So one of my jobs is tending bar in an arena. I mainly work on the suite level in an exclusive club, but due to the club’s location we’re often closed for concerts (you’d be looking backstage) so they place us in another part of the arena that is basically a series of open lounges. (Imagine an arena suite/luxury box but bigger and not closed in.)

The particular lounge I was assigned to tonight has been bought out by a major beer company, and the tickets are always just given away to reps, who then give them to friends, family, and clients. They get a basic food and beverage package. Chicken fingers, popcorn, chips, hot dogs, cookies, etc. and then soda, water, and a few different beers, all of which is complimentary. Due to the nature of this lounge, it always gets a weird hodgepodge of people. No one really knows anyone because they all just got the tickets for free from someone else. Sometimes it’s packed; sometimes virtually no one shows up.

I was having a relatively easy, laid back night tonight, getting to listen to a band I actually kinda like, and occasionally cracking beers for guests. Then I have these 2 young girls come in maybe halfway through the concert. They’re very nice and introduce themselves. One of the girls even kisses me on the cheeks all European style. They immediately put a $20 bill in my tip jar.

They ask what the deal is and I explain that we have free beer and soda. They seem like they maybe aren’t stoked that we just have beer, but it’s all we have so they ask for 2. Because they both look to be in their 20s, I ask for ID. Girl 1 reaches into her purse for ID while girl 2 says “I need an ID? I left it down in my seat!” This alone is kind of weird, because she has a ticket for the lounge. That is her seat. But it’s possible she maybe has a seat somewhere else in the arena, and someone also gave her a ticket to the lounge. I explain to her that because it’s an arena, we have a very strict ID policy, and anyone who appears to be under 40 needs to have ID. Girl 1 shows me her ID, and starts to reassure me that “no, no, it’s ok! Her husband owns such and such bar, and he wouldn’t let anyone in under 21.” Which was also kinda weird because, again, everyone in this lounge just got a free ticket. Even if the ticket belonged to her husband, he would have no control over who else was in the lounge, or whether or not everyone was of age.

I serve Girl 1 a beer while Girl 2 huffs about this a little more, continuing to try and tell me about her husband who owns a bar, as if that somehow proves her age, and how someone should have told her before she came all the way up here.

While they keep trying to protest another person comes over and orders a beer. I start pouring his beer, and I see Girl 1 reach into my ice bucket and start to pull out another beer. I stop her and tell her I have to serve the beer, that she can’t just take it, and I’m obviously skeptical because I just served her and now she no longer seems to have a beer in her hand. So of course, standing 3 feet away directly in front of me is Girl 2, holding the beer Girl 1 ordered.

I walk over to Girl 2, I take the beer away from her and say “I’m really sorry, but unless you show me your ID I just can’t let you have that!” She gets super pissy and yells “Well, we’re just going to take this $20 back then!”’and reaches into my tip jar and takes back the $20 they put in when they first came in. Girl 1, who I’m now starting to suspect is probably drunk also tries to reach into the tip jar, but I put my hand over the top and say “no, you already took back what you gave me.”

Before they stormed out I said to Girl 2 “I’m sorry, but it’s just not worth losing my job over.” She threw her hands up and angrily said “oh no, I get it!” And they were gone. Honestly, I still don’t know whether or not the last part was meant to be sarcastic.

Needless to say, they did not come back.