Random Memory 2,674

I went to a party one night with a friend. I was a junior and she was a senior, and it was a grown up party - older people drinking liquor from glasses - no keg or plastic cups.

It was somewhere in Palo Alto or Los Altos - it was woodsy and dark with a big yard in front of the house with trees all around that made it seem darker.

She knew a few of the men there, I only knew her. Her father used to beat her up - at least we thought it was her father - and she'd come to school trying to hide a giant bruise under cover-up and foundation.

One hot summer day we spent all afternoon on inflatable rafts on Lexington Reservoir drinking California Coolers. Our lips were puckered from all the citrus. We went to another party that night and I don't remember very much about that. She drove a cool little convertible.

Half way through that semester she went away. I never saw her again.