Chapter 34: Chapter Sixteen-3

Nothing happens at first and all I hear are her sobs continuing. Maybe, she didn’t see them. I glance from the corner of my eye before reverting them back to the dark in the auditorium. I hear the packet crinkling and Karen blowing her nose into a tissue. I smile. I knew she would break eventually. I know everything about her. I know that right now, she wants nothing more than a hug. That’s what she would have wanted if her stupid-hell-of-a-boyfriend had cheated on her if we were still friends. So when I push her to give in to my forceful hug, she does. She sobs into my shoulder—definitely going to ruin my shirt—and lets everything out of her throat. Her cries echo off the empty room. And in that moment, I almost miss being her friend. Nah, I think as I grin to myself as Karen continues wailing like a dying cat. *           *          *             *           *          *          * “That’ll be four dollars and fifty-cents,” I say, placing the family size of chips in a paper bag instead of plastic so it doesn’t make me feel guilty about slowly killing the environment. The old woman moves her shaking hands and takes the bag and replaces it with the money. She thanks me while she slowly moves as fast she can in her old age to the exit of Sal’s Corner: Best Convenient Store in Town. I never got the name. I mean, nobody named Sal even works in the store. The owner is an old, grumpy man who never attends to work but just sleeps upstairs in the attached apartment and lets all his part-time workers do all the work. It at least had decent pay and it kind of chipped in with Mom’s salary to help pay off bills. The boss didn’t even realize I was gone when I disappeared for a month. That’s what I like about the job—decent pay and no matter how long you disappear, you never get scolded. I was basically gone for three weeks due to Lee and New York City and school but nobody even noticed. The bell above the door jingles and a customer walks in. I continue wiping the cashier table with my towel. Molly, the manager, always tells me to make sure the counter is clean because apparently “that’s where all the dirt and bacteria reside because everybody ends up touching it.” Molly was in college and had tons of work yet she still managed to appear on time to work and barely sweat. She was a pretty girl and could probably even work for Abercrombie & Fitch as a new model or something. No matter how many times I tried telling her, she’d brush it off. “Are you cleaning the table properly?” Speak of the devil. Molly appears at the counter, leaning on the wall on her phone. She’s on break. Strings of her bangs fall into her eyes from the tight bun at the top of her light-brown colored hair. “Yeah,” I grin, scrubbing the counter. There are only a few people in the store—some in the back and some just wandering around. Molly’s hazel eyes lift up to mine. “Where were you?” “What do you mean?” I ask as I wipe sweat off my forehead and toss the rag to the side. I pull my frizzy hair into a ponytail and take a seat next to Molly. “You know, for the past month?” “Oh, just around.” Not a lie. “School’s been eating me and balancing everything is so hectic. But, I’m back now, so don’t worry.” “Wait till’ you get to college,” Molly says, tapping away on her phone. She even had a social life with everything going around in her life. I can’t and I’m still in high school. “It’s high school times ten.” “You make it look so easy,” I say. “Trust me, it isn’t,” Molly says and then smirks at a text before smiling full through-out. “Not this again,” she mutters. “What? Is it Patrick, your boyfriend?” I ask. Patrick has been her boyfriend since eighth grade. Rare, I know. In our generation, since when did relationships last that long. But, Molly had her hook deep into that boy. I envy her. “Yeah,” Molly says. “He keeps sending me the same old funny pictures again and again. What a goofball.” I had met Patrick a few times when he came over to pick up Molly from work. He was a big, tall guy with chocolate hair and eyes and a jock body. But even then, he was weird. He made funny faces a lot and Molly always said he looked cute. They were both odd, but perfect. I wish I had some kind of anchor like that. “Hey, our shifts are over,” Molly says. “I’ll go tell the remaining customers, you start closing up, okay?” She stuffs her phone back in her pocket and leaves me at the counter. “’Kay,” I respond. I lock all the glass cabinets and shut the drapes over the window. It’s dark outside. The streets are almost empty. I can’t wait to get home and just sleep. “Can I buy this pack of gum?” a customer says. I don’t look up from counting today’s worth of money. “Sorry, sir, we’re closing today. We’ll be open at eight o’clock sharp in the morning tomorrow, though,” I tell the male customer. “Ivory, I need this gum, though.” “I’m sorry, sir—wait,” I look up, “how’d you know my name?” My eyes widen. “Mark? What’re you doing here?” I’m sure my eyes are wide open. “So, this is where you work,” Mark smirks. His dark eyes are staring at me with his matching hair. He’s wearing a striped scarf—reminding me of Harry Potter—and a black coat. He holds up a pack of gum with a grin on his face.