Chapter 1

My name is Dan, and I’m 18 years old and finishing high school. I’m a great student and somehow fall into the nerd category because I mostly hang out with my best friends, playing games. Yes, we’re gamers. My best friends are Filip and Stefan. We’ve known each other since kindergarten. We attended primary school together and are now finishing high school. We’ll probably go to college together. Filip is similar to me, calm and withdrawn, while Stefan is different. He’s popular in school; he has girls; he fights with dickheads; and thanks to him, everyone respects us and no one bullies us. Still, Stefan spends most of his time with us. We are truly inseparable friends.

I live with my mom. My dad died five years ago. My mom, Eva, is a scientist and works at a state institute. I can say that my mom is the best mom in the world. She is really cool. I don’t remember ever arguing with her. Once we were smoking marijuana in my room. She came in and figured out what we were doing. She didn’t shout. She wasn’t angry, but she explained to us that constantly smoking weed while playing games was not good for us and was likely very harmful. She allows us to smoke marijuana sometimes, but if she sees that we are high on a daily basis, she’ll tell their parents, and they’re not so liberal. They might even tell the police. Since then, we rarely smoke anymore.

Everything was okay in my life until two weeks ago when I was celebrating my eighteenth birthday. It was Saturday, and our apartment was full of relatives, neighbors, and grandparents. Grandpa brought his famous homemade wine, and everyone soon became happy. Mom had her hands full, and I was playing games in my room with my friends. We planned to play games all night.

Before midnight, the guests left, and I went to the kitchen for snacks. Mom had cleaned and tidied up. She was tired and probably influenced by her father’s wine. She said she was done and could hardly wait to take a shower and go to sleep.

I went back to the room and told my friends everyone was gone and we could smoke weed now. We opened the window and started smoking. Stefan started joking and reminded us that Filip once said he would pay a stripper for my eighteenth birthday.

Filip replied, “That’s right! She’s on her way here now.” Of course, he was joking, but at that moment, the door opened and my mom came into the room. We couldn’t help but laugh.

She had a towel wrapped around her hair and was wearing a bathrobe as always after showering. As soon as she came in, she said, “I just came to say that I’m going to sleep and not to be very loud, but now I need some answers. First, what did we agree on regarding smoking marijuana? Also, why are you laughing at me?”

Filip and I suddenly became serious, and Stefan, as always, started speaking on our behalf. “Well, you said we can smoke sometimes, and now it’s Dan’s birthday, so...”

“I guess,” Mom said. “Just don’t get carried away. So, why were you laughing at me?”

Stefan spoke up again. “Well, we weren’t laughing at you specifically. You just happened to walk in on a joke. Filip joked about getting a stripper for Dan’s birthday and then you opened the door.”

Mom laughed too. “Oh, perfect timing. You thought the stripper you wanted just happened to appear right then. Well, 18-year-old boys certainly don’t want a forty-year-old stripper.”

Stefan had a joint in his hand and asked my mom if she wanted to smoke with us. I thought to myself that Stefan was a real idiot. Mom replied that she had last smoked almost 20 years ago. She took the joint and sat down on a chair. We sat on the bed opposite her. She inhaled the first puff of smoke and began to cough. “Oh, geez, I don’t remember it being so strong back then,” and she passed the joint to Filip.

In the second round, she inhaled a few puffs and started talking about how marijuana used to be healthy because it was naturally grown without chemicals. She talked and gestured with her hands. She was obviously high already. She didn’t even notice her robe had gaped and her tits were visible and worst of all, she’d unknowingly spread her legs so her bare crotch was visible. She took one more toke then passed again to Filip.

She kept talking and waving her arms. I looked at Stefan, and he was staring at her. I wanted to signal her somehow to cover up, but she never looked at me and just kept talking. By this time, no one was even listening. I looked back at her. Oh shit, everything was visible. Then I looked at Filip. He stared at her with his mouth hanging open like he was hypnotized. The joint in his hand went out, and the ashes fell on the bed. I was very embarrassed.