He was baked. It wasn’t surprising at a party like this. Spicy chips, hard liquor, and a variety of things to smoke were the entertainment as the men made jokes that were only funny when wasted and the girls talked about all the married men they’d slept with.

I wondered if any of the parties Jesus went to were like this.

“You smoke weed?” the guy asked, staring at me blankly.

I shook my head. “Nope,”

He looked down at his shoes, nodded, then looked to me again. “You smoke weed?”

Yep. Baked. “Nope,” I said again.

“But you drink right?”

“Nope,”

“You were smoking the hookah though, yeah?”

“Nope,”

“You don’t drink?”

“Not even caffeine.”

He looked genuinely confused. “Are you Mormon?”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“What do you do then?” he asked.

There was one thing I did that everyone loved, and always made a lasting impression. The common denominator that could bring anyone together.

“I play video games.” I said.

His bloodshot eyes lit up with childlike wonder. And this time, not from weed.