[indent][color=brown]"God damn, Helena. Good thing you're okay though. Shit, what's the world come to man? This whole damn city's on fire, ain't nobody doing a single god damn thing about it."[/color]

Cole took a swig from his bottle of Coca-Cola and shook his head, exasperated by the story. Helena was a friend of his and to hear that she just went through what he'd been aching over for a long time now. His brother's death had been almost a year ago, but the emotional wounds in his soul were still open and sore, and every time he heard something like this, his heart ached a little more for his lost sibling. It didn't help that he'd also been a victim of petty crime just last week, and as the invisible "let's share our crime stories" ball was passed around the table, it reached him. Cole ran a hand through his hair as he took another swig from his Coke before he began to regale his friends with the tale of his most recent encounter.
[hr]
[color=brown]"Aight so, last week right? I'm at the 7/11, on a night shift. I'm on the register, as usual, right? Middle of the Tuesday night, nothing's bound to happen, right?"

"So then, I'm just sending out a tweet on my phone, it's like, 2:30 AM, right? In walks these two fuckers, a big white guy and another scrawny black dude. I should've known they were 'bout to start some shit; the white fucker had his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets like he was holdin' onto something. Other guy walks up to the counter, starts talking to me, y'know. Guess he was distracting me or some shit, thought I didn't have the stones to fight back if they were gonna start shit. So they didn't know that we had a small TV behind the counter, had the CCTV cameras and shit on it. I saw the white guy sneaking off to the drink coolers. Popped open one of them and grabbed a few beers. Thought I didn't notice."

"I waited for the other guy to walk to the door before I called him out. Y'know, asked him where he was goin' with those beers stuffed in his pockets. That set 'em off. The dude in front of me pulled a knife, waved it in my face, yelled at me and wanted me to get the money out of the register. I'd seen girls with more stones than this guy, y'know? Anyway, I wasn't having any of it. I ignored the knife in my face and told his friend to put the beers back. Sneaked my hand under the counter to grab my baseball bat. Got a hold of it just as the dude with the knife in my face turned around to make sure his idiot friend wasn't followin' what I told him to do. Took my bat and smacked the knife outta his damn hand. Got the dude super pissed off. He tried to leap over the counter to get to me and I punched him in the gut with the tip of my bat. Pushed him off the counter and shouted at the two of 'em to leave, which they did. But I made sure to run after the guy holding the beers with my bat. Made him drop everything and he ran out of the store screamin'."[/color]
[hr]
[color=brown]"And that was the rest of my night. Had to clean up all the glass 'n beer that got on the floor, called 911 'n stuff. Hopefully the CCTVs got something usable. Otherwise I would've done all that for nothing."[/color]

Cole crossed his arms and huffed, shaking his head at the thought of someone being able to best him. He'd clawed his way out of the criminal hellhole that he'd been in, only to encounter the same sort of menace that he used to be. Except now he had the experience to back up his words. Two bit thugs meant nothing to him, even as a lowly cashier for a 7/11.

[color=brown]"I'd tell y'all another story, but like, you guys have probably seen it already. On the news a year ago. When my brother got shot."[/color]

He shrugged. The pain still echoed through his mind and body, but he'd gotten over it enough to talk about it, at least.[/indent]