The boredom set in as soon as Daniel sat down. Math class was not his favorite subject, how could it be when he mastered everything halfway through the notes. He spaced out and started staring at the back of the beautiful head in front of him. It was Sarah. The girl Daniel had a crush on for the last 6 months of junior year. She wasn't the prettiest girl in school nor was she the smartest, but she had everything Daniel looked for in a three-dimensional girl. She was nerdy in an adorable way with long messy black hair that abscured her cute bespectacled face. She was easy to talk to and, once she came out of her shell, she wouldn't seem to be nearly as quiet as she acted at school. For some reason Daniel never noticed that his dream girl lived in the neighborhood next to his.

He sat there daydreaming until the final bell rang at 3:30 PM. He walked up to Sarah and asked if she was ready to walk home. She got up and went with him. The walk wasn't anything special, all they did was walk and talk at the same time. Daniel couldn't gather the courage to tell her how he felt. He began to say something but Sarah cut him off with a good-bye when her neighborhood came into view. 'Perfect,' he thought, 'at this rate I'm going to die a fucking virgin.'

He got home and walked to his room without a word to his older sister. He lay on his bed facedown and decided that all he wanted to do was lay in his own self pity. His sister came in, a black haired woman who allowed him to live with her after their parents died last year. She was 25 and perfectly capable of supporting them both. 

"I'm guessing your confession didn't go smoothly?" Asked Tanya.

"It didn't even happen," he answered, " I'm such an idiot."

"I'm not arguing with that," she said sternly, "how do you expect her to say yes if you never ask?"

"Do you actually think she will?" Daniel said skeptically. 

Tanya replied with a laugh "if I was her I wouldn't even spare you a passing glance."

"Thanks, sis."

"Why would she. You don't even have the courage to ask. Be confident and she will most definitely give you a chance. If not a date." Tanya sighed then continued. " I'm starting dinner. Do it tomorrow or I'm going to do it for you." With those last threatening words, she walked out the door. 

Daniel knew she had a point but he was annoyed by the fact that she could always tell when something was bothering him. And by the way she always made it her business. 

It was morning and Daniel knew it was finally the day. The day to tell Sarah his feelings. He began his walk to school and texted Sarah to meet him in the usual spot at the corner store. They walked together to another day of boredom. 

At 3:30, it was finally showtime. He walked over to Sarah and asked if she was ready. They got off school grounds and he began by saying " Sarah, there's something I want to tell you."

"I need to talk to you about something too," This is not how Daniel expected her to respond. " and I think I need to go first."

"No, just let me say this. I've been needing to get this out for a long time." Daniel didn't think he could stand to wait any longer.

"I-" Sarah began before he cut her off.

"No, just let me say this. I've had the biggest crush on you since we met. You are the only person who I can talk to without freezing up or being nervous. How can I stand just being friends? So I need to ask you something. Will you please be my girlfriend?" Throughout his speech Sarah's face was blank but it turned to a sad look at the last sentence. 

Daniel looked up from the ground, it was the only place he could look. Eye contact would make him lose confidence. What he saw in her eyes was the most heartbroken look he had ever seen. 

"I'm sorry, Daniel. I'm so, so sorry" these words were incomprehensible to Daniel. The look in her eyes said it all. "I wanted to go first to tell you that my family decided to move to New York. My grandma is sick and we need to take care of her"

Daniel couldn't say anything. He knew he should have let her talk but his own selfishness broke not only his heart but Sarah's too. He thought to himself 'god dammit, fuck, I'm such a fucking asshole. How am I so fucking stupid?'

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" I'm sorry," he said at last, "I should have let you talk first. Then you could've gone without knowing you broke my heart." 

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You think you're the only one whose feelings matter? How do you think I feel," tears where streaming from her eyes, " if you think I didn't know how you felt you're wrong. If you think I don't feel the same then you're even fucking dumber than I thought." She was screaming at this point. She was crying so loudly that the street corner would've had to have been deaf not to hear her. The people passing by left a wide berth. 

Daniel wanted to die. He couldn't bear seeing her like this. He felt even worse knowing that he caused it. He had no idea what to say. 

She shouted "well, what are you going to say? You just gonna stand there like a fucking idiot?"

"I don't know what you want me say. Don't go? Stay with me forever? Anything I say is going to sound selfish and it's only going to make it harder for you to go," Daniel hated being the asshole but he had to make sure she could go with no regrets, " just go, your grandma needs you. There's nothing left here for you here anyway."

"Really?" Sarah shouted, " there's nothing left for me here? You're right. Go fuck yourself, asshole." She ran away, tears streaming down her face. Everyone on the sidewalk looked at Daniel as if expecting him to go after her. But he couldn't, not after what he just said. His heart was broken and he was pretty sure he just broke hers too.

He walked away, going the same direction Sarah had ran in. After all their houses were in the same direction. 

All the way there he continued thinking the same two thoughts 'she hates me now', 'I'm such a fucking dick'. He closed his eyes and looked to the sky, trying not to cry. He kept walking until he got to the corner store, Sarah and his usual meeting place. He needed some caffeine after everything that just happened. He walked inside and the scene before him was horrifying. 

 A gunman was pointing his weapon at a terrified cashier. She was grabbing handfuls of money and transferring them to a plastic bag. "Hurry the fuck up!" The gunman shouted. The cashier took a panicked look around and her eyes widened as they fell upon Daniel. The gunman looked to see what she saw and turned his pistol to Daniel. "Get on the ground!" He ordered. The cashier took this opportunity to retrieve her own weapon from under the counter. As she aimed her long black shotgun at the gunman, she cocked it. The sound was deafening and it was followed closely by another, smaller shorter boom. The gunman fell from the force of the shot and as quickly as the scene had started it was over. Daniel was so stunned all he could do was stand there, staring at the body of the gunman, dead before he hit the ground. For what seemed like forever he stood watching the pool of blood grow around the deadman. Finally, he saw the cashier who had approached him at some point. She snapped him back to reality and the ringing he hadn't noticed in his ears was gone. 

"Are you hurt?" The cashier asked. 

Daniel looked down and saw a black spot on his grey hoodie. It was growing. The pain hit him like a truck. His lungs filled with blood and he coughed some up, splattering the cashier's face. He no longer had the strength to stand and fell forward onto the cashier, who caught him and eased him to the ground. Laying in this woman's arms, he realized that this was where he died. He felt a look of fear come to being on his face. His chest was cold. 

"I don't want to die" the words slipped from his mouth before he could stop them. Tears now created lines in the cashier's blood covered face.

"It's not over, stay with me." The look on her face said otherwise. She sounded just as panicked as she looked when the gunman was alive. Why couldn't she tell that he needed her to be calm. 

"T-tell my si-sister I finally did i-it. And that I f-fucked it up." He could no longer keep his eyes open. He felt like he was floating, like he was nothing. Except for the horrible pain in his chest. Was it the bullet or his broken heart? 

"Stay with me. you'll tell your sister yourself" the cashier was crying, she was sobbing. She reminded Daniel of the all to painful memory that was still fresh on his mind. 

He opened his eyes but didn't see anything. "Don't cry, Sarah. You don't need to worry, now I'm going too. No need to worry about leaving me behind." His eyes were still open but everything was black. The sound of the cashier on the phone with the emergency line faded. He tried to talk his body already shut down. He was no longer in pain. 

"I need an ambulance, there is this boy who got shot. We're on-...." the sounds faded and Daniel faded too. All was nothing and Daniel Roberts was nothing as well.

Suddenly he was awakened as if he was simply sleeping. The sounds of a woman screaming jarred him from his peaceful state. Everything that happened that day piled on his conciousness and forced him to tears. He emerged from a dark place and saw the face of a woman. She shouted in a strange language that he didn't recognize. 

He cried but his voice sounded like that of a baby's. He cried and cried. Suddenly he felt the touch of a woman. She was holding him and patting his back. It was comforting, like a mother. He hadn't had one of those since the crash last year. He kept crying in this stranger's arms and he cried until his tears couldn't flow anymore. Finally he opened his eyes and saw a woman sleeping with a blond haired man holding her hand and looking at him as if he was is pride and joy. Daniel realized what happened. He was reincarnated as this man's son. He got fucking isekai'd.