Holy Hangover

Chapter 1

People come from all walks in life. Some are born into successful families and are driven by something inside them to succeed, where others are born into a world they don’t understand and struggle to find their place. Some can’t find the happiness they search for their whole lives and there are some who have what people want but they don’t realize how lucky they are and take everything for granted. No matter where you go on this planet, every area has people engaged in the same battles of success and struggles. People who are driven to succeed and people who are lost and trying to find themselves.

In the town of Braevarn, there are people from all walks of life, people from good backgrounds and well off families and there are those who have come from nothing with no role models and no direction or drive who end up into drugs and a life of crime.

Tarroway is a council housing estate just a short walk from the Braevarn town center which is considered as a rough depraved area plagued with gang activity and drug abuse despite the local council doing everything in their power to turn things around and compared to what the place was like twenty years previous, the area is leaps and bounds better and safer than it ever has been. Though there are still some problems need addressing, much like pretty much any area in Scotland today.

Two best friends, Owen Bloomberg and Darren Gibson from the same area in Tarroway, grew up together through school and into adulthood, never got dragged into the gang culture, but had found themselves partying and dabbling with drugs and alcohol from a young age. They called it ‘seshing.’ Despite Owen having a child with his childhood sweetheart Maggie Rossi, their relationship had come to an end on the count of Owen’s ‘seshing.’ She was just sick of him going on benders for days at a time and not being there for her and their son Owen Jr. She had given him chance after chance and in the end realized that he was too immature to be a father. Even after the split, he had let his son down many times on days he was supposed to pick him up. All this done was made Owen party all the more. It was his way of dealing with things and having his best mate Darren by his side only fueled the flames because they were both bad influences on one another.

Owen, growing up was an aspiring footballer with a big personality and was a popular lad, he met Maggie at school when they were fourteen and they were inseparable. As he got older they got into house parties and dabbling with drugs like cocaine and ecstasy and had been dragged into the partying and rave scene at eighteen where he’d found himself in a lifestyle he couldn’t and didn’t want to get out of. When Maggie fell pregnant at eighteen, she settled down and left that life behind, expecting Owen to do the same. However, he and Darren couldn’t stop, it was a lifestyle they didn’t want to leave behind in the rear view mirror and they bounced off each other which was a recipe for disaster. Maggie left and took Owen Jr with her when they were 20 years’ old, hoping that it would be a wake-up call for the man she loved. Hoping it would make him grow up but it only made the benders last even longer.

He always had females interested in him and his hyperactive confident personality but he only ever had eyes for his childhood sweetheart Maggie. She trusted him to an extent but in the end she couldn’t handle him being out for days at a time getting off his face at raves and then back at random house parties and felt pushed away and felt as though her and their child weren’t enough for him.

Owen didn’t take the breakup well and found himself self-medicating with drugs and alcohol even harder than he did before. With Darren by his side who was much the same into that lifestyle as himself was his enabler. Owen was put out of the house he shared with his little family and ended up moving into Darren’s spare room and like that, the partying continued and had no sign of ever slowing down.

Now twenty-eight and still living with his friend, he would see his son a couple of days a week but still often let him down. Young Owen Jr coming up for ten, looked up to his father and loved the bones of him and didn’t hold it against his dad for letting him down. In his mind his dad could do no wrong. The young boy was wise beyond his years. It mostly made Maggie angry more than anything else. She called him all the ‘immature deadbeat dads’ under the sun on a weekly basis, but deep down she still loved him.

Darren was the same age as Owen and they had been best friends since primary school. They were pretty much ride or die for each other. He wasn’t a hit with the ladies, he struggled in that department, not for the lack of trying. He just had no luck at all with pulling or starting a relationship with women. He was more the guy who would be found upside down behind the TV blind drunk with no clothes on in a party, rather than being in a darkened room with a woman. He was a funny character but had no self-confidence and wasn’t the most handsome guy around and he knew it, too.

They both held down jobs, Owen had a job as a bricky and Darren was a laborer for the same company, although both their timekeeping and attendance were questionable and both having received multiple warnings for sleeping in or calling in sick. It always happened to be a Monday morning, I might add. They were lucky they worked for Owen’s uncle Willie, who would give them hassle for missing work and had sacked them on multiple occasions in the past, but he always gave them another chance. Owen had a driver’s license but had never owned a car. Darren was the designated driver at all times and got them to work and to wherever they were going in his little hatchback that had been through the wars over the years but was a little tank which just kept trudging along through anything.

It was a rainy Friday evening and the pair were still on site at work, finishing up getting ready to head back to the flat which was a bit of a jaunt through backroads and countryside for a few miles before reaching the town. All the pair looked forward to was getting home for a shower and have a few beers. Even though they both knew it wasn’t just going to be ‘a few beers.’ The rain seemed to batter down heavier and heavier until they seen themselves running through the swampy mud, racing to get to the car as the torrential rain came down on them with drops so big it felt like cups of water pouring onto them all at the same time. When they got to the car they were both soaked through to the bone.

Once they were in the car they left the site and headed down the country backroads, the wipers on the windscreen were going as fast as possible and they still struggled to see from the raindrops battering the windscreen so they had to take their time to see where they were going.

‘Holy shit man, it’s chucking it down’ Darren said, laughing.

‘Aye, take your time, don’t want to wipe out away out here, we are miles from anywhere’ Owen replied

It got dark really quickly and the rain never halted, it only made visibility worse. The backroads were twisting and turning and they seemed to be the only car on that road for miles. Darren had the hard rave music playing loud in the car, this always made the journey easier and also made them look forward to the impending sesh that was happening the coming weekend. They hit a long straight road with nothing around them but fields and the odd tree line with the foot of a hill on the right and a drop to their left. It was pretty much pitch black out there but Owen seen something standing at the side of the road from the full beams of the cars headlights. It was a man standing on the side of the road thumbing a lift in the dark rainy night. Standing miles from anywhere, drenched from the rain, standing as far in to the side as he possibly could but with no sidewalk he was practically standing on a dangerous road in zero visibility.

‘Stop and pick that guy up, man. We can’t leave him out here’ Owen said, concerned about the strangers’ safety.

They passed the man and pulled in to the side and watched in the rear view mirror as the stranger jogged towards the car, Darren turned the music off and they waited to see what this stranger is doing out here in the middle of nowhere on a night like this. The two joked back and forth about the possibility of having just picked up a serial killer. Darren made it clear if the man happened to be a random nut case that it’s only fair that Owen become his victim as it was him who mentioned to stop and pick him up.

The stranger got to the car and opened the back door and threw his backpack into the back seat. there was silence apart from hearing the torrential rain battering off the roof of the car. ‘Ah thanks for stopping, boys!’ the man shouted as he fastened his seatbelt. ‘No problem, mate’ Darren replied happily. ‘What are you doing out here on a night like this, ma friend?’ Owen asked, puzzled. ‘Oh I just travel around...I like to travel and take in the beautiful scenery, I’m heading to Stormcale, through Braevarn, if I can jump out there, that would be great.’ The stranger replied. ‘Well you’re in luck because we are heading to Braevarn, mate, we live there.’ Owen went on to say. ‘I know’ the stranger replied. The man was drenched with long grey hair and a long white beard, wearing hillwalking gear, soaked through, fumbling around in his backpack and pulled out a towel and started to dry his head and face. ‘Are you a serial killer?’ Darren asked before bursting into laughter then Owen punching him in the arm to shut him up. ‘A serial killer? Ha-ha no Darren I’m not’ laughing it off as he put his towel back into his backpack, zipping it closed. There was silence but Owen sat puzzled then asked ‘wait, how did you know his name?’ I know a lot of things Owen’ the stranger replied and went on to say ‘My name is Eugene, but you can call me Genie’ the man went on ‘You are both good lads for helping me out tonight, I can tell you are good boys.’ ‘Genie? Isn’t that an old woman’s name?’ Darren laughed. ‘No I get called that because I can change people’s lives for the better’ the man said confidently as Owen and Darren sat puzzled, making eye contact with each other, they sat in silence but both thinking ‘what is this old nut job talking about?’

‘So how can you change our lives for the better, then?’ Owen asked sarcastically. ‘Well tell me what would you want more than anything and I’ll see if I can make it happen’ Eugene replied. ‘Well, if you can make me five years old again but I get to keep my age, knowledge and frame of mind, that would be great’ Owen laughed sarcastically. ‘Aye and make me a lady’s man.’ Darren butted in. Both laughing it off as if the old man was going senile. ‘Done.’ Eugene snipped back. ‘It’s the least I can do for you lad’s for helping me out tonight’ He added. The boys laughed it off and made a joke about it, thinking the man was crazy, but for Owen and Darren, it wasn’t the strangest conversation they’d ever had, as they were space cadets a lot of the time themselves.

They finally reached Braevarn and asked Eugene where he’d like to be dropped off. He told them he had booked a room at ‘The Ram’s Head inn’ and that he would be staying there for a few days before moving on to his next destination. As they approached the inn and stopped outside, he thanked them for helping him and told them that he hopes he has changed both their lives for the better and if they needed him, that’s where he would be. They said their goodbyes and Eugene got out and the pair drove off, both puzzled and felt a bit strange.

They dismissed the strange encounter instantly and headed back to their flat remembering to stop at the shop for a drink on the way. Owen jumped into the little corner shop just down the street from the flat, he grabbed a bottle of vodka and some beers and cigarettes and the pair hurried home to get ‘on it’ as they called it. The rain had stopped and the night felt fresh, not cold. They just wanted to get in, washed and changed out of their work clothes and get settled for the night.

Darren jumped into the shower as Owen put the music on and poured himself a half, waiting for his turn to get a wash, he couldn’t help but feel tired and worn out but he put that off to a hard week’s graft on a building site. No matter how he tried to drink his half, he just didn’t feel up to it.

Darren came out the shower and went into his room to get himself dressed and ready for the night of shenanigans the pair routinely got up to every Friday night, but he too felt tired and run down. He threw on some joggers and a hoodie and went to pour himself a drink while Owen jumped in the shower. The music was pumping and no matter how much the pair tried to liven themselves up, they struggled to shake off the fatigue.

Owen stepped out the shower, wrapped a towel round his waist and went to get changed, throwing on shorts and a t-shirt and went through to find Darren asleep on his bed. ‘Pussy!’ He shouted at his friend and went into the living room and sat on the couch, sank his drink but struggled to keep his eyes open. He stumbled to his room, leaving the music on, knocking over the side lamp and got to his room, flopping on top of his bed and closed his eyes.