First there is no sex in this story. If that is what you want, I suggest you look elsewhere. I don't know if the story belongs in a loving wives or romance category. No matter what category it goes into it's either a good read or it isn't. I haven't got an editor, it is very hard for me to ask someone to do all the work that there is in editing. Hope you enjoy the story.

I have a theory that I will bring forward in this story. As usual with my stories, it is based on true life. The happenings described took place several years ago (I don't like to think how many) while I was in college. The story got longer than I intended, but the characters took on a life of their own and wouldn't let me stop. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks and enjoy.

My name is Rich, actually it's Richard, and at the time of my tale I had just turned 22. At 6 feet 1 inch and about 200 pounds, I was about average in size and looks. I was and am a decent looking guy; I wasn't turn your head and stare handsome, but you wouldn't turn away in fright. I was a senior in college; studying business administration with a minor in psychology. It goes without saying that a back ground in psychology would be of great help in my chosen career in sales. I wasn't sure what to sell at that point, but selling is what I wanted to do. I felt it was the quickest way to make enough money to get a "take this job and shove it" fund. The name I gave my fund is courtesy of Johnny Paycheck, a country music star at the time of the story. A 'take this job and shove it" fund is pretty much what the title says. If I had this fund in reserve, I could tell my boss to "take this job and shove it" and not worry about money. I know, maybe a stupid idea; but I was young and I knew everything.

I decided while I was in college that a fraternity would help maximize the party experience that I wanted to sample. The networking possible with the frat alumni could also be a big help after graduation. I pledged and joined a local frat and became an upstanding member of the party scene. My frat brothers were just that, frat brothers. We were all friends and a very few were close friends. Most of the guys were friends because of the frat. The only time we hung out was at fraternity activities; our private lives were pretty much private.

I had been out of town on a hunting trip which ended early due to a snow storm. None of the animals I was hunting were stupid enough to come out of their cozy dens. I was the smart one as I was sitting out in near zero temps waiting for them. (And they say man is the smartest mammal). Anyway, I came back to town on Saturday, just in time for a sorority dance being held that night. I should have stayed gone.

Our "sister" sorority, Delta Zeta, was holding a king and queen type dance with voting to determine who would be the king and queen of the dance. The frat was obligated to go as one of the Deltas was running for queen and one of our brothers for king. If we didn't show up in numbers, the Delta and our brother would not be elected. According to the Deltas this was the worst thing that could happen, except maybe the total destruction of the world.

I had planned to be hunting and had not gotten a date for this dance. The president of my frat heard I was back in town and called me. I don't know how he knew I was back. Chuck, the pres, told me I needed to come to the dance to vote for the Delta and our guy that were running for king and queen.

"Don't have a date, Chuck," I told him. "Didn't get one because I wasn't going to be here. It's too late to find a date; the dance starts in 6 hours. Guess I will have to pass. Have a good time Chuck"

"We have a date for you Rich. Emily from the Deltas didn't plan on being here either, but her plans fell thru also. You guys can go together." Chuck was being very helpful.

"I don't know her except to nod at in school. She has never spoken 10 words to me, even at the mixers we have with Delta. Why would she want to go with me? Why would I want to take her?"

"It's not a real date. You each pay for your own ticket and once you get there and vote you don't have to stay together. She wants to go to support her sorority sister for queen. You should go to support your brother."

"Alright Chuck, enough with the guilt trip already. I'll go." It was obvious I wasn't going to get out of this. I could see all kinds of problems with this date. These types of dates are never as simple as planned. I thought it was a disaster waiting to happen.

"Good pick her up at 7:00 and you can be at the dance by 7:45. Walk in cast your ballots and then you don't have to see or talk to each other until time to leave. Here is her address, and remember 7:00."

"Yes sir, Mr. President, sir."

I had a few hours before my command performance so I decided to eat, clean myself up, and then take a short nap to recharge my batteries. I had driven for almost 12 hours to get back home. Maybe I should have stayed overnight somewhere and gotten home later; then the coming fiasco at the dance would not have occurred. As I lay down to nap, I looked at the clock and saw I had about 4 hours before I had to pick up Emily. As usual "Murphy's Law" reared its ugly head. I has set my alarm to wake me in 3 hours; this would give me plenty of time to get dressed and pick up my date. Of course the alarm didn't go off. When I finally woke up, I realized I only had 30 minutes to get dressed and get to Emily's. I didn't have her phone digits so there was no way to call her. Rushing to my car, I was carrying my sports coat, tie, and trying to button my shirt. If I had a little luck, I wouldn't be more than 15 to 20 minutes late.

AT 7:20, I stopped in front of Emily's place; jumped out of the car and sprinted to her front door. Emily was not a happy camper at the moment. She had been crying a little and was totally pissed off.

"Where have you been? You could have called, I been sitting here thinking that you decided not to come. Why aren't you dressed? You can't go looking like that. Now we are going to be very late." All of this in rapid fire with no room left for me to answer.

"Shut up. I'm here now so let's go. My alarm didn't go off, it wasn't intentional and I am sorry. If we hurry we will only be a few minutes late. They won't count the votes until about 9:00 so we have plenty of time." All of this to defend myself, with no room left for her to interrupt.

We looked at each other for just a second and then went out to the car. She really wanted to berate me some more, but could see I would not put up with anymore of her crap. We got to the dance at the lodge hall and as we walked from the parking lot, I finished putting myself together. Got my shirt buttoned, tucked in, tied my tie, and put on my jacket; all before getting to the entrance. I was proud of my accomplishment. Emily wasn't so proud; she kept muttering that I should have been dressed when I picked her up and other things. I ignored her mumbles.

I handed our tickets to the pretty little freshman at the door and we entered the main hall. We got our ballots, marked them, and put them in the ballot box. Not one minute after that Emily left me to go to one of her sorority's tables. Getting her to the dance was apparently all I was needed for and I had been dismissed. It didn't bother me a bit; it was just a little sudden. Oh well, life goes on. Where's the booze? That was my next thought and I headed for the bar. Thinking maybe I owed Emily a bit more of an apology, I got two drinks and walked over to her table.

Setting one of those fruity type drinks in front of Emily I said, "I really am sorry for being so late. Again it wasn't intentional and I didn't mean to insult you. Please forgive me." Pretty nice of me, I thought.

Emily nodded her head, gave me a small smile and picked up her drink. I was forgiven and felt better. Her sisters began to talk about me as I walked away. Asshole was probably the nicest thing I heard. Still don't understand why they were upset. The deal was Emily and I come to the dance and vote. We got to the dance and voted, mission accomplished. What was all the static for?

I later found out (about a month later) that Emily had a small crush on me. She was shy and that's why she didn't talk to me very much; sure didn't sound shy when she was chewing me a new one. Our date was to be her chance to get over her shyness and get me to notice her. Just a tip, leaving me at the door after about 5 seconds was not the way to make me notice her. The sisters felt I hadn't shown the proper respect by being late, showing up half dressed, and telling her to shut up. That was what the static was about.

Looking around and spotting my fraternity's table, I headed over and helped myself to the bottle of Jack Daniels sitting on the table. Then I said hello to the brothers and their dates. I was the only one alone, except for Emily. No problem, there were enough other "dates of convenience" at the dance that I would have plenty of dance partners if I chose. Really, I was thinking about having a good time and not too much about hooking up. Remember, I hadn't planned to be there so I didn't much care.

I need to introduce one of my frat bothers here. It's important to the story that you know more than just his name.

Please meet Steve, better known as "Bear". He was more a force of nature than a person. Bear stood 6 feet 6 and checked in at 255 pounds or there about. He wasn't small man. Never a shirking violet, he was usually involved in whatever uproar was going on. In fact, he was the cause of the uproar most of the time. Bear and I were frat brothers and only really good friends under the influence of alcohol. We were friends a lot during those days.

He was actually a nice guy and a good man to have at your back or your front or on your side. However, Bear did drink a lot and his personality would change as he drank. At first he was very friendly and fun loving, a good guy to party with. The more he drank, he changed and became an angry person. Believe me; Bear angry is not something you want to see. Especially if you are the one he is upset at. If he continued to drink, he became very quite; this was the dangerous time. He could go off at any second and for no logical reason. One time, he was in his quite mood and I saw him rip a door off its' hinges because it didn't open as quickly as he thought it should. When Bear was in his quite mood he was to be avoided as much as possible.

I was at the frat table talking and drinking with my brothers. Bear was in his jovial state and very funny. He got a calculating look in his eyes and stared at me for a minute. Bear came over to my side of the table, put his arm around my shoulders, and said he had a favor to ask of me.

"What do you need Bear?" I had seen him looking at me and I didn't like the sound of this at all. Trouble is coming; I could feel it like a cold rain down my shirt collar.

He explained that his girl Janet likes to dance, but he couldn't fast dance. At most of the parties or dances they went to, Bear spent the evening chasing other guys away from her. She would get angry at him because he wouldn't let her dance.

"I want you to dance the fast ones with Janet and I will take care of the slow dances," Bear explained. That way she will get to dance a lot and he would not have to worry because he trusted me. You're not really on a date, so you're a free agent tonight. What do you say, Rich."

"Bear, Janet doesn't care very much for me since I quit dating her friend Sue. In fact she told we to go to hell and do it quickly. I don't think I can be your wing man in this.

There were a lot of things running thru my head. First of all, Janet was a tease of the greatest magnitude. She had maybe the best body at school and liked to show it off. Picking a victim. She would date the guy for a few weeks, lead him around by the nose with an unspoken promise of carnal knowledge and then drop him and move on to her next sucker. She didn't like me because she hadn't been able to snare me in her trap yet. In addition I had dumped her friend, Sue. Sue was just like Janet; not quite as sexy but not bad. I dumped Sue before she could dump me. Next, Janet liked to flirt and come on to other guys even when on a date. That was a fight waiting to happen with most men, but especially with Bear. She would be this little innocent thing and act like she didn't know what she was doing. Bullshit, she knew exactly what she was doing and what she was causing. She was a female snake.

"No problem, buddy. I already talk to her and she said it sounded good. Her exact words were, I get to dance with two good looking guys tonight," Bear informed me.

"Okay Bear, I will help you keep an eye on your girl. Remember, you asked me to dance with her. Don't get all bent out of shape when you see me doing what you ask me to do. You have a tendency to react badly to things when you get drunk. I'm on your side buddy just remember that. Okay?"

"No problem and I appreciate you helping me. You're my buddy and my brother, I knew I could count on you and I'll buy all your drinks tonight"

Something told me I should just leave and go home, but I didn't listen. The whole time Bear and I were talking, Janet was standing on the other side of the table watching us with a predatory gleam in her eye. Her little mind had a plan and I was the focus of that plan. I knew she would tease me, flirt with me, and do whatever she could to get to me. She thought of me as a puzzle she hadn't solved yet. I would be strong and not fall for her shit.

The first three songs were of the faster type, Janet and I danced to all three. There was no dirty dancing and we hardly touched each other. Bear took over for the next couple of songs as they were slow ones. I watched them dance and hug and hump to the songs; She really had her hooks into Bear. The poor slob doesn't have an idea that he is just the latest flavor of the month. He is in love.

Trouble started about an hour later. Bear had gone outside to partake of some moonshine someone had brought. Janet and I were jumping around to the music; the song ended and the next one was a slow one. I took Janet's arm and started back to the table to wait for Bear.

"I want to dance, I don't want to sit and wait for Bear." Janet said as she pulled away from me. "If you won't dance with me, I'll find someone else."

"Janet if you do that, Bear will be really upset. You don't want to hurt Bear, do you?"

"I don't care. If he cared about me, he wouldn't still be outside. I'm going to dance."

"Okay, I'll dance with you until Bear comes back." Bad move on my part, but what could I do? If she danced with another guy, Bear may kill him and turn on me because I didn't stop it. So I danced.

At first I held Janet like you did in dance class in grade school, almost at arm's length. She let that go for about 10 seconds and then plastered her body to me and I could feel her rubbing up against me. See, a disaster was about to unfold. She got one of my legs between hers and pulled me in even closer. In spite of my good intentions, I was starting to become arouse. You know what I mean. Janet could feel what was going on and increased the pressure. You have all heard of guys thinking with their little head. I have a theory as to why it happens.

I call my theory the "Big head Little head" scenario; the big head being the brain and the little head being the penis. My premise is that men don't have enough blood in their bodies. When a man gets sexually aroused his penis will enlarge. This is cause by an increase in the regulation of blood flow into and out of the penis. If more blood is sent to the penis, it means that there is less blood for the brain (big head). That is when the penis (little head) takes over the thought process. When the "little head" takes control, all logical thought and reasoning are abolished; leading to all kinds of trouble. My experience is a case in point.

Janet did her best to arouse me and it worked. The little head took over and I started to hold her tighter. My hands roamed down to her ass and I cupped her cheeks. I began to kiss her on the neck and then her lips. See, the little head took over and all my good sense went on vacation.

One of my frat brothers was dancing close to us. He leaned over to me and said "Dude, Bear is very big and he is drunk. Be careful."

Looking over at him, I replied, "Bear isn't that big." It didn't help my logic circuits when Janet grabbed my erection and rubbed it. See little head doing the thinking. As I explained before, Bear is huge and not a nice drunk. Out of the blue, my big head (my brain) made a comeback and helped me to realize what I was doing. Was I crazy or did I just have a death wish?

I pulled away from Janet and looked at her. She had this smile of victory on her face; she was so proud of herself. I had finally let myself go with her. Right then I felt a huge hand grab my shoulder and spin me around. It was Bear and he had seen Janet and I rubbing bellies among other things and he was not a happy giant. He grabbed my jacket to hold me and drew back his right hand. I'm sure he planned to knock my head completely off my shoulders. I had to think fast to avoid being killed.

"I'm going to kill you Rich," he told me with conviction.

"Why would you hit me? I was doing you a favor and taking care of Janet for you. Remember you asked for my help."

"Yeah, but you were only supposed to dance fast with her. You and her were practically screwing right on the dance floor."

"Think about it Bear. Who would you rather Janet be with? Me or one of the other guys here. I mean, I know she belongs to you and they just don't care. They would just try to get into her pants. So I dance a slow one with her while you were gone; I was protecting her for you."

Bear had let go of my jacket by this time. I begin to think I just might get out of this alive. You see, Bear is not the sharpest tool in the shed when he has been drinking. He had been drinking hard at this party. I looked at him, held my arms out to my sides and sort of shrugged my shoulders.

"Are we good, Bear?"

"I see what you mean Rich, I guess. Yeah, we're good buddy, sorry for grabbing you."

"No problem," I said. "Guess I'll go on home, now that you're back. See all you guys on Monday. Good night." I started to the door, not running but walking fast. I wanted to get out of sight before Bear's mind could make any sense of all that talking I had done. I knew I didn't have much time.

As I got to my car, I dropped my keys and had to search for them for a couple of minute. When I stood up, there was Bear and a few other people next to my car. Oh shit I thought. He figured it out quicker than I thought he would. Bear grabbed me again and threw across the hood of my car. He began to cuss at me. At least he wasn't hitting me, yet.

"Bear," I yelled at him. What are you doing? I thought we were good?'

"We were until Janet told me what you did," he answered. "She told me how you grabbed her ass, rubbed up against her, and kissed her." You told her to ditch me and meet you at your place. I'm going to pound you into the ground."

I looked up at Janet and she had a shit eating grin on her face. She was going to see that I was punished for not dating her. Bear picked me up; I mean he was actually holding me off the ground. Maybe a sucker punch would make him let me go long enough for me to get away. Boy was I wrong. You know how some animals are so big that if you shot them you would just piss them off. That's how Bear was when I hit him. I just pissed him off. I caught him with my best shot and he just shook his head and began to beat on me. After the first few punches I was almost out of it. Suddenly I was on the ground again, as Bear had let me go. I couldn't understand why he had stopped hitting me; it wasn't anything I had done to make him. I look up at him to see why he had stopped.

It was Emily; she had slapped Bear's face to get him to stop. She was standing between Bear and me, and told Bear that he was wrong and get a grip on his temper.

"I'm going to kill the little shit," he said as he started to push her out of his way. Bear was past rational thought.

"Bear, your girl is the one that caused all this," Emily said as she stepped in front of him again. "I heard her say she was going to dance with some of the other guys, if Rich didn't dance with her. She was the one rubbing up against him. All he did was try to keep his word to you."

Janet had to get her mouth going and said, "Bear that's not true, you know you're the only one I want to be with. Don't stop, get Rich."

Bear growled, he actually growled, and tried to pushed Emily away. Every time he moved to get around her, Emily would move in front of Bear and start yelling at him again. At any other time, it would have been really funny. This little 5 foot 6 girl holding off this giant of a man. As I said, at any other time it would have been funny; right then all I wanted to do was get out of there without being hurt anymore.

He finally got tired of trying to move pass Emily and backed off a little. Bear looked over Emily's head at me and said, "I'll finish with you later punk."

The excitement was over, so the audience wanting to see blood decided to go back to the lodge hall. They were laughing and talking about how Bear had did a number on me. Emily was kneeling beside me with tears in her eyes.

"Don't cry Emily, I'm okay or will be tomorrow. Right now I'm a little shaky but I'll be okay."

"You are really hurt and I'm going to take you to the hospital." No debate from you. We are going and that's final."

Emily drove me to the emergency room and after the doctors had a look at me, I realized I had been hurt more than I thought. They found I had two bruised ribs, my left eye was almost swollen shut, and my lips looked like ground beef. After they taped, bandaged, and put stuff on my cuts, Emily drove me home. She helped me into my house and to the couch.

I must have passed out and when I woke I felt a weight across my legs. It was Emily; she must have stayed with me and fell asleep. Her face was very pretty as she slept. Funny, I had never noticed how pretty she was. Maybe getting my head bounced around had improved my vision. I tried to sit up and groaned at the pain.

Emily woke up when I moved and smiled at me. "Don't get up; I will get anything you want for you."

I laughed and said, "You can't get this, I need to use the restroom. I walked to the bathroom pretty well, pretty well for a 100 year old man that is.

When I got back I asked her why she had stayed with me all night. She answered she didn't have a ride and didn't want to take my car and leave me without transportation. We continued talking until about 2:00 and I took her home. She was right, I couldn't have driven last night, and I barely made it today. Lucky we had the next week off of school; some kind of teacher meetings and seminars. The time off would let me heal a little.

During that week Emily and I spent 3 or 4 days together. Nothing really romantic; just getting to know each other. I asked her out for that Saturday as our first "real" date. We went to a little coffee house that had some very good rhythm and blues music. A very gently kiss good night was as far as it went.

My week off was over and I had to return to classes. I wondered if there would be any further consequences over the fight with Bear.

The first person I saw as I crossed the parking lot to the school was Janet. She was walking, holding hands, with some jerk from Sigma Chi. Sigma was our rival frat, and there was no love lost between us. When Janet saw me she just smiled at me and cuddled up to the Sigma asshole.

What the hell? Where is Bear? Does he know about this? Dozens of thoughts were running thru my head. Oh well, Janet is not my problem. I continued on to my first class, the rest of the day was pretty normal. Except, I kept seeing Janet with this jerk and it began to get to me. What bothered me wasn't that Janet apparently had thrown Bear over, but she had gotten him to kick my ass before she did. I couldn't just let that go. She had used Bear to get back at me because I wouldn't come running when she crooked her finger. I thought of a couple of old saying and calmed down a little. "What goes around comes around" and "Karma is a bitch, with PMS.

More on Karma and payback later.

The next week, the school officials warned the frats that we were all on thin ice. There had been too many uproars involving the "Greeks" on campus. These fights and disturbances were causing problems with the town and could not continue. We had be warned. So be it. Hypocrites, the school was all for the fund raisers, charity work and good will services the "Greeks" provided, but we had been warned.

Mr. President Chuck called a special meeting of the frat right after the last class. If the school hadn't given us a warning, I don't think he would have called the meeting. He was trying to save face for the frat and make it seem that we were concerned. Bull shit. I thought I knew what the agenda was going to be and came prepared. Attendance was mandatory for all brothers. Chuck called the meeting to order. He recounted what had happened at the dance, in a slightly abbreviated form. The leadership council of the frat had met and decided on the following sanctions.

Bear must write a letter to the frat and the Deltas apologizing for the fight. He would be suspended from fraternity functions for one month and could not wear anything showing the frat logo during that time. He must stand in front of the whole fraternity and apologize to me and the brothers.

Chuck asked Bear, "Do you understand these sanctions and accept them?"

"Yeah, Bear said, "I understand and accept them." He stood up and turned to me and continued, "I'm sorry Rich. I was drunk and lost my head. Please let's put this in the past." He looked sort of pleased with himself.

"Just like that, huh? You try to kill me and then say you're sorry and everything is supposed to be okay. Well FUCK YOU BEAR. Forget about it, no way, no fucking way. If you can't handle you alcohol, and you can't, quit drinking. We all tried to tell you about Janet, but you were thinking with your dick and wouldn't listen. To make it worse, now your little girl friend has dumped you and is running around with that asshole from Sigma Chi. You know you almost killed me and maybe would have if Emily had not stepped in, all for nothing. I know I stepped over the line with Janet and I am sorry I did, but I didn't deserve what happened to me."

"Yeah, your right. I over reacted big time. Please let's just shake hands and let it go. I am sorry"

"In case you didn't hear me the first time, FUCK YOU BEAR; I'm done. I'm done trying to keep you from breaking things, breaking people and going to jail. All with the excuse, I'm drunk. I'm done listening to you cry about Janet or some other girl screwing you over and trying to help you get past it. We aren't friends anymore; I don't want anything to do with you.

"That's enough guys," Chuck jumped in and then continued," In addition, Rich you must write the same type of letters to the frat and the Deltas. You must also stand and apologize to the brothers for your part in this fight."

He turned to me and asked, "Rich, do you understand these sanctions and do you accept them?"

"Yeah, I understand. The council is a bunch of chicken shit weenies. Accept, hell no I don't accept. A overgrown psychopath goes on a drunken rampage, almost kills another brother and all you do is require a couple of letters and an apology. He doesn't even have to mean it. Look at his face; he's glad he got off so easy. I knew you guys were going to roll over to save the fraternity embarrassment so I came prepare."

I walked to the front of the room and looked at all the brothers. "Apologize my ass," I stated. I laid a sheet of paper on the desk. "Here is my official resignation. I looked up the bylaws, you have to take my name off the frat rolls if I formally resign; do it now. Here is my frat pin, my frat medallion, and my member card. I don't want to play anymore. Fuck you all." I left the room and the frat.

There were guys in the frat that sympathized with me about the fight but they hadn't stood up at the meeting to voice their feelings; so fuck them too. I felt that if you didn't support me then you were against me. The next few weeks until graduation were a little lonely for me. I wouldn't hang out with any of the frat brothers at school. I had few male friends outside of the frat. The girls of Delta Zeta, Tri Kappa, and the other sororities were pretty much done with me too.

The only one who stood by me was Emily. Go figure, a girl I hardly knew had not only saved my ass but stood with me against my so called brothers, her friends, and sorority sisters. Her sisters told her to stay away from me and that she was being disloyal to the Deltas. She told them to go fuck themselves, that they were as bad as my frat and quit the sorority.

So there we were the two outcasts, depending on each other for company. This was a perfect scenario for a romance to blossom. Right?