One Page Short Series is a story series created by Matthew Eng. Click here to see the Rules.
Sugary Ray
(12/8/14)
I once had a friend who loved Sugar Ray. I’m not talking about a long time ago, It’s the year 2014 and I stopped talking to him about two years ago. His name wasn’t Ray. It was Craig. But all of us called him Sugary Ray. Don’t ask m why we added the suffix. I wouldn’t say he was full-blown obsessed with the band. But he did have every one of their albums, pus an autographed picture personalized by Mark McGrath. Douche chills. The douche chills were further compounded by his decade long ritual of recreating the lead singer’s frosted tips hairstyle. That might have been enough to sever ties by any normal standard. But I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt. That was until the night of 15 December 2012. That was the final straw.
We both worked at a small engineering firm at the time. We had our big christmas party. We were hot on the heels of finishing a big design for a major government contractor, so we all wanted to cut loose. Craig and I drank from the start to the end of the party, never stopping. On the way back to my place, he asked the cab driver if he could make a quick stop at the convenience store. He walked in, paid, and walked out quietly and calmly, two bags in hand. Minutes later, I paid my share of the cab fare and headed upstairs to my apartment. He then got back in the can and went straight back to the firm where we worked and burned it down with two bags worth of lighter fluid and matches. In the end, Sugar Ray had nothing to do with it.
Delusional Thoughts From Fantasy Island 