She sighed a little to herself and considered for the 10 millionth time that maybe she’d overreacted to her stepfather. It wasn’t like he’d done anything illegal to her. He was just a dick to live with and her mother was so weak and obnoxious. But it might have been better to stick it out two years and go to college. She had the grades for it, maybe even good enough to get into college. But that was a dead dream now. It wasn’t ever going to happen. This, stealing and eating cold spagehetti-o’s was her present and her future.
She felt that she’d scoped the place out pretty well. There was a stockboy, two cashiers, a guy at the deli counter, a lady fall asleep at the butcher’s table, and a manager cycling around somewhere. Everyone seemed to be pretty still and there were plenty of customers walking around (and trying not to pay any attention to the poor girl from out of town), to keep everybody busy.
Now, some people might have been less cautious about their shop lifting, but Allie prided herself on being professional. She’d started stealing when she was a minor, when she knew that getting caught for doing anything once meant that she’d be going back home. So, even though that was no longer a danger, she still cased places and made very certain that she wouldn’t be caught. Who knows, maybe someday she’d want to be a legitimate member of society again and she couldn’t have a long criminal arrest record following her around forever.
Allie wended her way back to the produce section in the front of the store. No scurvy for her, she grabbed a couple of oranges and stuffed the in her pockets. She walked casually out of that area, snagging a green pepper on her way. Next she walked around the corner, past the butcher and into the canned foods section. She grabbed a couple of cans of beans, a can of fruit, and some canned pasta. This was the stuff that would last a while. She stopped in the snack food aisle and grabbed a small bag of chips and a small bottle of soda. She was starting to feel heavy, almost done. She skipped the frozen food section, grabbed a little bit of cheese and made her way towards the exit. The she walked towards the register.
She needed to buy something to avoid raising suspicion. As she reached the cash register she decided she would buy a magazine. Cosmo or something. She had no interest in learning how to please her man, but it seemed like the kind of thing a normal, non-felonious teenager would buy. She threw the separator down on the conveyor belt and dropped the magazine down.
The man standing in front of her was arguing with the cashier about an expired coupon. Allie sighed, but felt nervous. It was time to get out of this place. She tried to act nonchalant and started to browse through the impulse item. She laughed at the various Enquirer headlines and tried to figure out what “mechanically separate chicken” meant on the Slim Jim wrappers. Finally, her gaze fell on the rows and rows of candy bars.
She stared at them and her stomach growled. She was starving. And most of the stuff she’d stolen were the essentials for life, nothing particularly exciting. The thought of biting into chocolate was unbearable. She’d had a chocolate bar about a week before, but it felt like ages since she’d had her favorite food. She looked over at the register. The fight appeared to be over; the cashier was still just scanning items. She was clearly not paying attention. The man was eyeing the cashier cautiously, making sure that she didn’t try to pull one over on him again. Allie decided to be bold. She reached forward quickly and grabbed two Hershey bars and then rapidly stuffed them into her front pocket. But, just as her wrists slid into her pockets, a hand came down hard on her shoulder.
“Excuse me miss, what is in your pockets?” a woman’s voice said. Allie’s blood ran cold. How could she be so stupid? This was a worst case scenario. She turned and saw a short young woman with brown hair and large breasts. The woman was wearing a black shirt and a short, blue skirt. The woman’s face was pretty but scrunched into a scowl of disapproval. Allie could probably knocked her over, she was small, but if she tried to run, the cart boy was by the front door. There was no way she’d get out. But Allie had prepared for this, she was going to play the “poor little ol me,” routine and see where it got her. Damn, she’d always expected to get caught by a man; it would work better that way. But she had to try. She looked at the woman’s name-tag. “Erika Collins”
“Oh Ms. Collins, please I am so sorry,” she said, figuring there was no point in denying anything. She worked up some tears and in a moment she was balling, “I just, I couldn’t afford them I… I am homeless. I just wanted something to eat.” She looked over briefly. The man at the register regarded her coolly and the cashier pretended she wasn’t seeing anything. She looked back at Erika, who did not appear to be buying it. Erika crossed her arms in front of her ample chest. Allie slowly removed the candy bars from her jacket and placed them back on the shelf. She looked at Erika as if to say, “We even now?”
“What else have you got in that coat?” Erika asked coldly. Allie started to feel a little panicked now. This was going absolutely nowhere. When Erika started to reach for the coach, Allie decided to get indignant.
“Hey you can’t touch me!” she yelled, ‘it’s in the Constitution.” Allie seriously doubted the constitution had anything to say about protecting shoplifters from the shop-keep, but she also knew that no one knew a damn thing about the Constitution but everyone was afraid of doing something against it. For a moment, Erika stopped. Allie figured that the manager was afraid that she was crossing some sort of legal line by trying to search her.