Todd had to work on the 4th so I didn't go to the parade. C. was with his dad and Ben and Em were with their mom. That night when C. got home, we walked out to the rodeo and immediately ran into a friend who was very drunk and pretty much spent the rest of the night near him so that he didn't get his ass kicked. Sometimes it's fun to watch the drunks and save them.
One of C's friends asked if he could go hang out with him and I said no, he was fine where he was, etc. Friend argued that I never let C. go do anything with his friends. This is true as I would rather know where he was. I was thinking realistically, he's 14 now and I should loosen up the strings a bit. I got the kid's cellphone number so I could reach them and laid down the law that when I called, he'd better be with this kid and when I said we were leaving, it wasn't open for discussion. He and his friend agreed and off they went.
I told Todd to get a beer for himself and wine cooler for me. This is rare as we almost always have kids and don't drink around them. I discovered I still have no interest in alcohol and dumped mine after drinking about half of it. Todd had three beers while we stood talking to drunk friend and then some other friends. The funny thing here is that one of C's classmates is telling people we were trashed at the rodeo. He gathered this info from walking by us and seeing a drink in our hands. Little douche. Anyway...
We intended to be home before fireworks so the dogs wouldn't freak. Our backyard butts up against the rodeo grounds so we usually just watch the show from the patio. We were so busy talking that we didn't notice the rodeo part was over and the lights shut off for fireworks. We watched them and then I called the cellphone number and was told C. was not with this kid anymore but with another friend. I had a missed call but didn't pay attention to that since my focus was on where the heck my kid was at. I called the other friend and he said no, he was not with him. I flipped. First time out without my supervision and he already blew it???
Turns out no, he did not. Friend #1 ditched him for a drunk girl so he found friend #2 who ditched him to drink. He walked around looking for us but we were buried in the back corner behind the lines to the beer tents. He found one of "my kids" and used his cellphone to call me but I didn't hear it over the crowd noise. He then walked home, thinking we'd be home for fireworks but we didnt come home.
We met him on our way out where he was waiting for us at the gate. I was fuming, just sure he'd been doing something wrong. He was fuming because his friends are idiots and his mother is too for not answering her phone. In the end I assured him that I was very proud of him for making good decisions and very sorry that I made bad assumptions about him. Apparently he's been under Todd's influence enough to cancel his genetic makeup. If it were his dad or I at 14 and our friends were drinking, we'd have been all over it. So far, the kid is still concentrating on a career as a state trooper and thinks drinking is stupid. Dear Lord, please let that hold.