Do you ever think about what you would do if you got a second chance at something?

Like, if you could go back in time, would you do anything different?

Of course you would. We all would. At least we've all thought about it, right?

If you knew that girl you asked out was going to say no, you wouldn't ask, right?

If you knew that road was all backed up thanks to a huge car crash, you'd go a different way, wouldn't you?

If you knew your lactose intolerance wouldn't be able to handle that ice cream without you spending the next three hours on the toilet then . . . well you get the idea.

Well my story is a little bit like all of these things all thrown together into one huge, giant mess.This is the story about how I got my perfect second chance. And how I completely, and utterly, screwed it up . . .

*

It all started years and years ago at high school, but we're not going to go all the way back then.

Well at least not straight away. Acne, baggy t-shirts and bad hairstyles that really need to stay in the early two thousands. Dark days indeed.

No, there's no time like the present. So we're going to start things off in the most exciting way possible. . .

*

"I'm trying to sleep here!" Joe slurred loudly as his head slowly raised off the table, only to yo-yo back down again straight away.

"Come on big guy," I urged, trying to lift him by his armpits, hoping that it wouldn't look too obvious to the barman that my best friend was totally wasted.

"Has he passed out?" The alert barman yelled at me. Well that didn't work.

"No, no he's just resting his eyes," I shrugged.

"I'm just resting my eyes!" Joe screeched, drawing annoyed glances from the small amount of other drinkers, and a furious glare from the now fast approaching manager.

"We're going! We're going!" I pleaded, hoping that he wouldn't hurt me. He was a big guy and had tattoos all over both of his arms and a beard down to his balls. This guy looked like he could fuck you up.

Thankfully though, he shoved past me and lifted up my heavyset friend easily and carried him over to the exit and pretty much dropped him out of the door.

"Thank you," Was all I could think to say.

"Fuck off, ya prick," He calmly uttered towards me before shoving past and returning to his station to serve his more sensible patrons.

"Thank you," I said again for an unknown reason.

I skittishly went to retrieve Joe and found once again that I couldn't lift him off the ground.

"Fucking hell, man," I groaned in between attempted lifts.

"Michael!" A woman's voice suddenly interrupted my embarrassment.

Turning round I saw Evelyn's smiling face sticking out of the window of her red Fiesta, her dark brown hair blowing in the wind that I hadn't even noticed until now. I should have known better than to wear just a t-shirt in the early schizophrenic Scottish spring.

"Finally! I called you like half an hour ago!" I moaned.

"I'm sorry, I forgot I was the slave at your beck and call," She remarked sarcastically. "Please forgive me, master."

"Whatever, just help me get him up will you?"

Leaving the engine running, she climbed out and after a bit of back and forth, we managed to stuff him into the back seat of the car.

Again, we'd hoped that no one had seen us and assumed we were kidnapping this helpless man. If anyone did think that, they didn't care enough to save him.

"There. Good as new," She proudly grinned, seemingly nowhere near as exhausted as I was. I blamed the beer more than the fact that my arms are tiny and weak.

It took around twenty minutes to get to Joe's house, the late night Aberdeen traffic busier than usual for some reason, perhaps explaining why it took Evelyn so long to get to us.

Driving through the night with my two best friends (even if one was nearly catatonic) reminded me of the old days, before responsibilities took over our lives. Whenever either of us passed our driving test, we'd take the others out for late night drives, watching the drunk people in town stumbling about or heading out into the country to catch rare glimpses of meteor showers or the northern lights. We never did see them but the company was always so good that we didn't really mind.

This time though, the company wasn't as enthralling, with Joe almost passed out in the back seat. His frequent hiccups at least let us know that he was still alive.

"That's the second time this month he's ended up like this. What's going on?" Our driver asked.

"I think that this diet he's on is messing him up. He's not eating before he drinks", I replied.

"That's not a diet, that's starvation. Or . . . early anorexia. Why didn't you call me earlier? I could have got you before he ended up like this," She asked, jabbing a thumb towards her comatose passenger.

"It wasn't all bad. There was like Italian football or something on TV so I could at least watch that. Pretty good game. They had some seriously shitty rain over there," I mused loudly, probably giving away that Joe wasn't the only one who'd drank more than they should have. "If you had come out like we asked then I would've had someone else to talk to."

"Yes but then you wouldn't have this chariot to take you home. Besides, I keep telling you, I don't drink on weeknights! You're lucky I even came to get you anyway. Most people would just have left you to get lifted," She countered.

"You'll never learn. If you don't want to give people a lift, just say you've been drinking. No excuses needed."

"Well lucky for you, I'm actually a pretty good friend."

We arrived at Joe's and after a bit of a struggle, we got him into his house and onto his couch. After locking his door and posting his keys through the letterbox, I offered to just get a taxi from there, seeing as Evie would have to drive past her own flat to get to mine, but once again she proved to be a top friend by taking me anyway.

"Besides," She said, "I know exactly what you want."

*

A few minutes later, we were sitting in the McDonalds car park eating our midnight snacks.

Aberdeen doesn't have much going for it, but a twenty-four-seven McDonalds is definitely a positive.

As the old school emo music blared through her speakers, I felt myself once again being transported back in time. That is until she brought me crashing back down to earth with a reality check.

"Should you really have been out tonight? Don't you have that meeting tomorrow?"

"Ugh. Don't remind me. We've got a new HR guy and I really just can't be arsed. It's mandatory though so everyone has to do it. Are you working tomorrow?"

"Yes, which is exactly why I shouldn't be eating McDonalds with you at midnight, but what can I say? You're a bad influence."

"This was your idea!" I laughed.She was right though. Ever since we'd been at school, Evie had always been the sensible one of our group. She was probably the single biggest reason that Joe and I weren't dead or in jail for doing something stupid. Nothing bad, just stupid.

We'd all grown up in the same street and had remained friends ever since we all first met at the park round the corner. We were the only three people who didn't have any friends so it made sense to group together. I guarantee you that's how at least one nation was formed.

Now though, we all live in different areas of town and don't see each other as often. When you used to think of adult life, this isn't usually what was top of the list.

After finishing our junk food and getting back onto the road, we finally arrived at outside my flat.

"Thanks, Evie. You're the best. I hope I'm not too hungover to remember that in the morning."

"If it's anything like the last eight hangovers you've had, then it's unlikely. Don't worry though, I know it," She smiled again. I think she secretly likes being the only sober one around.

I said goodnight to her and agreed to have dinner with her tomorrow. I got out of the car more gracefully than Joe had managed and was almost at my door when she called my name again.

"Hey Mike!"

"Yeah?"

"Good luck with the meeting tomorrow!"

"Thanks!" I called back, rolling my eyes. Why was she so obsessed with this meeting? It's not like it was a big deal or anything.

*

"This meeting is a huge, huge, deal."

As hungover as I'd expected, I strolled into the office first thing for my meeting with a nerdy looking man who introduced himself as Jerry. Jerry had flame red hair, Harry Potter glasses and skin so pale that it looked like he was the one who was hungover.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because . . . it is," Jerry responded. "Listen, Mr Ashford, I'm here just to let you know that I take my job very seriously. Way more seriously than the last guy you had here."

"George was alright," I argued.

"Yes but now he's in prison for embezzling thousands from the company."I shrugged instead of continuing my case.

"Not that that makes him a bad person or anything. I'm just saying," Jerry stuttered.

"O. . . k . . ."

"Anyway, I just want to let everyone know that I won't let anyone away with anything. Regulations are super tight these days and we can't be seen as anything other than top of the range. This is why I've told the bosses about some changes that need to be made."

"What sort of changes?" I asked, suddenly squirming in my seat. I'm not going to lie and say that I give my job one-hundred-per-cent but I'm not that bad. I work for a vehicle hire company, how motivated can you really be?

"Well for starters I've told them that they need to hire more female staff. There are only the two girls at reception and it can be of-putting for any potential female clients."

"I have never seen a female come in to hire a van," I pointed out.

"But they might!" He argued back. "I'm not saying that men can't do the job for women. It's just . . . the regulations."

"Right," I nodded, pretending to follow. Honestly, the quicker I could get away from Jerry the weirdo, the better."And so I'll also need to go over the sexual harassment rules with you."

"Jesus Christ."

"Ok rule one: don't do it. Not that I'm saying you would!" He quickly added in. "We can't discriminate against people like that right? Because of the -"

"Regulations," I guessed.

"Exactly".There was an uncomfortable silence before Jerry began again."You never know, whoever they hire might not be hot anyway. Not that that matters," He continued his pattern of one regular paced sentence followed by one that went a hundred miles an hour and was almost impossible to hear. "We can't judge people on their looks, even in harassment. You know the-"

"Regulations," I swear I was being brainwashed.

"Michael. . . I think we are going to be great friends here," He smiled creepily.

"Hehehehehe god I hope not," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Regulations!" I cried, offering him a high five which he accepted way too fast before crying "Regulations" back at me.

I couldn't help but think that my life was hell and that the only consolation was that Joe's day just had to be worse than mine.

*

"My day was great!" He told us over dinner.

Wrong again, I guess.

We'd come to the Union Square shopping centre because it's central for the three of us after work, and has plenty of places to eat. Though we all still take issue with having to pay to park there.

Aberdeen was once known as the oil capital of Europe, and to some people it still is. However, the oil industry took a massive hit a few years ago and hundreds lost their jobs, including Evie. It still seems though that the rest of the city isn't aware and still assumes that everyone is rich with oil money when in reality we had all just paid for overpriced chicken that we really should have stayed at home to eat.

"Why was it so good?" I asked.

"A dog came into work today!" Joe squealed like a little girl.

Sorry Jerry, like a little kid.

"That does sound wonderful," Evelyn conceded, and I agreed. I'd already told them about my nightmarish morning with Jerry.

"I thought you'd be way too hungover to enjoy anything," I commented.

"I wasn't that bad!"

"You needed me to undo your seatbelt when we got to yours. You almost hung yourself trying to get out of the car!" I laughed.

"I don't remember that. That's embarrassing. No wonder Angela was pissed off this morning," Joe seemed to now be changing his story. It didn't surprise me in the least that his wife was raging. Getting so drunk that you almost fall asleep in the pub on a Tuesday night is pretty bad.

"I'm just glad you didn't spew in my car," Evie said, ignoring the fact that we were all still eating. "If you did then I would probably hang you for real."

"Alright executioner, chill out!" Joe cried, sounding legitimately scared. They do say you need to watch the quiet ones.

"What about you Evelyn, anything going on with you?" I asked, taking another huge bite of my meal.

"Absolutely nothing new. Although I had that plumber on the phone again today, angry as usual".

Although she'd lost her job in the oil crash, she'd quickly picked up another one managing the accounts for a local building company. For weeks now she'd been dealing with a plumber wanting paid even though he hadn't actually done anything yet. It didn't make any sense to me but that shouldn't surprise anyone.

"What for this time?" I asked.

"Same as usual. Why is no one paying him? Why is no one from the site calling him? Why have the gods forsaken us?" She said, waving her arms for every quote from her nemesis. Though I'm not sure he really said the last one somehow.

As ridiculous as our conversations are at times, they are never dull. It constantly reminds me that even when we grow up, we all remain young at heart. And this has been the case for us for many, many years now, even in the most serious of situations . . .

________________________________________________________________________________________

Woohoo new story!

So as usual I'd love any and all of your thoughts!

We've only briefly met three of our four main characters but I promise everyone is going to get their chance to shine soon!

The one other thing you've probably noticed is that for the first time ever I'm setting a story in my hometown. Now, the reason I've never done this before is because I know I'd want to do it how we properly talk etc, which many people might not understand. I don't think there's too much of that in this chapter but if at any point there's something you don't know what it means, just ask and I'll explain!

As always, any votes and comments are always enjoyed by me and I always try to reply!

Thanks guys!