Hunter’s Stories

“Adventures with Hunter” by Luigi Ambrosi

Hunter was one of my first and oldest friends in the world. In fact, I have a picture from my 1st birthday, in Mustique, with Hunter. And from the day on which that picture was taken, Hunter and I went on to craft some of the most amazing memories I have. We grew closer while having fun together.

Having a lot of stories to tell from our Mustique days, I was a little bit undecided, and so I made the choice of sharing a story from a place where Hunter and I didn’t get to spend as much time together as I would have wished for… Washington DC.

When I was 17, I embarked with my family on a US college tour and made it a point to spend time with the friends I had in each city we visited.

Hunter has always been my main cultural reference when I imagined how Americans and their lifestyle would be - having heard so many stories from his life back home. I was so excited to see him there.

I met up with him at “Dolley”, the Watson Home in Virginia, better known as US HQ of Fun. I remember he was in trouble during those days because he had hosted a party that got a little bit out of hand. Nevertheless, we were both so happy that Judy and Jerry granted him a ‘free pass’ since I was in town.

I was enchanted as he brought me down to the infamous basement. Seeing the then empty stage of Blackout Band actually made me feel so nostalgic. I remember I used to tell Hunter I was going to be his manager.

At some point, I told Hunter I wanted to live a real ‘American night’, at which he told me: “I got you, bro!”. We headed over to the mall, where we met with Liam and settled on a Mexican restaurant. Hunter explained that after we would go to an iParty… Showed me the event on Facebook, and it actually looked like fun. I told him that we might have a problem because I didn’t have a ‘fake ID,’ at which he replied: “Don’t worry. They will ask for your ID… Only to make sure you are under 18! Because that’s the rule of the party”.

It turns out that he was himself one of the organizers of this event and that the whole concept behind it was that it would be a safe and fun environment in which under-18-year-olds could party and feel as if they were in a club.

I was amazed and also remembered thinking, “Damn. How cool is Hunter!” and how lucky I was to have a friend like him.

At the end of the dinner, we asked the waiter for Tequila shots, which he refused to bring. Wrong people to challenge, though. After some strategizing, we proceeded to ask a 20-something looking guy to help us out and order two shots for each of us, and we gave him the cash. The moment the bartender poured them, we ran to the bar, snatched them, downed them, and ran out - a smooth operation. We ran all the way to the rooftop of Tysons Mall, as Hunter wanted to show me the DC ‘Skyline’ of where I would potentially end up living.

Truly a magical moment.

After that, it was time to hit the iParty. Once inside, I was overwhelmed by the number of people jumping onto Hunter and hugging him, dragging him away, cracking jokes... I was struggling to keep up with the names of everyone. We were walking around the party as if we owned the place - Hunter was king. We even managed to drink some booze from people who sneaked it in.

I had such a fun time, with my ‘bro’ Hunter and Liam, at my first ever American party. I remember his Dad came to pick us up, and we were laughing so much in the car, trying to hide that we were tipsy and awkwardly answering his Dad’s questions about the night.

I will always remember that night. Not only as a great night with a close friend, not just as one of my first American experiences, but also as the night I decided that DC is where I would go to College.

So for that, I can only say THANK YOU, HUNTER. I miss him. And I wonder how many great nights we would be having now. And I hope that from up in the sky, he’s living vicariously through me from time to time. It would bring me great honor.

- Luigi Ambrosi