No, no. I don't think or know if she could have reacted differently when the aggression happened. That's another part of the story. The 'not defusing the situa

No, no. I don't think or know if she could have reacted differently when the aggression happened. That's another part of the story. The 'not defusing the situation' is about how she came back to someone asking to 'fix it'. That's when escalation happened. That someone being under the influence of drugs at that moment made another bad move by 'trying something' which escalated the situation one more step. Don't play stupid in that kind of situation: a knife can be pulled out really fast and the thugs could have left the place the same way but with one seriously wounded person. And for what ? For seeking revenge by shaming of fighting the guys (that was a possibility on the mind of the author, he states getting beaten happened once and he turned out okay, whatever) for damage already done.