Lipstick Kisses

Red Target

Red Target

We arrive at Target, the bright red sign making it impossible to miss the shop. The glass doors slide open and a thick of cold air busts out the building and ruffles my hair over my shoulders. Jace walks to the side, pulling me along. He bends his knees and grabs a bright red shopping basket with the logo printed in white on the side.

As we walk deeper into the shop, the greeting lady looks at the handcuffs and begins to look around nervously. Jace waves his hand and smiles at the lady.

"The school projects they come up with, ridiculous." He shakes his head.

"I can't believe they're teaching us honorable values thought pairing us up together. However, I feel like I've learned so much about his lifestyle by spending the day with him," I add to his explanation.

The lady physically relaxes and then finally smiles back at us, "Welcome to Target, please take this pamphlet with all the discount vouchers for the story, happy shopping and good luck with your project."

As Jace and I walk off, he asks, "where would we find the bolt cutters?' I look over my shoulder to see the smile drop from the lady who welcomed us.

"Do you think they have a tool section?" I ask.

"I don't know, perhaps they'll have something in the gardening part?" Jace offers.

"Perhaps." I shrug my shoulder, "Or somewhere else."

"It's your shop, you should know where stuff is," points out Jace.

"Alex from Target would know," I tease.

"I bet he would." He rolls his eyes and continues walking ahead.

We walk past the women's clothing section and towards the back of the store. Jace insists we walk the length of the back corner, but we don't find any section of use, so I divert us towards the beauty section to look at lipstick.

"How is lipstick going to help us out of these?" Jace lifts up his arm and points to the metal bands, once again reminding me of our predicament.

"It's not, but since you ruined my shopping trip, I want to browse." I pick up a shade of red and draw another line on the back of my hand. Jace picks a deeper one and reads the bottom colour label.

"Midnight Rose, that sounds pretty." He passes it to me and I test the colour on the back of my hand.

"What do you think?"

"Looks good." He grabs another one, "Valentine Hearts?" I take that shade and put a line next to the Midnight Rose colour, and then show it to him.

"Midnight Rose, that one looks beautiful against your completion."

"I think it's growing on me too." I hold the test shade near my lips and look in the mirror to envision it on my lips. When I look in the mirror, I catch the sight of another security frantically walking around the shop scanning the area.

"We need to move." I chuck the tester back and grab his arm, pulling him between the two selves so we're out of view. "There's another security guard looking for us."

Jace raises his head above the shelf and looks for him. He then bops down and presses his finger against his lips. He takes my hand in his and guides me down the hall, we turn towards the left and into the pool section. I look up and see him walking towards us. We creep further down, then I trip on a box falling off the shelf.

The security guard pops his head around the corner and catches us. My eyes go wide and I freeze on the spot as I wait. But my arm is yanked, forcing my feet to move to keep my body from pressing against the ground in a rough tumble.

We run through the store, bobbing and weaving between shelves and people until we hit the brick paving of the main strip street. The stagnant breeze draws slowly across my face. Jace looks from side to side, searching for somewhere to escape too.

"Where do we go now?'

In front of us, an elevator door opens. I look up at Jace and he nods his head. We run towards the elevator and slips inside. The security guard runs out of the Target and catches us. I press the close button on the elevator, then again when it doesn't work.

His eyes catch mine in a gaze, an intense one. I bite my lip and keep pressing my finger against the close button.

"Come on, come on, come on," I grumble.

The security guard starts running towards us just as the doors begin closing.

"Please." I pray.

"Hold that elevator," he shouts. But the bustling people on the walkway pay no attention to his requests. The doors close and I take a deep breath of relief. We travel upwards and then the doors open. We're in the heart of the train station.

"What next?" I ask.

A voice comes over the loud speaker, they list out the boarding times for the train. My eyes flicker to the glowing message board hanging from the roof.

"Three minutes until departure, he won't catch us on a train."

"What if we don't make it in time, we'll be trapped!" I say.

"We won't." We start running, my feet hitting the ground roughly which sends vibrations up my thighs. We skip the busy escalator and dash into the stairs. I jump down the last three steps and land on my ankle weirdly, but keep running around the corner and towards the train. We slip inside the main carriage and slot to the side of the door.

Jace bails me up against the door, making us look like a couple cuddling together. I watch Jace and he looks out the window. I have to fight myself from turning around and looking out the window as well.

As the doors close, Jace smiles down at me. "We're saved."

He takes a step back, putting space between us. I lean against the side railing of the disabled section while Jace stands in front of me.

The train wobbles sending him lurching forwards. Jace places his hand on either side of me, gripping onto the railing. His face is close to mine, his breath tickling my face. I wiggle my nose and he smirks down at me. He slowly edges back, then suddenly, his hands are on either side of my face and his lips are pressed up against mine roughly, yet bittersweet. He kissed me like I was air and he couldn't breathe.