How (Not) to Fall in Love(98)

“What’s taking so long?” I asked Court, who was busy with her phone. Probably texting Bryce, her long-time boyfriend and one of my best friends. If it wasn’t for Bryce, I don’t know if I would’ve become friends with Court. She liked to live on the edge, way outside my comfort zone. I didn’t even like shopping—that was her thing.

I wished Syd were here. As my softball teammate and forever best friend, Syd would be a whole lot better at commiserating. She’d know what to say to make me laugh instead of staring at her phone the whole time.

“I don’t know,” Court finally said. “I guess they’re waiting for the cops.”

My heart sank to my shoes. Cops? “But it was just a couple of lipsticks.”

She shrugged and kept texting. How could she look so calm right now? Was it too much to hope that the store manager would talk to our parents and leave the police out of it?

“What do you think is going to happen to us?” I asked for the third time, trying to keep the shakiness out of my voice.

She sighed and looked up at me. “Seriously, Lex, stop worrying. It’s not like they’ll arrest us. We’re only sixteen. Minors.” She stuck out her tongue at the door. “My brother got in trouble for drinking vodka at a party when he was seventeen and got off with just a warning. We’ll be okay.”

I nodded, but that didn’t make me feel better. Drinking vodka didn’t exactly match up to outright theft.

The door handle turned, and both Court and I jumped to our feet. Ha! I wanted to say. You’re not so cool about this after all.

The security guard stuck his head in. “Courtney?” He motioned to her. She slipped her phone back into her pocket and moved forward through the door, flipping her black curls and looking back to wink at me. Before the door closed, I could see her mother shaking her head. My throat clenched as I remembered my mother would be here any moment, and she’d be doing a whole lot more than just shaking her head. I wished my dad would show up instead, but I knew he was working.

Fifteen minutes later, Court still hadn’t reappeared. My stomach churned and my throat was dry. I wondered if it would be okay to ask for water. Most of all, I wondered what happened to Court. Had she been arrested after all? If so, wouldn’t they have taken me, too?

It was wrong.

It was wrong.

It was wrong.

If I repeated it enough times like a mantra, maybe I’d get out of this.

I’m an idiot.

I’m an idiot.

I’m an idiot.

Maybe they were using this as a scare tactic. Some kind of “freak the kid out so she’ll never do this again” trick.

It was working.

The handle turned, breaking my thoughts, but instead of jumping up, I pressed my back against the wall. The perfumed air reached my nose even before the giant nest of blond hair breached the gap in the door.

Besides the heavy scent of gardenias that floated about her, the first thing anyone would notice about my mother was that she loomed above practically everyone. She could’ve been mistaken for a women’s basketball player, except for the face so heavily made up that it was a wonder the foundation didn’t slide off her face. I’d rarely seen her without makeup myself. I doubt my father ever had, either.

The balding, pudgy store manager who followed seemed in awe of her. Or maybe he was just afraid.

“Alexis Jasmine Dubois!”

I cringed. I hated when she said my full name, especially in front of others. It always sounded like a bunch of crappy princess names thrown together. And it was a constant reminder of what she had expected me to be and what I most definitely was not.

She glared at me before turning her sweetest pageant smile on the store manager. “I don’t know where she gets these crazy ideas. I’m sure it’s all on her father’s side. But we really appreciate the opportunity you’re giving her, Mr. Hanson.”

Opportunity?

Mr. Hanson blinked. “Oh, of course, Mrs. Dubois. I’m only too happy to extend a second chance to Alexis. My own son got in trouble when he was sixteen, so I know how having a record can damage a person’s future.”

Wait, what?

My mother nodded, still smiling, though it had an edge as she glanced at me. I knew she was going to let me have it later, but I almost didn’t care. I wasn’t going to get arrested. He was just letting me go. The “Hallelujah” song was reverberating in my head, and I felt like hugging him.

As my mother and Mr. Hanson talked, all I could focus on was the fact that no sheriff was being called in and no handcuffs were being snapped around my wrists. I was happily oblivious to their conversation.

Until a few words yanked me back to reality.

“Just bring her in Monday morning for the paperwork and uniform shirt, and we’ll be good to go,” Mr. Hanson said, smiling at me.

The happiness I felt inside whooshed out of me as if someone had punched me in the stomach. I stared at him. “Um, what?”

“Mr. Hanson understands that you were acting like a stupid teenager,” my mother said. “He has kindly agreed to allow you to work your summer here at SmartMart. In return, you’ll get to keep the incident off your record, not to mention a paycheck. That’ll be a change.”

“But I’m already working this summer. Remember Let’s Have a Ball? And I’m supposed to go to softball camp in August, too.”