By Carmen Sutra

The days when people go out to meet someone to form a meaningful relationship are over. There is new reason for you to lock your doors at night, because there is a prowler on the loose -the One-Night Hook-up. This prowler is armed with smooth lines and can be emotionally dangerous. This one one-night stand expert is showing his face more often these days and is giving you new cause to check your heart at the door the next time you go out.

Here’s the scene: a bar on Hempstead Turnpike. Enter male, for all intents and purposes we’ll call him Vinny. Vinny, feeling confident in his Armani Exchange T-shirt and new black loafers, sees a group of girls near the bar dancing and strolls over. He tells the girls he wants to buy them drinks so they follow him to the bar like little kids following candy. Immediately one of his frat brothers working behind the bar lines up shots and he and the girls throw them back, (but not before stopping to check out his wind-tunnel like sculpted hair in the mirror behind the bar). As the night progresses he zeros in on one girl. They dance closer and drunkenly stumble home to her dorm. The next morning, realizing he is not in his own room, Vinny slips on his clothes and quietly creeps out the door, never to be heard from again.

Waking up next to a stranger is becoming all too familiar for many students around campus and it’s not just the guys doing the prowling. Girls are equally as guilty of initiating these one-night stands.

So why are so many people skipping the get-to-know you steps and moving straight to home? It seems this kind of behavior is accepted in an atmosphere where alcohol plays a starring role. It becomes ok for a random stranger to jam his tongue down your throat.

But these one-nighters could have some serious consequences that might not feel as good as the act of hooking up with someone, afterward. “If both parties understand it’s just a one night deal then it’s okay but I feel like most girls would expect a call the next day.

Not to mention I worry about hooking up with someone I just met because you could get some nasty disease,” said one University student.

But when the clothes are flying, it’s easy to forget about those nasty little things called Sexually Transmitted Infections. And you can’t go on the fact that someone “looks clean” because many common STI’s are symptomless. Not to mention the whole act can also be emotionally draining. Anytime you are physical with someone it’s difficult not to have some kind of emotional attachment.

“I hooked up with this kid at the bar at the beginning of the semester and we ended up going home together,” says another University student.

“He never called but the next weekend I saw him at the bar making out with another girl! I felt like a fool.”

If you’re into random hook-ups it’s important not to expect a call the next day, or ever for that matter, what’s why they call it a one-night stand, because both parties must be looking for a quick way for sexual pleasure or gratification without all the strings attached to get out of this random act with everyone’s feeling intact.

So next time you’re out, don’t be fooled by the Rico Suaves who are just looking for a good-time, because if someone is worth your time they will still be appealing enough to hook-up with when you’re sober.

One Night Stands at college.