Chapter 5

Saturday night, I picked up Greg and Emily and then Beth. Beth gave me a big smile as she got in the car and sat in the passenger seat. They all wanted to go to a movie, which was fine with me. Greg bought all the tickets. After all, I paid for gas and shuttled them around, and it was his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s girlfriend he was trying to impress.

I bought my snacks and noticed Beth was opening her purse to pay for hers. Emily and Greg already had their snacks and were far enough ahead that I thought it would be okay if I offered to buy Beth’s. After all, I felt I owed her a kindness after the other night.

I put a ten on the counter before she got her wallet out. “I got this, Beth.”

“You don’t have to do that, Steve. It’s not like this is a date or anything.”

“Maybe I just want to do it for a friend.”

“Well, okay then. I guess we are kind of best friends now.” Then there was her cute smile and her funny little giggle.

We found an empty row, and Greg went in first, followed by Emily, Beth, and then me. We plunked ourselves down in the center of the row. Ten minutes into the movie, I wondered why Emily and Greg bothered coming. They were making out and not paying any attention to the movie. I looked at Beth, and she looked at me, and we shrugged. Again, she smiled, and much to my surprise, she took my hand. I sat happily watching Captain America beat up the bad guys and held Beth’s hand for the rest of the movie.

The credits started to roll, and Emily and Greg came up for air. Beth snatched her hand away, and we both sat looking straight ahead and most likely looking guilty. We stood up and stretched. We headed out of the theater and across the street to the parking garage.

We were walking toward my car when three rather tough-looking guys walked toward us from the opposite direction. I thought they would walk past until they stepped right in front of us.

They didn’t waste any time making their demands and threats, “Hey, how about you assholes hand over your cash, and we won’t hurt you pretty boys in front of the cunts.”

They looked scary and well-tattooed. I figured gang members for sure. I reached for my wallet and was ready to give them my cash. Then, all of a sudden, Beth started to go a little crazy. She looked like she was trembling in fear. Her hands were flailing all over the place. She stepped forward, and it looked like she was reaching into her purse to get her money. I reached for her to pull her back, but she slipped away.

Wild-eyed Beth whined in fear, “Please don’t hurt me. Here’s my money.” Out came a can of pepper spray. She sprayed two of the thugs in the eyes and kicked the one on the far right in the knee. He went down hard, pawing at the pepper spray in his eyes. Beth twirled and caught the one in the middle under the jaw with her elbow. Blood gushed out of his mouth from where he must have bitten his tongue.

The third unsprayed assailant was turning to confront Beth when I caught the guy with a roundhouse to the side of the head. The thug went down on his ass. He coughed and puked all over himself when Beth kicked him in the gut. Just to make his day complete, Beth gave him a good squirt of pepper spray.