I'm so glad the liquor store was closed when this happened a couple hours ago, between being off my anxiety med and literally getting shot at, I am very anxious.
The part of the city I live in is quite weird. It's kinda suburban and calm, but also very druggy. There's a really old medical university I didn't even know existed until I moved here, the HUD housing I live in, then a motel. About 2 miles away from one of the main downtown districts. Bunch of drugged out homeless people everywhere, someone asks to buy drugs off me every time I walk to the store. Fortunately for the sake of my sobriety, people in this city like meth or occasionally crack, and I fucking hate meth. Downer people here are actually quite rare, so my chances of just coming across a drug I actually have cravings for is low, not including alcohol obviously. Unfortunately, though stimulants make people do more stupid things than downers typically cause, and that's where our story is today. And to be clear, I'm not placing a moral judgement on these people, in fact I am very glad that the villain of our story is just "addict got too high and did stupid shit" and not mecha Hitler.
I called an Uber from work to a gas station a quarter mile away from my house so I could pick up a 2 liter of RC Cola with my tip money from my shift. I start walking home, and I just walk by an empty lot, and I hear two gunshots and see flashes coming from the field. Mind you, this field is like the size of a very small residential lot, this was extremely close to me. I didn't run or panic in the moment, I just turned around and walked away.
On my alternate route to the apartment, some of the homeless people who have befriended me since I've started living in the area started talking to me and walking with me. I look unique, I'm friendly, and I just got out of homelessness. Also, something about the way I look just triggers people's protective instincts.
Anyways, Jay was the name of the main guy I was talking to after all this, homeless meth addict that sleeps in the grocery store parking lot by my house. Sometimes I'll pay him and his friends to help carry my groceries to my apartment's front step. If I'm just walking to the gas station across the street, I'll stop by the Aldi parking lot to say hi and give them some cigs, they're lovely people. Jay is one of those When Jay heard about the guy shooting at me, he gave me context. The guy who shot at me wasn't trying to kill me or rob me or anything like that, the actual story is way dumber. He just likes to shoot at people to scare them when he gets too high. Well apparently seeing me get shot at raged Jay out because "I remind him of his son" (transphobic but kinda sweet?) and Jay did something about it. Probably didn't help that Jay was also high, but wow that was an intense end to my night. Sucks that I can't sleep because I work a late night shift again tomorrow. But between being off my anxiety med and the anxiety of tonight, I don't think I'll be able to sleep