Blame it on roommate Chad. Or blame it on the boys of Delta Gamma Delta. Or the girls of Beta Epsilon Eta. Whatever the reason, Eric found himself drunkenly stumbling out of a frat house and onto Union Street. The ground and sky pulsed to the beat of music coming out of the doorway behind him. Oddly the door and building were perfectly still while the rest of the world followed the rhythm.
With the spring semester classes finished that afternoon and a few days before exams were to begin the students of Rutgers University spontaneously decided to let off steam with parties in all the houses of Frat Row. Chad was excited to go eventhough he probably need to use the night and the next day to study. His marks weren't that great but the lure of booze, music and the girls of B-E-E were too much to resist.
"Come back inside, Eric," Tandy called out leaning from an open window. "We still have another quart of Ouzo for you!" she added before barfing all over the side of the building.
Ouzo, even quarts of the stuff never affected Eric this strongly before and he suspected someone was spiking the drinks at the party. Maybe only his drink as the rest of his friends seemed to be acting in their usual drunken way. Tandy was always going to throw up after a few White Russians and then Sandy and Candy would have to nurse her for the rest of the night. Chad would somehow always find a case of Michelob and end up sitting ina corner muttering to himself and humming old songs while finishing off the bottles.
The song ended with a scratch and the sounds of someone falling onto the turntable. Swears and jeers came from the crowd. In the silence the world stopped pulsing and a etherial glow started to emminate from the road. Leaning against a lamppost he realized that he wouldn't be making it to the train station in the morning. No trip back home to Brooklyn this weekend.
Someone had found another source of music and with the beat the world began its pulsing once again only this time everything swayed except the glowing road.
Stumbling over a discarded and scorched chair someone had tossed onto the street he was helped up by two guys. Once dressed in a Scarlet Knight outfit the other in a toga with a foam Spartan helmet askew.
"Dude, it's still too early to be this loaded." the knight said.
"Yeah, man, it ain't even midnight yet." said the Spartan.
"There is a way to do these things; timing and accuracy are everything when it comes to having a booze-up. I mean look at the moon."
Staring up with his bleary eyes, Eric sees the full moon high in the sky and at twice its usual size.
"C'mon and stand up. We'll get you back to res. You're that Olsen kid, right?"
"Sure he is, Ox." the knight says. "Let's go, Eric."