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reputation was more important to him than a few broken bones. The latter answer, saying that he was gay, would save both of them. But Michael wouldn’t only lose the respect of the people around him; he would also lose his own self-respect. It seemed to be a lose-lose situation. Unless…
    Ignoring the stench of body odor, he leaned closer to that seething face and then said in a steady, loud voice, “I’m not gay, Ted. But I don’t mind gay people. And since you seem to be so interested in the subject, maybe you’d like to confess something to your friends. Do you have some hidden desire?” He smiled triumphantly at Ted.
    In an instant, Ted’s enormous fist flew out like a rocket with the intent of breaking Michael’s nose, or at least putting out an eye. Anticipating this, Michael had only enough time to drop his chin so the punch, instead of hitting him square in the face, caught him on the center of his forehead. As Michael had learned in anatomy class, the middle of the forehead was where the skull bone was the thickest. The momentum of the blow made him tumble backward into the wall. Michael didn’t know which had hurt worse, the fist connecting with his forehead, or the back of his head connecting with the paneled wall.
    For the first time in his life, he was dazed. For a few minutes, he didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. As the seconds passed by and the cobwebs started to clear out of his brain, he realized he was being led out the back door by a couple of his friends. He felt warmth on his forehead and winced when he touched it. His fingers came away bloody.
    Just before leaving, he glanced back over his shoulder. The Ted behemoth creature was being dragged out the front door by his own disapproving fraternity brothers, who were berating him for being so stupid. Ted was still screaming and trying to break free. As he struggled to escape his friends, Theodore screamed over and over again, “I’ll get you, Weasel!”
    Wayne, bat in hand, calmly followed Ted and his gang of friends out.
    Michael’s own friends brought him out into the cool night air behind the bar. “Are you okay?” they asked him repeatedly, looking up at his forehead.
    Michael insisted that he was doing fine and that the alcohol helped deaden any pain he felt. Of course, he might feel differently the next morning. They were soon joined by a few more people who had followed them out the back door. Lorie was one of them.
    “Oh, my…” she stammered after seeing Michael’s bloody forehead. “How bad are you hurt?” she asked, genuinely concerned and horrified at the events that had just taken place.
    “I’m sorry I ruined your date,” Michael replied. “I didn’t know it was him.”
    “Oh, be quiet. He’s a jerk, and if he even thinks I’m going to look at him again, he’s an idiot.”
    Michael smiled at her, but she looked more than a little worried about his head. “Let’s take you back to your apartment and get that cleaned up. It looks pretty bad. Then we’ll know if you need stitches.”
    “No,” Michael managed to say, still feeling a little unsteady on his feet. “I’ll be all right. And if you came over now, you’d have to walk back to your place in the middle of the night alone. My roommates are in no condition to drive, or even walk, at this moment. Are any of your friends here? I can have one of my fraternity brothers take you home.”
    “Actually, I came with some of my friends. I’ve learned from experience that it’s always best to meet someone with a group of friends for the first date. That way, if things go badly…”
    “So, this wasn’t the future Mr. Lorie?” Michael asked.
    “Are you joking? This was about the worst—well, maybe one of the top five worst—dates I’ve ever had.”
    A few more people spilled out the back door and, to everyone’s delight, notified them that Wayne had permanently banned Ted from the bar. Apparently, he had quite the reputation around campus for