Danny colored and guiltily clutched his side. The magazine crinkled. Timmy looked down at his feet.
“And let’s not forget the twin pack of Twizzlers that you have, Timmy, down the back of your pants,” Jace said without remorse.
Neither boy could meet his eyes. Danny, of course, tried to bluster.
“We got this stuff someplace else!” Danny cried.
“Yeah? Now whose stupid? Put all of it on the counter,” Jace told him and touched the countertop for effect. “Now.”
The boys shuffled their feet, but they reluctantly put everything they’d been hiding on the table. Jace rang up everything except the adult magazine. Every clunking sound of every key on the old fashioned register had his head clunking, too. But there was something new. Something that had never been there before. A low whine. An electronic sound. Almost like a loose wire. Oddly, it reminded him of his dream of Gehenna. His head never hurt in the dreams, but when Gehenna was about to connect to him, he had experienced something like this. He found himself glancing over at the windows. Had those weird clouds gotten bigger? Darker? He couldn’t say.
If only Gehenna existed. It’s weird, I miss her.
He finished ringing up, but he didn’t tell the boys the total.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Danny cried as Jace picked up his wallet from the counter.
“You’re paying what you owe. Not just for today. But for some of the other times you’ve stolen things from Walter,” Jace said as he took two twenty dollar bills and put them in the register.
“You can’t do that!” Danny whined.
“Yes, I can,” Jace said. “And I’m going to keep doing it if you even so much as take a free sample without asking from now on.”
Timmy lifted his head and there was a faint smile on his face as if he was glad to see his rich best friend get his comeuppance. While Timmy had gone along with the stealing, Jace was pretty damned sure that he would have been happier with Danny paying for the food or not stealing at all. Maybe Jace could convince Walter to let Timmy help break down boxes and some other small things around the Con-Ve so he had a little spending money.
“And since you are a smart little toad, you know that this is far better than me calling your folks,” Jace said simply as he put the money into the cash drawer and shut it with a heavy thunk. He grimaced as the sound caused his head to throb and the whine continued to grow.
Danny looked at him mulishly. “My parents won’t believe you.”
“Yes, they would. Because they know what kind of toad you are,” Jace told him.
Another flush told Jace that he was right. The boys took their paid for sodas and candy as Jace held onto the Jugs magazine. They stalked off towards the door. It was only when the bell above the door rang as they were leaving that Danny got the “last word”.
“Asshole!” Danny called at him before running away with Timmy casting a “sorry” smile back at him.
Jace just snorted. He would have shaken his head, but it would have hurt too much. With a sigh, he stood up to go put the magazine back where it belonged. He had to steady himself with one hand on the counter though as the buzzing in his head suddenly steeply increased. He closed his eyes and prayed for this to pass.
Come on. Come on. Be okay. Retreat. Just retreat.
If he collapsed at the store, his parents would never let him work again. They might insist he stay in the house full time, or worse, that he go back to the military medical facility like they had when he’d started puberty. His hormones had played havoc with his already fragile system then and he’d been in the hospital for months. He couldn’t go through that again.
The ding of the bell at the front door forced him to open his eyes and turn his head. He hoped it wasn’t Danny and Timmy again. He really didn’t have the strength to deal with them. But he immediately saw it wasn’t. And a smile curled his lips.
“I thought I’d find you here today,” Sami said as she and her little brother George came into the Con-Ve.
He and Sami had met in high school during their sophomore years before he had to be homeschooled due to excessive sick days because of his headaches. But she, unlike so many others, had continued to remain friends with him. She’d always accepted his limitations without comment. Never making him feel fragile or a freak. They’d talk for hours, or she’d sit quietly while he rocked, trying to get the tinnitus to stop. Her acceptance of him was so complete, unlike his feelings about himself.
He didn’t blame the others for drifting away. It wasn’t like he could go out often or do many of the things that normal teenagers did. And then many of them had left for college or for work outside of Sunrise. The city wasn’t exactly a bustling place unless one was in the military. But Sami was a member of the Navajo Nation. She had stayed because her family were here. Her tribe was here. Her life was here and always would be.
“Where else would I be? After all, there is no more hip, happening place than the Con-Ve.” He spread his arms wide to encompass his “empire”.
She grinned. Her white teeth glowed against her brown skin. George, who was only six years old, held onto her hand, while sucking on his fingers. Jace quickly stashed the Jugs magazine beneath the counter and came out to greet them. His head was still buzzing and pounding.
“Why wear glasses?” George asked after extracting his wet fingers from his mouth.
“George!” Sami shushed him. She gave Jace a sympathetic smile. “The weather must be playing havoc with your migraines. Even I’m feeling the pressure.”
Jace smiled gratefully. “Yeah, it’s the weirdest weather ever. The clouds haven’t really moved.”
