Chapter Two

"We need to cut her off."It was two hours after I had served that girl her first drink.Since then, she has returned to me twice, and to Hart once. She had started her night sitting alone in one of the booths we have towards the back.Seeing as she wasn't ugly by any standards, she was quickly approached by a man, and when that man went to the bathroom or to get a drink, another would swoop in, tipping her drink down her throat the entire time and eagerly offering to buy her another.I watched from the bar, ready to interfere if one of them slipped something in her way too exposed beverage.But they were all just being over flirty. Touching her thigh under the booth, pulling her against them. Who was she? Why was she all alone? She was twenty-one, so she was a grown ass woman, that much was true, but she didn't come off as very mature to me. I hope that wasn't a fake ID...Hart looked up from where he was squeezing a lime into a cup."Who?" He followed my finger to the girl who was laughing at what her current suitor was whispering in her ear. "If you say so. I trust your judgment." I nod, grateful for his cooperation.I glance at the watch on my wrist. It was time for last call anyways."Last call!" I yell loudly as I move back to my half of the bar to start cleaning up. I hear the usual chorus of "boos" and bitching, but I tune them out as my eyes flick to the girl again, swallowing a little at her nodding her head and taking the man's hand to be pulled up from the booth.I watch, ignoring the woman in front of me trying to order her last vodka cranberry.The girl stumbles as they walk towards the exit, and the man quickly wraps his arm around her waist and straightens her out. She looks up at him like he was a god, her cheeks flushed and her eyes all wide.I roll my eyes when they start leaving again and the man turns to his friends who had been watching from across the room. He grins and flips them off, pointing towards the girl and licking his lips like a creep."God damn it." I mutter. I sigh, running my hand through my hair and turning away from the now annoyed woman still trying to get a drink out of me."Hart!" I called. He looks up at me, raising a brow. "I'll be right back." He makes a very confused face at me then. I'm usually very efficient with my closing, starting at the same time and doing the same things in the same order so I finish at the same time. Taking a break is not programmed into that schedule."Everything okay?" He asks. I shrug."I have one of those bartender feelings." He grins."Aw, he does have a heart." I roll my eyes."Only on Fridays." I turn and hurry out the bar, shouldering my way through people slowly trickling out of the bar."Move please." I demanded of a group of women who were blocking the exit by chatting directly in front of it. So inconsiderate."Oh. Sorry." They shuffle out of my way, staring up at me with drunk, lust filled gazes. Like hungry sharks.I push through the metal doors leading to the outside world, where the streets were filled with drunk people waiting for Ubers or friends to bring the car around."Where did you go..." I mutter, scanning the sidewalks. They could have gone around the corner to one of the parking lots. That's where most of the people who were coming to the strip of bars downtown parked, and then they'd just walk from there. I start walking towards where I'll have to cross the street. I don't even know what my plan is. Punch him? That seems rash. I'm sure she can take care of herself. I just... I kept picturing a guy like that taking my sister home, and it made me feel irrationally irritated. I would want someone like me to make sure she was actually okay with it and wasn't just being pressured because she was drunk.I suddenly hear a loud smacking noise to my left, and my eyes flick up to the group of people waiting for their turn to cross the street I had been approaching. The nightlife here is by no means calm, so there's plenty of traffic, even at this late hour. The crosswalks are very necessary.I hear a few people exclaiming sounds of shock, but all I can see is the girl I had been focused on falling backwards.So slowly. Why does everything feel so slow?What the hell happened? I'm running all of a sudden. Why are my feet moving on their own?Can I make it?I see her foot catch on her heel, and her eyes going wide as she realizes; she's falling backwards into the street.I don't know exactly what happened. I can see the man's hands are up, like he pushed her.Why would he push her into traffic? The cars in the street aren't slowing down. They probably don't even know what's coming.I shove a body out of the way as I close in on the girl, this random girl. I don't know her name, and it's not like I have a crush on her or anything petty like that. I don't think she's my long lost love, or my other half. She's pretty, but just another person.She just seems soft. Soft, but nice. Something about the way she had ordered her drink. From the way she talked, it might have been the only drink she even could think of. I bet she had never tasted alcohol before tonight. The world isn't good to nice people, and the fact that she's just been pushed into the street for some small sin on her very first night living life as an adult, is proof of that.Why am I doing this?That incredibly rational thought came far too late. There was no changing my mind now. My fate was sealed.I was already jumping under her and shoving her away from the street as hard as I could. She might dislocate a shoulder or something when she hits the concrete, but she wouldn't get hit by a car.Not like I was about to be.Time seemed to return to normal, and everything slammed into me at once.The sound of tires screeching, metal hitting metal. I could smell burning rubber. The feel of my skull slamming into something. I could almost feel the cracks spidering across my bones. Voices screaming, cursing."What the fuck?!"

"Did that just happen? Seriously?"

"It's because you slapped me! That's why I pushed you!"

"Call someone for fucks sake!"I cough and clench my fists for the last time. I can't see anything. My face feels wet.My hearing makes it sound like my head is underwater. Everything is getting muffled and fuzzy sounding.I can't move my fingers anymore, or my toes. I'm not even sure I'm breathing anymore.I'm definitely dying. Why?

Why am I dying for someone I don't know?

I'm not special. And neither is she. What was the point in sacrificing myself for someone else?

Whatever. It's too late now.