Sidewalk Bleeding Summary

The story is about a sixteen-year-old boy named Andy who is bleeding to death on the sidewalk after being stabbed below the ribs by a participant of a rival gang. The story takes place in the last minutes of Andy's life. Andy, member of a gang called 'The Royals,' shown by the jacket he's wearing,in the front of the jacket over his heart it says Andy and at the back it reads ROYAL. He had has just suffered a severe knife wound from a member of a rival gang, The Guardians, after leaving his girlfriend to buy some cigarettes. Andy is slow to realize the severity of his wound, at first seeming almost happy that he has taken a hit for his group. Soon, however, Andy recognizes that he is dying and attempts to get help from passerby. He is too weak from loss of blood to speak. A drunk man comes down the alley but assumes, because Andy is lying on the floor, that Andy is also drunk and staggers off. After that a young boy and girl come down the alley. They don't notice Andy at first but then, when they do, they do not help him because he was a Royal, and if they helped him the Guardians would come after them. After, an old homeless lady comes but she is a little deaf and since it was raining she did not hear him. In the very last moments of his life Andy realizes what the jacket cost him-his life. He does not want another person to come and say "Oh, its a royal" and judge him from the very start. With his last bits of strength Andy shrugs off the jacket to his feet and dies. Few minutes after his death Laura comes and finds him and when he does not reply to her she runs to get a cop. When the cop comes they find out he is dead. The cop finds the jacket and says " A royal huh?" . Laura quietly says " His name was Andy". The cop ignores Laura and says, " A royal" then continues to