[Julio Riddols]

Closest I came to a fight as an adult was when I was tagging along with a roommate to a party. He was a DJ at the local strip club and had been invited to one of the dancers houses for a get together with a lively bunch of marines and cholos. So, me being my shy and quiet self, I am chilling on the side in the back yard with my DJ friend and chatting with a couple of the dancers out there when he says something hilarious and I crack up hard. Well, I just happened to laugh right as this self conscious cholo was walking by to go into the party.. He turns and threatens to go get his knife and come back and stab me for laughing at him. We all looks befuddled as if to say "What did he just say?" but we blow it off, because he is obviously a little wasted and he just kept walking inside anyway. Maybe an hour later, I notice he is coming back around the same side of the house he originally entered from, and he has a buddy tagging along and has his hand in his pocket staring me down. I was a little apprehensive and probably should have been more scared, but I knew I wasn't laughing at him, so when he approached and began to threaten and intimidate I just told him I wasn't laughing at him. He confirmed it with the crowd and that diffused the situation.

It was weird. It wouldn't have been much of a fight if something did go down, I would have probably been stabbed and gone to the hospital, and he would have probably been mobbed by a group of marines. Thankfully none of that happened, and he and I actually spoke a bit later in the evening and had a little laugh about it all.