“He’s creepy.”
I agreed.
“Let’s just go,” I mumbled. “I don’t like how he is lookin’ at us.”
She tossed both boxes of cereal into the trolley, and together, we walked away. When we reached the till and glanced back over our shoulders, we both released a sigh of relief when we saw that the man hadn’t followed us. Logically, I knew he was most likely harmless, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that settled over me when I realised that he was watching us.
After we checked out all our items, we put them into carrier bags, popped them into the trolley, and left the shop. We had just cleared the exit and turned the corner only to have the creepy man step in front of our trolley and cause us to come to an abrupt halt. I grabbed Bronagh’s forearm and held on.
“Excuse us,” I said. “We’d like to get by, please.”
“You’re both real pretty,” he said, and when he spoke, I could see how yellow his teeth were. “Real pretty.”
“Thank y-you,” I stammered. “But we have to go.”
I tried to turn the trolley to move around the man, but he stepped back in front of us. That was the moment I knew this was a bad situation, and it wasn’t going to have a good outcome.
“I have a husband,” Bronagh blurted the lie with ease. “And so does she.”
The man looked between us.
“You both really playin’ the married card?”
“We are married,” Bronagh pressed. “I’m pregnant with me second child, as if you can’t see that for yourself.”
The man didn’t move a muscle.
“Pregnant women fetch a high price on the streets.”
Excuse me?
“Please, leave us alone,” I asked him, my voice soft. “We’re just ‘ere to do some shoppin’.”
“I can offer ye’ both jobs,” he spoke, ignoring me completely. “I can make ye’ both wealthy women. All ye’ have to do is join me entertainment business.”
Entertainment business?
“We don’t want to work for ye’,” I said, my voice firm. “We aren’t—”
“You have a big mouth.” The man cut me off. “I bet you can deep throat. That earns me worker’s big tips.”
“Workers?” Bronagh repeated. “What are you talkin’ about?”
“Women of the night.” The man grinned. “Or day. Whenever you get a body between your thighs, really.”
“Prostitution?” I choked. “We are not gonna be prostitutes!”
What the fuck kind of conversation is this?
“Don’t raise your voice at me,” the man snapped.
Bronagh pushed the trolley forward, and it smacked the man’s thigh and sent him stumbling back.
“Clear off!” she warned. “We don’t want no part of your business.”
“You’ll fuckin’ pay for that!”
When he turned and stormed away, my heart was pounding erratically.
“We have to leave!” I stressed to Bronagh. “I feel sick.”
“Me too,” Bronagh agreed.
Together, we hustled across the car park, only to come to an abrupt halt when we saw a black-haired woman and a red-haired woman jogging towards us with the fat man huffing and puffing as he trailed behind them.
“Oh God.”
I scrambled for my phone, and when I rooted it out of my bag, I called Nico straight away. He answered on the second ring.
“Nico?”
“Alannah?” he said. “What’s up?”
“We need help,” I said, my voice gruff. “A man was bein’ creepy towards us in the shop so we told ‘im off, and now we’re in the car park and he is ‘ere with two women who I think are goin’ to fight us. I’m afraid I won’t be able to protect Bronagh. She can’t get to the car without them gettin’ ‘er first.”
Nico wasted zero time as he asked which part of the car park we were in. When I hung up the phone, the women and the man were only metres away from us.
“Alannah,” Bronagh said, her grip tightening on me. “I think they’re goin’ to jump me. Look at them.”
I eyed the two girls and noticed they were removing earrings, repositioning rings on their fingers, and tying their hair back into tight buns. It didn’t look good, and I suddenly felt sick because I was going to get hurt by one or both of these women. No way in hell was I standing by while they jumped my friend.
“She is pregnant,” I announced, loudly. “Don’t even think of comin’ for ‘er.”
Both the women laughed, uncaringly.
“I’m not jokin’,” I pressed. “We did nothin’ wrong.”
“You hit me baby’s daddy with your trolley!” the redhead spat. “I’m gonna bounce your head off the concrete.”
Christ.
“She has a baby with ‘im?” Bronagh said under her breath. “She’s half his age and way out of his league.”
I stared at the women, then said, “I think they work for ‘im, and he mixed business with pleasure.”
“Oh.”
Yeah, oh.
“He cornered us and tried to get us to work for ‘im,” Bronagh said in our defence. “He wouldn’t go away when we asked ‘im to.”
“Ugly bitch!”
“Hey!” I snapped, shocked that the man would insult my friend. “You can’t just slag ‘er off because she wouldn’t work as your prostitute! Ye’ can’t be serious to think ye’ can just come out and ask strangers this kind of stuff!”
The women picked that moment to advance, and even though I was terrified, I quickly walked towards them just to keep them as far away from Bronagh as possible. I heard Bronagh’s scream before I felt the first punch to the side of my head. I was knocked around like a ragdoll as both women punched, kicked, and stomped on me without mercy. I didn’t even realise I was on the ground until I felt the concrete scrape my bare shoulders.
A fighter I was not, but I swung my closed fists and smacked one of the women hard enough to make her cry out. I managed to get to my feet and pushed both women away from me. One tumbled to the ground, but the other remained standing. My face was throbbing, my scalp stung, and the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth told me I was hurt. I spat it out and forced myself to relax when I saw everything I spat was blood and not saliva, and my mouth was filling up once more.
“You’re bleedin’!” Bronagh whimpered, then I felt her hands clutch my waist. “Oh, shite. Alannah!”
I kept my focus on the two women; the one with red hair had her hand over her eye, and the one with black hair held her stomach. I wasn’t sure if I really hurt them or not, but they didn’t seem all that interested in running at me again, and I hoped to God they wouldn’t. My nerves were shot, and I trembled as adrenaline shot through me. I turned my head when screeching tyres sounded, and I heard, “Alannah!”
Bronagh practically deflated with relief behind me.
“Dominic!”
I glanced to my left, and my heart pounded when I saw the twins running towards us. I had never been more relieved in my entire life to see the lads, and when they reached us, I had to spit again because my mouth was full of blood once more.
“Fuck!” Damien snapped as he grabbed my face and inspected it. “Who hurt you?”
“Those women,” I answered, then quickly wiped my chin when spit spilled from it. “I can’t believe this is happenin’.”
When I looked at my hand, it was red with blood, and I knew something was wrong inside my mouth. Damien told me to open my mouth, so I did, and when he stuck a finger inside and felt along the inside of my cheek, he ran his finger over a part of flesh that made me jerk away in pain.
“There’s a gash on the inside of your cheek,” he said, his jaw tensed. “How did that happen?”
“It must have been when one of them punched or kicked me head,” I answered, not knowing how else it could have happened. “Maybe one of me teeth cut it?”
Nico looked me over once he made sure Bronagh was okay, and when I had to spit again, he saw the blood on the ground, on my hands, and running down my chin. He looked as furious as Damien. He asked me to show him my mouth and used the torch on his phone so he could have a better look.