#Scintilla13: You’ll like it eventually.

I am participating in the Scintilla Project, a fortnight of storytelling.  There will be writing prompts every day for the next two weeks. You can follow along on Twitter @ScintillaHQ and by searching the #scintilla13 hashtag for other participants and their stories.

Prompt: Tell a story about a time you got drunk before you were legally able to do so.

“Here.”

The guy handed me the glass with a dark, strong smelling beverage with a foamy head on top. I accepted the glass gingerly with two fingers and with my arm extended as if it was a poisonous animal.

“What am I supposed to do with this now?’, I asked.

“Drink it”, he encouraged me.

I carefully raised the glass to my nose, took a sniff, wrinkled my nose and held it as far away as possible.

“Smells awful”, I complained.

“Just take a sip”, he kept insisting.

I starred at him, I starred at the glass in my hand, and after what felt like an eternity, I mustered up all my courage and quickly took a gulp and swallowed.

“Ewwwww”, I blurted out.

Feeling an urge to gag, I tried to rid my mouth of the awful taste by sticking out my tongue and making funny noises.

“How in the world can you drink this? “, I gasped at him, while he was laughing at me.

“Just keep drinking. You’ll like it eventually.”

EVENTUALLY.

Wait, what? Was I supposed to pour something done my throat that smelled and tasted disgustingly, in the hopes of eventually liking it? MAYBE eventually liking it?

I honestly didn’t see the point, but hey, I was not going to lose this bet. Not this time.

I walked away, clasping the glass in my hand, wandering between people, chatting here and there.

I set the glass down a couple of times to dance, ready to pick it up again after a couple of songs to prove “Look, I am still doing it, I am drinking my first glass of alcohol”. I could feel his eyes on me and the glass. He was hoping that I wouldn’t put it down and “forget” it somewhere, so he could claim “you lost the bet!”. Yeah, you wish!

It took me nearly the whole night to finish this damn glass. Let me just tell you, the taste of the beverage didn’t grow on me over time, not in the least. I could not for the life of me understand what it was that people liked about it and I couldn’t wait to take the last sip. Finally, I walked over to him, slammed the empty glass on the table and exclaimed: “Here. I did it. You owe me”.

To clarify: neither was I drunk that night, nor was I under age,  as it was my 16th birthday party. Sorry. However, this was my first experience with alcohol and I won a bet (and a pizza dinner) in the process. I didn’t have a drop of alcohol for many, many years after that (by choice!), but that is a story for another time.

Things you might not know about my home country:

Underage drinking in private is not regulated by a specific legal restriction. However, protection from physical and mental harm is part of parents’ general obligation to care for a child.[1] Regarding alcohol purchase and alcohol consumption in public places (such as pubs and restaurants), Germany has three drinking ages by § 9 Jugendschutzgesetz (Youth protection act):

• At 14 – minors are allowed to consume and possess undistilled (fermented) alcoholic beverages, such as beer and wine, as long as they are in the company of their parents or a legal guardian.
• At 16 – minors are allowed to consume and possess undistilled (fermented) alcoholic beverages, such as beer and wine without their parents or a legal guardian.
• At 18 – having become adults, people are allowed access to distilled liquor.

(from Wikipedia)