Sometimes the easy confidence of friends is all you really need.
Alex, Wendel, and I thought it would be a good idea to crash a party when we were 17. We heard there was free booze and we were in! In hindsight, crashing a party of other young thugs perhaps wasn’t the best idea. Bah, fuck them if they can’t take a joke.
So we arrived, there was an instant reaction and, if memory serves, the host of the party told Wendel he could stay (he may or may not have been a dealer) but Alex and I needed to leave. Right now. The host was very aggressive about it. I remember he was stocky with chains on his leather, blond hair and a bandanna maybe? Tough looking dude for sure and he was barking pretty loudly. I also recall some other weapons, perhaps nunchucks?
He got in our faces, was being super aggressive and I don’t think we were as intimidated as he wanted. He wasn’t particularly tall. I don’t remember being an ass or anything but he seemed to zero in on me. Perhaps because I had a foot and a half on him? Or maybe it was because I have a hard time controlling my facial expressions, if you ask Sway; incapable. I am pretty sure I had an unimpressed expression. Perhaps something like “OOoooooh I’m so scared! Arf, arf little doggy”.
Things continued to escalate and it was clear we weren’t getting any free beer. So we left. Beer needed drinking somewhere!
The three of us sat in the bus shelter to wait for the next bus (yes, we were total bad-asses!). But there was something still that really bugged that guy about me. He came out to the bus shelter, still barking. I don’t specifically recall what, if anything, I might have done but he said:
I don’t care how big you are, I’ll still kick your ass.
All three of us just burst out laughing. Something about his appearance, tracking us down to the bus shelter, and then his final threat was too much! I honestly think it was the easy confidence of our laugh that finally let the air out of his threats. He barked some more about how he’d kill me if he ever saw me again, arf, arf, arf, but we stayed sitting just howling our asses off.