Fighter Love

Chapter 3: Walmart Employee (PART 2)

Recap:

As I grab my bags and head to the exit, a boy around my age stops me before I leave the store. Fuck.

" I think I recognize you from somewhere," he says while squinting his eyes, searching my face for something he could remember.

" Do you now? And from WHERE exactly do you recognize me?" I said with a challenging tone.

" Well if you must know, I think I recognize you from school," he bites back and I freeze. No, I don't remember ever seeing this boy. He's probably mistaking me for someone else.

But if he's not, then I'm in deep shit.

***********

"I don't know what you are talking about, now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going now," I say in a sweet tone, hoping that he'll buy the innocent girl act and let me go without questions asked.

Unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky.

As I pushed past him with my bags in tow, he clutched onto my arm and turned me around to face him. "Brittany, I know it's you. Your freaking mugshot was on the school paper for Christ's sake!" he bites back a laugh, clearly amused by my unsuccessful attempt at getting off easy.

"Alright, how much is it going to take for you to keep your mouth shut? I swear I'm going to start shopping at Target," I mumbled under my breath while reaching in my back pocket for my wallet.

His hand shooting up to stop me took me back a bit. "I don't want your money, I just want to ask you something before you go. Well, a few things, actually," he speaks with an egotistical smirk on his lips. God, I hate this kid.

Sighing in surrender after a moment of hesitating, I nod for him to go for it.

"Who are those things for?" Stupid, if I buy them, then they are for me, I wanted to say this, but he can get me in a lot of trouble; so I just keep my mouth shut and my answers as short as possible.

"Me." I see his face contort into an expression of disappointment, and I raise an eyebrow in disgust. He doesn't know me, what the hell is he disappointed in?

After he fixes his dumb face, he asks another dumb question. "Okay... since some of my other questions are irrelevant know, apparently, I'll ask this: are you coming back to school?" Are you kidding? What is up with this personal shit? Is he some kind of counselor?

"No, now can I go?" I start to turn away when he grabs me again. "Okay, listen, you're getting on my nerves with all these personal questions, and the touching thing is not making me any happier either," I growl and slap his hand off my forearm.

"Look, I'm sorry for being nosy and all, I just worry for my fellow classmates," he bows his head down and stuffs his hands in his front pocket like a kid who just got scolded. "You may not know me, but I don't have to be your friend to see that you're making some pretty bad mistakes." Gosh, now I feel a tiny hint of guilt for this dude and I don't even know his name.

With as much as compassion as I can muster, I apologize. "Hey I'm sorry for snapping at you, whatever your name is, but you don't have to worry about me or anyone. All you need to do is take care of your own business and stay out of other people's personal lives, okay? That's just a tip for the future, use it wisely." And with that, I retreat.

Once I'm out and on my way to the car, I hear footsteps approaching behind me and my defenses shoot up. But when I turn around, it's just the boy from the store. I mentally scoff, didn't he get the message to leave me alone?