Why?, Part II

(This is a sequel to my previous story – “Why?”)

The music was loud and it sounded great on the warm evening. Every table was filled. They had a great view of the water from where they were sitting. He looked across the table at his date. Brooke was exactly the kind of girl that Matt wanted to be on a date with. She had blond, straight hair and a pretty face, was petite, and she was well-dressed. She was quite tan, most likely she got it in a tanning bed and not naturally in the sun, but that was fine with him. She looked great.

It was his first time going on a date since a few weeks ago when he had his date with Sonya. She had slugged him in the nose when he was about to leave to meet a girl he liked better. He had laid low for a couple of weeks after that due to the humiliation but was glad to be out again with that behind him. Matt had a beer in front of him and Brooke a glass of wine. The waiter would probably be back with their food soon.

“I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick,” Matt said to Brooke.

“Don’t get lost,” she said and she winked at him before he got up.

As he was walking back to the table from the bathroom he saw that someone had taken his seat. It didn’t take him long to see that it was Sonya. She was sitting in his chair leaning back with her bare feet up on the table. She had definitely made herself comfortable as her flip flops were on the ground next to the chair. Why did this chick always need to be barefoot?

Matt noticed the waiter had served their food while he was gone. Sonya had pushed his plate over to the side to make room for her legs and her feet were slanted right over Brooke’s plate. Brooke had a look of disgust on her face and Matt was embarrassed that this was happening to her on her date with him. Brooke looked up and saw Matt coming.

“Oh, thank God you’re back,” Brooke said. “I tried moving her feet but her legs are too strong. Get her out of here.” Matt looked at Sonya looking up at him challenging him to do just that. He still remembered that punch in the nose she had given him and he was intimidated by that. 

“Come on,” he said to Sonya, trying not to show that he was afraid. “Get up.”

“Make me,” she said.

She couldn’t have weighed more than 110 pounds so he should be able to get her up. He reached down and stuck his hands under her armpits trying to pull her out of the seat. She started squirming and with the outdoor restaurant at capacity it was starting to cause a scene that he didn’t want so he gave up on that plan. He wrapped his arms around her lower legs and tried to move them off of the table but Brooke was right – her legs were too strong to move. He looked at Brooke who was looking impatient and he needed to do something. He tickled the bottom of Sonya’s feet. He watched them kick around a bit and then she moved them off of the table. Mission accomplished. He looked at her to see how she was going to react. She stood up. 

“Don’t EVER tickle me!” she said. 

She then punched him in the jaw. It hurt and made his eyes water up, but it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the punch in the nose she had given him when they were sitting under the stars. But he looked around and saw that quite a few people had saw this girl slug him. The tears in his eyes made that even more humiliating. At first he had forgotten about Brooke. He looked at her and she look fired up.

“Hit her!” Brooke said. He didn’t think it would be a good idea hitting a girl. He looked at Sonya waiting to see if he’d do it, with no fear in her eyes underneath those nerdy glasses, then he looked back at Brooke.

“Hit her!” she said with the kind of aggression that said this was going to be their last date if he didn’t do what she said. “She hit you and there’s no way I’m eating that food now that she had her feet over it.”

He looked back at Sonya. He wasn’t able to meet up with Heather after she decked him in the nose and he couldn’t let her ruin his chances with Brooke. He took a hard swing at Sonya’s face but she ducked and all he felt was air. While his body was off-guard from missing on the punch, Sonya came back and punched him in the gut.

He immediately crouched over and the tears were coming out of his eyes. He tried to take in a breath and when he couldn’t, he fell to the ground right at Sonya’s bare feet. 

He lay there on his side for a while trying to get in some air. It took him some time to get his breath and even when he was able to, he still didn’t want to get up to face Brooke and anyone else who was there that may have seen what happened. 

“Hey buddy,” he heard someone say. He looked up to see the manager standing above him. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” he said. He really wasn’t, his stomach hurt and breathing was still a challenge, but he couldn’t admit that he wasn’t alright because he got hit by a girl.

“Well then get up, pay your bill, and get out of here. You can’t be getting in fights in my restaurant.”

“She hit me first!”

“It doesn’t matter. You get in a fight here you have to leave. Now come on.”

Matt slowly started to get up, breathing becoming more difficult as he changed his position. The manager wasn’t showing him any sympathy, only caring about maintaining order at his establishment, and he looked like he just wanted Matt out of there. When he was standing up he noticed both Sonya and Brooke had left. But it looked like just about everyone at the restaurant was looking at him.

Humiliated, he went home and went to bed. He woke up the next morning and when he got on Facebook he had three messages. All of them had been from his buddies who were busting his balls for getting his ass kicked by the nerdy girl at the restaurant. How had they gotten the news? Damn social media.

After he had lunch, Brooke had made no attempt to reach out to him. He wondered if he should just cut his losses and forget about her. He couldn’t do that, though. Maybe she was just embarrassed to call him. He had to at least try and call her.

“Hey,” she said when she picked up the phone. He actually hoped it would go to voicemail so he could work up to this but no such luck.

“What’s up,” he said.

“That girl really slugged you last night,” she said, and she almost sounded amused by it. He thought he heard a couple of her friends in the background.

“Yeah,” he said. “A couple of people messaged me about it. Does everyone know about this?”

“Pretty much,” she said. “I mean, it’s a pretty funny scene for people seeing a girl punch out a guy like that.” He figured he had no chance with her at this point anyway so he may as well not beat around the bush. 

“I guess you’re not going to want to hang out with me again,” he said.

“I can’t. You get that, right?” She actually sounded sympathetic to him when she said it but that didn’t make it any better. And then he was hit by a scarier thought than not being able to date Brooke.

“You think I’ll ever be able to get a girl around here to date me after this?” he asked.

“Honestly?” Brooke said. “Unfortunately, no.”