Getting Smashed - Special guest blog by Mark's girlfriend
A.J. and I were good friends, so close that I would drive an hour and a half over to Orlando as often as I could to skate with him and party with him at night. It was never anything sexual, I just liked A.J. as a friend because he was crazy and fun to be around.
After a few months of hanging out in Orlando, I finally had a chance to meet a girl who introduced herself to me as "A.J.'s girlfriend." I didn't think much of it, especially because I had been warned that this girl was crazy and was "in love" with him. A.J. had never even mentioned her to me before this particular night. I told the girl that A.J. and I were good friends and it was nice to meet her.
That night, A.J. didn't answer the girl's calls, so she came over to his house and barged through the door. A.J. and I were drinking beer in the living room with a few of his friends, and the girl seemed livid that she hadn't been invited over. She mumbled something about a party, and A.J.'s friends told her they planned to go to it.
Everyone except A.J. and I left to go to the bash, which was supposedly taking place in some rich kid's parents' house. I asked A.J. if he wanted to go, but he just said he didn't want to see the girl again. But pretty soon we both got bored and decided to crash the party.
We drove to this huge house and filled up our plastic cups with warm beer from the keg. A.J. knew a lot of people there, but I didn't know anyone. I just stood next to A.J. and smiled.
Across the room I spotted a girl crying on her friend's shoulder.
"Hey, isn't that..."
"Yeah, it's her. I don't really want to deal with her."
A.J.'s not-girlfriend's friend gave me a dirty look from across the room.
"Do you want to get out of here?" I asked him, hoping to avoid a confrontation.
He nodded and we left the party. I asked A.J. to drive my Mountaineer for me because I was too inebriated to make my way through the streets of O-Town. He was pretty drunk too, so we decided to wait it out in the SUV while we sobered up a little bit.
I had to piece the following parts of the story from police reports and things other people told me because I can't remember the details, but it went something like this.
While A.J was smoking a cigarette and the two of us were talking, two girls pulled me from the passenger's seat of my car. One of them grabbed me while the other one smashed a beer bottle over my head. When I dropped to the ground unconcious they proceeded to kick me. A.J. got out of the car as fast as he could to pull the girls away, but they had already run once they realized I was bleeding profusely all over the sidewalk.
A guy named Fathead, who saw most of the incident happen but couldn't get there in time to stop it, called 911. He and A.J. checked me over and thought they saw blood dripping from the inside of my ear, which would have signified internal damage. They told the dispatcher, who sent a helicopter to airlift me to Orlando Medical Center.
One thing I distinctly remember was lying on the ground in the hot summer night, not realizing exactly what was happening. People were hovering over me and I was crying, but I wasn't really in pain. Why am I sweating so much? I wondered while I put my hands through my hair. Then, I looked down at my hands and realized that what I thought was sweat was actually blood, and I passed out again.
I woke up the next morning in the hospital, and my hair was caked with blood. I had four staples in my head, and I've been paranoid about ex-girlfriends ever since.
More info
- After this initial incedent happened, the detective working on my case told me not to go to Australia for the student exchance that I was supposed to leave for in one month. He wanted me to ditch my oppurtunity to study overseas because he said I would have to go to court. I went to Oz anyway.
- Neither of the girls who assualted me was A.J.'s not-girlfriend. It was two of her friends who nearly killed me, but apparently it was the not-girlfriend's idea. I don't know that for sure.
- One of the girls involved was not prosecuted because she was arrested 4 days after the 180-day period that she could legally be arrested in. If she had been convicted, her maximum sentence would have been 15 years.
- The other girl was charged with felony battery but served no time. She was a minor at the time of the event and was sentenced to community service, two years of probation, and anger management classes. She also has to send me checks for the next several years to help cover my medical expenses.
- I did my trial by telephone in Australia. They wanted to fly me home to do it, but I think the City of Orlando decided it was much less expensive to have me testify by phone.
- The scar on my head hurts from time to time. The doctor said that if the girl had hit me as hard as she did one inch lower (on my temple), I probably would have died.
- I couldn't go to house parties or crowded bars for months after that experience.
- I'm still deathly afraid of ex-girlfriends.
12:04:15 PM 
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