I’m at the pawnshop to buy back my great-grandmother’s bracelet with all the money I’ve scraped together. If Callum hadn’t told me I didn’t have to pay rent, I’m fully aware that I wouldn’t have had the money to do it. And Iwillpay rent. Justnotthismonth. But I have thirty days to buy my bracelet back, or the guy will sell it.
Pushing the door open, I step into the store. It’s as quiet as it was before, with the same tinge of someone having smoked inside it recently.
I smile at the man on the other side of the counter and pull out a thick white envelope from my tote bag.
$700.
I barely, and I meanbarely, scraped the money together, and that’s only because I’m skipping out on paying rent and not buying any groceries.
“Hi, I’m here to buy back my bracelet.”
The pawnbroker checks his nails. “Got a ticket? Can’t do anything without a pink ticket.”
“Yeah, sorry.” I rummage through my tote bag for the pink slip he gave me, and I push it across the counter toward him. “Here.”
He picks it up, scans it, and sets it back down. “That’ll be $2,000.”
I stare at him, certain I must be hearing things. “What do you mean, $2,000?”
He nudges the slip toward me. “You sold the bracelet for $700.Thisis a different transaction. The price of gold has gone up. Now it’s worth $2,000.”
“But you said I could buy it back when I had the money. And you said nothing about the price going up.”
He points his thumb at the tiny rows of letters at the bottom of the slip. “Says so right there. Price of items can go up and down. As required by law.”
“But you didn’t tell me that.”
“It’s not my job to tell you. Just have to have it written. Not my fault you didn’t read it.”
I grit my teeth. “But you didn’t give me time to read it when you bought my bracelet.”
“And again, not my job, lady. You want the bracelet or not? You might not want it at $2,000, but that doesn’t mean someone else won’t. It’s a nice piece.”
My face is hot, and I shake with anger. “But you said…” I force myself to stop and take a breath. This isn’t working. He isn’t listening to me, and I’m getting the sense that he does this to everyone. And gets away with it. Opening my eyes, I try to return to my calm state. “How long do I have to buy it back?”
He peers down at the pink slip. “About a week.”
“Can you hold it for a little longer? It’ll really help me to?—”
“Can’t do that.” He smiles blandly at me. “It’s thirty days for everyone.”
He doesn’t care that this bracelet means everything to me. That it’s all I have left of my great-grandmother. In fact, he probablylikesthat it means so much to me. It makes me so desperate that I’ll pay whatever he wants to get it back.
“I’ll be back with the money,” I tell him firmly, even if I’m not sure how I’ll do that yet.
“Don’t wait too long,” he warns. His smile is so greasy, I never would have sold him the bracelet if I’d seen it before. “Wouldn’t want to sell it to someone with the money since it means so much to you.”
Hating myself for not recognizing that I couldn’t trust him, I pick up the pink slip from the counter and walk out of the shop, the door banging loudly behind me. Not just defeated, but angry and frustrated.
I could ask my boss for a loan, but Manny will say no. Worse, he might make his help dependent on me doing something in return. The girls at work don’t call him Wandering Hands Manny for no reason.
I wander down the road toward the bus stop, thinking hard about what to do.
No one I know has that kind of money.
Callum might give it to me, but do I really want to be relying on him for everything? He might be okay with the idea of me using him, but I’m not.
My mood doesn’t improve when my bus doesn’t come for thirty minutes. I briefly debate whether to try speaking to my parents again or going on another fruitless search for River. But no one will talk to me, and even if my parents or their friends knew where she was, they wouldn’t tell me.
