Outside the Garden, Megan and I got very very stoned on the pot we bought from her brother. How cool were we? Terribly. Zeppelin tickets and a nickel bag will get you far in junior high.
Megan bought a 'song remains the same' shirt and sequestered it under her seat. We took fistfulls of free buttons to give out to our friends. We smoked some more and tried to get beer but we were only 13 and the beer guys at the Garden were pretty savvy. Jimmy Page was encased in a laser pyramid and Robert Plant had his shirt open. Megan forgot about her t-shirt until we got on the ferry to go home.
On the ferry we couldn't get any beer either. I had pinned all the free buttons to my shirt. Two boys sat across from us. They must have been 17.
"Hmm, I wonder where you girls have been?," teased the blond one. "You think you have enough buttons? What will happen if I take one off?"
Megan was having none of this. She refused to respond.
"You girls wanna go downstairs and smoke?" He was pointing at my Marlboros which were practically falling out of my pocket, my jeans were so tight.
I stood up to go, but Megan grabbed my hand, hard, and pulled me back down. I looked at her pleadingly, but she wasn't giving me anything back. I felt bad for her, I thought maybe she was stressing over the lost shirt which cost twice as much as the pot, which we split, so it was really four times as much, but still, I wanted to go downstairs and smoke and pretend I was a teenager.
"What's a matter, sweetie? Mom won't let ya go? Come on..."
"Naw, she's my friend, and besides, her dad's giving me a ride home..."
"I'll give you a ride home...," he politely offered. My heart pounded at the thought of it. Alone in a car with a 17 year old! All the things that could happen!
When the boat docked the boys followed us for a bit, I think to make sure that there really was a dad taking us home. Not out of any concern, but if we were taking the bus, we'd be easier to coerce into a car. But Megan's dad was waiting for us in his faux-wood panneled station wagon, drinking a cup of coffee. He had donuts waiting for us when we climbed in the car.