Stories From VO1.2

Pier

There was so much damn blood. A whole lot of it. All of it gushing from her nose. Pouring down her face in a steady stream, messing up her clothes on its way to the floor. It was horrible to watch but Pier couldn't look away. He understood now why people gaped at car crashes. Her face looked so bad - it shouldn't look like that at all but it did. Pier had to keep staring or else it might fix itself.

Pier hadn't meant to punch her that hard. Honest to God. He wasn't going to say that he hadn't meant to punch her at all. The two of them came to a face off in the aisle and it got pretty heated pretty fast. He balled his fists so he could push her off from the shelves without grabbing her and causing even more of a ruckus. She was starting to get frustrated at her failed efforts to grab some water from the shelves. He could see it in her own balled fists and watery eyes. He could also see another plan forming in her head.

It wasn't much of a surprise when she lunged under his arms, trying to take him off guard. She must have expected him to step forward to push her back again when she moved but Pier was waiting for her. Still he was taken aback with how close she came to his body. Thinking she was lunging at him, not trying to duck under his reach, Pier had punched out without thinking about it. He hadn't been aiming for her face, or aiming for anywhere at all, when he struck out but that was where the blow landed. His fist smashed into her face and there was a crunch before all the blood began.

It must have hurt, especially with the insane amount of blood pouring from her nose, but after she fell to the floor and rolled away the woman refused to react. She simply pulled her hands away from her face and stared at the blood that covered them. She watched as it dripped down her wrists. Her mouth was opened slightly in an 'O' of shock but she just sat there, on that filthy floor, watching. Too consumed with the mess on her hands to worry about the mess still pouring from her nose.

It was still pouring, running like a faucet. Spreading bright red across her pale blue shirt. Some of it was actually in her hair. Pier was getting concerned that she would faint or pass out and leave him to deal with it. He was especially worried about the look her face. Dazed, confused.

She still had yet to look up from her bloody hands.

"Look lady -" he began but someone shouldered past him pushing him closer to the blonde haired broken nosed woman.

She shrieked and crab ran, scrambling on her elbows, to put distance between them. She didn't get far but she did succeed in smearing blood across the linoleum.

"You broke my nose!"

Finally, she was speaking! 

And she looked put together mentally so she probably wasn't going to pass out in the middle of the aisle when she could be stepped on.

Pier's relief didn't last too long. The fear and disbelief were slowly fading away and a redness began to climb up the woman's neck. It looked like they were about to butt heads again. 

Pier purposefully unclenched his fists. The last thing he wanted to do was hit her again. It had already happened once. Truthfully, this whole ordeal was beginning to get on his last nerves.

***

Pier didn't know how the mad rush for supplies began.

He had been shopping for groceries just fine until a little while ago. Before people came sprinting down the aisles with their carts, sweeping whatever they could get their hands on into their baskets with reckless abandon.

Pier turned his nose at their stupidity at first. They were probably some dumb kids from his university playing games with other people's jobs and time. Making the lives of store employees unnecessarily difficult It was unlikely they would even buy half of what they were throwing into those carts. It was a waste of someone's time.