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"Did you get hit?"
"Show us!"
A chorus of voices joined in until it was hard for him to make sense of who was talking. He was vaguely aware of lifting his shirt to show some of the faded marks on his torso.
Everyone was cheering him on, and he lost count of the people who tried to talk to him. For an outsider, he was suddenly very muchin. So much so that he was once more plied with alcohol until he could barely think coherently.
It was a few hours later that he finally excused himself and left the frat house. At the height of his euphoria, he felt very pleased with himself and how the interaction had gone. He even wagered he might have made some new friends.
Exiting the house straight onto the main road, he squinted as he tried to make sense of where exactly he was. His sight was foggy, his brain even more so.
Regardless, as he wobbled down the street, he couldn'tnotstop every five feet and pick up all the bottles and other types of trash he could find and put them back where they belonged—in trashcans and recycle bins.
At that moment, all he could think of was his civic duty to ensure the cleanliness of the city.
But that wasn't the only one.
As he waited for the light to turn green so he could cross the street, he spotted an elderly woman doing the same a few feet next to him.
He blinked twice as a bright bulb lit up in his brain—an opportunity toexcelat his civic duty. The moment the light turned, he wasted no time in grabbing the elderly woman's arm, giving her a charming smile and proceeding to help—drag—her across the street.
Her protests were only muffled by Rafaelo's mumbled words as he could not even properly convey his intentions.
Instead oflet me help you, the sound that came out of his mouth was more like.
"Lebe hell-u."
Which, of course, the elderly woman misinterpreted as a threat, especially given Rafaelo's half-smile since one side of his face was entirely numb from the excess of alcohol. Her eyes widening, she swatted him in the head with her bag, pushing him off her and running away—or as best as she could, given her age.
Raf was stumped.
He was left staring at the woman's retreating figure as his brain tried to catch up with everything.
Why had she hit him? He'd only meant to help her.
The more he pondered, the more he frowned, and he spent several minutes trying to get to the bottom of it before shrugging and deciding he needed to get home.
He was rounding the corner to his building when he heard a scream. With so much vodka in his system, he feltalmostinvincible. Which meant he thought of nothing else but diving headfirst into danger. After all, someone needed help, and he was always up for offering help. It was just that he didn't know when to say no.
Raf was swaying from side to side, his eyes barely making out the shapes in the dark. Yet that didn't stop him from charging immediately when he realized it was a woman struggling against two men. They had her backed against the wall of the building, one of them with his hands on his belt while the other was hiking her skirt up.
Maybe if he'd been sober, he would have done things differently. But as it stood, his first instinct was to get involved and help the woman before he could think things out.
And so, he charged.
Ungracefully.
A little gauche.
He was, after all, barely holding himself together. Yet his inherent sense of justice dictated he shoulddosomething.
The girl gave a loud yelp as Raf went for the guy who was trying to undress her. He rushed with a fist to the man's jaw, all the while trying to avoid the other one laying hits onhisbody. It was a cacophony of sounds, grunts and groans as everyone hit the others.
But what was odd was the fact that the girl wasn't leaving. She wasn't running for her life. Instead, she was yelling at Raf to let them go, slapping his back and trying to intervene in the scuffle.
If he'd been sober, maybe that would have registered as a red flag. As it stood, he didn't really see it as a suspicious sign. He only believed her to be frightened, clawing her way out and trying to harm the bad men by herself too.
Admirable, in his view, but foolish.
