She paused, shuddered, closed her eyes and opened them again. She pulled the trigger. I heard a click, another click, and another one. “It wasn’t loaded?” I yelled. “Are you fucking serious? I swear if you weren’t dying right now I’d kill you myself.” I picked up my phone and dialed. I was pissed, but they said I had to stay there.

I sat on the cold ground next to her. I watched as she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tried to light one. She was too injured to do it and so I did it for her. “Why are you sticking around?” she asked. “Did you see what just happened? I robbed you then got hit by a car. There was my immediate karma. Most people would have left me for the birds by now.”

“I’m not most people.” I said simply. I stared at her in her weak and vulnerable position. Her eyes were soft with both fear and lightness. “So what’s your name?”

“Why do you care?”

“I’m the one who is saving your life. You just robbed me at gunpoint.” My voice softened. “You owe me that much.”

“My name is Ashley.” I looked at her expecting more. “What else do you want to know?” I just continued to look at her. “You want to know why I robbed you don’t you?”

“No, let me guess. You needed more money for your heroine? No wait, you owe your drug dealer money.” She rolled her eyes. “No wait! You must be doing it because you’re a sociopath.”

“Okay, not everyone who lives life like me has issues like that!” She said before coughing, spitting a little bit of blood on the ground.

“Then why’d you do it?” I asked, demanding for an answer.

She took a while to answer. “I need the money for my daughter! It’s hard to be 20 years old and afford a life and a kid, okay?”

“I’m sorry.”

“No you’re not. The thing with people is that most of the time they say they’re sorry and don’t mean it. What they really mean is that they pity you. Well, Spencer, I don’t need your pity.”

I just looked at the ground. I was ashamed. “So are you married?”

She choked out half of a laugh. “No, I’m a lesbian.”

“Oh,” I said looking down. What were the odds of a lesbian robbing another lesbian in this part of Atlanta? “So how did you…”

“I was young and stupid. Thought I could hide myself behind the shield of a boyfriend. Well, he got me pregnant and didn’t want to support me. He doesn’t even pay child support.” I began feeling a little dizzy and I wasn’t sure why. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

I felt myself begin to rock lazily forward and backward. My eyes began to slightly close. I heard my name said in a distant echo many times. I fell backwards against the cold cement. Everything turned dark as it spun above me. Everything turned darker, darker, darker, then everything went to a deep, deep black.

TBC