Growing up in a small town such as Hutto, you find ways to pass the time until you’re able to get the hell out and find something better. If you’re lucky, you have a solid friend you can turn to who will support and encourage you in any adventure. I was very lucky to have Victoria through most of those times.
Victoria was a year older than I, but we were both active in theater in high school, and that was when we got to get much closer. Vicky, as I used to call her, had such an incredible spirit and amazing attitude. Her energy kept many of us going and laughing throughout those horrible Saturday rehearsals. She is the most loyal friend one could ever ask for, and her creativity is unrivaled.
She and I share many amazing stories and adventures, some of which are not technically legal, and that is why I can’t share too many of our adventures here.
In high school, we both liked to dye our hair different colors. Mine was usually something drastic and not common, and she would usually do a new shade or highlight. One day, we were meeting at school on Saturday for one of those dreaded rehearsals, and she and I walked in about 5 minutes apart of one another. Our eyes had to adjust to the darkness of the stage and when we could both see clearly again we had discovered that we both had died our hair the exact same color the night before. It was a beautiful auburn that looked ok on me, but it looked incredible on her…I can admit it now.
(Anyone under 21, or if you are a relative of Vicky, stop reading now, especially her kids!)
High school brought about a lot of interesting times. I had gotten a bottle of tequila from an old coworker from Double Dave’s who recently got back from Mexico. My dad was working late that night, Vicky’s parents were out-of-town and our friend M thought we should all hang out. I told Vicky and M that I had the bottle of tequila, and they suggested we go to Vicky’s place (because she had mixers) and drink it, and maybe play cards or something. (We were so mature). So M picked me up and we went to Vicky’s. I had never had tequila before, and I had no idea what to have with it. When we arrived, it all started going downhill. None of us knew what to mix with tequila, we tried soda, juices, coffee….it got bad after a while. Espresso, Tequila and gummy bears was the last drink I remember of the night, I wish that was all I remembered but for whatever reason, M, Vicky and I all ended up in bed laughing at something none of us knew what though. I was living most high school guys fantasy, in bed drunk with two hot high school girls…and it was all wasted on me.
That night, after M and I sobered up a bit, we left and she dropped me off at home. Vicky was out for the night, but we put some water and a couple of Advil by her bed before we left.
Two weeks later Vicky tells us that her mom found the empty tequila bottle and wanted to see the three of us. I was terrified, I’ve never really been in deep trouble with my dad before, and I was very scared about him not trusting me, etc. Vicky’s mom, the amazing woman she is, told us that she wouldn’t tell our parents about it, but we all had to go to church to think about what we did for the next two months. I can’t tell you how relieved I was, as I was already being punished by the universe and enrolled in confirmation classes at church so I had to go every week anyway. From this I learned a major lesson, don’t drink tequila, if you’re under age, don’t know what to mix with it, and/or don’t know how to hide the evidence.
One of our friends named C, who Victoria had worked with, was dating an incredibly cute half Japanese guy whose family owned a Japanese restaurant. He was straight, but he flirted back with me so I was happy. He never let Victoria and I pay for our meals, and he insisted we stop by regularly. After about 30 days of eating sushi in a row, I thought I would never eat sushi again… three months later I had a mouthful of spicy salmon. Victoria and I even did a wasabi challenge, where we ate the scoop of wasabi in one bite with no other food, sauce or drink. I was pretty sure my sinuses were going to literally kill me, but somehow we survived.
We took a trip to Arizona for an extended weekend. The band Mindless Self Indulgence was playing and Victoria and I were their groupies. Jimmy, the gorgeous lead singer, made out with me at a concert in Austin on my birthday. Victoria went to college in AZ for a hot minute, so we crashed at her ex’s apartment. It was great, good location to a delicious Ethiopian restaurant, and no fee. Unfortunately, I end up sleeping on a futon couch in the living room with a handful of strangers who randomly showed up unannounced in the middle of the night. Her ex didn’t have extra linen, so Victoria and I had to walk a few miles to the closest 24-hour Walgreen around 2am our first night there. Loading up a shopping cart with all of our random purchases we paid and left the store with the cart. I can’t recall if we were actually drunk, or just punch drunk from the flight, lack of sleep and oppressive heat. We left the cart somewhere along the way and finally made it back. We took a pedi-cab to the concert, because we were both decked out for the show and didn’t want our makeup to run or wings to get in a mess. The show was awesome and I was glad to put faces to the names I heard about. Oh her ex had a hot gay friend who worked at a porn store, I can’t recall his name Kiko, Kuri, Kilo…. something with a K, I am sure. Anyway, sadly I didn’t have the time to hook up with him. Along with MSI, we also were groupies for Morningwood (we did a music video with them) and periodically for No Doubt.
We went to Mexico with a couple, who weren’t really a couple, but they couldn’t figure out what the hell they were. We all went to a large dance club in Mexico, but sadly It ended up with me getting accosted in the men’s room. I left and had two female prostitutes follow me as I walked to the gay bar. The gay bar was just sad. Two people were in there, neither were cute, young or even sociable. The other girl who was with us is Vietnamese and was driving the car. When we were leaving Mexico the border agent asked “are you all US Citizens?” She, replied “Si!” And the agent had to study her face a few minutes while she then apologized profusely in perfect English. Luckily we only had to show our IDs and there was no issue.
Another time we road tripped to Colorado Springs from Austin, just because we wanted to play in the snow. Stupid me forgot my cell phone charger, so when we got there I had to leave my phone at a Verizon store to charge a few hours. It was a very brief trip, we played in the snow for about 20 minutes and then headed back to Texas. On the way back we stopped by a gay bar in Wichita Falls that was about 99.5% lesbian. All of the lesbians were flocking towards Victoria so we finished our one drink and left.
The Florida trip with the hurricane can be read in detail here.
One of my most favorite memories is one night, around midnight, we went grocery shopping and headed back to my apartment. Some jackass cuts us off, and with the groceries sitting in my lap, Victoria reaches over, opens the egg carton and chunks one at the bastard car for cutting us off. Unfortunately, she clipped the top part of the door and the egg was splattered all over the inside of her car. I was too busy being shocked and laughing out loud that I didn’t notice if the guy who cut us off saw the attempted egging.
Victoria is now married to a great guy, has two angelic daughters and is living her best life. I am so happy for her, she deserves the very best.
We had an amazing time growing up together, all of the goofing around, silliness, adventures, drama, heartache, love and the years and mileage we put on her beetle can not be measured. Thank you Victoria for the multitude of memories.
Kevin Nicholas Gavit 