"We broke our promise to you, boy scout." Aaron gulped yellow lager into his mouth. Alan could see the beer pour in. Aaron was the only person who drank beer without the can touching his lips. "We went out. To get these." Aaron said while pointing to a cluster of 

tallboy

on the table.

"Why didn't you just get a 30 pack?" Alan rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"We like these better!' Aaron shoved a can into Alan's hand so hard that Alan couldn't help but tighten his grip around it.

"Where's Jack? Where's--"

"Outside," Aaron leaned his shoulder,  "smoking cigarettes."

"Ah," Alan said, cracking open his can.

"you feeling better, bud?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Because the night's young. And we got a long night!"

"Are you all gonna spend the night here again?"

"If you're down." Aaron shrugged. "Kind of like it here actually."

"But Imogen has to get back to start planning for her party."

Aaron stared up into the corner while thinking. "You're right. Probably should head back." He threw back some more beer. "Are you gonna come back to town with us? You do technically live here."

Alan had no idea. No clue what the right thing to do was. The only thing he wanted to do was stay with this group. Aaron. Jack. Imogen. Didn't want to be left alone. If they went back to town then he wanted to go back to 

town

. Was that the right thing to do? Probably not. Alan didn't know what was right.

Four years of college. And then some. An extra semester. To try to do things the right way. Still he didn't have an answer to what to do with his life. A lot of time. A lot of money. Both down the drain. Now what? And so what if he clung onto this small group of pals. Was that so bad. To want a sense of closeness?

"Say," Aaron said while looking straight into his eyes. "You alright?"

Sounds of loud footsteps in the hall. Laughter. Then the door swung open. Jack and Imogen finished whatever they were talking about. Then Imogen took a breath and said, "We met Sean and Lindsay outside. They're really cool. Invited us to a party tonight."

Aaron put down his can and picked up another. Cracked it open and threw some more beer into his mouth. The tin can never touching his lips.

"Cool! Where at?"

"Well they're about to smoke a bowl. We can go over now," Jack said. "We told them that we wanted to have a drink at the Tin Can before the party. They are down to join us."