College 25
By Corbin
How life tests the endurance, patience, and sometimes faith of one young woman.

**********

The whole situation was really messing with Dale's head, or as he would explain it: 
'My ex-Girlfriend is now dating her best friend, another girl.'

**********

So it's a Saturday night and I am pacing the apartment again, Nikki has to work 
tonight, she works part time as a waitress at this really nice Restaurant. I had 
plenty of friends asking me to go out but didn't feel like company and I already re-
studied all my class material until I can babble it in my sleep backwards.

So on a whim I decided to hoof it down to one of the bars on Campus because I needed 
to get the hell out of this apartment! And what the hell the bar was literally a 
block away! I should just sit at home and chill out to some music...but I had a 
million thoughts swirling around my brain as I strolled down the sidewalk. 
 
"Hey tubby" I say to the bouncer at the door, no I'm not being a smart-ass, his 
nickname was TUBBY because he was a bit of a lard ass, and that WAS his nickname. 
 
"Good to see you, how are you doing Corbin?" He asked.
 
"Okay." I sigh.
 
"Three bucks." He says.
 
"Three bucks? Cover tonight?" I pause in shock. I don't like paying cover to get 
into any place. "What's up with that? Am I not showing enough cleavage tonight?" I 
smirk and wave my hands out to the side.
 
Tubby just laughs out loud "There's a band tonight, sorry." He groans.
 
"They should pay ME three bucks to listen to that fingernails-on-blackboard music." 
I mumble while fishing into my pockets. He normally would give me a pass, letting me 
in for free, but Management was cracking down on the freebies. So he takes my three 
bucks stamps my hand and I walk in. Yipee!
 
"Oh sorry about you and Dale." He says which causes me to smile a little and then 
asks "Hey are you and Nikki really an item?" 

Now that caused me to freeze and give a sharp look over my shoulder, not sure how to 
respond or react, I guess hearing people openly talk about Nikki and I dating will 
take some getting used to.

"Yeah we are dating." I nod.

"Good Lord!" His eyes get wide as he leans back some and seems to catch himself 
getting ready to say something, maybe inappropriate, "Sorry I just mean, well, you 
and Nikki are such hot girls, it's that..." 

I can't help but smile and give him a slight wave of the hand "It's okay I know what 
you mean." and walk into the club. Oh how I know, there has been plenty of male 
salivating about Nikki and I dating.

I took about five steps and stop, standard protocol, I always do that...survey the 
scene and decide if I am going to leave or stay. So I'm standing there in my most 
fashionable attire: Old pair of really kick ass black boots, faded jeans that flare 
out slightly at the bottom, and a button down dark blue silk shirt, long sleeve 
cause it was chilly that night. Funny but I get the most compliments when I'm in my 
jeans, which are nothing special, faded and a little form fitting but I've been told 
it's the way they tend to be a bit 'snug' around my butt. So yeah I bet they look 
good on me. But now I want to cry! Because Dale always used to say how beautiful I 
looked in these jeans, and would always compliment how great my ass looked in them. 
Nikki said the exact same thing when she first saw me in these!!! My god I am having 
a total emotional melt down suddenly!

Quickly I look down and blink my eyes, force myself not to cry, and take a deep 
breath before looking back around the room. 

(Now let me pause here and explain a few things about my state of mind, outside of 
Dale and Nikki. If people, guys and girls, had a problem with me I suppose it was 
somewhat justified, I was coming up on my Senior year and I could be full of my 
self. I could out weight-lift any girl (and a lot of guys), almost out run any girl 
(and a lot of guys) on campus (but some of those track girls are damn fast and the 
then there are the long distance runners). Add to that I can do gymnastics, be a 
terror on the soccer field, and used to date one of the best looking guys at School, 
and now was dating probably the best looking girl in School. The icing on the cake 
was that I was almost making straight A's! So basically I thought I was HOT stuff, 
and why not, it took me years of socially struggling to reach where I was while 
still maintaining my self-respect and dignity. So maybe I was a snotty, arrogant, 
know it all, jock with a chip on my shoulder! But now that I think about it, with 
all that going for me what the hell do they know! Screw them! I don't even care! ;) 
And I'm blonde so NAH! We have more fun because we are more fun!)
 
So where were we? Oh yeah, I'm scanning the bar and some guys are now scanning me, 
come on you goofs show some discretion! Plain as day I can see you elbowing each 
other and nodding in my direction. I do my little awkward shuffle of my feet and 
flip some of my hair over my right shoulder before stuffing my hands into my 
pockets. I see a few groups of friends waving me over to join them and I almost did, 
but what I caught sight of next caused my stomach to turn for there was Tiffany. 
(Don't remember her? Well you'll have to go back and brush up, she's had her sights 
set on Dale for years now, never mind the fact Dale and I were dating!)

To top things off 'Tiffany' was what my parents almost called me at birth, did I 
mention that? How ironic, so I'm looking across the room at my alter ego (In that 
Tiffany and I were such opposites.) My face pinched into an uncomfortable expression 
as I kind of block out the band, loud patrons, and cigarette smoke and try to come 
to terms with the thought that this loudmouth bitch is making big plans to swoop in 
and make Dale 'her man'. I want to puke! And punch her in the face!
 
Now I don't feel like staying and do about-face thinking 'I will go back to my 
apartment and just chill' wait for Nikki to come over when she gets off work.
 
"You okay?" Tubby asks as I reappear just a minute later.
 
"Yeah, too tired." I groan.

"Here!" He calls out and hands me back my three bucks "No sense, you didn't stay."

"Thanks Tubby." I sigh and try to give him a sweet smile but I know it comes out 
being sad. I slowly stroll down the sidewalk thinking about how to piece this all 
together. Maybe there is no piecing it together there is just letting things find 
there own fit and not to force things.
 
"Hey...HEY!..." 
 
I though I was hearing things "Hey...DUMMY!...YOU...BLONDE GIRL!" I hear the voice, 
"Corbin!" I hear another pipe up behind me.
 
"What?" I snap and abruptly stop, turning around and see three girl's close behind 
me. There's a parking lot off to my left, adjacent to the bar, so I edge a little 
over that way just incase things get 'interesting'. What? You people think I can't 
take on three girls at once! Ha! Well neither do I but let's find out!

"What's a matter honey? You look lost without Dale!" The girl in the middle with 
black hair says and the two other girls simply burst out laughing. Hmmm I recognize 
these clowns, sort of, they were in the bar hanging around Tiffany, she must have 
sent them on this little mission. Boy-oh-boy I wish Tiffany was out here in the 
parking lot!
 
"She might puke when she finds out Dale is going on a date with Tiffany next 
weekend." One of the other girl's pipes up with a nasty smile and looks back over at 
girl in the middle with black hair (I've seen that girl around, she seems to be the 
ring leader of this little group, and Tiffany's top lapdog.)

"What a load of crap that is!" I say and try to laugh it off. I don't believe it at 
all Dale would not do that! He better not be doing that! Need to verify when I get 
back home.

Diplomatically I put my hands into my pockets thinking maybe if I take up a 
nonthreatening posture the situation will maybe diffuse no matter how badly I want 
to punch these girl's in the face. I suppose to any passerby we look like four 
girl's having a nice little conversation...well, let's just see about that.
 
"Are you done?" I sigh.
 
"Hardly." The black hair says in the middle with a sneer while her two beanpole 
friends look on with grand approval of her comments. I can't quite figure out what 
this girl's agenda is? Do they just like to pick on people?  So I guess she's thinks 
that if she clobbers me in this parking lot, she'll have some bragging rights...that 
would really get in Tiffany's good graces. 

Really now this skeleton of a girl and her idiot friends are dressed to socialize, 
so ARE THEY really looking to fight? Maybe they think I'll back down and start 
crying or something. This is just too bizarre to figure out. 
 
"Okay" I sigh and I can feel my heart starting to flutter because I'm shifting into 
my aggressive mode, I hate making this transition, but once I make it I'm pretty 
comfortable. 

"How do you want to do this?"
 
"Do 'what' you idiot?" The black haired girl snaps.
 
"One at a time or are all of you jumping me at once?" I look her dead in the eye and 
then over at her two friends while I remove my hands from my pockets and start 
taking off a couple of the rings on my fingers, putting them neatly in my back 
pocket. I also notice that these social divas are really dolled up tonight, par for 
the course you know, they live for partying...clubbing...driving their BMW's and 
Mercedes around campus.
 
"You must be kidding you stupid bitch, you think you can take all three of us!" The 
girl nervously chuckles. 

"Maybe if you go inside and fetch Tiffany, it might work out in your favor, probably 
not, but you might as well get as much help as you can." I smile, I would love for 
Tiffany to come outside and scrap with that bitch.

"We don't need Tiffany's help you arrogant, blonde cunt!"

"What's your name? I don't remember." I ask ignoring her vulgar insult. I flex my 
fingers and roll my wrists around a few times.

"God you are retarded, we've only met several times at various parties, its Allison 
you dope!" Allison says and nervously looks to her left and right, her two supports 
offer up a forced laughs as I calmly ensure my pony tail is pulled back tight. (On a 
side observation, the band is really kicking ass from inside the bar, maybe I should 
have stayed, but the hard driving metal thundering music is just making my heart 
beat faster. Now I really want to clobber these morons.)

"Yeah, I remember you now, I don't like you, your ugly and so are your friends. Your 
about to get allot uglier in a minute." I say with a smile of satisfaction. Suddenly 
the other two are looking more to their ringleader for direction now because 
fighting is the last thing they expected tonight.
 
'I'm going to smack the girl on Allison's right (my left) with my left hand, no 
wait, make that my right hand, which will setup a kick Allison...the one in the 
middle...(got that folks? Go draw a picture if you got lost because I am not 
explaining it again)' That is my plan!

So I just kind of give the girl this disarming smile and raise my eyebrows like 
'Well let's see how you like this?' Some of you are thinking I'm going to punch her, 
but no, my bare knuckles crashing into her bony face would not feel good and I don't 
feel like damaging her nose, so I decide to throw caution to the wind and find out 
just how good this girl's reaction's are. My right hand comes around with this wide 
arching swing, I telegraphed it fairly well but the idiot is...well...just standing 
there! So here it comes, me cupping my hand to nicely fit around her high cheek 
bones, nice bone structure on this girl by the way, probably a model wanna-be, well 
that career is going to get side tracked for a few days.

WHOOSH....and CRACK! HOLY SHIT! On a scale of 1 to 10 that was a perfect 10...good 
form...and follow thru on my part.
 
Her other two friends scream as they watch her head nearly get knocked off her 
freaking shoulders, then the rest of her body corkscrew in a clockwise fashion 
before falling backwards. So this bitch hits the ground with a loud grunt and then 
begins squealing in horror or pain, but I'm not done yet! My body was twisted around 
to the left from delivering the slap, which sets me up for my next move....my left 
knee comes up and I now twist my hips to the right, shooting my leg forward, like a 
front kick, very basic, *POW* this catapults Allison backward, damn just about 
chopped the girl in half.
 
The third girl to my right is taking several steps back now, her hands covering her 
face as she trembles and going 'Oh my god...oh my god' (funny how people get all 
religious in moments like this) as she looks back and forth at her two fallen 
friends. Wait, you people didn't actually think I was going to like, wait for one of 
them to lash out first did you?
 
"Now, you!" I spat and point at the last girl standing who is back peddling toward 
the bar. Suddenly, something or someone has just grabbed me from behind! Wait a 
second is this a setup?!!! I don't remember a forth girl but wait this is no girl 
grabbing me, but a guy and he's kind of strong. But not tall, cause he's trying to 
crush me in a bear hug from behind. I guess all he wants to do is restrain me as I 
am obviously dismantling these three girls with little effort. 

"Chill out! Calm down!" The guys voice says from behind. But I'm not paying him any 
mind, 'Hey look at that there's his right foot and he's wearing sandals, so I lift 
my right leg and stomp down on his right foot with all of my might, not once but two 
or three times. He just found out that this blonde can squat allot of weight, hence 
strong legs, hence lots of downward thrust, actually his poor foot just found out.
 
I wish you all could have been there to here him yelp in pain. It worked, I'll be 
damned, his grip slackens a bit and I shoot my elbows out while dropping a few 
inches, thus breaking his hold completely, basic stuff here folks. All those 
techniques I used were basic stuff I remember from my grappling class.
 
"Fucking bitch!" He yells.
 
So now I'm out of his clutches and still crouched down low as I hop back, I was 
still taking classes with Nikki and had started to learn those fancy Thai Kicks too. 
Amazing how you retain stuff because now his left thigh was looking good, like a 
good target. So this guy is not expecting a girl to throw a low kick like that and I 
explode with a twist of my body slamming my lower shin into his thigh. Is he going 
down? Almost but he's stumbling and hopping around on his mangled foot. I look over 
my shoulder and the one girl left standing is helping her two friends up to their 
feet, they are all crying and seem more worried about their hair and clothes then me 
now.

"Damn it I was just trying to help!" The guy yells up at me as he leans over 
clutching his leg. 

"You getting a helping full of my fist for touching me!" I was in psycho-mode and 
about ready to throw another kick, then I was going to turn around and blast those 
three girls again when I hear my name being called again... 

"CORBIN!" I hear someone yell and look around...it's the bouncer Tubby, poor guy is 
huffing and doing his best to move his fat ass over to the parking lot to break 
things up. I actually look myself over to see if my nice shirt was 
messed up. When my brain re-engages with reality I quickly what a big mess this 
whole scene as developed into, half the bar is pouring out into the parking lot now 
and you have my friends yelling at Tiffany and her friends who are yelling back at 
me and my friends. No one knows what to do...that's what Campus Police are for...uh-
oh...who called them!
 
And who called a fucking Ambulance! Just great! And now the fucking local Cops are 
on the scene! I should have just ran home crying and made everyone happy like the 
three girls originally wanted!
 
Wait a second how come nobody is asking me what happened! Take twenty some girls and 
guys all talking at once, most everyone is pointing at me, three girls sobbing (Oh 
they are playing it up a little I think) and I'm just leaning against someone's car 
with my arms folded as I watch this officer walk over to me. I full expect to get 
charged with disturbing the peace or some offense, instigating a riot or something. 

Just my shitty luck! Can't a girl go for a walk down the street these days!
 
Thank god for Tubby, he's a friend with the cops and his word is gold. He goes on 
record as saying he watched those three girl's follow me out of the bar (true!) and 
started to harass me (true again), I was just defending myself (now he's fudging 
things a little). Well that started allot of wailing and screaming, 'FOUL!' Cried 
the girls.
 
By now my shirt is drenched in sweat and I'm shaking a little bit, but I am allowed 
to leave, the crowd disperses and I amazingly get out of there before anybody 
corners me with a barrage of questions. I spotted Tiffany in the crowd several times 
giving me the evil-i-hate-your-guts stare, which is usual for her.
 
Back at the apartment Sharon chewed my ass out, god I really got an earful from her. 
She's fairly protective of me and listening to one her lectures is painful because 
she goes on...and on...and on!
 
"IRRESPONSIBLE!"
"TROUBLEMAKER!" 
"COULD GET HURT!"
"MIGHT GET ARRESTED!"
"MAKE ME WORRY ALL THE TIME!"
 
See what I mean?

Nikki on the other hand rushed over to my apartment and hugged me, making sure I was 
not hurt. Very different from Sharon, Sharon treats me like a worried Parent would, 
but Nikki treats me like a lover. Don't get me wrong Nikki was very upset with me, 
but hers is a quiet, very intense type of disapproval that makes me break down and 
start crying in her arms.

Hey I'm just trying make it thru the day, can't I do it peacefully?!



  
25_College