Falling into Trouble

Chapter 1

Brandon

I never saw the first hit coming. It landed on the side of my face, causing a sharp stab of pain to splinter across my cheekbone. Spinning around, I return the punch, landing it squarely on his nose, which then results in his exit from this stupid brawl. Pushing my way back into the group, I grab hold of my buddy's shirt and start pulling him backwards out of the mass of people. I can feel the movement of his shirt as he continues to throw punches forward into the group.

"What the fuck, Brandon? That asshole started it. I barely touched his chick." My friend Eddy starts to wipe at the blood that is dripping from his nose.

"We have to get the fuck out of here. I'm sure they already called the cops. Let's get Tyler and hit the road before this gets any bigger than it already is." He nods his head once at me, but I can see he's still on a hair trigger. I turn back to the moving mass of people throwing punches and make my way over to my other friend.

Tyler is holding his own against the guy who started this whole damn thing. I try to grab his arm, but he shrugs me away and gets back into the face of the instigator. "Let it go, Tyler. This guy isn't worth it." I try again to untangle them and this time in the darkness I can see that a woman whispers something into the asshole's ear. With all the strength of a man on steroids, he pushes the girl away. She stumbles back and skids across the now beer-covered bar floor.

Without thinking it through, I square up to the abusive ass and start throwing punches. This time it's Tyler who's trying to pull me away. He won't have to, I hear the yelling from the police officers about thirty seconds before I'm sprawled out on the bar floor with a cop on my back. Great.

From the wet ground I watch as people scatter past me and clear out the once packed bar. The band has stopped playing, but remains perched on the stage watching the police try to get a handle on the situation. I would be ok if my friends ditched me, but I can already see that they are talking to a few of the officers near the door. Pain shoots up my arms as the officer grips the cuffs and yanks me to my feet.

At least the asshole that started it is also in cuffs. I remember the reason I got involved and turn my head to try to find the woman who he'd shoved. I can't see her anywhere. The police officer pushes me towards the front door of the bar. There's still a crowd of people outside, but they start to leave when the cops begin dragging people out.

The officer asks me to lean against the car while he checks me for weapons and I comply. He reads me my rights and then asks, "Start from the beginning and tell me what happened."

"That guy over there," I say nudging my chin in the direction of the man now cuffed and sitting on the curb, "started talking shit when my friend asked his date if she wanted to dance. He didn't know they were together. That guy got up in my friend's face and eventually threw the first punch. I stayed out of it until he shoved his girlfriend hard and had her laid out on the dirty floor."

The policeman nods his head and writes a few notes down. I can't tell if he believes me or not because his facial expression has been the same since I first saw him. Another police officer is talking to the cuffed asshole on the curb and I notice the cop motion to come over to the cop talking to me.

The cop opens the back door of the cruiser and says, "Watch your head," as I sit down. I bend into the backseat with my hands still behind my back, repeating to myself that this is not happening.

When I'm all the way onto the seat, I turn myself around to face forward and notice I'm not alone in the car. The woman who was tossed across the floor is sitting in the back of the cop car with me, her hands cuffed behind her back. Her face is turned away from me as she watches the cops interview the people from the bar. "Hey," I say, turning my body towards her, "Are you ok?" She nods her head and then looks up to me.