Just chalk it up to a life lesson

This story goes back to my junior year at Livingstone College.

It started off as a normal college day, but it would soon turn into an adventure far beyond my wildest imagination. Finals were over and I already knew that I had earned a 4.00 GPA. Some friends and I decided to pack our bags and leave a little early from campus, so we could take a road trip prior to going home.

The trip started off as I expected, we listened to music, danced a little bit, talked about holiday plans and best of all were sipping 40s and passing them around the car.



First, after 3 and a half hours on the road, we are finally in Petersburg, Virginia. We stop at a gas station to get some gas and grab a bite to eat. Mind you that we are kind of tipsy. We pull up to the pump and we go inside the store. The clerk tells us our total was $3.50 for our gas purchase. But WAIT! none of us had pumped gas as of yet. We were planning to put $20 in to fill up my tank. She proceeds to threaten us that she would call the police. Against my better judgment, I told her to bite me and she says that we could just leave since we couldn't pay for gas, which mind you we had never pumped.

My friend who I'll call Keira seeing what's going on comes over to see if she can talk some sense into this clerk. The clerk then spits in Keira's face and repeats her orders to get out. Keira turns around and slaps the clerk in her face and angrily walks out. The clerk then grabs a steak knife from the Sub Meat Stand, where sandwiches are made and chases Keira back to the car. She jumps in the way as if to stop us, only I hit the gas not the brake because I'm scared to death. She jumps out of the way just in the nick of time.

About 30 minutes later in Caroline County, Virginia, my friend Marcus has taken over driving and I am asleep in the passenger seat. I woke up to the sounds of Keira and Tara screaming. I look up to see blue and red sirens in the back window and I see not just one, not just two, not even three, but four police officers behind us.

‘Great! Someone has called the police on us about the earlier incident!’ I think.

The officers, looking like they are looking for a reason to arrest us come up to the car and order us all out. They say that our headlight was out on the left and that they thought we looked suspicious. I am sweating bullets remembering that we had been drinking forties the whole ride and had bottles hidden in the back. Not to mention we are not the most sober. (Although we do all have Altoids in our mouths).

The officer orders Marcus to walk in a straight line. Scared to death, my knees buckle. Surprisingly, Marcus passes the test with flying colors and is even talking coherently enough to convince the officer that he is sober. BUT, they decide to check the car.

With butterflies arising within my stomach, I am praying that they do not find the forties. Another surprise, nothing is found.

They let us go with a $40 ticket for a headlight out and tell us to be careful.

"Where are the forty bottles?" I ask puzzled.

"In a ditch, I threw them out the window ages ago," replies Marcus with a smirk.

And then . . .

Just when we think we've seen the worst of the worst . . .

We stop at a motel for the night. Once we are checked in, we go to a nearby bar. We run into some crazy college kids looking for a fight. Only problem . . . There's eight of them and four of us.

Marcus and I are playing pool when a six foot four young man approaches and says "Whatz up?"

"Whatz up?" Marcus replies nonchalantly.

The boy the throws Marcus over the table and asks him "What the f*** are you looking at?"

Me being terrified, but scared he will kill Marcus if I don't intervene, I bang this guy in the head with a pool stick. Just then, a group of guys come over and ask me why I am hitting their brother and announce what they plan to do with me.

Thinking quickly, I snatch Marcus to his feet and run toward the exit in the back.

"STOP!" yells Keira crying, standing in the door trying to stop the other young men from running after us any further. They knock her over.

We call to the girls to meet us at the car. I am pelted with rocks in my head as is Marcus as he and I frantically rush to get to the car. After just barely reaching it, we race around front, let the girls hop in and speed off.

That was a close call. But at least we were safe.

Or so we thought . . .

In our mirror, we look up to see that these guys are in a white truck behind us. To make matters worse, I hear a bang as one of them shoots at us but misses.

The girls are screaming, everyone including me is in tears and I have to think quick. On those dark back roads, I spot a pathway leading to another road, cut off my lights and zoom down it.

I keep my lights off and we just sit there for almost 20 minutes before we are brave enough to check the road. They were gone. They probably kept straight when we turned because they couldn't see us.

Another close call that will go down in my college history. But you know what, it was worth the knowledge gained. Don't ever go into an unknown area that you haven't checked out, it's too dangerous. Just a life lesson that the books don't teach you in college.