Chapter One
"Do we really want to go to that side of town?" Ada asks Emma as they begin their quest for junk food. It's the last week of summer vacation, and the girls want to spend as many late nights up as possible before their underwhelming schooldays begin again. Unfortunately, that means that when the last cookie is eaten, you have to go out late at night to find somewhere to replenish your stock. "It's very late, and there will be a lot of creeps out."
"Do you have a better option?" Emma responds annoyed. "I'm not driving an extra 45 minutes to find an open store."
Ada frowns, pulling her shoulder-length brown hair up into a messy bun. "Fine. But if my mother finds out, it's you who will have to answer to her." She is starting to regret not getting dressed to go out in public, only wearing her lace tank top and short Hello Kitty pajama shorts.
Emma starts up her car. "Geez, Ada, live a little, would you?" She comments with a chuckle. "You've been this perfect little angel since we were in Pre-K. It's okay to be a rebel once in a while."
Ada frowns in response.
She knows that her mother will kill her if she finds out that she left the house at 2 a.m.
The community they live in does not have stores open past 8 p.m., so it was either drive for almost an hour with little gas or stop in the rough neighborhood 15 minutes away and fill up on junk food.
The two 17-year-olds chat about Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp as they anxiously wait to continue their movie marathon at home. Ada is mostly talking because she is nervous about the gas station they are headed to. It isn't necessarily a "bad" part of town, but it is definitely where the cops are called multiple times a day.
The gas station, Bob's Save A Lot, is a relatively small building that is severely rundown and made of brick. The building doesn't look like it has been taken care of in the past decade.
"Why don't you go inside while I get some gas?" Emma states as she pulls her car up to a pump. Her tone is calm, but Ada can tell Emma is also anxious.
Ada glares at her friend. "Gee, thanks."
"Calm down, will ya? It's not that big a deal. Nothing serious ever happens around here, you know that." Emma responds, trying to reassure her friend.
Taking a deep breath, Ada starts walking toward the brightly lit store. The parking lot is filled with nasty potholes, which are littered with cigarette butts and various candy wrappers. Probably the most off-putting sight for Ada is the bars that encase the windows.
How welcoming… She thinks to herself as she turns to look at her friend, who is playing on her phone as she fills up her car. Ada can't shake the anxiety that clutches her chest as she hesitates before going inside.
Opening the door, the contrast of going from dark to bright lights stings Ada's eyes. She is assaulted by the overpowering smell of lemon cleaner, which surprises Ada due to how poor the store looks outside. The annoying "bing-bong" sound alerts the clerk, whose nose is stuck in a college book, that a customer has entered the store.
Ada picks up a basket as she begins her quest for an assortment of junk food. Starting from one aisle, she grabs three different kinds of chips, five candy bars, and a couple of boxes of snack cakes. As she ventures down one of the aisles on her way to the soft drinks, she notices two boys speaking heatedly in hushed tones.
One boy appears to be around her age, with an athletic build. He is wearing loosely fitted clothing and sunglasses, which Ada did not understand the purpose of. Maybe he has a headache, she thinks to herself.
The other boy is wearing a black hoodie with the hood covering his face. Ada isn't able to determine the mysterious guy's age, but she assumes he must be relatively close in age to the guy he is whisper-screaming at.
"Excuse me," Ada states shyly as she passes the boys, who hadn't noticed her existence. Her face turns red as she walks past them in her revealing pajamas. She grabs a couple of different cold drinks and heads up to the cashier.
After unloading all the items from her basket, she turns to put the basket back and notices that the clerk still has his nose in his book. Ada walks back to the counter and clears her throat, trying to catch his attention while not being rude.
She smiles at the clerk as he pulls himself away from his studies. His nametag reads "Luke." A freckled man with huge bags under his eyes, Ada thinks he must only run on coffee.
The slow beeping of each item being scanned makes Ada uneasy. She begins taking in the store. Behind the clerk stands a plethora of different kinds of cigarettes and beside him stand shelves of different types of liquor, along with contraceptives and other items they feel the need to hide behind the counter. She can still hear the two guys arguing, which makes her feel even more tense. The continuous beep of each scanned item finally stops.
"Is that it?" Luke questions with a sleep-tinted voice.
"That's it."
"That'll be $26.07."
Ada pays for her stuff while Luke fumbles with plastic bags to put her items in. Once everything is done, Ada grabs the bags and starts heading for the door.
She's only a few feet from the door when a man comes barreling in. His attention is fixated dead ahead, and he doesn't notice as he forcefully bumps into Ada, knocking her down.
A pain shoots through her head as it hits the cold, hard tiled floor. Her right arm burns and she can feel warm liquid running down it. Her arm had caught the side of a shelf, slicing it open. One of the bags she was carrying had split open and a drink had burst.
"What the hell?" Ada states in astonishment and pain. She scurries to her feet, trying to quickly gather her things while ignoring the aching throb piercing through her head. She glances up to glare at the idiot that came barging into the store to give them a piece of her mind (which she knows she won't do anyway), but she is suddenly paralyzed with fear.