Page 37

Matt went quiet, eyes dropping to his phone. The music kept playing between them.

“My life back then mostly consisted of soccer and other shit,” Alex muttered.

A door banged against the corridor wall, making them jump. Kana stomped out of the bathroom in her tall black boots with her hands on her hips.

Alex and Matt straightened up.

Her silvery cat-eye makeup made her death stare twice as effective. “Who is playing that cringy-ass abomination?”

Alex pointed at Matt, who shoved the phone into his cargo pants. The music kept playing, muffled but unmistakable, through the fabric.

“I’m sorry, miss! I won’t do it again!” Matt stammered, hands up like she was holding him at gunpoint.

Kana crossed her arms, the red and black stripes of her arm warmers bunching at her elbows. “I don’t give a shit if you don’t do it again, just use fucking headphones or something!”

Alex tried to swallow a laugh at her attempt to scold a terrified teenager twice her size. When she glared at Alex, he became stoic, cool as a cucumber. “Whatever you saw, you saw nothing,” she sneered at him.

Alex braced himself on the counter, smirking when a shade of pink colored her cheeks. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I definitely saw something, like how you can look more like a princess than a baby gremlin.”

Kana’s face went deep red. She lunged at him across the counter, middle finger up. Alex cackled, leaning back against the wall where she couldn’t reach him. Her arms didn’t even clear the counter. She swiped at him anyway, black nails and all. Alex wasn’t sure if it was amusing or adorable.

Matt’s eyes darted between Kana and his phone—back and forth, back and forth—until Alex thought they’d pop out. Then he swallowed. “Um… Miss Sammy—”

Kana held up a hand. “We told you already, don’t fucking call me that. I’m just Kana.”

“Hey!” Everyone flinched at Hal’s bark. His head stuck out of the storage room with a big frown on his face. “No arguing in the shop! Rules’ rules.” He nodded at Matt, the ends of his satin-black durag swishing as he moved. “Also keep playing. That single’s a bop.”

“No,” Kana groaned, rolling her eyes.

Hal grunted. “No arguing in the shop. Rules’ rules.” He stepped out of the storage room, still in baggy checkered pajama pants and an oversized hoodie, like he hadn’t seen a bed he wanted to leave. He turned to Matt, crossing his thick arms. “Also, did you look into the phone?”

Matt’s brows furrowed. “Yes? It’s been fixed, like you asked.”

“Yeah, and it looks like new, but that’s not the problem.” Hal revealed the phone they took at Norms. The home screen lit up, displaying a grainy photo of two smiling, young Asian kids, with their arms around each other’s shoulders. “It keeps locking me out.”

Matt blinked. “Because there’s a passcode…?”

“Yeah, but the whole point is getting into the phone. Not turning it on.”

Before Matt could respond, Hal tossed the phone to him. “Do your magic, Matt. You got this,” he said with a wide grin and pointed his thumb behind him.

Matt huffed, knuckles turning white from clutching the phone, but he didn’t argue. He shuffled towards the storage room.

Hal gave him a light pat on the shoulder on his way back. “You finish on time, and I’ll get you another box of that orange juice.”

Matt’s eyes lit up, and he dashed into the darkness towards the LED light source.

Hal snickered as he joined the other two, leaning on the opposite end of the counter where Kana was standing.

“So he’s like your bitch or something?” Kana asked.

“No,” said Hal.

“Yes,” Alex coughed at the same time.

Hal glared at him. Alex turned away, the picture of innocence.

“He helps out with special requests,” Hal explained. “In addition to working at this fine establishment.”