As I was walking up to the entrance of McMurry Hall on the first day of class, I saw a guy and a girl I'd seen around campus but didn't know. He had a grip on her arms, was shaking her and she was crying.
My dad was old school. To him, the female was the weaker sex, it was the male's job to look after them and that's the way I was brought up. I bought into it until I found out Beverly Abbeg could throw a ball farther than I could, Nancy Wilde could run faster than I could and Nancy Neubert could hit a ball better than I could. I could hit the ball farther, but I guess her batting average would be closer to 3.75 while I'd guess mine would be around 2.90, so by the time I started high school, the "Female is the weaker sex" was history, but the "Protect women" was still there.
I walked up to the pair and said, "Get your hands off her!"
"Butt out, asshole; this ain't none of your business."
"I'm making it my business. Take your hands off her!"
"Or what?"
"I'm going to punch you in the mouth."
"Oh yeah? We'll just see about that." He let go of her, but before he could turn and face me, the girl stepped forward and kneed him in the nuts. He bent forward, his hands went to his crotch, the girl swung her book bag at his head and down he went. She kicked him in the balls, said "Fuck you asshole!" and hurried into the building.
"Weaker sex?" I thought as I followed her in.
*****
The girl never turned to look at me, and it wasn't until roll was called in Introduction to Production Management at two that afternoon that I learned her name was Barbara Beeler. I'd already learned that the guy's name was David Short when the roll was called in Creative Writing 1.
The next day in the school cafeteria, Short came up to the table where I was sitting and said, "Just letting you know you and me got some unfinished business and I ain't forgetting it."
I stood up and said, "Let's go."
"Here? Don't be crazy!"
"Not crazy, just like to get things over with. We can be out the front door in two minutes and in the parking lot in three. Come on; let's go."
"You're nuts," he said and walked away. I shrugged and sat down.
Two minutes later, Miss Beeler came over to the table, sat down and asked, "What did Dave want?"
"He thinks we have some unfinished business from yesterday. I guess my butting in upset him."
"Why did you butt in? You don't even know me. I hope it wasn't because you were trying to make points with me, because I already have a boyfriend."
"How nice for you. As to why I stuck my nose in? I don't like to see guys abusing girls. Now if you will excuse me, I have a class to get to." I got up and walked away from her. Probably rude of me, but I didn't care for her snippy attitude and tone of voice when she told me she hoped I wasn't trying to make points with her. Too bad. She was a looker and I wouldn't have minded getting something going with her.
Short was waiting for me when school let out.
"Okay, smart mouth," he said, "So you were going to punch me in the..." I punched him in the mouth. It caught him by surprise. I guess he thought you had to have a conversation before getting down to it, but to me, if you were going to fight, just do it. As I said, it caught him by surprise and I got two more good licks in, which dropped him to his knees. I stood over him, fists cocked and locked, and waited for him to get up.
He looked up at me and said, "You sucker punched me."
"No, I didn't. You were out here waiting for me expecting to beat me up. Just because I didn't wait for you to getting around to throwing the first punch doesn't make what I did a sucker punch. You going to get up so we can finish this?"
He stood up and I stood there waiting for him to throw a punch, but he hesitated and I think I knew what was going on. He was a bully and he wasn't used to being stood up to. He was bigger than I was, about three inches taller and thirty pounds heavier, and I guess he expected me to run away from him crying. Maybe other guys my size would have, but I wasn't like other guys my size.
At five foot seven, I was about four inches shorter than other guys my age. My dad was only five foot six and he knew from experience there were bigger kids who liked picking on kids smaller than them, so he taught me how to handle myself. Short wasn't the first to find out that I didn't take shit from guys bigger than me, and he probably wouldn't be the last. Some of them might put me down, but I'd go down fighting.
I guess Short didn't like what he was seeing and he said, "Fuck you," and turned and walked away. With my attention now off Short, I noticed we had drawn a crowd. I heard a girl say, "About time someone put that asshole down," and another say, "Amen to that." I surmised that Short wasn't all that popular as I bent to pick up my books from where I had dropped them.
When I stood up, a cute dark-haired girl said, "I'll let you carry my books if you'll walk me home."
"Oh no you don't," said another voice, "He belongs to me." I turned and found Barbara Beeler standing there.
The smart ass in me came out and I said, "Why, Miss Beeler; I didn't think you cared."
"That's because you are male and therefore clueless." She took my hand and said, "Let's go, sweetie."
Well, she was right about one thing: I was clueless as to what was going on. I mean she HAD already informed me she had a boyfriend.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"You are walking me home from school."
"Just curious, but what happened to the boyfriend you had just three hours ago?"
"I decided to move up in class."
"Please; you already know that I am clueless so you have to fill me in, otherwise I will remain clueless and I just can't see you wanting a clueless boyfriend."
"You are my boyfriend now?"
"Just going by what you said. Your 'He belongs to me,' was loud and clear."
"As to what happened to my ex-boyfriend? You witnessed our breakup. My knee to his privates and my book bag to his head pretty much let him know we were done."
"But you told me you had a boyfriend in the cafeteria this morning, and that was after your little set-to."
"I said that because I didn't want you thinking you could move in on me just because you came to my aid. Because of Dave and the way things went with him and some of my previous experiences with guys, I was down on guys in general. As the day went on, I changed my mind. I decided that the White Knight who came to my rescue deserved a closer look.
"Once I made that decision, I started looking for you. By the time I found you, you and Dave were facing off. When Glenda made her play for you, I decided that I wasn't going to let her beat me to you and I made my claim. So what we need to do now is find a place to sit down over coffee or something and get to know each other."
"The only problem with that is that I need to get to work. I've enough time to run you home if you don't live too far away, and I get off at seven so we could get together then."
"Actually, I live here in the dorms so it is only a short walk for me. How about we meet at Harry's Shake Shack at seven-fifteen?"
"Sounds like a plan."
She headed off to the dorms and I headed for student parking to get my truck and then head to work.
"You're late," my father said as I entered the office."
"Your fault."
"How is it my fault?"
"You are the one who pounded the 'take care of the weaker sex' into me." And then I told him how my day had gone where Short was concerned."
"You did good, Bobby; I guess I can let you slide this time," he said with a smile.
Work went quickly and when I got to Harry's, Barbara was already there sitting in a corner booth with two guys. I walked by the both and sat down at a table. I'd no sooner put my butt down on the seat than Marge was there to take my order.
"What'll you have, Bobby?"
"You know what I want, Marge."
"Sorry, Bobby, but I'm nowhere near ready to drop Sam."
"I guess I'll settle for a burger, well done, fries and a strawberry milkshake, but I'll be waiting when you finally do drop Sam."
"You're in for a long wait, Bobby, but I'll keep you in mind."
She turned and left and Barbara got up from the booth and came over and joined me. She sat down and asked:
"Why didn't you join us in the booth?"
"Didn't want to intrude."
"I'm here to meet you, so all you had to do was join us."
"I do not know you, Miss Beeler, nor about the crowd you run with. You have already witnessed how I react to people who get in my face. What I didn't need was to try and join you and have one of those guys tell me to butt out. My response would probably have Harry barring me from the place and since I'm addicted to his strawberry milkshakes, I cannot allow that to happen."
"I can't help it when people who know me see me and want to join me. I told them I was waiting for someone and they told me they would keep me company until you got here. I'm sorry; I didn't think of how you might look at it."
"Not a problem. Since we made this date to get to know each other, tell me about yourself."
"Well, you know my name. I'm a twenty-year-old junior with an Interior Design major. I'm from Ypsilanti, Michigan, a place you have probably never heard of. My favorite color is blue. I like most music except for rap. My favorite food is a five-cheese macaroni my mother makes. I like football, baseball, am so so on basketball, I think hockey is stupid and soccer is just plain boring. I love to dance and I never kiss on the first date. What's your story?"
"Nothing at all exciting. I'm a twenty-year-old junior with a Business Management major and I'm from right here. I work in the family business. I don't know as I have a favorite color, but I can't say I dislike any in particular. My taste in music runs from classical to rock and roll. I don't care at all for rap and most acid rock, and heavy metal leaves me cold. My absolute favorite is bluegrass, and I have always wished I could play the banjo.
"I have heard of Ypsilanti. I almost went to school there. I had a baseball scholarship to Eastern Michigan, but my dad talked me into staying here and working in the family business. He wants me ready to take over if anything happens to him. My favorite food is whatever I'm eating at the time. Favorite sport is baseball followed closely by football. I don't care much for the rest of them and I will always kiss a girl when she lets me."
"I need to ask this. Got a girlfriend?"
"Not any more. Had one, but she wanted to keep me on the hook while she dated other guys. Said going steady was too high schoolish. It wasn't acceptable to me, so we parted ways."
"You don't sound all that happy about it."
"I'm not. We were together for five years and both mothers were in wedding planning mode."
"If she wanted to come back, would you let her?"
"No. She's burned too many bridges for that to happen."
"So where are we going on our first date?"
"You free Friday?"
"I have to wait that long?"
"It's only three days. I can't do it any sooner because of my work hours and the need to study, work on papers and stuff like that."
"What will we do?"
"You said you like to dance, so how about we go dancing?"
"I'd like that. Where?"
