Now, I want to begin by saying that I'm not the kind of guy who goes around looking for fights. I used to fight a lot when I was younger, but I've matured out of it and I'm generally pretty friendly. Today, however, I snapped. I was involved in a physical altercation and, yes, I did throw the first punch. And while I should feel bad about the ordeal, I don't. I have a very, very hard time feeling any guilt whatsoever, under the circumstances. So since this is the internet and I'll likely never encounter any of you in person nor would I know if I did, I've decided to share the story and get your opinions on whether or not I was justified in my actions.

Before we get into the meat of this story, a small amount of background information is required; I'm currently 16 years old (nearing 17) and for over a year now I've been in a relationship with a girl who, for the sake of anonymity, we'll refer to as Sasha just because its an attractive name. She had a pretty rough childhood... without going into too much detail, her dad was an alcoholic dirt-bag who sexually abused her (he's now in jail, thankfully) but it left an emotional scar on her, so to speak. Four years ago, some other things went bad for her and she tried to kill herself (thankfully her attempt failed) and she wound up getting counseling and has been working to move past it all. Its one of those situations that a lot of people at school have some idea about, but very few people actually know the details. And understandably, she doesn't like to talk about it much.

And now we meet the recipient of my rage (and fist). Again, for the sake of anonymity, we'll refer to him as Paul, because I don't like that name, so I feel it fits him well. (Also, sorry to any Paul's who I may have offended. I'm sure you're great people, I just think your name sounds gross). Paul is "That Kid." You know, the one who can't keep his mouth shut and always has to take things one step too far. During lunch today, I was with Sasha (again, that's not really her name, its just a seductive pseudonym for the purpose of this story) and we happened to see Paul remarking about how another student had no friends and was a loser. This is the ONLY part of my actions which I regret... I got involved by saying, "Paul, do you have friends? Like, can you honestly name five people who like you?" Again, not my proudest moment, and I shouldn't have said that. What he said next, however, is what I feel started this whole mess.

Paul replied, "I don't know, how about you name your emo girlfriend?"

Of course this remark frustrated me, but its not that big of a deal. Just a stupid statement from a stupid person. But while I normally would have let it slide and kept on going, today was apparently the pinnacle of my bad-decision making, because I decided to respond to his stupidity instead. I said, "That isn't funny. If by some miracle you had a girlfriend, and she had a history with depression and a suicide attempt on record, I wouldn't make fun of her."

*Note: Things got a bit vulgar after that, so I'll put a spoiler block over any swear words.

Paul then said, "Well maybe she needs to grow the fuck up and learn to take a joke."

Me: "There's a difference between making a joke and being an insensitive dick. She went through years of therapy after being abused by her dad, obviously that's going to be a touchy subject, you fucking idiot."

By this point, Sasha was asking me to forget about it and keep walking, and in retrospect I should have listened to her but, as we've already established, I wasn't exactly at the height of my good decision-making today. Plus, I just REALLY dislike this guy.

So then Paul tried to dig himself out of the hole by saying, "I didn't know about that."

Me: "Well maybe you should learn a thing or two about a person before you decide to insult them for no fucking reason. You're what, fifteen? Grow up a little and learn at least some basic human decency."

Paul then jumped right back into the hole with, "I need to grow up? You're the one who faps to Superman and shit!" (Referring to the fact that I occasionally read comics in the hallway, which he's made sure to point out very obnoxiously in the past)

Me: "Dude, just stop. Seriously, the fact that we're even fighting about this is ridiculous."

Paul then did the mature thing and... spit on me. No joke. I attempted to resolve the conflict calmly and maturely, and he decided that the best course of action was to spit on me. I muttered the classic, cliche tough guy line, "I dare you to do that again." (Actually, looking back on it, using that line may be the worst decision I made today.) And guess what our good friend Paul did? He took me up on the offer and spit on me again. So... I punched him in the face. Hard. Harder than I've ever hit anything, ever.

Paul, after processing that and recovering a bit, threw a punch my way. My advantage, however, is that while I run track and am really quite fast, Paul is slow and very uncoordinated. I actually dodged his punch, and for a split second I felt awesome. Then I realized that I was in a fight, and something like panic set in. So I did the reasonable thing and hit him as many times as I could, as hard as I could, as fast as I could get them in. He got a couple pretty good hits on me too, but I feel quite confident saying that if we're choosing winners in a fight, I won this one. I saw a teacher running down the hall to break us up, and I thought, "Well I'm already screwed, I might as well finish big." So I shoved him into the lockers and punched him the face one more time before the gym coach was grabbing me and hauling us both to the office.

Aftermath: We were both suspended, Sasha is mad at me for fighting in the first place, my parents are pissed but are at this point unable to agree on my punishment, and I pretty much burned any bridges I had left with Paul... so why don't I feel bad? About hitting him, specifically. I do feel bad about making that crack about no one liking him that sort of set the whole thing in motion, but I don't regret hitting him one bit. Tell me, viners, was I at all justified in what I did, or should I feel guilty over the situation?