The Price of Possession by Dakota Brown (phonics story books txt) 📕

can lift my body weight over my head, but can I have a conversation about the historical analyses of modern day technology and its effects on youth? No. No I cannot.

The blonde girl takes her bag and leaves. I scowl at Seth, hoping with my magical telepathic powers he hears my struggles and moves to assist me. Instead, he grabs his jacket and bag and heads for the door.

“Excuse me, just for a moment,” I say to the gentleman above me, before bounding towards Seth and blocking his exit. “Where do you think you’re going?”

He sighs, tugging at the doorknob. “Out. I have practice.”

I smack his hand away and cross my arms. “But, you’re leaving me alone.”

Seth has the audacity to shrug. “So?”

“So? I don’t know anything. I don’t know how to handle the cash register.” I motion towards the terrifying device at the desk. “I barely understand the storage system.”

Seth rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “You’ll figure it out.”

“But,” I watch him walk through the door, not bothering to look back. I stand there, waiting, praying he’ll return, but after several minutes and no sign of him, I will myself back to my customer. I can’t believe I ever talked myself into this. When I saw that asshole, I should have just left. I should have looked around more, scoped out the cafes. Working at a lovely hip and fresh cafe would’ve been nice. I could invite the girls and Josh to visit, possibly share a cup of coffee with Josh and have him look over my photos. I could be getting discounted giant mochas.

But no. Instead I settled for a running store, working with an asshole who wanted to make my life complete hell.

“I think I’ll get these,” says the man while walking around the store in the shoes I just shoved onto his sweaty, stinky feet.

I paste on a smile, feeling fear dig into me while I stride over towards the cash register. “Wonderful.”

My first sale. Take that stupid Seth Garcia. The cash register stares back at me and for a split second I hear the theme of the The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly playing in the background. This is a piece of cake. Everyone does this. No big deal. I grab the box and scan the barcode. At least I know I’m supposed to do that.

See. Easy.

I stare at the buttons, waiting for something to happen. But there’s nothing. Nothing is happening.

“Something wrong?” Asks the man in front of me, tapping his credit card on the desk.

“No,” I say in a pitch too high. “No, no, no. Everything’s perfectly fine.”

I stare at the computer, willing it to tell me what more it wanted from me. My hands hover above the keyboard, wondering if I should press enter, or type in FINISHED. Anything. The clang of the door opening and the, “Who the hell are you?” makes me stop from doing anything more and I nearly burst into tears when I am met with a girl, her brunette hair in a high pony tail while wearing a pink Fleet Feet Sports shirt.

“Oh, thank God,” I run to her and grab her hand, ushering her towards the computer. “I’m new and I have no clue what I am doing.”

“Obviously,” she says, clicking the mouse a couple times before pressing enter. “You can scan your card,” she smiles at the customer and with another click the receipt prints. “Have a lovely day,” she calls after him.

I lean against the table, throwing back my head and looking heavenward.

“Alright newbie, what’s your name and why are you at the register by yourself?” Asked the brunette looking me up and down.

“I’m Rachel and Seth, the bastard, just left me here for practice.”

The brunette turns to the door, her lips pursing and her eyebrows furrowing. “Seth left you all alone?”

I nod, wanting to explain more; that the bastard actually hates me and wants to make my life miserable. But I keep my mouth shut. I don’t want her to hate me, too. She might actually save me from having to lock up the store all by myself.

“What’s your name?” I smile and ask instead. “And can you please teach me everything I need to know about the scary cash register?”

The brunette laughs. “Sweetie, a monkey could do this work.”

I frown. “Sadly, I am not a monkey.”

That earns another laugh and the brunette pats me on the back. “I’m Kristen and don’t you worry. I’ll get you all sorted.” She winks at me and goes on to explain the register and the storage room system to me. I sigh in relief, realizing not all my coworkers are complete assholes.

***

I stand outside the apartment, staring at the door and wondering if it was worth returning home at all after helping Kristen lock up the shop. I hear muffled voices inside and grimace, knowing I would have to go pass them in order to get to my room. Might as well get it over with, I tell myself while shoving my key into the door and pushing it open. I’m immediately welcomed by the sight of Seth and Lucas watching some game on the television while Hunter stands in the disgusting kitchen, sniffing through the glasses before opening the cabinets. His grimace alerts me to the fact that there are no clean glasses awaiting him, or anyone of us.

Lucas turns in my general direction, eyeing me up and down while I kick the door closed. I shrug on my bag, which keeps slipping off, and keep my head down, hoping to get to my room before the boys get any funny ideas. The hallway is still littered with shoes and I pick through them. Unfortunately, I’m not as adept at skipping over a littered hallway and my toe snags on one, sending me tumbling face forward into the sticky floor. No one bothers to ask if I’m okay while I groan, lifting my head and wondering what I did in my past