Born to Binge

by Donna Milligan

Kate strolled into Emma’s flat, clutching a bottle of vodka, her faux-snakeskin handbag and a packet of cigarettes. She was wearing her new strappy silver sandals with her faithful black miniskirt and a sparkly bandeau top. Emma was also dressed to kill in a tight red dress, leggings and a slick of scarlet lipstick.

“Tonight’s going to be massive,” Emma announced. “I’m glad you brought the vodka – we’ve got plenty more here too. Give us a fag!”

Kate lit her own cigarette, then Emma’s, and unscrewed the vodka bottle, pouring generous shots into two glasses and then adding a bit of orange juice just to conceal the taste.

“Even seasoned party girls can’t handle straight vodka,” said Emma’s flatmate Jasbir with a wicked laugh. He kissed Kate on the cheek and she blushed.

“Where are we meeting the others?” Kate asked.

“In the Wine Bar,” replied Emma. “Drinks are expensive in there, so we’d better neck as many here as we can. I can’t afford club prices.”

Emma was training to become a solicitor and would one day earn a decent wage, but for now as a trainee and with student loans to repay she was hard up.

“Me neither,” sighed Kate, remembering her hefty overdraft, and gulping down her vodka and orange. There was so little juice in it that it tasted more like paint stripper.

A few hours of drinking and smoking passed before it was time to catch the night bus into town to meet the rest of the crowd. Kate was pleased to be spending time with her best friend, and with Jasbir, although she was afraid that the more drunk she got, the more obvious it would be that she fancied him. She vowed not to let herself say anything embarrassing, or worse still, lunge at him like a desperado.

Unbeknown to the bus driver, Emma had brought a hip flask filled with white rum and kept slipping it in and out of her handbag. The funniest thing was that the handbag was barely big enough to hold her wallet and mobile phone, let alone the flask.

“You’re a madwoman!” Jasbir said. “Pass it here, I still feel sober.”

The three of them shared around the flask and by the time they reached town it was almost all gone.

Kate felt a slight rush of guilt as she remembered the lecture her mum had given her last week about binge drinking. It sickened her that her mum understood so little and still tried to treat her like a child when she was nearly twenty-four. Even though she knew her mum was just looking out for her, she wished she could move out and rent a flat like Emma had. Trying to save money by living at home until she could afford to buy seemed like a pipe dream. Her money always disappeared long before pay day arrived.

“You all drink so irresponsibly nowadays,” her mum had said, getting on her high horse. “When we were young, we just had a couple to get merry. None of this bingeing.”

“As if, Mum!” Kate had protested. “It’s not as if I’m out getting wrecked every night like some sort of raging alcoholic! I only drink at weekends.”

Her mum had gone on to say how that was one of the worst things about it, and from that point Kate had stopped listening altogether. It seemed so hypocritical that someone who’d grown up in the Seventies could try to educate her about drinking. From what she’d heard that decade was one great big party, full of alcohol, drugs and debauchery.

By the time they met the others at the Wine Bar, Kate and Emma were both a bit worse for wear, and thanks to the hip flask, Jasbir wasn’t far behind them. Mark and Sarah were waiting for them by the bar, sipping impressive-looking cocktails. The place was packed full of people, as it normally was on a Saturday night.

The girls left Jasbir and Mark to talk about the football and took their drinks to the dancefloor.

“You’re not drunk!” Emma accused Sarah.

Sarah looked taken aback. “Well, I am drinking, but I’m not plastered,” she replied. “I don’t want to get so wasted I can’t stand up or speak coherently.”

“Ooooooh!” Emma cackled. “Miss Goody Two Shoes!”

Sarah didn’t look all that bothered. Actually, Kate thought Sarah looked really elegant in a simple black dress with gold sandals and matching jewellery. Kate looked at Emma and realised that she’d managed to spill drink all down her lovely red dress already, and her mascara had smudged.

“Girlie toilet trip,” Kate announced, grabbing both her friends and leading them upstairs to the ladies’. She dabbed a moist tissue under Emma’s eyes to remove the stray eye make-up and switched on the hand dryer so she could attempt to dry the dress off.

“I feel a bit sick,” said Emma in a baby voice, and skulked off to one of the cubicles where she embraced a toilet bowl.

Sarah took the opportunity to speak to Kate alone. “I know you think I’m a goody-goody, or whatever,” Sarah said, “but don’t you think this is a bit much? The night hasn’t even started.”

“Yeah, but my mum tried to give me this talk the other day,” replied Kate with a knowing smile. “I know this looks bad, but this really is the exception. Emma doesn’t even drink during the week.”

“Too right, with a demanding job like hers. But I’m not suggesting she’s an alcoholic. It’s about taking everything in moderation.”

Despite the drinks she’d consumed, Kate respected Sarah’s opinion and had a feeling she was talking sense - after all, she was studying medicine. Apart from that, it was different hearing this from a friend she’d known since school. It seemed like less of a lecture.

"Women aren't even meant to drink more than three units a day," Sarah added.

"What's a unit?"

"It's only half a pint of beer, or two thirds of a small glass of wine, I'm afraid," Sarah said with an apologetic smile.

"Even I've had more than that," Kate admitted, feeling a bit embarrassed. Obviously she wasn't going to change her whole lifestyle on the basis of Sarah's medical knowledge, but she was genuinely a bit worried that Emma might pass out, or choke on her own vomit, and headed for the cubicle to coax her friend out.

After some persuasion, Emma emerged from the toilet cubicle. All her make-up was well and truly smudged now from where she'd thrown up and her eyes had watered. Kate could see a bit of sick at the corner of Emma's mouth and she looked washed out. She looked like a true and total mess, actually - not half the glamourous party girl she'd appeared only a few hours before.

"I reckon we all go back to hers and watch a movie," Sarah said with a sigh.

Kate shrugged. "The night's spoiled now really, isn't it? She won't be able to stand, let alone dance."

"I'm fine!" Emma protested, but she was slurring her words and didn't look fine at all.

"Babe, if you could see a video of yourself now, you'd want us to take you home," Kate laughed, trying to make light of the situation. She knew she was in no position to mock or judge as she'd been in the same state before, more than once.

Mark and Jasbir decided to stay out and enjoy the rest of the night while Sarah and Kate took Emma home to rest. Kate just hoped Jasbir wouldn't meet the woman of his dreams while she was nursing her best mate back to sobriety.

“What a state,” Mark commented to Jasbir. “I’m glad Sarah doesn’t get that mashed.”

"I know mate, it's wrong," said Jasbir. "Leave them to look after her and sober her up, eh?"

The taxi driver didn't look too happy with the idea of Emma getting into his clean cab. "If she's sick in 'ere', you're payin' me an extra twenty," he warned after some persuasion that honestly, she'd probably been sick as much as she possibly could.

Once home, they gave Emma a pint glass of water and made sure she sipped some, and made some toast. She left most of it, but the thought was there and Sarah said it would help soak up the alcohol. Kate thought it'd probably be healthier than Emma's usual afterparty choice of a doner kebab and chips!

Emma soon fell asleep and Sarah and Kate chatted in hushed tones.

"I know I drink, but most people do, don't they?" Kate said.

"Yeah, they do, but that's just part of today's drinking culture," Sarah replied. "And anyway, it's not as though I've never been drunk before, but I've learned to drink sensibly."

"How much is that then?"

"Well, 14 units a week is the maximum for a woman - it's 21 for men by the way," Sarah told her.

"I always thought alcohol was only a problem if you got addicted," Kate pondered.

"No, you can be a problem drinker without being dependent. There are 4 different levels: social drinking, heavy drinking, problem drinking and addiction."

Sarah explained how social drinking was generally not a problem as long as you didn't drive or operate machinery. Heavy drinking sounded like what Emma did (and in fact, most of the young people that Kate knew, including herself) which meant exceeding the recommended safe limits. Problem drinking was when people carried on drinking in spite of the problems it caused to your health and your life, and addiction was the old-fashioned alcoholism.

Kate was shocked to hear that heavy drinking increases your risk of developing diseases like liver damage, damage to the pancreas, certain cancers, heart problems and sexual problems. It can also raise your blood pressure and risk of a violent death. None of it sounded appealing.

Kate winced at the sight of the empty vodka bottle on the table, and glanced at Emma, who was asleep with her mouth wide open and mascara still all over her cheeks.

"Let's clean that up," said Sarah.

"You'll make a good mum, you will!" Kate giggled.

Sarah shook her head. "I've got lots of studying to do before I get close to that!"

"Let's speak to Emma tomorrow - tell her what you told me?" Kate pleaded. "We'll make her listen. She's not going to go out and get bladdered on her own, anyway, so if I'm not drinking she's got no choice!"

"You could try and do stuff that doesn't involve drinking," suggested Sarah. "I don't mean tapestry or trainspotting, but just now and then doing something different."

"Such as?"

"Well, going to the gym - I go to a great class, you should come with me some time."

Kate thought about it. She would love to be a gymbod but had always thought she couldn't afford the membership and wouldn't have time to go. Then again, if she wasn't going out drinking all the time she'd probably be better off financially, plus she might be able to go on a Sunday if she wasn't hungover.

"I might take you up on that," she said with a smile.

"Next week, I might try and coax you out of that smoking habit of yours," joked Sarah.

Kate looked startled. "One step at a time, Miss Goody Two Shoes! But you could give me some motherly advice on how to pull Jasbir..."