Chapter 8: Drunk

“Whee,” Wendy giggled as she clung to James as he tried to walk her home from Glenda’s birthday party. “You’re my sexy boyfrien’, and I love you.” Wendy was hanging onto him and staggering all over the place. Her wearing of platform shoes didn’t help as she was tottering all over the place.

James was having trouble keeping Wendy walking in a straight line, she was drunk, and he wasn’t sure how it had happened. One minute, they were at the party at Glenda’s, and everything was cool. The next, Wendy was making a racket, and it was clear she was smashed out of her brain. Someone must have spiked her drink.

Rob, and a couple of other lads managed to get Wendy out of the room where she and a couple of other girls were. From the looks of the others it seemed like a couple of them were in a similar state. Where the hell the booze had come from and how much Wendy had drunk? God only knew.

James said he’d take Wendy home, and it seemed as though Rob was going to have a similar problem with Elaine.

The walk from Glenda’s was proving more difficult and embarrassing than he thought it would. One minute, Wendy would be snuggling into him as she staggered along, the next, she was hanging around his neck, trying to kiss him, but never for a moment was she walking in any semblance of a straight line.

Eventually, James got them to Wendy’s house and pressed the doorbell. His heart was pounding in trepidation at the reception they would get. This wasn’t the way he had planned on meeting Wendy’s father for the first time, James was tempted to press the bell and run, leaving Wendy to the wrath of her parents, but he wasn’t like that.

In any case, this was 1969, the Age of Aquarius and teenage rebellion, and James was used to standing up for himself.

The door opened to Wendy’s father’s stern expression as he saw the state of his drunken daughter.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Err ... err, Wendy’s sorta drunk,” James answered.

Wendy’s father was simply too shocked to say anything at first but stood aside as James managed to get Wendy into her home.

“How on earth did she get drunk? She’s sixteen. She shouldn’t be drinking to get drunk.”

James didn’t have a chance to answer before Wendy spilt petrol onto an already dangerous fire.

“Thaassh, my boyfrien’, my sexy, dishy, hunk of a boyfrien’, an’ you know what? He wants to do naughty things with me. An’ I wanna let him,’’ Wendy slurred as she swayed, trying to stand on the bottom step of the stairs. Then she giggled as she said, “No, I don’. I wanna do naughty things with him.”

“Wendy, shut up,” James said angrily. He was in enough trouble with Wendy’s parents as it was without her blabbing off about his lustful desires.

James moved forward and caught Wendy as she staggered, throwing her over his shoulder before she fell on the floor.

“He’s got his hand on my bum,” Wendy called out as James tried to steady her as he walked up the stairs, as her parents followed him. Wendy needed to go to bed. “Ohh, my head’s spinning,” Wendy mumbled as James put her on her bed and walked out, quickly followed by her father.

“Just what the hell has been going on? Why did you get my daughter drunk?”

James stopped and turned to face him; he wasn’t going to take the can for this. He had done nothing wrong. It might mean that he would be banned from seeing her again, but the state Wendy was in had nothing to do with him.

“I did not get Wendy drunk,” James said slowly and emphatically, stressing each word individually.

“Well, what do you call the state she’s in then?”

“She’s drunk, okay yeah. But I didn’t get her that way. Look, we were at Glenda’s party. A party that Wendy took me to. So, yeah, we were together, but how she got like that I don’t know. Wendy was with her friends in another room, dancing and gabbing on, like girls do, and I was with a couple of mates from school, but that’s it. There was supposed to be no booze there, that was the rule from Glenda’s parents. My dad would kill me if he thought I’d been drinking.

“Look, as soon as I realised the state Wendy was in I got her out of there as quickly as I could. There were a few lads who looked a bit older than us that I didn’t know. Maybe they had something to do with it, I just don’t know.”