Bye Bye Bro

I decided to invite myself to my brothers leaving do for work. It was a simple affair, a few of his closer friends from where he worked. They were going to meet in a pub pretty much right next to work in Teddington, at about five thirty. As I don't have any form of transport at the moment, I wasn't too sure how I was going to get there. I ended up going into Kingston with a mate, then got the bus from there to Teddington. I had no idea who was going, I don't even know any of my brothers work mates, I knew one as he was an old friend and I had met a couple more. I was interested at the idea of meeting some of his fellow colleagues.

I got to the pub a bit earlier and had a couple of pints before they all arrived. The last few weeks, one way or another I have been going to this pub to meet my brother after he finished. This would be the last time as he no longer works there. I sat in my regular seat, on a sofa in between the bar and a wood fire. The fire was on that night, it wasn't even that cold outside, silly really. When my brother and some of his mates arrived we moved, where I was sitting there was room for about four people, I imagined there would be a lot more. We went over to a table that already had lots of people sitting on it. Something I have to point out is that on most Fridays, if not every Friday the pub is full of people who work at the same place. This time it was relatively empty in comparison to some nights I have been there before. Maybe its due to the weather taking a turn for the worst and just raining all day long.

Everybody was buying my brother beers or shots, actually, most people were buying him shots. He got given a shot of vodka but didn't want it, so one of his mates slipped it in his half drunk pint. I don't think he noticed as he never mentioned that the beer tasted funny or anything. He was visibly getting progressively drunk as the night went on. I was chatting to some of his mates, offending some with stories of what I had been eating when I was travelling in South America, things like lizard. I received word that we were planning to leave to move on to Richmond, they fancied a change of scene and move closer into London, with the possible intention of finishing the night in a late bar or club. It took us over an hour to leave. Not everybody came, the ones that did seemed to filter out one by one and dispersed. Some of us went straight to the bus stop to get a bus to Richmond, some hung around a while, then appeared at the bus stop a while later. I was actually getting quite pissed now too, the next thing I knew is that we were in Richmond walking around looking for a pub to go in. we found one a stones throw from the cricket green. Its a rather nice pub. In fact it is the same pub that I went in one night when I went on a bike ride to Richmond. The night my crank fell off.

We were met by another of my brothers mates with one of her friends in the pub, or near the pub. My memory of the night got a little more brief. We stayed in that pub till it closed, some people left so everybody said goodbye. What happened next is something that tends to happen quite a lot when the night isn't fully planned. We spent the next hour walking around trying to get in numerous bars without any luck. We were told the doors had closed and weren't allowed, in. we were flatly refused entry in this gay bar. I recognised some people standing outside smoking so I said hello. After being turned down again and again everybody left. We got the bus back from Richmond to Hammersmith, I was staying round my brothers flat that night. The bus was ride was a long one. A couple of my brothers mates got on, they were heading in the same direction as us but not quite as far. They got off, it was just us. I was still quite drunk but sobering up, my brother was clearly still very drunk.

A bunch of lads got on the bus, they were quite loud and were chatting to one another. One of them came to sit at the back. There were loads of free seats but he came and sat right in front of us at the back next to an older lady. Only he knows why. He went back to sit with his mates after a few minutes. They were all drunk, him a little more than the others. He put his head down on the seat rail in front of him, covered his face with his arm and began throwing up his guts. From the back we could see the sick forming a thick gloopy puddle on the floor. I could hear him convulsing, and hear the vomit splashing when it hit the floor. A girl sitting near him noticed and started shouting at him. She was calling for him to be thrown off the bus. The driver didn't seem to care at all. His mates fought his corner for him, they were shouting at the girl for shouting at him. Saying he was ill and all that shit. Really there was no excuse for what he was doing, he should have known better and got off the bus or something. He deserved a thump in the face. Then he started shouting at the girl. What the hell gave him the right to shout at a girl for having a go at him for vomiting on the bus. What a prick! Every so often he would stop arguing and start puking again. The girl pressed the button and got ready to get off the bus. They were still shouting. Some old Scottish guy in front of us started shouting at the boys telling them to 'shut the fuck up' calling them 'cunts' and all sorts. They sort of stopped. The girl got off. We were getting close to our stop so we got up and stood by the door. We pressed the button and waited for the bus to stop. I was right behind the little prick who had been chucking up his guts, I got an overwhelming urge to give him an almighty blow to the side of his head, knock him out and teach him a lesson, maybe rub his face in the sick. Completely cover him in his own filth. Whilst I was thinking this, my brother grabbed him and tried to pull him off his seat and throw him off the bus. Why had he done this? I wanted to really beat the shit out of this little fucker for being sick and being so rude about it. My brother had sort of got there before me. He ruined any chance I might have had to do anything. Instead of punching the boy, I ended up having to push my brother off the bush and hold the other boys back from trying to hit him. I was ready for violence and up for some blood shed. I knew the consequences of what could have been my actions, I was the bigger man and just walked away. I shouted to the driver to drive off, the doors closed and off they went. Just as the doors were closing, the boys mates shouted back at me, 'nice beard'. I received the complement and said thanks.