In a crusty old bar,with a poorly lit bulb, stood a girl Betty. Gemma had begun scrubbing the floors,opening the windows, and cleaning up tables, getting ready for the usual night rush of drunk men whom she despised.

Once Gemma was done with the cleaning up she went to the back and put on her waitress apron, though it may have had a couple stains here and there Gemma didn't care after all those drunkards never even noticed it and no one would complain about poor hygiene in a little ol' dump such as this.

"OK, I am all dressed. The doors are opened, and now it's time to wait for those drunken fools." Gemma mumbled the last part as she rested her head on her palm. "Hey Ol' Betty, you here," a drunkard stumbled towards the countertop Gemma stood at. "What are you doing here, old man? Gemma said sharply with a hard tone in her voice." Is that how you talk to your papa? I think I raised you better than that," the old man said as he slurred his words. "What do you want if you are here for money leave because I ain't got none" Gemma shoot at him a disgusted look "oh Gemma is that how poorly you see you old man" Betty's dad said as he laughed reaching out to hold Betty's hand. "Betty, I know you have been working, and I know you got some money. Why don't you just lend your old man some money? " Gemma pulled her hands sharply as she walked towards the door." Leave right now!!!" she shouted shocking the old man "I don't want any of my coworkers to see I have such a disgrace of a father" Gemma pointed outside ushering him to leave, but the old man grew angry as she did that " Don't you dare yell at me, I have done everything for you, I even took you to school if not you wouldn't be able to work in this crusty old shack" Gemma yelled back" you took me to school? Are you kidding me that's all you can say I barely made it through high-school I had to lower my pride and ask my friends to pay my school fees because this darn economy needs you to have a stupid document before you can even work at the crappiest of places" Gemma began to feel that tears where soon going to drop when she decided to push back that feeling of weakness and face reality" you better get out of here now before I alert people around" the old man seemed to have no other choice, and he left?

As he left, Gemma slumped to the ground, angry but more sad about the fact she was brought to this world only to suffer, and even with the suffering, she had no one to lean on. After a few moments of silence, Gemma remembered that she still had to work, so she bolted her head up and went back to the countertop, awaiting the men she was going to serve.

Later

As Gemma maned the counter handing men and women their drinks, she could see how people came in dignified and walked out stumbling and slurring. As she watched them, she felt even more disgusted than the first day she began working here.

As Gemma was distracted, she didn't notice when a man had held her hand. With the feeling of cold fingers toying with her hands, she turned sharply, and with a look of disgust, she saw the drunk man who was holding her hand."Sir, please let go of my hand," she said as nice as she could, restraining herself from smashing his head with one of the tumblers behind her. The man didn't seem to listen but instead began entwined his fingers with her's, at that moment she couldn't take it any more she swiftly pulled her hand away from him" Disgusting" she spat at him "Hey who did you call disgusting" the man slurred as he struggled to stand up" you better take that back" the man pointed at Betty, Gemma didn't pay much mind to him and just moved to the other side of the counter.

As Gemma tried moving away from him he quickly grabbed her "let go of me" she said this time in anger as he tightened his grip on her wrist "aren't you gonna serve me a drink" the man said slyly. Gemma reluctantly went back to him and gave him a few rounds of beer. As he watched Betty's expression of anger, he snickered sipping on his beer.

As Gemma clocked out, she put on her sweater and her mittens and began walking home. As she was going home, she checked her watch and noticed how late it was and decided to take a shortcut through an alley.

As Gemma continued walking, she suddenly felt like she was being followed, and each time she turned, she saw no one around. "What's wrong with me?" she muttered to herself. She was then suddenly pulled into a corner."Let go, " she shouted. "Not this time," the strange man shouted, Gemma shrugged her nose as she was hit by the smell of alcohol from the man. "Let go!!" she struggled more with her eyes close " stop struggling" the man tried holding her down, she suddenly remembered the voice of the man, she looked at him and saw it was the man from the bar "You!!" she struggled even more. After much struggling the Man finally was able to hold her down in place, and when Gemma realized that she couldn't over power him a stream of tears rolled down her cheeks "No, please" she begged him but at her tears he seemed to smile even more "what happened to that sharp tongue of yours" he snickered.

Gemma had finally given up knowing what was going to happen next. She clossed her eye as tight as she could hoping to not see what was going to be done when she suddenly felt a release on her hand just to open her eyes and see the man on the floor with blood on his face . Shocked of what just happened, she held unto something quickly, trying to stand up only to notice that what she had grabbed was a man. At the sight of the tall manly figure in front of her, she moved away quickly, retrieving her hands.

She stood up swiftly and began running. She didn't care to know whom the man was if he had just saved her cause he was good or he saved her in ordering to take the drunkards' position. She ran as fast as she could, not looking back,she had run faster than she could ever imagine.

After some hours of running, she finally came to a stop on the main street. She had found herself under the dim street light. She saw at the corner of her eye a man standing there. Initially, she was scared, but when she noticed his uniform, she realized he was a police officer. She quickly rushed to him, pulling him. " Sir, sir, please, I..." she could barely make out words from her short of breath. "What are you saying, miss?" he said, worried. "Come, come, come," she pulled him as she pointed towards the alleyway.

As she stood behind the officer, she showed him to where she was attacked by the drunkard from the bar. As he shone his light and searched around, he hadn't seen anyone. "He was here, I know it." He turned to her "miss are you sure there was a man here?" She tried explaining to him she was even looking for the stream of blood that came from the drunkard after he was hit "He, he was here" with no evidence showing anything, tears began streaming down her cheeks.

The officer turned to her. "Are you drunk, madam?" he looked at her as he smelt a wiff of alcohol on her."No, the smell is from my work. I work at a bar. " The officer looked at her disappointment as he cautioned her to never do such a thing as giving false information to an officer.

After the incident with the officer, Gemma walked home, having so much on her mind,alongside being scared and annoyed that the officer thought she was a drunk.

As Gemma arrived back home, she laid on her bed as confused as ever but mostly scared about the fact she was almost taken advantage of. As she laid on her bed, she slowly drifted off to sleep. Not too long as she slept, she got up, remembered she had something to do. She stood up, opened up a loose floor board, and brought put a small metal lunch box, which she laid on her bed.

As she opened the metal floorboard, she had Bagan to count the money she had in it and added the pay she had gotten. As she added her pay, she thought to herself, " Just a few more, and I will be able to go college". When she was done, she's laid the lunch box back and covered it up with the floorboard.

Not too long after she had done that, she went back to sleep. We moments later she heard a banging on her door she tried to ignore it the best she could but I was just not going away, so she stood up reluctantly and opened the front door. "Betty, my dear," Betty's father called out to her. "What are you doing here? How do you know I leave here?!!" She yelled. The old man payed no mind to her but instead started walking into her house " No you don't," she said as she blocked his way" "You've got a nice place, don't yah?" he snickered."This mess isn't nice, " she said bluntly, "but it's better than the old shack I live in, isn't it? he looked up at her smiling " What do you want" she said quickly wanting to cut to the chase "well since you don't want to give your old man some money the best you can do is let me live here" Gemma scoffed "Heck no, get out right now before I throw you out" she spat those words at him.

"Betty, my dear, please just let me stay tonight at least. You can't let your old man stay out in the cold, right?" Gemma looked at him stern, not wanting to budge in the slightest. After much thought, she finally budged "OK come in." He smiled as he walked in. " Good, that's what I thought."

Once Betty's dad walked in he quickly walked straight to her fridge and began taking what she had in her fridge stuffing some into his mouth and the rest into his little pouch that was wrapped round his waist. "So Betty, what you've been up to these days?" Gemma leaned on wallas she turned to him, answering him nonchalantly, "Just been a working."That's good," he said with his mouth half filled with food.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" she said. "Yah anything," he replied carelessly. "Why do you drink so much? Why did you decide to have me and then just..." As a sense of sadness came over her, she became short of word, her words stroke her father like an arrow to the heart, unsure of what to say he just turns to her " I guess after your mother's death I...I just lost myself"he scuffed softly. Gemma looked at him. and realized how hard his life is. " I guess you can stay here more than tonight," she said, trying to act like she didn't care, "thanks," her father said softly.

Betty's dad quickly went on the bed. " How nice," at the sight of that Gemma sat on the couch beside the bed and began drifting off as she yawned and stretched, she kept on wondering who the strange man that saved her was and why he did that, after much thought she decided to put that aside and she slowly drifted off.