Back in my HS days, I had an acquaintance named Rob. I was friends with Rob’s extended family - his aunt was & is like a mother to me, but Rob was a piece of [bleep].
I was going to a party in a pasture. My friend Diane wanted to follow me there, as she did not know the way. I am sitting in my car in a parking lot waiting for Diane when Rob walks up and asks if he can ride to the party with me. I say “sure, but I am not responsible for bringing you back to town; if you are ready to leave when I am I will bring you back, but I will not make a special trip. Rob agreed to those conditions.
We are at the party about 10 minutes and Rob approaches me looking rather anxious and asks when I will be ready to go. “Dude, we just got here. What’s the matter?” Rob tells me there are some people at the party that have a problem with him. “Imagine that” I say, and I advise him to look for another ride outta there. Awhile later I am at the trunk of my car mixing a drink and I hear quite the commotion behind me. As I walk back to the bonfire I meet Diane and she asks “What’s going on over there?” “Oh, they’re beating the hell out of Rob” I casually reply. “Aren’t you going to stop them?” She asked. “Nope, I’m sure they’ve got a good reason.”
It turns out that Rob had found a ride back to town with his good hearted neighbor, Steve. As Steve started to back his truck, four very pissed off guys stood and glared at Rob, making sure he understood that he was never welcome there again. It had appeared that the situation would end peacefully. Rob, being the piece of [bleep] that he was, stared back at them and flipped them the bird. That’s when they yanked him out of the truck…
Rob pressed charges and asked me to be a witness for his case. I told him “Hell no, you deserved what you got.” The guys that beat him up had to pay fines, etc. That was nearly 40 years ago. As far as I know the guys that did the beating all went on to productive& successful lives. Rob is about 20 years into a couple of life sentences with no parole.
