AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As I got closer, I realized he was trying to prevent her from falling. Her eyelids were fluttering closed. Her hands were trying to get down the front of his pants.
I sidled up behind him. He gave me a quick glance over his shoulder, saying, “Give me just a minute.”
He raised his hand to the bartender, and snapped his fingers in a come-here way.
“I want to go home with you, Jacob,” the girl slurred pathetically.
I was fairly certain she was oblivious to the fact that I was with him.
Next to us, a chair scraped across the floor, and a large man, shorter in stature to Jacob but barrel-chested, rose. With his belly hanging over the top of his jeans, he approached us.
Ignoring him, Jacob said to the bartender, “Can you get her a cab?”
The bartender tapped the bar with his knuckles. “No problem, Jacob.”
The guy stepped in front of the girl, forcing Jacob to back up a step. The girl dropped her head on the bar.
“Problem over here?” the big man asked.
The drunk mumbled from under her hair, “Jacob is being mean to me.”
I rolled my eyes.
“That right, Jacob? You leading my sister on again? Treatin’ her poorly? I’m about sick of your arrogant mug waltzing through town like your god’s gift.” The guy hitched up his sagging jeans and put his thumbs in his front pockets. I could almost hear the whistling tune from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
“Listen, Barry.” Jacob took a deep breath before continuing, “I’m just trying to make sure she gets home safely. She’s had too much to drink, and she needs a ride home. I just called her a cab.”
Barry continued to taunt him. “You shackin’ up with a new one?” he turned to me. “He runs through ‘em like underwear, you know. Broke my sister’s heart, he did.”
Jacob looked remorseful, “Barry, I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t.”
Barry and I don’t look like we run in the same circles. I imagined he wouldn’t know that Jacob and I have known each other a very long time.
The girl tried to get off the bar stool and failed, falling to the floor. I reached for her just as Barry took a swing at Jacob. “Don’t be touchin’ her again,” he yelled, just as Jacob pushed me out of the way.
We all fell to the sticky bar floor, tangled in a heap.
Jacob scooted away, protecting his leg. His football instincts came in handy as he lunged off the floor. He pulled me up just before the girl vomited all over the floor.
He held onto my hand as we ran through the crowd. I looked back as a circle formed around the intoxicated girl and her big brother.
“My jacket.” I shouted into his back.
“We’ll get it tomorrow,” he said as he dragged me out of the bar.
We ran around a corner, laughing and heaving to catch our breath.
I leaned back against the wall, hidden in the shadows from the lights around the village court.
Jacob doubled over and then stood, grabbing his ribs. “Oh, jeez. That was crazy.”
My laughter subsided, but my smile didn’t drop. “You crushed that girl’s heart.”
“No, I didn’t.”
I held my side, trying to ease the stitch. “I beg to differ. You should apologize to her…when she isn’t drunk.”
“Is that what you want me to do?” He edged toward me, his laughter diminishing.
