Nix said:
Some advice: When chavs ask for a cigerette or a lighter (baring in mind ALL chavs smoke and therefore have the supplies themselves) it's actually a code for entering you into some dialogue so they can attack/mug you. I know this from experience.
I've had people hit me because I didn't smoke. Go figure. When people ask now, I say sorry and keep walking, if they follow me, I turn around and tell them to **** ***. They usually take the hint then.
I hope your friends get better soon.
At Fawdon Metro station in Newcastle (those who know the area will know what's coming up...):
Charver (about 5'4", maybe 15 or 16 years old):
How, mate? Yer gorra light?
Me:
Sorry, dude. Don't smoke.
Charver:
Yeah, y'do! y'****in' lyin' to us, liiiiiiiike?!
Me:
I told you; I don't smoke. Never have.
Charver:
Ah've ****in' (somehow always pronounced in a way that rhymes with 'socking' :/ ) seen ye's!
Me:
Look, mate - **** off, okay?
At which point he takes a swing at me. Bearing in mind that I'm 6'3", he just manages to catch my bottom lip. Not particularly hard but the next morning I had a lower lip that would put Pete Burns to shame.
Anyway, my instant reaction was to hit him back (the best defence is offence, yadayadayada...Anyway, I'm big and can't run much since I buggered my kneecap playing rugby so retreat isn't an option...besides, I needed to catch the Metro...but that's another story...) And this time the height difference means I catch him on the bridge of the nose.
Then the oddest thing happened...I have NEVER seen this before or since.
He just concertinad (my mind says that's a word but my eyes are going "look, dude...it just looks wrong, okay?"...Much like with the word 'curious'; the more I look at it, the more 'wrong' it gets) into the ground. His legs gave way from under him and he fell vertically.
So I resume the wait for the Metro. After a minute or so, he gets up and the first thing he shouts is "How, YEES! ****in' (socking, again) knife the <euphemism for the female genetalia>!" at a group of half a dozen of his friends standing about ten feet away.
Their response:
"Nah, do it yourself."
It's amazing how charvers react when you remove their group support. They are pack animals. Remove them from that and they become terrified and humble.
*n