It was a late summer morning and I was feeling pretty happy
as I cruised down College Avenue with my boyfriend Andy in the passenger seat
and his roommate, Brian in the back of my car. We had the windows rolled down and the music
blasting, as we headed to the campus bookstore to pick up our books for the fall
semester. I was actually really excited, I was going to be a Junior, I felt
like I finally had this college thing figured out. Plus, I was living off
campus for the first time. Yup, life was pretty good.
As we turned the corner to campus we were met with a wall of
people, freshman, it was move in day. They also looked so young, so scared, so
confused. Was this how I looked as a freshman? Impossible.
As we cruised past the dorms, Brian started chanting “fresh
meat” under his breath. I locked eyes with him in the rear-view mirror, and he
promptly stuck his head out the window, yelling at some poor unsuspecting
freshman girl “Hey, go back where you came from!”
I couldn’t believe Brian just yelled that incredibly rude
thing out of my car. I am sure he thought it was funny, yelling at a freshman
to go home, what a horrible way to welcome someone onto campus, but it was even
worse, because the girl was African American. Brian just yelled at an African
American freshman, telling her to go back where she came from. I slammed on my
breaks and wheeled around in my seat.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
Brian shrugged, rolling his eyes “what?”
“What! You just yelled out of the window of my car telling
that girl to go back to where she came from!”
“So, she’s a freshman, I was just joking around.”
“Dude, Brian,” Andy said, “you can’t just say those things.”
“What?” Brian shrugged again.
“Seriously, Brian, think about it for a minute.”
Brian looked at me, then at Andy, then out the window to the
girl who was now walking away from us, and finally it clicked. “Oh shit.”
“Yeah,” I said, “now you’re going to get out of the car and
go apologize to her.”
“What, no, I’m sure she knew it was a joke.”
“I’m sure she didn’t. Now, you don’t have to apologize to
her, but either way, you’re getting out of my car. If you apologize, then you
can get back.”
Brian sat for a minute, before he finally opened the door
and slid out of the backseat. Taking a deep breath, he called out to the girl,
who slowly turned to face him. He jogged over towards her, they talked for a
few minutes, then he sauntered back to the car.
“Did you apologize?” I asked as he hopped into the backseat.
“Yeah, and I get her number, her name is Cheryl and we are
going to get coffee tomorrow.”
"Of course you did."
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