He was organizing the store once again, putting pills, shampoo and feminine products back in their places with such gracefulness it was as if his hands were in water. A bottle of Tylenol fell off the shelf and he caught it in one quick fluid motion. I was leaning on my broom, watching him with yearning.

“ Riley! Get back to work. I don’t pay you to stand around here.” My manager Frank growled, coming out of the back. Walgreen’s wasn’t exactly the job I had wanted when I was searching a few months ago. But when the call came a month ago, I responded and have been working here for that long. And it was a great thing too because besides getting money, I got to work with the single most attractive male in the universe. And so he might have been a major asshole, and he might have been a bit snotty, but he was still the most beautiful person I had ever seen. With long, natural strawberry blonde hair that reached his chin, and blue eyes that were so bright, it was a wonder how he got them. But best of all was his face. It was so gorgeous, and perfect. I began to wonder if he was really real at all. But hey, I would realize he was when he talked to me or yelled at me. My manager told me he’d been working at Walgreen’s since it opened. He also told me not to mess with him. And I really wasn’t messing, but sometimes when he got off work, I would watch him leave with his friends, and I wished I could get into that black SUV with them and laugh the night away. His friends would sometimes sit outside for him, when he went on break. He’d go outside to smoke a cigarette and toss them some packs that he nicked earlier. I didn’t like them very much. One was a tall blonde guy, with his hair always slicked back, and he seemed to be closer to Jack. The other guy was shortest of the three, and he had choppy black hair, as if he had cut it himself and didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t laugh that much and had a little bit of facial hair equal to Johnny Depp, and a lip ring. I watched Jack as he joined them, after he had sorted all the shelves and he punched the blonde guy lightly and nodded to the choppy haired guy. Then they hopped in the SUV, windows open, smoke and loud music coming out.

“ Hey.” I heard my manger say behind me. I frantically started sweeping the floor.

“ Don’t worry about the floor. Just go. I don’t know what it is with you teenagers.” He took the broom from me. “ You get that look on your face and I got to let you go.”

“ Thanks.” I said, taking my pin off. I went to the back and grabbed my purse and keys, and left through the back door.

I passed the black SUV on the way to my shitty, almost plastic Ford. I needed to save as much money to pay for college, so I couldn’t afford to buy a new car. I heard laughter come from the SUV and I pressed my purse thingy closer to me.

“ Hey Riley.”

My eyes widened at the sound of his voice. Jack Lewis was talking to me? I backed up to the driver’s side window and stared into the face of the blonde guy. I reeled back in horror and shook my head. He looked a bit offended.

“ No, back here dimwit.” Jack’s voice called. I looked into the back and he had a joint in his hand, and he was sitting next to choppy-haired guy. I tried to smile, but I froze and became clammy.

“ Yeah, can you work for me on Monday?” Jack asked, taking a drag, and holding it in. The guy with the choppy hair wrinkled his nose and swatted the smoke away. He didn’t even look at me. Jack was staring at me intently though, as if his life depended on my answer.

“ Uh, sure. What time?”

“ The usual. Hey thanks. Maybe we could, you know, do something sometime.” He smiled and revealed his sharp canines. Maybe he was a vampire, stuck in this world to the end. He was a damn beautiful vampire. I smiled dreamily.

“ I’ll take that as a yes.”

“ Yeah. I’d love to.”

“ Alright then. Bye.” He saluted me with one finger and tapped the blonde guy. He turned around and smiled at Jack and nodded. Then they sped away. I was left wondering if what had happened, had really happened. Then my manager came running out, waving some piece of paper around, and clutching his belt. I sighed.

“ You forgot your-”

“ Paycheck. Yeah.” I took it from him. “ Thanks Frank.”

“ No problem. Now you have fun. And stay away from Lewis. He’s nothing but trouble for you.”

“ I’ll try.” I have him an earnest smile and plowed towards my car. I had half a tank of gas, but I decided that going somewhere wasn’t that appealing when you were going somewhere alone. The night was young and I was heading home, listening to some 80’s songs on the radio. I hoped Natalie would be home. But on a Friday night, I doubted it. My roommate and best friend wasn’t as antisocial as I was. In fact, I couldn’t enter her room without knocking to make sure she wasn’t doing bad things in there with some guy. Sure it made me feel pathetic at times, but at least I didn’t have to worry about those day-after phone calls. Most of the time, Natalie didn’t talk to the people she shimmied with. She usually made me pick up her cell phone and pretend I was some old lady. Had a bit of fun sometimes. But when I got home today, she was sitting on the couch watching some old horror movie with her rabbit on the couch, and snuffling into a tissue.

“ Hey Nat, what’s wrong?” I asked, putting my purse and keys down. We were currently renting a small apartment, and it wasn’t much but at least it had a kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small living area. I sat down on the sofa next to Natalie and she glared at me.

“ You are so lucky. You don’t have to worry about men. They’re slime. They all deserve to die.”

“ Oh, I worry enough.”

“ Well, not the same way that I do.” She said, licking her lips, and throwing the tissue onto the coffee table.

“ Hey! Don’t do that!”

“ Riley.” She said in a dangerous tone. I backed away. Then she stopped growling and looked at me. It seemed like she was looking at me for the first time in fifteen years. We had first known each other when we were four, and she beat some kid up that stole my nap mat. I think we were in daycare, but my mother had it all on tape. It was wonderful to watch me blubbering in the background, and Natalie kicking the crap out of some little boy, who by then was also crying.

“ You know, you really are pretty.”

“ Gee...” I rolled my eyes for lack of anything to say.

“ If only, you would get that hair out of your face...and use some eyeliner...”

“ I like my bangs. They’re emo!”

“ They’re so stupid. Everyone does that.” It was her turn to roll her eyes.

“ Yeah, well. I like them so go fart off.”

“ Why don’t we dye your hair tomorrow. Get it cut and stuff. Then I bet that John guy-”

“ Jack.”

“ That Jack guy will like you.” She said, getting off the couch.

“ He asked me out.”

“ WHAT?” She stopped.

“ I mean, he asked if I wanted to do something sometime.”

“ That means you did something for him. What did you do?”

I put my head down and let my hair fall into my face.

“ I took his shift.”

“ You loser. Oh well. Be ready for girly stuff tomorrow.”

“ Natalie, we’re nineteen. We’re over ‘girly stuff’ by now.”

“ Never.” She said, disappearing into her bedroom.

---

Monday came, and I woke up, feeling rather lazy. I knew why Jack wouldn’t want to go to work. The girly time I had with Natalie yesterday consisted of her dying my hair, and us drinking until we passed out. That was a rare occasion, seeing as how usually I don’t touch the stuff, but yesterday seemed a fine day to do it anyway. My hair was now dyed and auburn color and I wasn’t too happy going to work, still smelling slightly of alcohol and hair dye. But nonetheless, I took a shower and hopped in the crappy ford. I was a bit early, but I went inside anyway, putting my stuff away. Frank came out and smiled at me, but then frowned.

“ Hey, isn’t Lewis supposed to work today?” He started to head back to check the schedule.

“ Yeah, Jack asked me to work for him.”

Frank gave me a slight glare, and then shook his head. I didn’t stick around for him to say anything about succumbing to men’s power. I ran out into the store and began fixing some shelves. I checked the time and went to flip the sign by the doors to ‘Open’. I sighed and saw a white Mustang parked far off in the back of the parking lot. I knew it was Franks, but all the same it reminded me of my ex-boyfriend. He was a really selfish guy. And it wasn’t that he didn’t care for me at all, but he would only see me once a week, and spend the rest of his time doing drugs with his friends. He wasn’t exactly loyal either. After he cheated on me the third time I finally gave up. It was hard, when he would be so sweet sometimes and then the next day he would act like an asshole, but I fell in love with him just the same. He wasn’t going to go to college, and I was spending a year off to get more money, so sometimes I still see him around, and it hurts like hell. Everyone gets their heart broken I suppose, but Drake ripped it out of me, and trampled it to a million pieces. Our last conversation consisted of him telling me that I was the best girlfriend he had ever had, but I wasn't sexual enough. I wanted to slap him, but instead went home and cried in the dark with Natalie’s rabbit for moral support. The rabbit didn’t help, because all it did was poop and snuffle around, and since then I haven’t talked to Drake.

The doors to the store slid open, bringing me back to the present, which was much better than those memories anyway. I lifted my head over the shelves to see who it was. And it just happened to be Jack’s friend. He was the guy with the black choppy hair and lip ring. I sighed and went to the register, waiting for him. It took him about five minutes to amble around the store and then select a soft drink and magazine. He came to my register and looked up.

“ Hey, you’re not Jack.” He stammered. I raised my eyebrows in disbelief.

“ No, he asked me to work for him. If I’m not mistaken, you were there.” I told him, scanning his items. The magazine, as I was sure it would be, was not porn, but a guitar magazine. And a grape soda instead of what I figured he would get, a Pepsi. I looked at the register computer.

“ That’ll be $6.47.” I looked at him.

He didn’t make any moves to withdraw money. I smiled a little and tilted my head impatiently, waiting. He looked at me blankly, and then a look came across his face I could only guess was sadness.

“ $6.47, please.” I said softly. I was wondering why this guy was looking at me as if his mom just died. It bothered me a little bit and I wondered if he had even brought any money. But just as suddenly he pulled out his wallet, and handed me a ten. I took it and was counting his changed quickly, when he took his back, waved my hand of change away, and left. He called over his shoulder.

“ You can keep the change!”

I stared at the change in my hand and then after the guy. Shrugging, I put the change back in the drawer and I heard Frank come out of the back muttering about weirdoes.

---

I came home to an empty house, save for that damn rabbit. I opened the refrigerator and found nothing truly edible except a batch of cookie dough. I opened the freezer and few frozen dinners fell out and hit my foot. I howled in pain and hopped around on one foot, caressing the other. I leaned against the sink, and breathed. This day wasn’t going so well, the only good thing being the extra three or so dollars I made when that guy just left. I sighed and watched the rabbit hop into the kitchen to use his litter box. It didn’t even have a name; we just called it Rabbit. Natalie’s old boyfriend had given it to her as a birthday present and it never died. Seven years and going strong, unfortunately. Not that I hated it. But it pooped everywhere, and the greatest mystery of the universe is how we found rabbit poop on the ceiling once. I hobbled to my room, maneuvering around Rabbit, and collapsed on my bed. I thought it might be a good time to phone home, and mooch my mom for money. I pulled the phone onto the bed and dialed.

“ Hello?”

“ Hey, it’s Riley!” I said, more enthusiastically than I should have.

“ Oh hi.” My little sister retorted, obviously disappointed it wasn’t someone else.

“ So Robyn how is everything over there?”

“ It’s fine. I have a new boyfriend!” She giggled and I waited. “ His name is Brett and I think I love him.”

“ You’re fourteen child, you don’t know what love is.”

“ Well you were sixteen when you started dating Drake and you loved him. I’m only two years younger than that. I think I know my own feelings.”

“ I was sixteen, yes, but I didn’t love him after one week. It took a few. And plus, we’d been friends with benefits before that, so I was used to him, and already was developing feelings.”

“ I’ve had Brett for two weeks.” She pouted. I sighed and rubbed my head.

“ How old is he? How does he look like?”

“ He’s fifteen, and he has blonde hair, and he’s tall and he has pretty blue eyes and he’s so dreamy.”

“ Okay, stay safe, no sex, no touching, and no love. Where’s mom?”

“ Gardening.”

“ Give her the phone.”

“ But I’m not done talking about Brett.”

“ I’m sorry Robyn, I just can't talk about stuff like that right now. Can I have mom?”

“ Fine!” She whined and I heard rustling sounds and then mom’s voice, and Robyn’s voice and then silence.

“ Riley? Everything okay?” My mother asked me cautiously.

“ Yeah mom. Work is a bummer though. I’m pretty much surviving on Natalie’s paycheck.”

“ Well, she doesn’t work at Walgreen’s.” My mom pointed out.

“ Thank you Mrs. Obvious. You didn’t need to be so blunt. Walgreen’s is all I got.”

“ You could get another job.”

“Yeah I know but it’s hard. Took me long enough to get this one.”

“ I know why you called, and you know I just can’t keep supplying you with money. Your father and I work hard for our money.”

“ Mom, you’re unemployed.”

“ I still work hard.”

“ Sure. Where’s dad, he’s a bit softer than you.”

“ Riley, I’m only going to give you $200 for some groceries. After that, I want you to get a second job.”

“ Mom, I don’t get it. You told me you’d pay for half of my college, if I went out and did things on my own. What in Hitler’s name made you think I could do this on my own?”

“ Anyone can.”

“ Not me.”

“ Your brother did.”

“ Steven is Steven. He’s a dentist, gets loads of money, and is cynical. Keeps telling me I have cavities to fill. I hate him. Of course he made it on his own, the bastard.”

My mother sighed long and hard.

“ Get over it.” She finally said. I shook my head, and growled.

“ Fine, maybe I should call Stevie and beg for money. You’re not helping too much.”

“ $200.” My mother said and I heard a sound not much unlike a shovel being placed on pavement. “ Bye.”

She hung up. Hung up on her favorite daughter. Well, so I’d like to think. I would never call Steven; he’s too much of a big shot. I used to like my brother until he got that girlfriend, and that job, and made it big. Any day now he’ll announce his engagement to that thing he called his babe. Oh well, I would tell him that I was deeply sorry, but I have to work on the day of the wedding. Can't cancel it. Yeah, Walgreen’s.