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Ryan sat at a bar, alone. His date for the evening had turned out to be so boring that even Ryan’s tolerance was stretched beyond breaking point. He had to end the date before the night was out. Instead of heading home straight away, he’d decided to go into a bar, have a quiet drink by himself and do some people’ watching. The bar he was in was playing lively music. It was very easy to get up and dance. Whilst Ryan wasn’t in the mood for dancing, there were several people who clearly were. Looking at the dance floor for any interesting human conduct, Ryan’s attention was drawn to a young lady with pink hair. She had short tight shorts, and a white clingy vest top. She showed off her attractive figure of a young lady. By diverting his attention just slightly away from her Ryan could tell that he wasn’t the only one to have noticed how attractive she was. He counted four men on the dance floor that struggled to keep their eyes of her. Included in that group were two men who were clearly with another lady. But still they found it hard to keep their focus of the pink haired beauty. She was dancing with another couple of young ladies. The unattached males that were drawn to her, both invited her to dance. She just turned her back on them and continued dancing with her friends. Ryan couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for her. Clearly all she wanted to do was to have a dance with her friends. And the men were looking at her dancing and thinking that was some sort of invitation.
Unnoticed by Ryan an older man had been fixing his glare on the same young lady from the other side of the dance floor. After seeing the two young men fail in their bid to dance with her, the older man went over to try his luck.
“Hello gorgeous”– he said after squeezing past her friends and getting right up close to her. “You fancy dancing with a real man?”
“I’d love to, if one comes in. Would you point him out?”– Rachel’s intoxicated state brought out her witty, biting put-downs.
“I really don’t think you want to say no to me.”
Rachel couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head. “Are you being serious?”
“Deadly serious.”
“Oh wow, how could you think in your wildest dreams that someone like me would want to be with someone like you. If I were any further out of your league I’d be playing a different sport. Go and hit on someone your own age. Not that anybody your age would be out right now.”
Rachel turned her back on him and continued to dance away. Angrily grabbed her by the arm and spun her round so she was facing him again.
“Hey that hurts”– Rachel said and knocked his hand off her arm with her other hand.
He grabbed her with both his hands on both her upper arms. “I could make it hurt a lot more. Now how about that dance?”
“Okay pal that’s enough”– Ryan came from behind Bret and pulled him off Rachel. “The music in here is pretty loud. So I have no idea what you guys have been saying to each other. But even I can tell that the lady is saying no to you.”
“Why is that your business?” Bret responded angrily.
“Well I’m making it my business, so the ‘why’ is irrelevant. Unless you want to be the one getting bullied I suggest that you get out of here now with whatever shred of dignity you still have left”– Ryan stood over Bret a good five or six inches taller than him, and stared down into his eyes.
“Okay I’m leaving. You young lady will never know what you are missing”– Bret pushed past Ryan and headed off the dance floor and out of the bar.
“Are you okay?” Ryan checked with Rachel.
“Yeah I just want to dance”– Rachel said and for the first time that night she was happy with a male presence.
“I know you do, mate”– Ryan replied then checked with the two ladies and with Rachel. “You two are her friends, right?”
They both nodded.
“So you can make sure you all get home safely tonight.”
Again there was no verbal response, only nods. Ryan himself decided to leave the bar, the people watching had become too interactive for his liking.
Outside the bar the first person Ryan saw was Bret. He was heading away from the bar in the direction Ryan wanted to walk home. Ryan decided to walk slowly and keep his distance from the strange angry man. After only walking a hundred yards or so Ryan noticed a young boy walking in the opposite direction. He looked like he couldn’t be much older than twelve.
“Hey Uncle Bret!” The young boy ran towards Bret once he recognized him.
“Tommy!” Bret and his nephew greeted each other with high five gesture with their right hands. “What on earth are you doing out so late?”
“I’ve been playing baseball with some of the guys down the street.”
“Well you better run home before your Mother gets too mad.”
“Will do. Are we still going to the game on Sunday aren’t we?”
“Of course, I never promise a ball game and not go through with it.”
“See you Sunday then”– Tommy ran off to cross the road without looking. In a split second there was that horrible sound of simultaneous screeching tire, and the thud of car hitting someone, quickly followed by the crack of human bones on concrete.
“Tommy!” Bret screamed then rushed to the side of his unconscious nephew. Blood was steadily dripping out of the back of his head.
The woman driving the car got out shaking. “Oh my God, is he all right?” She said holding on to her car door to stop her trembling legs from causing her to fall.
“Does he look all right?” Bret screamed at her. “You’ve killed my nephew!” He ran straight towards her with very aggressive intent, when he got to her he grabbed hold of her high up on the track suit top she was wearing. “You are going to pay for this bitch!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry”– she said and held her hands up and turned her face away and cowered. “He ran straight out in front of me, I couldn’t stop. It was an accident!”
“Oh an accident? Well then how about I accidentally beat you to death? Actually you’re quite a pretty little thing how about I accidentally rape you, then accidentally beat you to death?” Bret forcefully unzipped her track suit top and pulled it off her.
“Please no!” She screamed and started to struggle and cry.
Ryan had been shocked into being frozen to the spot by the young boy being hit by the car. Only shaken out of his inactive state when Bret got hold of the car driver. Sprinted over to get involved. Bret was forcing himself onto the driver, hands all over her and pulling at her clothes. Ryan grabbed him by the collar of his top and threw him off the terrified lady.
“It’s me again pal, sorry.” Ryan said.
“Really, you don’t want to get involved in this one!” Bret shouted at Ryan.
“Looks like I already am. I know it’s tough, but this wasn’t this lady’s fault.”
“She was speeding, driving recklessly, obviously not looking where she was going. And I bet she’s absolutely hammered.”
“It looks like she was cruising at thirty miles per hour. She was driving normally. It was your nephew that wasn’t looking where he was going. And take a look at what she’s wearing. Does it really look like she’s been out for a night of drinking?” Ryan commented on the ladies full-length lycra leggings and sporty vest top, which along with the track-suit top created the impression that the lady was on the way back from the gym.
Bret charged at Ryan, completely out of control. Ryan stepped to one side and brushed off Bret.
“Really doesn’t matter how angry you are pal, you are not going to win a fight with me”– Ryan warned.
Bret took no notice and swung a punch at Ryan. He easily dodged the punch. The second punch was too close for comfort. So Ryan punched Bret’s head twice. On the floor, wiping away the blood from his nose and looking up at Ryan. The two blows seemed to knock some sense into Bret. He clambered up onto his feet.
“Wrong time, wrong place, for you”– Bret said to Ryan then turned to the driver who was holding onto her car door, still shaking and crying.
“You will pay for this, bitch. Maybe not tonight, but someday soon you are going to pay for what you did.” Something resembling a grin came across Bret’s evil looking face. He went over to his nephew, dropped to one knee and started to cry.
Two other people had witnessed the accident. They have been walking on the same side of the road. Ryan and Bret had been but in the opposite direction. They were a middle aged couple and both of them had been shocked and rooted to the spot by what they had just witnessed.
“Have you got a phone?” Ryan said to the man and pointed at him.
“Can you phone for an ambulance, please? And the police?”
“Yeah sure.”
“You call the ambulance, honey. I’ll call the police”– the lady said.
Ryan went over to the driver. “Hey there, how about you have a sit back down”– Ryan helped her lower herself back into the drivers seat. “I promise you this wasn’t you fault. It was just a really unfortunate accident. Now I’m going to stay with you for as long as you need me. And I’ll tell the police exactly what happened.”
“They both on their way”– the man said referring to the ambulance and the police.
“Thanks, can you two hang around to give a statement?” Ryan checked.
“Yes of course”– the man said then walked away just a few yards to where his wife was sitting on a bench.
Ryan went back to talking to the driver. “My name’s Ryan by the way, how about we put your track suit top back on, don’t want you getting cold”– Ryan crouched down so he was on eye level with the driver and handed her the track suit top from off the ground.
“Thanks, I’m Shannon”– she said amongst the sobs of tears.
“Are you really just getting back from the gym at this time of night?” Ryan asked, over emphasizing the perplexing look on his face hoping to cheer Shannon up.
Shannon had the slightest of laughs and smiles amongst the tears.
“Yeah, a little sad on a Friday night I know, but I love going to the gym. I’m not really the one for nights out”– Shannon wiped away tears as she spoke.
“It sounds cool to me. I’m not much of a night out person myself.”
“Well I’m glad you were out tonight.”
“I’m sure if I hadn’t been here some other guy would have come to your rescue. Admittedly he probably wouldn’t have been as athletically good looking, but you’d have been safe enough.”
Again Shannon produced a little laugh only for the tears to come on stronger.
“Oh God I’m sorry”– Ryan said. “I can’t believe I’m making jokes after what you’ve just been through.”
“No, no, it’s okay, really. Please keep talking. What’s happened it is just hitting me.” It’s all right. I’ll try. I can’t promise to make much sense.
But I’ll keep talking to you. Although I really don’t know what to say I just want to give you a hug. But I’m thinking that’s not really appropriate when somebody’s just tried to rape you.”
“A hug would be good”– Shannon spoke, looked at Ryan, nodded her head and allowed her tears to flow.
Ryan broke the hug after ten seconds or so. “Have you got anything to eat in your gym bag?”
“Yeah, are you hungry?” Shannon asked, a little surprised by Ryan’s question.
“Actually I was thinking for you to eat, but now you mention it, I could eat something.
I just know I always have plenty of sugary snacks and drinks with me whenever I go to the gym, thought you might be the same.”
“Well I have a couple of chocolate bars in there and probably one or two other bits and pieces.”
“Have some chocolate. It helps when you’re in a state of shock.”
“Is that really true?”
“I have no idea. It could be an excuse as good as any to eat chocolate.”
“You don’t need to convince me.”
Shannon and Ryan had a bar each. As they were eating the ambulance and the police turned up. By which time Bret had left the scene.
All the ambulance crew could do was confirm that Tommy was dead. Police got statements from Shannon, Ryan and the other couple, as well as breathalising Shannon. They tried to calm her down and assure her that it seemed certain the police wouldn’t charge her. And the police told the four witnesses that the statements were ok, and that they would be in contact with them again. Knowing that the man who attacked Shannon was the boy’s uncle, it meant that the police were confident they’d have little problem tracking him down. It was only twenty minutes or so that the police were there and every second of it was a blur for Shannon.
“Are you doing okay?” Ryan checked once the police had gone.
“They don’t seem to understand that not being prosecuted doesn’t mean I’ve not just killed a child”– Shannon said and fought back the tears.
“I can’t begin to pretend just how you’re feeling. Are you going to be all right getting home? Or do you want me to drive you? My insurance covers me to drive other cars.”
“That would be greatly appreciated. Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“No problem. I have nowhere else to be right now. I can get a taxi back from your place to my home.”
“I’ll pay for the taxi.”
“Damn, right you will!” Ryan managed to get almost a full smile out of Shannon for the first time.
“Thanks so much for all this. You’ll never know how grateful I am for everything you have done tonight”– Shannon said as Ryan parked on her driveway. “Please come in for a drink or something to eat, or anything you want.”
“I’m going to come in just to check you’re going to be all right.”
“You really like this ‘Knight in shining armor role’ aren’t you?” Shannon afforded herself another half-smile.
“I must admit I am feeling pretty good about myself right now.”
Once inside Shannon made herself a hot drink and Ryan helped himself to some fruit juice.
“Oh wow I am feeling exhausted”– Shannon admitted.
“Not surprising when you follow a gym session with a horrible bout of shock like that.”
“This is going to sound crazy because you don’t even know me. But I really don’t want to spend tonight alone. I totally understand if you don’t want to. Would you mind staying?”
“Hey no problem, nothing to go home to, anyway”– Ryan said then followed Shannon to her room. “Yeah that’s a spacious looking floor. Throw me a couple of you pillows and I’ll sleep fine.”
“You can sleep in my bed if you want, it’s plenty big enough”– Shannon said as she sat on her bed looking exhausted.
“Are you sure? You’re not just saying that because you’re vulnerable?”
“No, seriously it is fine.”
“Okay then, if you’re sure. I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.”
Late the next morning Ryan and Shannon woke at almost exactly the same time. Both sat up next to each other, on Shannon’s side of the bed.
“How are you feeling?” Ryan checked.
“I feel better, thanks. I still feel awful but better.”
“Well at least you’re going in the right direction. Listen I’m probably going to keep checking in on you for a few weeks at least. Please, promise me that the minute you get annoyed you will tell me. And I promise I’ll leave you alone.”
“I will as long as you promise to stop checking on me the second you feel you’re only doing it out of some sense of obligation.”
“Sounds like a deal to me.”
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