Chapter
2
By Bianca
“Man, do you remember what they told us to get?” Nick asked as he cut
off a black Mazda also turning into the IGA parking lot, ignoring the horn that
sounded as he did so.
“Slim Jims…chips…salsa…soda…I think that’s it. And I guess whatever we want,” Brian
answered. He turned to look as a dark
haired girl got out of the black Mazda Nick had cut off. She was glaring angrily towards their
SUV. “Man, I think you pissed her off
big time.”
“So, what? She’ll get over it,”
Nick said climbing from behind the wheel and heading inside.
“Yeah…right.”
“Well, this must be the northern Mayberry,” Nick snorted once inside
the small grocery store. Looking around
he saw one cashier and no one else.
“You’d think there would be more people in here. Oh wait…that chick is here. Guess that’s it though.”
Brian rolled his eyes at Nick.
He could be so immature at times…and lately it was most of the
time. He understood Nick was still upset
with them for not being as supportive as they could have been, but he had to
let it go sometime…right? “You’re
forgetting how small this town is Nicky…it’s-”
“Don’t call me that,” Nick’s voice was sharp.
Before Brian could make another comment, Nick had headed to the snack
food aisle and was out of sight. Great, I pissed him off some more, Brian
thought before heading the direction Nick had gone.
***
“I can’t believe that asshole,” Ella mumbled again as she filled her
shopping cart with a few Healthy Choice frozen dinners. She didn’t have many pet peeves, but when it
came to driving, she was so picky. “If
you’re gonna get a license, you should at least know how to drive. Jesus.
Any idiot can get behind the wheel of a car and think he’s a hot shot
that knows everything about everything.
I don’t expect everyone to know how to drive perfectly, but my God…it
doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know who has the right of way when
turning. Asshole.”
Just as Ella rounded the corner to the next aisle, she found herself
cart-to-cart with the very man that she had been bitching about. Oh
wonderful…he’s a pretty boy too.
“Excuse me,” she said quietly as she walked between the man and the
shelf. Avoiding his amused stare, Ella
kept walking and tried to ignore him.
“Hey, Nick, you almost finished,” she heard another man call to
him. “It’s getting late and I think this
place is gonna be closing up soon…I mean, it’s not like it’s big enough or busy
enough to stay open 24 hours.”
It seemed like it took years to finally make it off that aisle. To her relief, Ella found herself alone on
the next aisle. She picked up a few
canned goods, some juice, and apple sauce.
“Milk…why do I always forget the milk?”
As she made her way to the dairy section of the store she shivered a
little at the cool air she could feel coming from the case. She stood there looking for a gallon of skim
milk that didn’t have a date on it that was less than a week away. Backing up a little, Ella accidentally backed
into someone. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she
quickly apologized.
“Oh, no, it’s okay,” it was the man that had spoken to “Asshole”…well,
Nick. “I walked into you,” his smile was
very friendly.
Ella finally found some milk and started to turn her shopping cart
around when she felt another cart bump into hers. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-” she looked up and had to
smirk, “cut you off. Sorry.” Turning toward the front of the store, she
left both men standing there—one trying not to laugh, the other scowling. She hoped they didn’t hear her giggling. At least she was finally smiling about
something.
***
“Man, where does she get off?”
Nick asked, glaring at Brian who was still laughing. “What right does she have making fun of me
like that?”
“Nicky…Nick…sorry. She wasn’t
making fun of you…it just happened that way.
She was only trying to get her stuff so she could get out of here. And, well, you got in the way. But trust me…she wasn’t making fun of
you. It was funny, though. Admit it…”
“Actually, I didn’t think it was funny at all,” Nick continued to scowl
as he tossed some doughnuts into the cart-o-junk as he liked to call it. “She’s just mad cause I got in the parking
lot first that all…girls can’t stand it when guys get the better of them. I even heard her mumbling about it before I
saw her. See…she’s not over it. Sheesh…I mean, what does it take to make her
happy?”
“I’m starting to think that you’re having a bit of trouble getting over
it too, Nick. If you were so over it,
wouldn’t you have shut up by now?” Brian asked, obviously annoyed. “Why don’t you let it go instead of going on
and on about it? So she accidentally cut
you off with her shopping cart…big deal.
At least she didn’t almost cause a wreck. Damn, Nick…grow up just a little, okay?”
“Screw you Brian. Who do you
think you are?”
“Look, we don’t need to cause a scene in here.”
“Why not? Who’s here to see it
anyway? There's like four other people
in here…ooh big scene.”
“They do have security cameras, Nick.
This town is a little more civilized than you like to give it credit
for. All we need is for someone to see
the tape and recognize us. That would
make great headlines wouldn’t it?”
“Well, damn, don’t you just have all the answers?”
“What is it with you, Nick?”
Brian asked with an exasperated sigh.
“You’re acting like a child…”
“You know what my problem is?
You, AJ, Howie and Kevin. That’s
my problem. Now you wanna know why? You guys think that everything should go how
YOU want it to. And when I have an
opportunity, I shouldn’t take it. That’s
a little unfair, don’t you think? And
then, when I finally do take my opportunity, I get shit on. If any one of you guys had done the solo
thing, I would have been there supporting you 100%, but I don’t get that same
respect from you. And I thought you of
all people would have been there for me, Brian.
Telling me what a great thing this was.
But I didn’t get anything from the people that mean the most to me. Sorry if I think that’s just a little fucked
up,” he said and quickly walked off.
Just as Brian started to follow Nick, his cell phone broke the
deafening silence. “Yeah?”
“How long does it take to get junk food?” Kevin’s voice boomed in
Brian’s ear. “Or do y’all not know the
way back?”
“Yes, we know. We’ll be home in
a little bit,” he answered sharply and turned his phone off.
***
Ella stood in the line, becoming more impatient with each passing
second. It was at least 9:30 and she was
hungry and tired. All she could think
about was getting home, eating and heading straight to bed. And here she was, in IGA behind a woman with
a huge shopping cart and no one could open another line. She knew the possibility that there was
another till out was very slim this close to closing. She had worked in a grocery store when she
was a teenager and she could remember it well.
Oh how she hated the grocery business, but it was a job and that’s all
that mattered at the time. Deciding to
occupy her mind, she grabbed a magazine off the rack beside her and flipped
through it aimlessly. She heard the door
slide open, but didn’t bother to look up.
Last minute shoppers always seemed to make there way in no matter what
night it was or how dead the business had been.
Glancing up, she saw the manager of the store making his way to the
automatic door. That’s odd, she thought as she took a peek at her watch. 9:27…why
would he be locking up this early?
Then she saw it…
“Okay, I want everyone to stay quiet,” a man in a ski mask
announced. There were two others
standing by the door. A guy and a girl…neither
of them were wearing a mask. “You,” the
man motioned to the cashier, “ Open your drawer…Kelly, get all the money out of
there and put it in your bag.”
Ella looked on in horror as she saw the gun in the man’s other
hand. The girl by the door brought her
bag to the register for the cashier to fill up.
She heard someone cry out and looked just in time to see the older woman
in front of her, begin to fall. Luckily,
Ella was quick enough and caught her quickly enough to ease her down to the
tiled floor. A couple rounded the corner
just in time to be greeted by the man in the ski mask.
“You two, get over here with them and get quiet. If everyone cooperates, no one will get hurt
and we’ll be on our way out. Now, I want
you to go open the safe,” he said to the manager.
“Ye-yes, sir,” the short stout man said, making his way towards the
office.
“David, go with him…Kelly go back to the door.” The two did as they were told and leader
stood staring at the group that was huddled together.
Ella was terrified. Looking
around she realized that the two other men that had been in the store weren’t
there with them. I wonder if they’re still in here.
Then she remembered that she had made it to the front of the store
before they had.
“You!” the man said coming up to
Ella who was cradling the woman’s head in her lap…she still had not come
to. “Ella is it? You’re a doctor…how nice…make sure Grandma
there is okay. Wouldn’t want her to die
on us now would we?” the man’s voice was menacing and dripping with sarcasm.
“Uh, she’s fine. She only
fainted,” Ella finally found her voice.
It sounded tiny to her…she wondered if that man could tell just how
scared she was. It was amazing how calm
she appeared to everyone around her. She
only hoped they couldn’t see her hands shaking.
“Well, that’s good,” the man said with an evil looking smile.
***
Brian finally caught up to Nick who was standing at the end of the
aisle staring towards the front of the store.
“Are you just gonna stand there or are we gonna go pay for this junk and
get out of here?”
“Be quiet Brian,” Nick said, his voice somewhat shaky.
“Man, we don’t have time for this.
Let’s go,” he replied and started to walk past before Nick grabbed his
arm.
“I said be quiet. Something’s
wrong,” he whispered as he watched a tall man in a ski mask standing over the
girl he had just run into a few minutes earlier. What
was her name? Ella….Emma? He hadn’t gotten a good look at her name
tag. The man was also holding a
gun. Oh
God…this is all we need.
“What is it?” Brian asked, suddenly alarmed. “Nick…Nicky?”
“Someone’s robbing the store. I
can see him from here.”
“What?!”
“Shhhh! He doesn’t know we’re in
here…we’ve gotta do something.”
“Do something? Like what
Nick? Take him down?” his voice was
sarcastic.
“Why not?” Nick turned to look at Brian with a serious _expression on
his face. “There’s only one guy up
front. If we jump him when his back is
turned and get the gun out of his hand, we could get the cops here and
everything would be fine.”
“He’s got a gun?! Hell no…forget
it Nick…we can’t jump an armed robber.”
“It’s one guy, Brian. We could
take him. All we have to do is knock him
down and get the gun away from him.
That’s it.”
Brian looked at Nick uncertainly.
“I just think it’s too dangerous.”
Moving past Nick he looked toward the cash registers and got a look at
the guy for himself. He wasn’t very big
muscle wise, but that didn’t always mean anything. He wasn’t terribly tall either. Shorter than Nick, but taller than
himself. Maybe Nick is right…it’s one guy and if we surprise him we could get
the gun away from him. But it’s still
dangerous. “Do you really think we
should take a chance like that Nick? I
mean, what if something goes wrong and someone gets shot?”
“I think if we sneak up on him, we have a chance at knocking him
down. If we get him to the ground, we
win. That’s how I’m looking at it. Besides, how hard could it be? I’m bigger than him.”
“Okay…you have a point. One guy
isn’t going to be that hard to knock down.
But how will we get to him without him seeing us? That’s the hardest part,” Brian said.
Nick looked back at the man. He
was facing the other direction; he was probably talking to the manager. Telling him how to give him the money or
something. “He’s facing the other way,
so I think we could do it now. He’s not
paying attention to the other people, and if we could get there, we could get
him. You could go and stand with the
others and I’ll jump him,” he said and started for the front.
“No, Nicky, I’m not gonna let you jump that man. I will.
You head that way…go stand with them and act like you’ve been there the
whole time. I’m not gonna let you do
something that dangerous.”
“Why should you do it?” Nick protested.
“You could get killed…just please don’t argue with me on this.”
“Man, Brian, YOU could get killed too.
And you have a wife and kid at home…let me do this…please.”
“No,” Brian said firmly. “I’m
not gonna let you do something that stupid…now, go over there.” Before Nick could protest further, Brian had
started to make his way to the front. He
ducked suddenly behind a display as the man turned back in his direction.
Nick watched as Brian began creep toward the man. Suddenly he had a very bad feeling about their
plan. Oh God, what are we doing? he asked himself. His eyes widened as Brian suddenly broke into
a run and headed straight for the man.
That’s when Nick heard someone call out.
“Nate! Behind you!” a male voice called out causing him to turn
suddenly.
Before anyone could do anything, the gun went off and everything was
silent.
***
