Story Time: Don’t trust stray dogs and stray women…

Sometime in November of 2006, I was a freshman at Winston Salem State University. I had made some relatively good friends already and was thoroughly enjoying my first year away from my parentals. By this time of the year, finals were approaching and my partying was becoming a lot less frequent. Coincidentally, I had made an interesting friend in, lets call him Sergio for the purpose of anonymity. He had a car and multiple women as friends…at Wake Forest. Wake Forest University was about 15 minutes away from my campus so going there was never a problem. The plan was to go hang out at a sorority girl’s apartment for the night and just hang out (play cards, games, beer pong, etc). This all sounded like a fine evening for an 18 year old single college freshman with no class the next day. So we (myself, sergio’s friend, and Sergio) stuffed ourselves in his dirty 2 door Mazda. Sergio’s friend was…sketchy at best, mainly because I had never seen her on campus but she swore went to our school. So for the remainder of the story, I’ll refer to her as Red Flag 1 or RF1.

As we made our way to Wake Forest’s campus, we talked about classes, band and parties we attended the past few months. It was short drive but the conversation seemed long but pleasant. We parked in a seemingly packed parking lot and made our way to student apartments. This is when I noticed RF1 carrying a bag I didn’t see her get in the car with. I shrugged it off and continued in with them. We get to the door and we hear loud rock music and the smell of illegal drugs smacked me in the face. Now I was having second thoughts. We went inside to find  at least 15 people drinking, smoking and playing Wii (it was big at this time) in the middle of the room. Sergio’s friend (lets call him Ivan) greeted him with a big hug and give RF1 a hug as well. Ivan went to Wake Forest and apparently knew RF1 very well so I was the new/odd man out. I didn’t mind though, since college is about meeting new people and having new experiences. I started playing Wii with a few of the white girls and only other black girl there and we were having a great time. I refused to drink while I was here, mainly because I don’t know anyone and did not want to end up in jail for being black and drunk at Wake Forest. The night went on and people started playing beer pong and blasting “Throw Some D’s” (because why the hell not?) loudly. By this time I had found somewhere to sit down and I started watching people. Then I noticed a brown dog started to walk up to me, so I played with him for a bit. This was Red Flag 2. 

15 minutes after I noticed the dog, there was a hard banging on the door. I first assumed it was the cops because as a black person, I know how cops knock on doors. But no one turned the music down or hid any of the alcohol and weed so maybe it was some more people coming to party. I ignored it and turned my attention to half naked white chick dancing with the now topless Red Flag 1. Turns out, it was a cop and he was asking the owner of the apartment (who apparently was blacked out in the tub) to turn the music down. Someone answered him, not sure who but the music was turned down and the party commenced. The cop left but not before he glared at me and RF1 for a few seconds. RF1 didn’t notice but I damn sure did.

As the party began to calm down, I noticed that Sergio was no where to be found and RF1 was still topless staring at me and RF2. I asked her if she needed anything and she responded “I need….him” pointing to RF2. She said it like I had ownership of the dog, which I didn’t, the dog just liked me. I simply responded “Just call him over, I don’t care”. She called him over and started playing with the dog while still staring at me time to time.There was another knock on the door. The music was off and everyone was either knocked out or just spaced out so I didn’t think it was the cops. No one got up to answer the door so I got up and did it. It was the cop from before. He was shocked to see me answered but asked me what I knew about a dog. Me being young and dumb stated I only saw the dog that was here but haven’t left the apartment to notice another. I pointed RF2 to the officer and RF1 freaked out. She stood up, holding RF2 and rushed the officer. Mind you, she still didn’t have her shirt or bra on while she did this. The cop stood his ground, and pushed her down. He had slid me to the side to trap her and the dog. No one…NO ONE in the apartment moved or attempted to stop this altercation. After a few minutes of them struggling on the floor, here comes Sergio to the rescue. He pulled the cop off of RF1, grabbed me and we bolted out the door. At this time, I’m asking no questions and I’m just running (just being very black) back to his car. I asked about RF1 and he loudly responded “F her” as we got to the parking lot. We got in the car and started to leave campus without RF1.

Back on campus, he explained to me that RF1 was a girl that he and Ivan met 3 days ago but they didn’t really know much about her so she was expendable. I never saw her again but I learned to never trust a random woman with perky breasts or a friendly dog in a stranger’s apartment. There are things you shouldn’t do as a freshman and being the only new face in someone’s apartment is one of them.