The Prowl: Caught in the Crossfire of a Beer Fight

After a client dinner on Thursday night, my coworkers and I decided to stop for a drink together.  After a week in which all of our clients decided to lose their respective minds (I might actually dislike all of them), a mellowing agent was desperately needed.  Yes, needed.

Shortly after we arrived at our bar of choice, several friends of one of my coworker's decided to join us, including her roommate and her roommate's boyfriend.  After several rounds, the boyfriend went to the bar and returned with a large tray of drinks that he was holding like a waiter with one hand.  As he approached his lady friend I suppose he tripped or simply lost his balance and spilled some into her lap.  Rather than accepting that sometimes in a bar you have beer spilled on you, she took her beer and splashed half of it back onto her boyfriend.  He retaliated by throwing his beer back on her and this went back and forth for several rounds of dumping full drinks onto one another.

At first, not really knowing either very well, I thought this was in good fun and a joke, even if extremely immature.  As they kept going, however, it became overwhelmingly clear that actually, they may possibly resort to physical violence if not stopped.  Finally, the girl yelled at her boyfriend that he "better finish that beer," threatening if he didn't he would soon find it all over himself.  Someone who was not part of our group and who must have missed most of the fight chimed in "yeah, finish that beer!"  In conjunction with the onlookers complaining of the collateral damage (there really was beer everywhere), this final remark finally made them pause and regain at least a degree of composure.

But the fight was not yet over.  Shortly after both had toweled off slightly, one of my coworker's announced that he was about to leave.  I saw a jacket on the floor, which I thought was his.  When I asked him about it, the girl looked down, noticed it belonged to her boyfriend, and began to mop the very wet floor with it.  She finally picked it up and said "No, it's ..." and handed it to him.  As if the beer throwing had not been enough, this was the final straw and he stormed out.

I am told that the next day each laughed about it, as in, "oh, it was so funny that we started throwing beer at one another."  Having witnessed the whole thing though, there was nothing funny about it.  For the life of me, I have no idea what really started this or what would ever compel two people who are supposed to like each other to act this way.  It was shocking.  And, frankly, appalling.  I suppose that she assumed that he spilled on her by mistake, but I am curious to know why she would ever think that?  And what kind of gentleman would throw a drink back?  Most importantly though, if they are not happy with one another, as I suspect they must not be, why not simply break up at that point rather than acting like characters in Lord of the Flies?  I am genuinely baffled and hope that the rest of my weekend is both less dramatic and less hoppy.