I still look on the incident with disgust and pity.

Unfortunately, “Party Til You Puke” is a pretty common saying among those who like to have fun drinking, but this was one time that the phrase had been followed to the word — and too far beyond.

The party, which had been packed with people all night, finally slowed down at about 2:30 in the morning. It was a friend’s apartment, so I stuck around to help clean up.

I walked upstairs, stepping over and around beer glasses, bottles, cans and drunks to check out the bathroom.

A crowd of guys were standing outside the bathroom, laughing and poking their heads into the bathroom. One at a time, someone would disappear into the bathroom, then come scooting back out a minute later with a look of disgust on his face—then the entire group would burst out laughing.

As I joined my friends, Jack grabbed my arm and pulled me to the bathroom, giggling like a little kid and spilling his beer with each step.

“You gotta see this, it’s hysterical,” he said. “Joe and Tim are wasted. They’re lying in the stalls passed out.”

Joe and Tim are friends of ours. They had been pounding beers all night, competing with each other in a slam-contest. From the sounds of it, the contest had ended up as a tie.

“Really?” I asked. “Are they alright?” I was concerned because both of these guys could barely walk two hours ago, and word was going around that they had been puking on the steps outside not long after that. I couldn’t imagine their conditions now.

“Yeah,” Jack slurred, “but they are really messed up. It’s hilarious. Both of them have their pants down to their knees—they don’t know which end to stick in the pot.”

I didn’t reply. Instead I walked into the bathroom and kicked Jack and the kid who was peeking in the stalls out.

I knocked on the stalls, calling Joe and Tim’s names.

Joe moaned something incoherent and not a sound came from Tim’s stall. Scared, I pushed open the doors.

They were just as bad as Jack had described them. Both of them were lying on the floor half-naked with their heads hanging in the toilets. The sight and smell which confronted me made it disgustingly obvious that they had lost all control of their bodily functions.

I was disgusted. Not only was the sight pitiful, but also the fact that anyone could just watch these two in this state and not help them.

And then laugh.

Joe was able to help me out a little when I cleaned him up, dressed him, and carried him to the couch. I was on my own with Tim.

As soon as I started helping my friends, all of our other buddies vanished. It took about a half-hour, but I was finally able to get these guys on the couches in the living room. I have never seen anyone as out of it as these two. It was frightening. They mumbled, laughed and cried their appreciation the entire time I was there.

I really pitied these guys.

I pitied them not because of their condition (that was their own fault), but because they were both missing the one thing that they had really needed in their condition:

Friends. REAL friends.