Never The End

Chapter 22- Relief

My heart had stopped. Every nerve in my body was tingling. My brain was whirring at a hundred miles an hour, trying to contemplate what was happening. I started feeling faint. I tried to move my shoulder to turn around. The hands slowly pivoted me round. I prepared myself for the face that was about to greet me - I predicted a tanned security guard, about 5"7' with a heavy moustache.

Jason.

"You idiot!" I whispered loudly at him. "I thought I'd been caught."

I tried to be cool but I could tell my crackly voice gave away my nerves. Tears started welling up in my eyes. My hand punched his arm harder than I'd expected.

He winced and looked me in the eye. "I'm sorry; I was just coming to check you'd got it." His voice lowered to a whisper as he finished the sentence.

Swiftly, I pulled the CD out of my pocket. The bar code glinted in the store lighting. Jason shoved the CD back into my pocket, quickly.

"What are you doing?" He glared. "Be careful!"

I quickly covered the pocket and put my hands inside it to smother the evidence. He winked and looked at me knowingly. My hands started to sweat again as I edged to the door. If the store had correctly labelled the CD, the alarm would go off.

Heart racing. Palms sweating. Legs shaking.

The door seemed to get further with every step. My fingers curled around the CD. I could feel the coldness of the case freeze the sweat forming on my hands. Jason put his arm round me.

"You ok?" He whispered as we edged towards the door.

I nodded, feeling truly sick. Trying to act casual, I looked round as if still trying to find a CD. I could feel my breath getting more frantic. This was it. We were so close. As I reached the alarms, I took a deep breath. I stopped in my tracks. "Jason, what if it goes off?" I hissed, turning to face the aisles.

He laughed and pulled me to the racks of CDs and started rifling through them. "They won't, this store is always getting stolen from. No one gets caught; the security guards are complete morons."

I looked over to the closest guard. He was savaging a chicken sandwich, mayonnaise squirted onto his uniform. Chuckling to himself, he nipped behind the counter to get a tissue. I sighed; he didn't look like he suspected us. I nodded back and Jason and took another deep breath. "Ok."

I stared at the alarm, hoping it would let me through without going off. I slowly stepped one foot out of the door. Nothing. Then the second foot. Nothing!