Intro: Got hit by a guy for talking with his girlfriend, reacted and left seen as the agressor.

Body: I study in a big campus and in the last 2 years I've been going to parties there every Friday, have a big social circle etc. Well this Friday was the last party of the year, i was happy that the semester ended and i did well once again, my plan was to just chill with my friends and approach girls as usual.

Everything was promising, there were girls constantly looking at our group, me and my buddy decided to start, we went to a group of 2 girls and it was like stealing candy from a baby; i was having lots of fun.

Fast forwarding a little bit, i returned to my group and realized there was a hb8 from a nearby group looking to me from time to time(at least that's how i felt), she was with 2 guys but apparently none of them was dating her. So i went to her with my standard approach, said i had something to tell and, smiling, told that i wouldn't forgive myself if i didn't went to talk to her... we introduced to each other and kept chatting. The guys simply turned away and let us talk.

She was all smile, laughing about everything i was saying, i thought i was going to get her. I talked with her for the next 10 minutes, she was telling me about how her semester went tragic etc, then i see a guy coming in our direction, she then says it's her boyfriend.

Well, i was disappointed of course, but not scared or anything because we were just chatting, the guy was not intimidating and she didn't act like i was in danger or anything. I thought "i will just talk a little bit with him and leave, no problem", but when the guy came closer he just hit me on my stomach without a single word, it hurt like hell because my abs were not flexed, i simply was not expecting. My instinctive reaction was to just punch him back on the face.

Then you know, people came to separate us. The guy kept talking a lot of shit, said he had a gun and i was fucked, that kinda of shit, which made my blood boil and i committed the biggest mistake of continuing this nonsense. The thing is, my abs were hurting like hell(still is) but you could not see it, his nose, though, was bleeding. So everyone treated it like i was the agressor.

Man, only my true male friends stood with me, everyone else disapproved, i had to listen 30min+ of moralizing from some girl friends, i tried to justify myself but they would not listen. Oh boy, so many people i know came to say i was on the wrong, even if it was him starting it hitting me without a word, i even apologized for people but obviously the damage was already done.

Conclusion: I honestly don't know, i probably shouldn't have reacted to the piece of shit. I'm in full introspection mode since, trying to figure out how should i have conducted myself in the situation, but honestly don't know.

It's shit because I'm known in the context, so i'll have to deal with this fact for a while. The last time i got into a fight was when i was 12(I'm 24 now), i'm not an aggressive person, but now people think i'm a aggressive jerk which makes me feel really ashamed.