wood at least twenty times. Dan’s heart sunk as he heard laughter and the music being turned up louder. Arin watched as a man that looked like an animal that could kill him turn into a mess that ran his back down until he was on the floor again, this time facing the door.
Arin remained quiet as the boy began crying into his knees next to him. He was breathing hard and clutching his face. Dan was sweating and bouncing his leg up and down against the door. He was shaking and curled into a ball. Arin had never seen someone fall apart so quickly in his life.
“Look,” Arin said pulling out his phone. “My friend Barry’s here, I’ll just tell him to unlock the door.” He looked to his phone messages to see he had a new message.
<hey dude. sorry you’re in a closet with a stranger. bros making me leave see you tomorrow :/ -barry>
He was glad that Dan hadn’t looked up from his knees and gotten his hopes up, because that wasn’t going to happen anymore. Dan became nearly motionless, barely breathing anymore; just staring into his knees and crying silently.
“We’ll get out of here,” Arin said, looking at the boy. Dan pushed from him and fell into the wall, still shaking all coats and shoes around him. He seemed to be pushing his body against all of the edges, unconsciously feeling for an exit. He wasn’t going to find one.
Dan did not say anything.
Dan was definitely extremely claustrophobic, and there was nothing either of them could do to get out of the closet.
Arin took a deep breath. He knew knocking obviously wasn’t going to help. He tried to find funny pictures on his phone that would calm Dan down, but he didn’t have a signal. He had nothing. But maybe, just maybe, he thought, talking like before would calm him down.
“I’ve never drank before. Before tonight. Everyone at this party drinks like it’s the end of the world, but I couldn’t even get a few sips before I spit it down the drain.”
Dan didn’t move. But he wasn’t shaking anymore.
“Who would’ve guessed that cheap vodka doesn’t go down well. But I saw you drinking with your friends. And everyone had their own bottle. I wonder if I’m going to be like that when I get older?”
“Drinking away the misery? Probably.” Dan’s answer muffled between his knees.
“I guess that’s it,” Arin said unphased. “Tonight I thought of drinking for fun. But it’s not fun. No one drinks to have fun. They drink because their curious, or they drink because they want the sadness to go away. That can lead to fun I guess. But in your case…it’s not fun.”
“Guilty,” Dan raised his head and hit it against the wall. Sweat trembled down his forehead.
“You don’t get drunk. Because you drink too much?” Arin asked.
“Yup.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a sad piece of shit.”
“But why would you be sad?” Arin was asking questions to keep the conversation going; to keep Dan distracted. But also because he was genuinely curious.
“I’ll give you one reason. Those pieces of shit out there,” he said pointing, “they don’t care about me. They left me in a closet they knew I didn’t want to go into, because they like to see me upset. Or rather, they like to see everyone upset. They don’t care about anyone but themselves.”
“And you don’t care about yourself at all. Which is just as much as a character flaw,” Arin stated. He didn’t know where it came from, but he felt like he understood what Dan was saying. Sure he had Barry, but sometimes he felt like even though he had one good friend, Barry cared more about other people than he did for Arin. Arin knew that he was no one’s best friend. There was always someone before him. He wanted to be someone’s favorite just once. He felt a deep connection to Dan in that one moment. “And,” Arin finished, “I guess I don’t care about myself either.”
“That’s deep.”
“Nah, I’m drunk,” Arin chuckled. He felt his heart drop. Once his laughter didn’t fill the air anymore it felt so much darker and so much quieter. Dan remained quiet too. They’re knees fell against each other.
“Hey,” Arin said. “You’re not as bad as you think you are.”
“I’m sure I’m not,” he laughed. Arin noticed the way his laughter never changed. His laugh didn’t mean he was always happy, it meant exactly the opposite.
“No I mean, you have to stop drinking. Stop thinking of the future so much.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“No. It’s not. I think about it all the time. I don’t want to get a real job, are you kidding me? I just want to draw. And every time I think of pursuing art, my parents tell me to find something real.”
“How can I take advice you won’t even take?” he laughed.
“I’ll do it to. Let’s agree to stop thinking of the future so much. And to stop dwelling on the past. Let’s live in the moment.”
“That’s so hippie-dippie. Maybe you will turn into me in two years.”
“Let’s laugh when we wanna laugh,” Arin continued. “Cry when we wanna cry.”
“Way ahead of you there,” Dan said, wiping away at his face.
“I’ll start now. I was too embarrassed to show this to you. But why not!” he smiled. Arin proceeded to pull his drawing of Dan out of his pocket and put his phone as a light over it. “Look that’s you.”
“I…” Dan leaned down to see the drawing Arin had put on the floor.
“I thought you looked really fun to be around. The life of the party.”
“You drew this?”
“Yeah. It’s not great but-”
“I love it,” he stated.
“That smile,” Arin said pointing. “That’s real,” he smiled.
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
“Just because you’re stuck with me doesn’t mean your life is over. You have so much life to live, so many more moments. Is one night stuck with me going to ruin that?”
Dan didn’t answer. “Can I keep this?”
Arin smiled, “Yeah.”
They stayed in the closet for most of the rest of the night. They had both fallen asleep with their heads against each other until a guy opened the door thinking it was a bathroom. Arin remembered that smile Dan always had as he went home, and Dan could be reminded of how he was in person with the crumpled napkin he kept in his own pocket.