Things That Happen (standard:drama, 2444 words)
Author: Bobby Zaman	Added: Apr 26 2002	Views/Reads: 3517/2336	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A night of drinking, fighting, and romancing.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

through channels on the TV above the bar. 

“Lifeless.” 

He laughs and stops surfing and keeps it on Comedy Central with reruns
of Saturday Night Live, a John Belushi tribute or retrospective.  
Josh’s volume is rising, which means he’s at a point where he’s going 
around in circles with whatever he’s talking about.  Josh despises 
going around in circles. 

“I hate this.  I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” says Josh and
orders another round.  I’m barely through with the first drink, but 
accept a second.  Caitlin turns to me and catches me chugging my first. 


“It’s going to hit you hard,” she says. 

“I know.  I don’t care.  I’m going to drink tonight.” 

“We should get a bit to eat.  Have you eaten?” 

“No.” 

“Let’s see if they want to go.  I’m starving.” 

She turns to ask if Josh and Mandy want to go for Thai food.  Josh isn’t
quite ready to leave, and Caitlin isn’t one to break up a party, 
another quality that makes her a great girlfriend.  Even though bar 
food wasn’t the most attractive option Caitlin agrees to split a plate 
of pita bread and hummos with me, the only healthy selection on the 
menu.  I want nachos with extra meat. 

Josh walks over and puts an arm on my shoulder. 

“How’s life in the banking business,” he asks taking a pita bread and
swirling through the hummos. 

“Lifeless,” I answer. 

Two more rum and cokes later I’m starting to feel buzzed and relaxed. 
Sean has opened all the windows and a warm breeze is flowing in.  I 
have one hand on Caitlin’s thigh and she’s slowly moving a hand up and 
down my arm. 

It’s an irritatingly slow night for Sean, and he’s getting tired of
standing around.  But he’ll stick it through.  He’s got an 
ex-girlfriend who hasn’t, or rather chosen not to reckon with their 
eight-month old breakup, and shows up at his place at all hours.  She 
refused to relinquish her set of keys, and after a lot of haggling and 
begging, Sean convinced his landlord to change the locks to his 
apartment.  This made the woman, Andrea, angrier, now she shows up and 
stands by the main entrance with the look of a wife. 

“What’s so bad about the financial world,” Josh asks. 

“Everything.” 

Caitlin knows I hate my job, and tries to support me as much as she can.
 But if I quit, we’ll have a hard time.  The compromise: we both have 
jobs that make the guillotine seem like a carriage ride along Michigan 
Avenue.  And lately my boss has been pushing all my buttons at the same 
time.  That has a lot to do with the mess that happened minutes after 
we left the Goodbar.  That, and the fact that Caitlin’s ex showed up 
out of nowhere and gave her a hug and kissed her on the mouth. 

Josh is getting loud and Sean just cut him off.  This doesn’t make Josh
happy, but with a little help from Mandy he’s kept at bay.  We leave a 
good tip for Sean and walk out.  The air hits me and accelerates the 
effect of alcohol in my blood.  I downed six run and cokes, one after 
another, without a break.  Head’s reeling, but the stress is slowly 
receding. 

We start walking towards Lincoln Avenue with a proposed visit to the Red
Lion.  That’s when we see Caitlin’s ex and his ruffians at the 
intersection.  Luke, the ex, and also a frat-boy, in my book two major 
strikes against him, the third being that he actually saw her naked, 
but that’s ideally none of my business, sees Caitlin and his face 
lights up.  He yells out her name.  Caitlin curses under her breath and 
takes my hand.  It’s too late to duck out, they’ve seen us already.  
Josh and Mandy are a few steps behind us. 

“Hey gorgeous,” Luke says to Caitlin, keeping his eyes on me. 

“Hi Luke,” Caitlin replies, in a low, sterile tone. 

“It’s good to see you.” 

Caitlin says nothing.  She tugs at my arm and we start moving again. 

“Wait a minute,” Luke stops us.  “I haven’t seen you in ages.  How’ve
you been?” 

“Good.  We’re in a hurry.” 

“Hold on a sec.  What the hell’s the hurry?” 

Luke’s two thick-necked, ruffian buddies have goofy grins on their
faces, and eyeing Caitlin as if they wished it was a frat party and 
they had her drugged and naked in a room. 

Caitlin fixes an icy gaze on Luke.  Josh and Mandy catch up with us. 

“What’s going on? I thought we were going somewhere,” says Josh. 

“I said it’s good to see you,” Luke insists and inches near Caitlin. 
I’m on guard and so are his buddies.  Caitlin’s good at defending 
herself. 

Luke puts his arms around her and gives her a hug.  Caitlin reciprocates
with just one arm, the other still holding onto mine.  Hugs are 
harmless, but he was disrespectfully holding us up after being told we 
were in a hurry. 

“You look really good,” he says.  Josh and Mandy are standing still,
arms around each other’s waists and watching.  Luke catches Caitlin by 
surprise and plants a kiss on her lips.  Not just a peck, he stays 
there, gripping her jaw, as she struggles to break free.  His buddies 
start catcalling.  I lose control and bring my fist down on the side of 
his face with every fiber of strength in my body. 

The next moments are like a virtual reality ride.  Pain showers in all
from all sides, fists like rocks thump against my face, chest, stomach, 
back, legs give out and the pavement hits me like a wrecking ball, 
yells and cries, curses, flashing blue lights, and blue people rip the 
fight apart. 

We have a few things going for us, namely the testimony of two women
that says the fight was instigated by the other party.  Luke’s 
thick-necked buddies have sheepish looks on their faces, and Luke is 
panting and snarling, and being held back by a female cop less than 
half his size.  The other blue boys ask me questions, and I admit that 
I threw the first punch, and tell them because Luke attacked my 
girlfriend.  Caitlin throws a quick glance at me, and for a moment I 
think the cop will bust me thinking it’s a made-up excuse. 

“Is that right Miss?” the cop asks Caitlin. 

I suddenly feel strong, my buzz is gone, and two other blues are
questioning Josh and Mandy.  I look at Caitlin and say nothing, leaving 
it to her judgment to say what she wants.  Luke is on the other end 
also with a gaze fixed on her. 

“It was a stupid bet that got out of hand,” Caitlin finally says. 

“Bet?” the cop says and raises an eyebrow. 

I want to hear this just as much. 

“Yes, a stupid, childish bet that got out of hand.  We all know each
other and these guys were just horsing around all night, and it got out 
of hand.” 

“Did this gentleman start the fight?” the cop asks pointing to me. 
Caitlin looks at me helplessly. 

“Go ahead.  Tell him,” I say. 

“Hold on a minute,” the cop shuts me up. 

“They were being stupid and things got out of hand,” Caitlin repeats
with a bullish gangster, not-gonna-be-a-rat tone.  The cop waves a hand 
at the blues holding back Luke and they bring him over. 

With all of us gathered he says, “What’ll it be.  Is everyone gonna
agree on one story or do we have to go to the station? ‘Cause frankly, 
I’m not in the mood for this tonight.” 

And neither am I. 

“I hit him first,” I say, “Because he kissed my girlfriend.” 

Some seconds pass in silence, and the blues exchange glances with each
other.  They burst out in laughter, all at the same time.  Two females, 
two males, snorting and braying like donkeys, their chests heave and 
throats gurgle, smoker’s lungs pant for breath, and they go on 
laughing. 

Twenty minutes later, we’ve just made a narrow escape from arrest.  Luke
and the thick-necks went on their way without further ado.  Mandy 
pushed Josh into a cab and went home.  Caitlin and I are at IHOP on 
Broadway and Grace, and she’s slowly picking at her harvest grain and 
nut pancakes.  I’m on my fourth cup of coffee. 

“He kissed you.  What the hell you want me to do?” I say. 

“I’ve never seen you like that, and it scares me.” 

“Yeah, well, look at my lip.  I took a couple myself.  And I’m going to
be in a lot of pain tomorrow.” 

“You understand where I’m coming from? I was scared to see you like
that.  It frightened me.” 

“And what was this bet that you were talking about? We had no bet.  He
kissed you and you were struggling to get him off.” 

Caitlin looks at me resentfully.  “I’m not a helpless little child.” 

“I made no bets with that jerk, and you know it.” 

“Rob, I’ve seen hundreds of these fights.  What do you want me to say? A
bunch of guys get into a fight.  Blame it on a bet, any bet, I don’t 
care.” 

“Stupid, ungrounded excuse, if you ask me.  All you had to tell them was
that he attacked you.” 

“He didn’t.” 

She has a tendency of defending him and badmouthing him in the same
breath, and it gets on my nerves. 

“He’s just like that,” she says. 

They were together for two years. 

“I guess you know a lot more about the frat life than me.  No question
about.” 

I want to drive the knife in and make her feel bad, knowing very well
that eventually it’ll backfire on me. 

“You’re the child, not me,” says Caitlin and pushes the pancakes away. 

“I can’t believe you’re taking his side.  Why’d you break up with him in
the first place?” 

Caitlin stands, throws down a twenty on the table and walks out.  I dig
out and drop a ten and follow her out.  Our bill couldn’t have been 
more than six or seven dollars. 

Before I can get to her she slides into a cab and is gone. 

I wait for the break lights to come on at the next light and for Caitlin
to step out and come back.  The light changes and the cab keeps going.  
I walk home, struggle and open a jammed window, and pass out.  I’ll 
realize later in the morning that I don’t recall the walk home from 
IHOP. 

It’s seven a.m. 

My back hurts from the fall.  My lower lip is swollen.  A hot shower
will feel good.  Then I have to call Caitlin and make sure we’re still 
together. 

It’s only seven. 

It’s going to be a long day. 


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