The knight is still white

Apparently I still play the white knight.

I went to a new bar tonight, Back Streets. I wanted to hear the jam session going on there tonight, one of the guys playing is the father of a student of mine. Yes, it blows me away too that the father of one of my students is in a local band and I enjoy seeing him play.

It's not often I can be out till 2AM at a bar with the parents of a student. I am totally enjoying this.

But just to make things clear, what happened tonight was in no way influenced by my need to behave around these parents. I still end up playing the white knight.

It was nothing particularly significant, just another example of my playing the role.

I was sitting at the bar with my back to the bar enjoying the live music. In walks a pretty blonde woman and she takes the bar stool immediately to my right.

I noticed that this new woman seemed out of sorts. She appeared upset, and was pounding away on her cell phone. She got the attention of some guy nearby who was leering over at her. He kept looking like he was going to come over and start hitting on her.

Finally, I reached over and put my hand on her arm. I was surprised that she acted like this was totally normal. But that was perfect, I wanted the guy to think that she came and sat next to me because we were together.

I leaned in close to her and asked her if she was ok. She smiled weakly and told me she was fine. She did have a very pretty smile. She looked like she was going to cry though.

The guy chose then to come over. He dropped two dollars in front of her and said something about how he was happy she was smoking (wth?). At that point the girl turned all her attention on me. She said "Now I feel like acheap whore." The guy couldn't hear any of this, he had walked away.

The girl was slurring her words and seemed quite drunk. I placed my hand on top of her's and rubbed the top of her hand gently. I reassured her that she shouldn't feel like a whore because he did something crazy like that. I mean, he was hovering and paying way too much attention to her and all.

A few moments later I hear her say "F-ck you" and look over, she was speaking at her phone, at a text message. I leaned over again and asked her again if she was alright. The guy came back in and walked behind her, so I placed a hand on her arm. He got the hint.

She got up to go, and I thought to stop her. She was way gone. I wanted to call a cab for her, at least make sure she had a wa to get home safely. Instead I watched as she left.

My whole way home the white knight part of me was kicking me. I should have made sure she would be ok. But I can't be everyone's hero all the time, the black king part of me said.

But the voice of the white knight is strong in me still. I am concerned that a woman I don't know-- heck, I don't even know her name-- and was very drunk is safely home. I can't always be everyone's hero, but I could have been her hero tonight. And who knows, maybe in the little I did I was.