Blackout

Don´t it always seem to go
That you don´t know what you got ´til it´s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
(Counting Crows)

When I was 15 years old, my friend Francine and I decided that we would not do anything for a year. I had finished my school year and has convinced my parents to let me move to Miami to do my high school years, and because the beginning and ending of the school year differ here and there, I had about 8 months of no school. I was also ahead one year so I decided to take the entire year off and start school late in Miami. For some crazy reason my parents let me.

Francine decided to quit school altogether and her parents, since they had a lot of money, let her do whatever she wanted.  Anyways, we had no responsibilities or curfew, plus we were in Buenos Aires, where kids at a young age go out till the wee hours or not come home at all.

We started to go to this club called "Blackout" and we met a big group of guys that were habitués. Mariano, Fernando, Cuca, Sebastian, Hernan, Harty, Leandro, Walter and a few more, which names unfortunately have left my memory. We would go every Friday and Saturday to the matinee and instead of going home at 1am, which was the time it ended, we would go out to the corner bar, have a few gancias and go back to the club at around 3a.m till 7 or 8 am. We got to know most of the people there. I feel in lust with Mariano, he was older than me but cute as can be. Francine hooked up with Fernando. Every weekend, we would meet up with them at the club, go upstairs to "los reservados" and make out. It was so much fun! The Dj’s name was Felix and he would play the songs that we requested, he even made a tape with all of my favorite songs for me. We danced and smoked cigarettes and drank vodka. At the end of the night, we would dance to the slow songs, ,kicking  away the bottles left on the floor. When the morning came, we would go have facturas for breakfast or walk a few blocks to the churros factory. Then we would walk about 30 blocks to Francine’s house or my house, dissect the night and fall asleep till 5 or 6pm. Wake up--- rinse and repeat.

We did this for almost a year. During the week we would get together with all of the guys and hang out in Gaona y Carranza y Jonte y Avellaneda.

One day, without notice or warning, Blackout closed down and it was a sad, sad day. We started going to other places, we had fun but never like the Blackout days. Two years later, I went back to Argentina and Francine and I took a walk past our old stomping grounds and we carved our names into the metal boards that covered what used to be our home away from home.