Safety

Last night brought me back to days of college, where stupidity ran rampant, and there was no consequence for behavior that clearly should have some repercussions.

Last night I didn't not go on a date, but it was so strange, I felt it deserved writing about. I went out with a friend last night to celebrate her getting a new job (away from the hell we both taught in for the past two years!). It was a long crazy night, including a lot of traveling and subsequent drinking. We started out in Brooklyn, not too far from my apartment, to see a band of my friend's sister's friend play. It was a good way to start the evening off, but we did not stay long.

We went to LES to go to a party of my friend's friend's ex-coworker (yes, this is how the night went, everyone was connected through someone else...), and there was a 10 dollar cover to sit on the roof, which we payed, and over-priced drinks. I told her that this was her payback for the jdate party, because this party - while the people weren't as strange - sucked just as bad. We got stuck talking to the world's most boring guy, and I couldn't even begin to tell you what we talked about. I know he asked us kind of in an accusatory manner as to what we did all summer, I stopped paying attention not long after that. Although, I'm sure I made an awesome impression as well when I spilled a good portion of my beer on him. I wasn't too concerned, he needed a reason to go home and change. He and his friend were wearing matching (although different colors) Izod polo shirts. It was so weird.

We didn't stay too long at the party, long enough for one drink, me to spill it on someone, and to have a boring conversation that felt like an eternity. My friend's other friends from Israel were coming to the LES for drinks, and we decided to meet up with them. We left the boring, crowded bar we were at and proceeded deeper into the LES. We arrived at the bar about 20 minutes before her friends arrived. We tried sitting outside, but the bar had to close their outdoor garden at 1am, due to noise and neighbors. So we got pushed back inside, and we were heading to sit at a table, but a man who was behind us somehow got there first. There was room for 4 or 5 people to sit at the table, and he was just sitting there by himself. He saw us looking at the table, and invited us to come sit there. I'm sure he would've left if we asked him to, but at that point it was just me and my friend, so there was no need.

He strikes up a conversation with us, and I'm not really sure what he's saying because A) it's really loud in the bar - like too loud to hear anything and B) he had a heavy accent, which I think was Italian. He's talking to us, and offers to buy us a drink. We politely decline, but continue talking to him. After a while, he says that he's going to buy us drinks, so what do we want. At that point we let him buy us drinks. He comes back with not just the drinks, but with 3 cute guys in tow. At this moment, of course, my friend's friends show up, so there is a flurry of activity. The old man is trying to introduce us to the guys he brought over for us to talk to, and my friend is introducing me to her friends (also both guys) who just showed up, and all of the suddenly our table feels crowded. I thought that the man would leave once our friends showed up. But he didn't. He was talking to another friend for a little bit, and one of the guys he brought over slid right into his seat next to me, and struck up a conversation. One of his other friends sat next to my friend and talked to her for a bit. The guy I was talking to was young, though I couldn't tell how young, early 20s, maybe 24 at the oldest. He was there with his two friends from high school, and he was friends with the old guy because apparently the old guy was his jazz mentor. The young guy excused himself for a moment, and then the old guy came back and sat in his seat. I was interested to hear more about his jazz, but it was so hard to hear him, I felt rude asking him to keep repeating himself. I should have talked to my friend and her friends, but they were having a conversation in Hebrew, and as I could barely understand the English that was being spoken around, Hebrew wasn't going to do me any good. The young guy came back, and instead of taking his seat back from the old guy, he sat in between us, forcing me to move over to a seat closer to my friend. Fine by me, I needed some space between me and the old guy, he was starting to touch my hand when he talked to me, and it was beginning to creep me out.

The young guy invited my friends and me to go to an after-hours dance party, at some club down the road. I asked my friend if she wanted to go, and she said she would go if I wanted to. At that point, the young guy was cute and very flirty with me, so of course I wanted to go. I told them we'd go, but figured since it was only 2am and the bar hadn't closed yet, we wouldn't be leaving any time soon. My friend's friends did NOT like these guys. And rightfully so, they were strange guys, and the old guy was definitely creepy. When the young guy went to go talk to his friends, the old guy moved into the seat next to me again, and he kept touching me - either on my hand or my back, and he was undeniably looking down my shirt when he thought I wasn't looking or didn't notice. I kept pulling it up, but to no avail, he was not deterred.

When the time came for us to go to the after party dance club, I was not sure that my friend really wanted to go, so I wasn't going to force her. Her friends were adamant that we did not go with these guys, and we could find a place to go dancing just the four of us. They didn't like that they wouldn't give us the address of the place we were going, so we could just meet them there. The young guy I was talking to was insisting that we go with him. He was starting to get creepy. We were indecisive for a long time, and the young guy and the old guy were finally like, we're going, see you later. So they left the bar, and we decided we'd go outside to figure out what we'd do next and if we'd try to find a place to go dancing. As we were getting up to leave, young guy comes back in the bar, and sees us leaving, and comes over to me. He tries to hold my hand, which I quickly pull back from him. We stand outside the bar with the young guy and one his friends. Young guy tries to get my friend and I to get into the old guy's car. My friend's friend nearly looses his cool at the thought of that, there is no way in hell he was going to let us get into that car with a creepy old man and 3 guys we don't know. The young guy agrees that we can go to a bar that's closer so that we don't have to drive there, but when we say that we're going to walk over, he says no. At this point, it's just ridiculous. We decide to go to a closer bar, and if they want to join us they can drive over there, but we're not getting in the car. friend agrees with us that we should not get into their car, and that he'll walk over to the bar with us.
The young guy's friend agrees with us that we should not get into this strange guy's car, and he will walk over with us. He goes over to find out where the exact location of the bar is, and the next thing we know, the car has driven off, three young and one creepy old guy in tow.

We all just looked at each other and cracked up. In hindsight, going with those guys would have been incredibly stupid. The rest of our night was non-descript but fun. We were turned away from a club because one of the guys was wearing sandals, and we wandered around the east village to no avail. We ended up getting a slice of pizza and the guys went home. My friend and I sat on a bench outside the pizza place for a while and decided that we should have gone with the other guys. It would've been fun, although getting into their car would've been incredibly creepy. I guess we may have saved ourselves from a brush with disaster, but we'll never know.