MRSR Anniversary Contest

A Little White Lie and A Few Flashbacks: Rewritten

A/N - Here's some context: Hailey just accidentally broke the most valuable records in the store.

*Drew's Point Of View*

I stood there gaping at her stupidity for a good ten seconds before Odie walked in.

"I'm back! So, it turns out everything wasn't that bad and I-"

As Odie turned around, eyes slowly widening as he took in the (second) disaster that maniac had caused, I knew from the glance he shot me, disguised from Hailey as part of his intake of the scene, that he was holding me responsible for this whether I had caused it or not. He and I both knew that I'd been in charge in his absence, whether it was spoken or not, and that this was being put on me. Besides, Hailey was a lot closer to the mess than I was, and neither of us had moved since it happened. It was actually pretty obvious she'd done it, but Odie played dumb.

"Well, looks like a lot happened here while I was gone, huh?"

I looked over at Hailey; she looked like she was about to cry. No, it couldn't be- she wouldn't feel any remorse for breaking the records, even if by accident. It wasn't like she actually cared about the store, anyway, despite what she said.

I sighed internally as Odie shot me a more urgent glare. I had to take responsibility at this point, but I'd bet any money those were just crocodile tears.

"This is my fault, Odie," I relented. No way in hell was this coming out of my paycheck, though. I didn't care as much about the money as the fact that she at least suffered a little bit for her idiocy. And so she'd know that I hadn't taken the blame for her sake. "I knocked over the records while I was cleaning. I'm really sorry."

I heard a sniffle from the corner, and peeked over to see Hailey wiping real tears from her eyes, looking at me with such bewilderment it was almost cu-

"Oh goodness, you two, stop looking so stiff. You two look like you committed murder." Odie's laughter filled the shop as it dawned on me again that the most valuable records in the shop had been broken. As if we weren't doing bad enough financially... Stupid, clumsy maniac.

"B-But, the records..." came my thoughts aloud, not from my lips, but from hers- apparently she was thinking the same thing I was. I looked at Odie, the same question written in my expression.

"Oh, sweetheart, those aren't worth a penny. Those records are cheap replicas I put up last year. The real ones are in the back in my office," he said with a gesture.

I was seriously confused for a few seconds until, suddenly, I recalled him telling me about how he was afraid someone might come in and try to steal them or something. At the time, I'd taken it as an insult- if someone broke in I'd easily be able to fight them off- but he insisted that if somebody came in here with a gun for whatever reason, neither of us would be able to do anything about it. Reluctantly, I'd agreed; as it turned out, he was right after all. Typical.

With that cleared out of the way, I felt my own body relax- I hadn't realized how tense I was until I wasn't anymore. "Oh thank god," came a sigh from the corner simultaneously, my thoughts voiced yet again from her. Psycho mind-reader.

 "Yeah, tell me about it," he said with yet another pointed look at me, smirking. It seemed he remembered our conversation, too.

"So you're telling me that it doesn't even matter that all these records got destroyed?" That she destroyed them? That you're just gonna let her off the hook?

"Well," Odie replied, pulling a broom out of the closet and holding it out to me, "it might matter to you, because since you're the one who broke them, you'll be the one cleaning them up."