Thomas' Love Trials

                Alyssa  had always been a goal orientated girl that had her priorities straight.  She had been born in the Dominican Republic but moved to America at a young age.  She would introduce herself as “Lisa” because she felt it was easier for Americans to say.  While most college girls set out to fill an inner void with the company of multiple men, Alyssa would often be in the library studying diligently for whatever midterm or final that would be on the horizon.  She was pre-med at New York University with a major in economics causing an extremely rigorous course load.  Despite all her hard work, however, Alyssa did know how to have fun.  She loved dancing her problems away at clubs and hanging out with her friends when the stress of school got too much for her.  Upon graduation, she, like most graduates, contemplated what to do with her life.  The one thing Alyssa knew for sure was that she never wanted to have to rely on a man to support her.  She wanted to be a successful businesswoman before she settled down with a man.  There were men in her life, and if the opportunity presented itself, she would allow herself to be in the company of a significant other, but her emphasis was always on independently bettering herself.

                Shortly after college, she had decided that medical school was not for her.  She embarked in a new direction feeling a load lifted off her shoulders as she was pursuing things that may better fit her nature.  She accepted a position at a computer software company which required meeting with clients to show them how to use her company’s system.  She took to the business world like a fish to water and climbed fast through the ranks with frequent promotions and praise from her superiors.  Still though, there was something missing with her life.  She tried other activities such as Yoga to fill this void, but it wasn’t enough, she needed more.  That’s when she decided that she would run a marathon for charity.  She enjoyed exercise but exercising for the sake of exercising wasn’t enough motivation to get her to the gym.  Now, she was training and exercising for a purpose.  Through running, she met many people, which she thought as a positive given that networking is one of the greatest skills to have in the real world.  It is while running that she met Thomas.

                Thomas was a year older than Alyssa and also had climbed through the ranks of Morgan Stanley quickly.  At 26, he was already a Vice President and had people working under him.  One night, he went out with people he met through running where he began talking to this girl, who introduced herself as “Alyssa.”  He liked this girl immensely, because although she seemed interested, she made him work for it.  She was also extremely smart and seemed to laugh with him.  When they took to dancing, Thomas knew he was being tested.  Luckily, he was good at dancing and knew he’d excel at this test as he did with many others.  By the end of the night, he had really taken a liking to the girl and she seemed to like him.  This is why when his friends were leaving the bar, he opted to stay with Alyssa. 

                Alyssa had gone out to a bar with people she met from running.  She found that she had taken a liking to this guy named Thomas.  Like many girls, this only made her play harder to get.  She was old-fashioned and believed the men should take the initiative.  It was very odd for her to be so impressed with a guy, but Thomas seemed to hold her attention.  He was funny, successful, smart, older than her, shared her love of music and a good dancer.  All aspects she considered musts in any man before she became remotely interested.  While they were talking, Thomas complained of his eye hurting.  Alyssa had seen this trick before.  She believed that he wanted her to lean in to look at his eye, giving him the opportunity to kiss her.  She wasn’t going to fall for that one.  If Thomas wanted to kiss her, he’d have to come to her.  Alyssa always looked for signs.  With Thomas, he lived in Bay Ridge, one of her closest male friends also lived in Bay Ridge, an area of Brooklyn, New York near the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island. To most people, this may seem coincidental, but Alyssa didn’t believe in coincidences, everything happened for a reason.  Prior to her friend moving there, she had never heard of Bay Ridge, now she had met a guy she liked from there.  She knew he meant business when his friends left and he opted to stay with her.  She had a couple more drinks with him and they made out profusely, giving Alyssa one more positive to add to the list; he was a good kisser.  When they finally left the bar much later than Alyssa had intended, they went their separate ways.  Despite how much he had impressed her, Alyssa would never bring a guy home on the first night. 

                Over the next couple of weeks, Thomas BlackBerry messaged (BBM) Alyssa frequently.  Their night together left him wanting to see her again.  When he was in the city, where Alyssa lived, he decided to send out a feeler to see what she was up to.  She scolded him being near her apartment but not hanging out with her.  Thomas saw this as a perfect opportunity to throw it right back at her and sent a message saying simply, “I’m here.”

                Alyssa got the hint, it was too soon to let him up in her apartment.  She was very cautious about these things so agreed to meet him in the lobby. She had work the next day, and it was already 11:00PM.  She figured she’d go out for a drink and then be back in about an hour. Their second night together proved that the first night wasn’t a fluke.  Even when Thomas tried his second trick of complaining of his shoulder hurting, Alyssa took the bait and massaged his shoulders.  She arrived back at her apartment at 3:00AM again alone, as Thomas would need to pass a few more tests before he got to see her apartment. 

                A couple days later, Alyssa had lunch with her close friend, Larry.  She was very vocal about Thomas and could see Larry analyze every statement she uttered.  He had always been very critical of the men she and his other female friends chose.  She always looked past this as just one more thing Larry and her disagreed about.  In fact, there were very few things they did agree on.  After putting forth what she thought to be a good case for Thomas being a good guy, she finally asked Larry’s opinion, even though it really didn’t matter much to her.  Larry simply told her that it all sounded good but she was obviously biased and wanted to meet him for himself.  Alyssa didn’t want this just yet.  The relationship was too young and didn’t want Larry’s vehement attacks.  She decided to see if she could assuage Larry’s doubts by telling him of the future tests she had in store for Thomas. 

                Larry was very excited any time he was hanging out with his friends.  He had never been someone to make the effort in friendships by calling them, which is why he lost many friends.  For a dork like him, he really couldn’t afford this.  This is why he put himself on a schedule with two of his closest friends, Alyssa and Vonnie, to contact them on the 15^th of every month to hang out.  He did this because Vonnie and Alyssa, although great at calling each other to hang out, didn’t call Larry either.   When they were together, they picked up right where they left off, their connection wouldn’t dissipate simply because there had been a large gap in between the last time they say one another.  He was very happy that Alyssa had found a guy that she was involved with.  Although Larry was against Alyssa’s opinions in their mutual friend’s significant others, she seemed to do pretty well when she picked on her own independent of anyone else.  Still though, he wanted to meet the guy for himself.  After all, he knew that women believed that they could see through men’s bullshit but time after time he realized that women are just as clueless about men as men are about women.  This is why Larry took her analysis of events with a grain of salt and focused on the facts trying to form his own conclusions.  Based on what he heard, he liked the guy.  Larry conveyed this to Alyssa.  She responded with how her sister’s fiancée had BBM’d him and that he was going to go into the very intimidating environment of meeting her sisters.  Although Larry was at first relieved that she did get a guy’s opinion on the matter, it was quickly quenched when he realized that this is her sister’s fiancée.  In that situation, he would be afraid to speak out against his fiancee’s sister’s guy she’s interested in because then you have to deal with the fiancée bitching you out.  Larry had very few romances in his life, but he had enough personal experience and viewing other relationships to know that men often times conceded to what their significant other’s wanted just to avoid an argument.  They constantly had to pick their battles well and warning her fiancee’s sister about a bad guy in the infancy of a relationship was not a fight that should be taken up.  He decided to stop assuming shit, and ask Alyssa the question he had been asking himself, “Why don’t you want me to meet him?”

                As soon as he asked the question he stared at Alyssa’s eyes.  He was a poker player and a psychology major and knew a little bit about eye movements to see if someone was telling the truth or lying.  He never really tried this outside of a poker table but figured the rules were the same.  First he went for the obvious tell tale sign that she was lying, when she passed that he went to the more subtle ways to determine it.  He did all this while focusing on the words and how they corresponded to her eye movements.  Alyssa denied it and then emphasized the fact that a meeting with her sister’s was very intimidating for a guy and she would see if he backed out or accepted the challenge.  She ended the speech with, “:And if he doesn’t come, then fuck him.”

                Larry snapped out of his analysis and had to address this point.  It was very rare that someone said something more extreme than his own views.  He tried to stay away from middle grounds as he never believed in grey areas, to him there was black and white and the commonly referred to “grey area” was just distractions from the truth.  So now, it was odd that he was the one alluding to contexts and situations.  He told Alyssa that it was possible that he legitimately couldn’t come out and not to make this a be all end all test.   He also remarked that if he were Thomas, he wouldn’t be intimidated in the slightest meeting her sisters. She seemed surprised by that statement but they focused most on the post-question response and joking about Alyssa’s harshness in her be all and end all test.  What Alyssa didn’t know, is that when she had gotten up from the table, Larry had taken her phone and gotten Thomas’s number.

                Thomas agreed to meet Alyssa and her sister’s at a bar.  Rather than feel pressure, he saw this as him making head way.  Alyssa was playing hard to get but he was getting more and more from her.  Meeting the family is a sure tell that the girl is more interested in you than a mere booty call.  He looked at her as more than that too so he relished this next step.  When he got there, her sisters had all kinds of questions for him.  Luckily, the topic of the questions was one he knew well; himself.  All three of her sister’s danced with him and he obliged.  He had already passed this test so a retest was fine.  One of her sister’s fiancée was also present, and he didn’t look Irish as he portrayed himself to be on the phone. He figured that he just made up an Irish last name to mess with him, given that Thomas was Irish.  Despite this harmless move, he found the guy to be very nice and accommodating.  The night ended and once again, Alyssa insisted that he not go up to her apartment and go home to Bay Ridge, which was a $40 cab ride.  He felt his performance went well and would be calling her in the near future for another rendezvous, working toward his ultimate goal of going to bed with her.  If he succeeded, he wouldn’t look at it as another name on his list, or a statistic, but because he genuinely liked this woman and wanted to take their relationship to the next level.  He appreciated and respected her playing hard to get, it only made him want her more.  He was willing to go through the trials.  He felt himself getting closer and closer to his goal. He went to sleep listening to music as he had every night thinking only of Alyssa.

                Thomas was surprised when the following day he had received a text message from an unknown number.  It said, “Hey, it’s Alyssa, I’m using my friend’s phone so you have it.  He lives in Bay Ridge too and wanted to meet you without any girl’s; a sort of guy’s night out.”

                He thought this was very weird.  He really had no desire to hang out with a guy he didn’t know.  Couldn’t she at least make the introduction first and then he could see if he wanted to hang out with this guy?  He contemplated what would happen if he said no.  Would that be a step back in his game?  Surely, not, I mean he could say no.  He responded back, not realizing that it wasn’t being sent to Alyssa’s phone, “Umm that’s kind of weird, why don’t you come to Bay Ridge and hang out with us?  I’ll pay for a car service back.”

                Larry received the text back from Thomas.  He had pretended to be Alyssa as he wrote the text, realizing it as a ridiculous request.  The correct answer was to refuse.  If he accepted this, then he was truly whipped by Alyssa.  Then again, Larry wouldn’t mind that too much.  It gave her all the control, he had no loyalty to Thomas and it would be entertaining to see Alyssa control him.  He had had this experience with other female friends and their boyfriends and it never ceased to entertain him.  It probably held a special place in his heart because he himself was prone to being whipped so realizing he wasn’t the only one made him happy. When he got the refusal back, he appreciated that Thomas came back assertively but not too dominating. He didn’t say he wouldn’t meet a male friend of hers, he just said he didn’t want to without Alyssa.  This showed he wasn’t intimidated by a male who is specifically looking out for her.  That was a good sign.  For some reason, Larry always looked at his female friends as younger sisters.  They were all younger, but the largest gap was five months, hardly any difference but to his objective mind, younger was younger.  He always justified this by saying that he never had a younger sister, only a younger brother and he always wanted one.  Although it didn’t make complete sense to him, it was the best explanation he could come up with.  Thomas was intriguing him but for now, he had to find a way to end this conversation without Thomas bringing it up to Alyssa.  He laughed out loud at his predicament.  He was never someone who made plans, he just did and if he got in trouble tried to get out of it.  He probably should have contemplated this problem before sending the text but what was done was done.  Even if he failed, Alyssa would yell at him and he would apologize and probably be forgiven.  Thomas would probably be very weirded out by him and it would give him even more ammunition to assuming Larry was gay.  Larry knew the stereotypes, when a guy has as many female friends as Larry, and very few guy friends, they were most likely gay.  He didn’t care what his female friend’s boyfriends thought about him.  If they believed him to be gay, then they weren’t threatened by him, and wouldn’t mind him being around or hanging out with his friend alone.  For some reason, guys always trusted their girlfriend’s with Larry, even if he wasn’t even friend’s with the guy.  At first, it annoyed him, but then he just got used to it.  He really didn’t see Thomas to be any different.  He decided to respond knowing that his text wasn’t fool proof that Thomas wouldn’t mention it to Alyssa.  He said, “Hey man, you responded to my phone, but yea, I agree that’s weird, I told Alyssa that, so whenever we can get the city girl to Brooklyn, we’ll all chill.”

                Thomas read the text kicking himself for not realizing he sent it to Larry.  It was really Alyssa’s fault because she didn’t use her phone to send the text.  He thought it weird that he called her a city girl.  Although Alyssa lived in the city, she was from upstate New York, just as he was.  In fact, they grew up fairly close to each other, but he decided to just end it with “K” and forget about it.

                After a while, Alyssa and Thomas had been going steady.  She decided that she was in the mood to cook and was finally ready to allow Thomas into her apartment.  She invited Larry along mostly because he was a very good eater, and she’d be cooking a lot.  The lesser reason was he wanted another guy in the apartment when Thomas first came and finally decided to get Larry’s opinion of him.  It wouldn’t carry as much weight as any one else’s whose opinion she asked for, but figured it couldn’t hurt.  She invited a few more friends and went out shopping for food to prepare. 

                Thomas was ecstatic that he was getting to the next step of seeing her apartment.  If he didn’t close the deal tonight, he at least was much closer.  His feelings for her had not diminished in the slightest.  He was very impressed with her and had all but forgotten about this male friend.  She had told him he was coming, which triggered the memory and thought nothing of it.  He had been completely honest, and planned on being himself.  The only thing he didn’t wrap his head around was if Larry truly was a plutonic friend.  Although women claimed they had many plutonic friends, men rarely did.  To men, what a woman called a plutonic friend, they called a woman they hadn’t fucked yet.  Either way, if Alyssa considered Larry to be a plutonic friend, he wasn’t much of a threat regardless of Larry’s feelings for her.  He decided he’d be ready for anything; either he treated this guy as an adversary if he showed any super-friendly feelings with Alyssa or as he would treat her brother if she had one.  He’d let Larry decide which way he’d go.  When he got there, he saw absolutely no threat in this guy despite his shaved head.  Larry was very opinioned and argumentative but not threatening.  He did have some questions but Thomas had no problem answering them.  He had been honest throughout his time with Alyssa, which made it kind of easy to be asked the same questions.  When it was the truth, you never had to remember the story and keep your facts straight.  He found out that day that Alyssa was a great cook, but he was just as impressed with how much this Larry could eat.  Just by looking at him, you wouldn’t think that he had such a large appetite.  The thing that was odd about Larry was that he spent most of the time arguing and making fun of Alyssa and her friend Vonnie.  Larry actually seemed to be on his side of most of their debates and it was men vs. women.  If this guy was supposed to intimidate him, he didn’t seem to be doing a good job. 

Larry took to meeting Thomas the way he took to meeting any guy his female friends were interested in.  He would insert his opinion in the conversation either agreeing with the party he felt was right or disagreeing with everyone.  The point, however, was he’d constantly be focusing on the guy.  It was easy to answer questions correctly when straight up asked.  You knew you were playing a game and your defenses were up.  If, however, you took the guy’s side against the women, then the defenses are lowered and if he’s putting on a front, it goes away.  There was never any conversation Larry has ever had that he didn’t look at as a game.  He was, however, a master at convincing the person he was playing with that he wasn’t playing a game.  So far, Thomas had been passing, he saw no inconsistencies with what Alyssa portrayed and the other male at dinner that day.  The night ended and Alyssa insisted that Larry and Thomas share a cab home.  Larry hated cabs, as he saw them as a waste of money so he opted to take the subway and invited Thomas along with him.  It was late at night and the N train would be running local.  From Times Square where they would be getting the train, there was a good hour and a half where it would just be Larry and Thomas.  Although they would both need to transfer to the R train eventually, at that hour, they were the same.  Normally the N train ran express and made it to 59^th Street in Brooklyn in six stops; with the local, it was too many to even bother counting.  Thomas said he’d take a cab and saw Larry as cheap.  It wasn’t worth $20 to Larry to take the cab, but he did want to talk to Thomas one on one.  He admitted that the local would be a pain in the ass and agreed to take the cab.  The conversation in the car was uneventful; they had been with each other for a while so there really wasn’t much to talk about.  As always, Larry contemplated to say the cliché big brother line of, “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

Despite how many times he thought to say this to a guy, he never brought himself to do it.  He always worried that his friend would be pissed off at him just as how girls were always pissed at their older brothers when they said it.  He reasoned that the girls did eventually forgive the older brothers, but was that just because of the blood tie?  He had never seen it in a situation that he had with his female friends.  Although he had many plutonic friends, he knew that almost all men didn’t.  This made it impossible for him to see someone else take the risk.  In the end, it always came to the same conclusion, saying it was too big a gamble because he’d be betting his friendship with Alyssa, which violated the only unbreakable rule of gambling; never bet what you can’t afford to lose.  He was dropped off first and said good bye.  He would give his blessing to Alyssa but once again, kicked himself for not saying it.  Just once he wanted to try it, but he began to believe he never would.

Alyssa was very happy that Larry gave his blessing and that she was able to have some leftovers.  She didn’t eat much but Thomas had and Larry lived up to his reputation once again.  As always, Larry was very outspoken about how good her cooking was.  She took the compliment with a grain of salt thinking that that was what everyone said when someone cooked for them.  She ignored the fact that Larry was brutally honest with everything else, so why would he make an exception here?  The reality was, she was a woman and women don’t take compliments to heart, only insults.  She also was paradoxically happy that Larry approved of Thomas.  The paradox was that since he approved, she was much happier about Thomas but had he not approved, she would have ignored his opinion and wrote it off as Larry pretending to be a big brother and feeling he needed to disapprove of any guy that his female friend’s chose.  She backed it up by pointing out Larry was against every single guy Vonnie had a relationship with.  She was running out of reasons not to let Thomas sleep with her.  She decided to go to Bay Ridge and see him in his natural habitat.  She wasn’t looking forward to the long subway ride there and car service just seemed too expensive, even though Thomas offered to pay.  She decided that she’d go to Larry’s and get changed there so that her nice clothes wouldn’t get dirty on the subway.  Really it was just an intermediary step between her and Thomas; she could get composed and get a guy’s opinion on what to wear.  Plus, she would have someone to walk her to the house because she didn’t want to walk alone.  For some reason, she was nervous.  She had been seeing Thomas for quite some time now and didn’t know why there were butterflies. She hadn’t yet decided whether she’d sleep with him at his place or hers.  Larry’s apartment acted as a worst case scenario.  It was easier to decide whether or not to sleep with him when it wasn’t just between sleeping with him or taking a lengthy and expensive car service back to her apartment.  Now it was sleep with him or go on a 20 minute walk – three minute car service to Larry’s place.  This was much less pressure.  She went over to his place and loved how he had speakers in every room of the house.  Thomas had bought wine and really made an effort for her to feel comfortable.  They hooked up as they always had but Alyssa decided to tease him just a little while longer.  He called Larry to pick her up, and he borrowed his roommate’s car and picked her up much to Thomas’s dismay.  She knew there would be another encounter at her place, where she would let him.  Despite Thomas doing everything right to make her feel comfortable in his place, it was impossible to make it as secure as with her sister and her best friend in the same apartment at home.  He seemed to take it well.

Larry was worried when Alyssa called him to pick her up.  She had told him that it was a possibility but he didn’t think it would actually happen.  He thought Alyssa would sleep with Thomas and after everything that she put him through, Thomas deserved it.  He would always be on Alyssa’s side if she chose not to.  He took a sick pleasure in men getting teased, so long as it wasn’t him.  He picked her up and when she got in, she didn’t appear to have been in a struggle.  Her hair was a little unkempt but that was normal after hooking up.  He immediately asked, before even moving the car, “Are you okay?  What happened?  What did he do?”

Alyssa laughed, “Nothing, I just want the first time to be at my place.”

Larry smiled, “You’re so evil.” He said as he drove toward his place. 

Alyssa slept over and called Thomas the next day for breakfast.  She didn’t invite Larry, and Larry didn’t mind.  He knew that Alyssa would spend the day with him, get him to go to the city with her and sleep with him that night at her place. He actually was in favor of not making him wait too long.  What she did the night before wasn’t nice, and sometimes if you teased a guy long enough, he just became disinterested and wrote you off.  He didn’t say this to Alyssa, he had an unwritten rule that he would never convince one of his female friends to have sex with someone.  If he thought they should, he’d wait until they straight up asked the question.  For as long as he lived, a girl had never asked him that question and doubted this would be the first time. 

Thomas agreed to meet Alyssa for breakfast.  She was nicer than normal this day.  He didn’t know this, but Alyssa felt a little bad about teasing him the night before.  Especially because she told him he was going to a guy’s house.  Had it been anyone else, Thomas would have felt she was playing him but something about Larry just made him non-threatening.  He couldn’t imagine Alyssa hooking up with Larry so was only against the fact that she had left his place.  He agreed to accompany her to the city realizing that it was getting kind of expensive with all these car services back to his place.  After spending the day together, Alyssa invited him up.  He felt that this was it; before, the starting location was her apartment, now he had been given the common subtle invitation for sex of after a night together, you are invited up to the girl’s apartment.  He went up and Alyssa made no mistakes about her intention.  She brought him to her room, wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him down and kissed him on the lips.  Thomas smiled but his smile would only get wider as Alyssa shoved him on the bed and mounted him.  He was going to finally close the deal.

The next day, Alyssa got up before Thomas and cooked breakfast for him.  She was slightly worried that it may be awkward now.  She was very relieved that Thomas was good in bed, just one more positive to check off her list.  Now he hoped he wouldn’t become uninterested now that he closed the deal.  Thomas woke up shortly after and acted normally.  It was a very good night for him.  He said to her, “Look, I know this is kind of weird to be saying now, but I’m traditional, I don’t like uncertainty, so will you go out with me?”

Alyssa was taken a back by the question.  Hadn’t they already been doing that?  She said, “Ummm what have we been doing thus far?”

“Some would call it seeing each other, I’d call it dating.  I don’t want any grey areas here, you say yes, we’re going out, you hook up with someone else, you’re cheating on me and if I hook up with another girl, then I’m cheating and this relationship is over.”

“Well obviously the answer is yes” she said smiling at his no-nonsense attitude.  All her fears were gone and she now had a boyfriend.  They trained together for various marathons across the country and officially became a couple.  Thomas had successfully passed all the trials and won Alyssa’s exclusive affection.  

A Real World tale of Feminism

                Larry Couchmanos was an extremely old fashioned man despite his young age of 24.  He was raised with traditional European values that have seemed to disappear in America.  He still believed in chivalrous acts like walking women home, holding doors for them, letting them go in an elevator first, etc. etc.  As he became more and more infuriated by the feminist movement however, he made some concessions.  He sometimes would sit down on a subway even when there were women who were standing and sometimes he would give in when being scolded for his archaic views by women who didn’t know him well enough to know he was not doing it out of flirtation but because it was the right thing to do. 

On one particular occasion, Larry went over to his friend’s Gia’s house to keep her company since she was confined to her bed after a car had ran over her knee twice.  Gia’s two friends, Dara and Gabrielle also came to visit Gia.  Larry knew both of them and got along with them but all three understood that they were not friends with each other but merely shared a mutual close friend.  This allowed them to be civil with each other but not to call each other to hang out without Gia’s presence.  When it came time to come home, Dara got in her car and headed back to New Jersey while Larry and Gabrielle started walking uptown starting from Gia’s apartment on 59^th and Sutton Place in Manhattan, New York.  Larry lived on 70^th and 2^nd Avenue and Gabrielle lived on 78^th and 2^nd.  Around 74^tth Street, Gabrielle asked Larry, “Don’t you live around here?”

“Yea, I live on 70^th but whatever I’ve already gone far enough, I might as well just walk you to your door.”

This had been Larry’s intention all along but he knew that Gabrielle, despite being 100% Italian, was a new-age woman that got offended by chivalry.  Larry tried to subvert the argument secretly knowing that it would never succeed. Gabrielle immediately responded back, “No, you don’t have to do that, I’m so close to home, go home, I’m fine!”

“Yea, that’s why you said you wanted to walk along York because you’re afraid of going under the Queensborough bridge on 1^st Avenue.”

“Well we didn’t go that way, we went on York, now we’re past the bridge, so I’m fine, you can go home now.”

“It’s really not a problem, I’m closer to your place than mine anyway.”

The argument continued like this but since they were walking, inherently Larry was winning because they were getting closer and closer to Gabrielle’a apartment.  When they got to across the street from her apartment, Gabrielle stopped and said, “I’m picking up some food from the store, you certainly don’t have to follow me in there, I literally live across the street.”

Larry was fed up with this debate so decided to acquiesce and go home.  When she finished getting a couple items from the store and left a man came up from behind her and she felt something pointy in her back.  The man said, “Hey hunny, what’s up?”

Gabrielle didn’t recognize the voice but before she could turn her head to see who it was he was whispering in her ear, “If you make one move or an effort to scream or call for help, I’ll slice your fucking spine and you’ll be a vegetable for the rest of your life. Gabrielle’s muscles tightened up and her arms began to shake.  The man continued, “now let’s just go to our apartment as if we’re good friends.”

Gabrielle crossed the street and fumbled with her keys hand shaking.  The guy said in a stern whisper, “Relax! I’m not going to hurt you, stop shaking and just unlock the door.”

Gabrielle unlocked the front door to her apartment and they walked in.  The man said, “If you knock on a door, I’ll know you went to a neighbor’s apartment and not yours so don’t try anything stupid.”

Gabrielle led him to her apartment and unlocked the door and they crossed the threshold and the man closed the door behind him and locked it.  He lowered the object from her back and shoved Gabrielle forward.  Gabrielle, being only 5’ tall and extremely petite, fell from the push..  The man grabbed her purse and removed her cell phone and put it in his pocket.  Gabrielle was sitting with her feet up hugging her knees visibly frightened.  She said, “Whatever you want, you can have it?  Whatever you see it’s yours, just please take it and go.”

“But I want to fuck you.”

Gabrielle’s eyes widened.  Her eyes started tearing up and she said, “You don’t have to do this, I have jewelry and money, just please go into my purse and take my wallet.  Please just don’t hurt me, you don’t have to hurt me, I won’t tell anybody about you.  I swear.”

The man shook his head and walked toward Gabrielle who froze in fear.  Gabrielle could now see the object that she knew was pressed against her back.  It was a three inch serrated knife.  The man kicked Gabrielle in the chest between her legs and pinned her onto her back.  He applied slight pressure on her sternum with his right foot and hissed, “You don’t tell me what to do, this is not a negotiation, I can do whatever the fuck I want to you, and you will do whatever I say whether you want to or not.”

“Why me? Why are you doing this?”

“Because I can.”

The man lifted Gabrielle’s right leg and pulled off her sneaker and sock.  He repeated the motion with her left shoe and sock.  Gabrielle kicked both legs into his chest and turned to crawl away.  She didn’t have much force behind the kick, however, and the man recovered quickly and grabbed her right leg and slammed his fist into her hamstring.  He then bent her knee back lifted her leg as far as he could and slammed her knee into the ground saying, “You want to kick me with these chicken legs.” 

He repeatedly slammed her knee into the ground and let go.  Gabrielle turned onto her back and grabbed at her leg crying in pain.  She wished that someone would come help her, but the knife scared her.  She knew that nobody would be able to get to her quick enough if the man decided to kill her.  The man then grabbed her left leg and twisted it turning her back to her stomach and treated her left leg the same way he did her right.  He was talking low but sternly, “You want to kick me bitch, how dare you! apologize now.”

Gabrielle wanted the pain to stop so she cried out, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The man grabbed her hair and yanked it up.  Instinctively, Gabrielle got up to her hands and knees as her knees seared with pain.  The man grabbed her beneath the armpits and picked her up onto her feet.  He then wrapped his left arm across her stomach gripping her opposite waist and used his right arm to scoop up her legs so she was parallel to the floor.  He lifted her up and slammed her back over his knee and smiled.  He said, “See what all that dieting and exercising and watching your figure get you?  It just makes it so much easier for guys like me to manhandle you” as he stood up and slammed her back over his knee again.  He used his forearms to press down against her chest and thighs to stretch her body and add more torque to her back.  Gabrielle was in too much pain to scream so she just gagged between sobs pleading in a barely audible whisper, “Please stop.” 

The man shoved her body off her and Gabrielle made no attempt to control her body and lied motionless as she rolled twice before resting on her back.  The man straddled her legs and undid her belt followed by unbuttoned and unzipped her pants.  Gabrielle stopped resisting, she was in a lot of pain and figured the more she fought, the more she’d get hurt.  The man pulled her pants off her.  He then grabbed her arms and pulled her up.  Gabrielle made no attempt to stand as she just let her momentum carry her to lean against him.  He gripped the bottom of her shirt and pulled it over her head and tossed it to the side.  “There’s a good bitch” he said

He bent over and wrapped his arms around her legs and hoisted her over his shoulder and carried her to the bedroom and slammed her on the bed.  He reached around and undid her bra and removed it from her body exposing her breasts.  He smiled and said, “Damn, I thought you’d put up a little bit more fight than this.”

He rolled her onto her stomach and straddled her back facing her feet.  He gripped the top of her underwear and pulled it toward him. The fabric wedged between her buttocks baring it.  The man yanked again on the panties.  He let go of the panties and slapped his hands onto her bare buttock squeezing with every collision.  He motioned Gabrielle back to her feet and picked her up by the arms over his head and dropped her gripping her panties.  Gabrielle fall was stopped as fabric wedged further into her and she heard a ripping noise.  The man repeated it two more times until the elastic band came clean off and Gabrielle’s feet were returned to the ground.  The man pulled the fabric out of her buttocks and since the elastic band was now being worn as a necklace by him and not holding the panties in place, they fell to her ankles. He shoved her onto the bed again as the panties slipped over her ankles and to the ground.  Gabrielle now lay on the bed completely nude.  The man stripped himself of his clothing and sat down on the bed next to Gabrielle’s body.  Gabrielle was sobbing uncontrollably, but the man didn’t seem to care.  The man grabbed her arms and pulled her to a seated position.  He then turned her toward him and spread her out on his lap so that her waist was resting on his right leg and her breasts over his left leg.  He pressed down with his left hand on her shoulder blades to hold her in place and spanked her with his right hand saying, “You’ve been a bad little bitch haven’t you?”

After being spanked a few times, Gabrielle cried out in desperation, “Please just get it over with!”

The man chuckled and said, “What’s that?  You want to fuck me slut?”

Gabrielle said nothing.  The man shoved her onto the ground lying on her stomach and picked up her right leg and lied down wrapping his legs around her right leg and gripping her foot in his hand.  He twisted the ankle and squeezed his thighs to limit any movement Gabrielle may have in her leg.  Gabrielle screamed out in pain.  The man said, “Tell me you want to fuck me” Gabrielle howled in pain and gagged trying to find the words.  The man continued, “Say it, or I’ll break your fucking ankle.” 

Gabrielle cried out in a whisper, “Fuck me”

“Say please”

“Please”

“Louder!!! Scream out ‘please fuck me’”

“PLEASE FUCK ME!!!” Gabrielle screamed and then cried hysterically

“Tell me you’re a slut”

“Please just let go”

“Scream it”

“I’m a slut!” she yelled out

The guy let go of her leg and stood up.  He stripped himself nude and knelt beside her nudging his knee into her side and brought his arm under hers and gripping the back of her leg and motioned her onto her back.  He slipped his arms under her legs and neck and hoisted her up dead weight and placed her on the bed.  He looked at her and said, “Well if you insist” as he lied on top of her inserting his penis into her vagina. 

Gabrielle squealed in pain and continued to cry.  She wanted it to stop but knew telling him was fruitless.  In desperation she wanted to speed things up so said, “You need to be quick before my boyfriend gets home.”

She lived alone and was bluffing but hoped he wouldn’t know that.  The guy slapped her across the face and said, ‘You live alone bitch, if you had a boyfriend, you’d never say that because you’d want him to catch me so that he could rescue you.  I hope you do have a boyfriend though, so that I can kick his ass and then fuck you as he watches on helplessly.” Gabrielle said nothing and he continued, “I love this part.  Up until this part you little bitches actually think it might not happen, something will stop me from actually penetrating, but then I do and the reality sets in.  How does it feel?”

Gabrielle didn’t know what the correct answer was so said nothing.  She didn’t want to get hit again.  The man was driving his penis into her while caressing and sucking on her breasts.  She let her body go limp and conceded to everything he wanted.  The man wrapped her legs around his waist and thrusted harder as Gabrielle’s lower body lifted with his.  Mercifully, she believed, he stopped only to be turned onto her stomach and have him drive his penis into her butt.  Her vaginal walls had been torn and blood flowed onto her sheets.  It didn’t take long for the skin on her buttocks to tear and bleed as well.  He lifted her so that she was on her hands and knees so he could squeeze her breasts and kiss her neck as he propelled his penis repeatedly into her buttocks.  He then alternated between sticking it her butt and her vagina from behind.  Finally she heard him gag as he climaxed and ejaculated sperm into her rectum.  He rolled over onto his back and breathed heavily.  Gabrielle cried harder now that her ordeal was over.

Finally, the man stood up.  Gabrielle thought he was going to leave but instead he dragged her off the bed by her legs and let the top half of her body slam against the ground.  Gabrielle’s nose started bleeding from the impact with the floor.  She came to the sad realization that he wasn’t done with her. The man yanked her by the hair and motioned her to her feet.  He applied pressure on her neck so that she bent before him and stuck her head between his legs.  He reached around her waist and pulled up on her stomach and brought her body around so that it straddled his face and then threw her down to the ground onto her neck and head.  She grabbed her head and rolled onto the ground in pain.  As she was rolling, she was stopped by a foot on her side and found herself being motioned up again.  He stood behind her and wrapped his arm around her stomach and the other arm on the back of her legs and flipped her over his shoulder so that her stomach lie on his shoulder spread out parallel to the ground held in place by one arm on her lower back.  He carried her out of her room to a table and lied her down on her back.  Gabrielle hadn’t noticed before, but the man had a plastic bag with him when he came in.  He went to the front door and removed duct tape from it.  Gabrielle was in too much pain to move when he left the room so was exactly where he had left her when he returned.  He spread her arms over her head and wrapped the duct tape around her arms, and the table continuing it for her entire arm, forehead, neck, stomach and legs.  She looked down and realized that he only didn’t wrap her breasts, face and groin in duct tape.  He picked up her purse and said, “You know what, I think I will take you up on that offer to give me money.”  Gabrielle’s eyes widened, when she originally proposed it, it was to take that instead of killing or raping her as he already had done the latter.  The man smiled, and opened her wallet and removed the cash.  He then took out the debit card and said, ‘What’s the code?”

Gabrielle said, “Come on, you’ve already won”

“Hey you asked me to fuck you, I should at least be paid for it.  I mean you are a new-aged woman after all, you believe that woman should pay for men now right?”

“She looked at him with contempt.  She decided that there was nothing more he could do to her so there was no reason not to talk back.  She said, “What makes you think I’m new-age?  You got what you wanted, you fucked me, what more could you want.”

“Money” he said simply

“Well fuck you.”

The man realized that Gabrielle believed she had nothing to lose anymore.  He was going to change that theory.  He stood over her and urinated on her face and neck.  He then straddled her and brought the knife across the duct tape on her left wrist.  The knife cut through the tape and the skin and blood began dripping onto the table.  Gabrielle’s strength left her and she became frightened again.  He put the knife against her right wrist and said, “The code?”

“You don’t have to do this?”

“Well obviously, it’s probably just your birthday, but I don’t want to go to the ATM and then have it not be your birthday and come back so just tell me or I could just continue to cut you.  You’re cuteness means nothing to me now, I’ve already fucked you and the more I disfigure you, the more likely that I will be the last one to do so.  I’ll give you five second..5…4”

Gabrielle said, “It’s my birthday. 11-23

The man laughed and said, “Wrong answer” and drove the knife across her wrist again.  He got off her and picked up her purse again and removed her driver’s license from the window.  He held it up to her face and said, “Bitch, it says 11-20-83 on the license, did you forget your birthday?  Or you just decided to lie to me?”

Before Gabrielle could answer, he put a sheet of duct tape over her mouth and walked toward the bedroom to get dressed.  He looked around the apartment and didn’t see a phone so he reached into her purse and took out her cell phone and put it in his pocket along with the debit card and her keys.  He put a ski mask on and went to an ATM and withdrew the maximum $ 600.  He returned to the apartment and dropped the card and the keys to the ground.  Gabrielle was still bound to the table.  He fanned the $ 600 in front of her face and said, “Thanks for a nice night whore”

He then took his knife and went under the table and cut the duct tape and pulled it unsympathetically off of Gabrielle’s body.  He then slid his arms under her legs and neck and carried her to the bathroom and started the shower.  He thoroughly bathed her getting rid of all DNA evidence.  He didn’t bother to shut off the water and left Gabrielle lying in the tub with the shower splashing off her naked body.  The man then left the apartment and shut the door. 

Gabrielle cried hysterically and was too weak to pick herself up.  After a while she mustered the courage to crawl out of her bathroom and to her purse to take out her cell phone only to realize that the man didn’t return it.  She was left with no phone to call someone for help.  She needed a hospital but she couldn’t stand.  As she lay on the ground she relived the night in her mind.  Although the rape was predominant in her mind, the one thing she thought about was how she snapped at Larry to not walk her to her apartment.  She tried to tell herself that Larry wouldn’t have been able to stop him but she did believe it to be a little too coincidental that in the couple minutes it took to get a couple groceries and walk across the street, someone had targeted her.  She refused to blame herself, however, as she convinced herself that if Larry hadn’t walked her as far as he did, she never would have argued with him and she never would have caught the attention of the rapist.  She had no proof of any of this, but proof never stood in the way of a woman’s opinion before, so why should it now? 

She was only half awake as she allowed herself to be semi-unconscious so she wouldn’t feel the pain.  She got a sudden surge of adrenaline and screamed out, “Call an ambulance, come in by any means necessary, please help me.” 

Given that people don’t like getting involved, nobody came to her aid.  Eventually the wounds inside of her became infected and she died a slow agonizing death. A few days later, neighbors called because of the smell.  By that time, it had been too long for any worthwhile forensics and the killer was never caught.   

Russian Aggression

                It was Valentines Day in New York.  A holiday that most women love and men try to appease the woman in their life with their plans.  For single people, however, Valentines Day is annoying.  Even if they wanted to go out to eat, restaurants are all jammed packed and PDA is sure to occur.  Vonnie Yankolov had a solution to this problem.  She was going to throw a singles-only Valentines Day party at her parent’s apartment in Fort Lee, NJ.  Her parents had agreed to stay with their eldest daughter while Vonnie threw the party.  Vonnie was in her first year at New York University, and since she had lived at home, she was able to keep in touch with old friends from home while making new ones in college.  The party was a mixture of the two groups, and Vonnie hoped that everyone would mix well.  Some people, however, just don’t mix.

                Larry had met Vonnie at school and quickly hit it off with her in a plutonic way.  She had quickly climbed his list of best friends and sat at the top in just a few months.  Although Larry would say that he is the most consistent person when it comes to his actions and attitudes, with Vonnie especially he held nothing back.  This is why she was his best friend, because he didn’t have to watch his mouth or inhibit his actions around her.  He was free to do and act as he saw fit.  It’s because of this that he readily agreed to Vonnie’s single-only party.  He wasn’t someone to always have a plan when he went somewhere he just took things as they happened and saw where he’d end up.  Although this almost always made for good stories, it sometimes placed him in situations he’d rather avoid.

                Sergay was a fellow-Russian friend of Vonnie’s.  He was a few years older than her but Vonnie’s going to college had not affected their friendship, he often times came down to NYU to have dinner or drinks with Vonnie and see how she was doing offering any advice as he saw fit having just finished college himself.  Like everyone else at the party, Sergay became extremely drunk as the night went on and he quickly avoided standing so as to maintain his balance.  He had noticed Larry go into Vonnie’s parent’s bedroom with a girl and from what he heard from various people who had gone in there, they were hooking up.  This didn’t really concern Sergay as he expected that at a party, much more, a singles-only party, that some people would end up matching up even if it were just for a night.  A while later, he saw the person he had met previously as Larry walk out looking completely disheveled and exhausted.  Ironically, the girl had not come out with him.  Larry immediately sat down at the table Sergay also happened to be at and Sergay decided to strike up a conversation.  He said, “Did you have fun in there?” to which Larry responded just by nodding but had a blank expression on his face so Sergay continued, “did you fuck her?”

                “No, she passed out.”

                Sergay glared at Larry and decided to help this guy out, “So?  Go back in there and finish the job”

                Larry looked up and suddenly the blank expression was no longer there and he was glaring at him. “No, I’m not going to do that” he said rather forcefully.

                “Why not man?”
                “That’s called rape”

                “No it’s not, she obviously wanted it if she was hooking up with you before, so just go back in there and finish it, nobody will know.”

                Larry rose and snapped, “What the fuck is a matter with you?!”

                Sergay raised his hands a bit and replied, “Alright Alright, do what you want.”

                Not too long later, the girl Larry had been with, awoke with no recollection of what happened.  She started crying and given that Vonnie already had to deal with one girl who was crying because she lost her virginity, naturally assumed that she’d have to go through it again.  As she walked into the hallway, Vonnie looked over at Larry and decided to diffuse what she thought might be a volatile situation before it started and told Larry to go into the parent’s bedroom and go to sleep so that she could deal with her and the other girl who had been crying.  Larry was more than happy to agree, not because it was 5AM and he had an early morning flight the next day or avoiding facing the girl he just hooked up with, but if he spoke to Sergay any longer, he may resort to blows for implying that he should have raped his partner.

                The next day Larry left Vonnie’s house before anyone had awoken and flew to Columbus, Ohio not knowing what would happen when he returned.  He hadn’t said anything to the girl since they hooked up and Sergay ended up passing out in the bathroom. 

                Five and a half years after that singles-only Valentines Day party nothing seemed to have changed.  Sergay seemed to have forgotten about that night and was unaware that Larry was still mad at him for suggesting that he rape his now close friend.  Although Larry and Vonnie didn’t see each other too often, their friendship didn’t seem to fade.  It was more a matter that they both had the same personality trait of not thinking to call people.  To them, friends were really out of sight, out of mind.  It bothered both of them, but when they did see each other, they often picked up right where they left off.  This was especially true around Larry’s birthday, because Vonnie would always plan it.  She took birthdays very seriously and knew that Larry hated his birthday because he believed that bad things always happened.  For the last four out of five years since they’d known each other, Vonnie had always succeeded in giving Larry a good birthday.  The one year that Larry didn’t enjoy it, was the birthday he had planned himself.  Vonnie had realized that she hadn’t seen most of her friends in a while so she decided to have a party just to see everyone again.  The party was to take place at Vonnie’s apartment in Tribeca.  It was a first floor apartment that had access to a small garden in the back, which Vonnie had utilized to plant many plants and flowers as it relaxed her to walk outside to flowers after a long day of work in a barren Manhattan concrete jungle.  She still considered Larry her best male friend and would be on his side if any disputes were to arise.  She had forgotten that Larry hated Sergay so saw no reason why not to invite both of them to the party.  Sergay had a girlfriend currently named Lyubov who was a 5’6” blond haired Ukrainian who had moved to New York from the Midwest.  Sergay had introduced Larry to Lyubov and given that they both grew up in the Midwest (Larry was raised in Cleveland, Ohio) they used that as an ice breaker and continued from there.  As alcohol was consumed, Sergay and Lyubov had gone to the bathroom together.  Larry was sitting off to the side as he was kind of antisocial and enjoyed people watching more than actively participating in festivities.  Lyubov came over to him and sat down and he and her began talking.  Lyubov told him that she had gone to the bathroom and Sergay wanted to hook up but she didn’t think it was right to do that in the bathroom of someone’s house whom she didn’t know so she pushed him away and ran out.  Larry was incredulous with the story.  He had found out that Sergay and Lyubov lived together so her denying his advances didn’t really make much sense to him.  What made even less sense was that Lyubov was telling him the story given that they had just met that night.  Larry only responded, “In five seconds, Sergay will be back here.” 

                He wasn’t really sure why he said that, but Lyubov rattled off “1-2-3-4-5” as fast as she could say it.

                Larry held up five fingers and counted down in real seconds, when he got to one, Sergay walked over to them.  He was coming from behind Larry and smacked him on the back of the head and said, “What the fuck are you doing?  You hitting on my girl?”

                Larry turned around and said calmly, “No, but if you want to go outside and discuss this, let’s go” as he rose and headed toward the door to the garden always turning to ensure Sergay wasn’t going for a blind side attack.  What was conspicuous to Larry was that Lyubov was doing nothing to stop Sergay, she followed closely behind him as they went outside.  When they were both in the garden, Larry turned toward Sergay relishing the moment that he would finally get to fight him.  Sergay lunged forward to shove Larry and yelled out, “You want to hit on my girl?” so the crowd knew what the fight was about.  Larry brought his right arm down and his left arm up chopping Sergay’s arms away and since his right hand was now cocked at his side, and Sergay’s arms were in no position to defend himself Larry drove his right palm up into Sergay’s nose bloodying it.  Sergay backed up a couple of steps from the blow holding his nose.  He came back quickly with a punch that Larry blocked and then he grabbed Sergay by the head bringing it down.  This was a mistake Larry often employed in street fights.  He was very accustomed to wrestling thus striking, as is needed in street fighting, was not his instinctive reaction.  Sergay was stronger than Larry thus despite being in the headlock he was able to drive Larry back into the fence on the opposite wall but Larry had maintained his grip.  Sergay punched away at Larry midsection hoping he’d break the hold.  Larry kept downward pressure on his neck trying to force Sergay down, finally he drove his knee up catching Sergay in the midsection.  Sergay dropped to his knees but reached his hand up and drove his thumb into Larry’s eye.  Larry tried moving his head to spring loose but Sergay had his thumb locked in so Larry released the hold to use his hand to pull Sergay’s hand away.  This temporarily blinded him and gave Sergay the opening he needed as he punched Larry in the stomach a couple times ending it with a punch to the face.  Larry turned his head as he anticipated the punch so that Sergay would punch the back of his skull.  He knew it would hurt, but it could potentially crack Sergay’s knuckles or break his wrist depending on how hard he punched.  As Larry acquired his bearings, Sergay was shaking his wrist.  Larry lunged forward and tackled Sergay to the ground and punched away at his face.  Sergay deflected most of the momentum from the blows by putting his arms around his face and wrapped his legs around Larry’s waist squeezing trying to suffocate him.  Larry was able to lower Sergay’s legs slightly enough so that that his pelvis absorbed the pressure but high enough so that Sergay wouldn’t notice the futility of the effort.  Sergay reached up and wrapped his hands around Larry’s neck and squeezed choking him.  Larry jabbed connecting with his nose again forcing Sergay to release his grip.  Larry got up and started coughing.  Sergay rose to his feet and charged at Larry, Larry fell to the side sticking his right leg out and kicking at the Sergay’s Achilles Heel with his left tripping him over the right and onto his stomach.  Larry pounced on top of Sergay and grabbed him by the hair and repeatedly slammed his face into the ground.  Sergay put out his hands to try to push himself up but Larry brought his arms underneath Sergay’s and put him in a full nelson giving him free reign to drive his face repeatedly into the ground. 

As Sergay lost consciousness, Larry felt a kick to the side of head knocking him off Sergay.  He rolled around to see who was kicking him and saw Lyubov ignore Sergay and head right for him.  She drove her knee into Larry’s face before he could register what was going on.  Larry rolled away from Lyubov and leaned toward a pursuing Lyubov wrapping his arms around her legs and rising with her slouching over his shoulder.  Larry contemplated snapping the top half of her body to the ground but he was vehemently against hitting girls and just couldn’t bring himself to do it.  Lyubov struggled immensely pounding at Larry’s back trying to push herself up to a vertical base.  Larry couldn’t hold on much longer and instead of slamming her down she dropped back on her feet only to be met by a slap to the face.  Larry backed up for defensive purposes and blocked a wide range of punches and kicks from Lyubov unsure how long he could keep it up.  He was a bit wary from the fight and the two kicks to the head plus Lyubov was at full strength reduced his chances.  If Larry could bring himself to fight back, he may have stood a chance, but since his morality stopped him, this could be very embarrassing and end very badly for Larry.  In the corner of his eye, Larry saw a slim figure come out of the crowd.  His peripherals could only make out that it was a woman, but he wasn’t sure if it was friend or foe as the majority of his concentration was on Lyubov’s four limbs coming at him.  The figure then kicked Lyubov in the midsection causing her to lean over in pain.  Larry turned toward his rescuer to see Vonnie in a fighting stance.  Vonnie prided herself on having very powerful legs, and Larry knew that she had connected well with one of her powerful legs and Lyubov was feeling the effects of it.  Larry backed off to catch his breath and became a part of the crowd, whose attention was now on Vonnie and Lyubov.  Lyubov stood to full height, which was some three inches taller than Vonnie still showing obvious signs of pain.  Vonnie, slapped her across the face and taunted, “You want to start a fight in my apartment bitch?!”

                Lyubov came back with a slap of her own, which only seemed to anger Vonnie more.  One thing Vonnie hated was people touching her face, and a slap was the biggest form of disrespect you could show and she was not going to tolerate anyone slapping her in her home.  She punched Lyubov in the solar plexus and then grabbed on to Lyubov’s hair to stop her from peeling over again.  Vonnie dragged Lyubov by the hair and slammed her face first into the fence.  Vonnie then yanked back tripping Lyubov over her extended knee and stomped away at Lyubov’s midsection taunting her, “You want to slap me, you fucking bitch!”

                When Vonnie tired, she spit on Lyubov and said, “A little harder when someone hits back isn’t it?”

                She turned toward some of her other male friends and told them to get Sergay and Lyubov out of her apartment, to which they agreed.  Larry went up to Vonnie and said, “Damn Vonnie, not bad”

                Vonnie shook her head and said, ‘Shut up Larry, you fought in my house too, I’m just glad you took it outside, that’s the only reason you’re still here.”

                “You couldn’t have been completely against it, if you fought for me buddy.”

                Vonnie gave Larry a look of contempt which only made him smile wider.  She asked, “Will you ever grow up and start acting like a man?  You’re so immature” she then changed her tone to a mocking tone “ehhh Cat fight” waving her arms and rolling her eyes.

                “No”

                Vonnie finally managed to smile and said, “Well then how does it feel that you couldn’t take on a woman by yourself?  How’s your ego now?”

                Larry’s eyes widened but his smile never faded and responded, “I know right? thank God I have female friends or else I would have been really humiliated, thanks Vonnie monster” using her nickname that Larry had blatantly stolen from when he and Vonnie saw Avenue Q together.”

                Vonnie decided it was no use arguing back so she would just play along, she was over what happened, there was no damage to her house, Sergay and Lyubov were escorted outside and people were going about their business.  She waved a finger at Larry and said, “Be careful, I won’t always be there to protect you.”

                Larry then hugged Vonnie and Vonnie pushed him away and said, “Ewww, you’re all sweaty and you got a bloody nose, wash yourself up and then hug me.”

                Larry laughed as he went into the bathroom to wash his face and then had a couple more drinks.  After everyone who was not going to spend the night had left, Larry took a shower and then shared a bed with Vonnie.  This was a common occurrence in their beginning years of college but hadn’t happened in a while.  As they slept Larry couldn’t help but feeling a bit of nostalgia for he really had missed the friendship that Larry and Vonnie had while in college.  The next day they went off their separate ways unknowing when they would meet again since neither of them were very good callers.