Cleo slugged into Twon's Spirits at 8:00am after dropping JJ off at school. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she lost the money she needed that would allow him to enroll at Brookshire, especially in the irresponsible way she had lost it. She contemplated taking money out of the register, but the store carried so little change in the first place that she knew that decision would turn around and bite her in the ass when accounting time came.
She slid her headphones into her ears and began her opening duties, starting with counting the register.
Cleo always balanced the register at open and closing time, so she found it concerning that she had a surplus of exactly $121.83 the four separate times she recounted.
She began counting the money in the drawer a fifth time, before realizing that was the same amount she spent buying Ticket's food last night. Was she so high that she accidentally used her debit card to pay? No, because she didn't have that much available after her bills drafted out of her account.
She stood there with the cash in her hand, dumbfounded. Where this extra money came from, she didn't know. But she also didn't question it further. She was the only one working the register yesterday, and surpluses did happen every once in a while, so she would notate it in her records and keep it pushing.
*
After Ticket blew her high last night, Cleo had a long talk with herself. Until she paid him back every dime he bought her with, she would simply...comply. She knew he would hold what he did for her over her head, and fighting him every time he said something that pissed her off would make the time they had to endure with each other miserable. As Nayeli said, if she just chilled and did what he said, she would be taken care of. But as soon as her debt was paid, she would never speak to him again. Until then, she would work.
Cleo sat in the break room with Vette and Chief as Vette taught her how to bag up a dime piece. The first time she met him, he was extremely dismissive and cold, but this being only her second full conversation with him, she was surprised how personable he was.
He spoke just as much as Nayeli did, and Cleo deduced that he just needed time to warm up like she suggested.
"Can you believe that shit? He was gone miss my graduation over a bitch," Chief claimed as he shook his head.
"Man, shut yo soft ass up," Vette snapped back, "I wasn't gone miss nothing. I was running late cause of a bitch, it's a difference."
"Out of all days to lose yo virginity you choose the morning of my graduation??"
"Pussy calls when pussy calls," Vette grinned, "Ain't that right, Raindrop?"
Raindrop was the name they had given to Cleo after she revealed her middle name was Rainn. She wasn't sure what their obsession with nicknames was, but she thought it was funny, so she allowed it.
Cleo, however, couldn't respond. She was too focused on trying to secure the top of the bag once the cocaine was measured and sifted into the plastic.
The boys made fun of her because she was wearing gloves and a mask as she worked with the substance, even though they told her a thousand times the only way she could ingest it was if she purposely tried to.
Cleo's stock room was also now half-filled with narcotics. After the shipment arrived last night, Ticket wasted no time getting his warehouse workers to load up the trucks and stock up Twon's. Tomorrow would be the first day his customers became aware of his new location, so Cleo was 'studying up', even though she wouldn't be involved in the packing process at all. All of the boxes in the stock room were pre-sealed and ready for distribution.
