Day 15

Start writing a story that...

Step 1: includes the words: drugstore  faraway  memory

Step 2: add a character who wants to break a relationship

Step 3: include this sentence: The lock didn't work.
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She stood behind the drugstore register and fiddled with the display of lighter keychains. Clink, clink. They clattered against each other as she put one on each finger and wiggled them around. Faraway, a siren could be heard and she wished that it were a fire engine coming to evacuate the store so that she could go home. But the hum of the air conditioner and the buzzing of the fluorescent lights were soon once again the only sounds in the room. She stared through the glass front doors at the gleaming summer day outside, bringing up a memory of last summer when she wasn't stuck working. Swimming, playing tennis, reading on the grass. She couldn't conceive of anything better than summer vacation, and yet here she stood, waiting for someone to need tampons or cigarettes.

The door jingled and a young guy walked in. He stopped to looked around at first, and she recognized him as someone who had graduated the previous year. He saw her at the counter and nodded in recognition, then disappeared down one of the aisles for about five minutes. When he returned and approached her counter, he was carrying a spiral notebook and a large box of condoms. He placed these, along with a candy bar he grabbed from beneath the counter, in front of her.

She felt herself blush as she took the box to scan it. She wasn't embarrassed by the idea of sex, though she hadn't had it yet. But something about selling condoms to a kid you may have once known was really uncomfortable. She couldn't bring herself to ask him the required first question, "Did you find everything you needed?"

"How's it going?" he asked.

"Fine."

"That's good."

She finished ringing up the items and put them in a small bag for him.

"That'll be $32.45."

"Man, that's expensive," he said and handed her two $20 bills. "The things we do for love."

"Are you still with Rainy Erickson?" she asked.

"Sort of. Kind of hard when you're at different colleges, you know?"

She nodded, trying to look like she did know, while she counted out the change.

"We've started talking about taking a break."

She handed him the change and the bag. He took them and they both briefly stared at the condom box sticking out of the top.

"We probably won't break up until we go back to school, though. Not a lot to do around here."

She nodded again. He started heading toward the doors, then turned around.

"There's going to be a party later at Steven Derry's house. You know him?"

"Yeah," she said, though she'd never met Steven.

"How late are you working today?"

"Til 6:00."

"You should swing by then."

"Okay."

He left then, and she resumed fiddling with the keychains. She played out different scenarios in her head about whether she would have a drink or what she should do if someone wanted to make out with her. What else did college kids do at parties? Maybe she should make out with someone so she wouldn't be such a loser by the time she got to college.

The door jingled again and a woman in her 40s stepped into the store. She headed straight for the counter and asked for a box of menthols. All of the cigarettes were now locked up behind the counter, and so the key had to be pulled from beneath the register. She found the key as the woman sighed her disappointment about how long things were taking, and tried to open up the cabinet. The lock didn't work.