The gun is cold, pressed against my back; it's stuck in the waistband of my leggings, just under my shirt. I take a deep breath in, trying to calm myself as I pace around outside of the small gift store. It's privately owned, a business called Coldwater Creek. I think it's this fact that made me hesitant, not so much the heist itself, but whom I am stealing from. I chew on my fingernail, staying out of sight from the windows, trying to keep myself calm and collected.
Lizzy waits in the car around the corner, she's probably wondering what's taking me so long, but little does she know I haven't even stepped foot inside the store yet. Something inside me tells me to give up and just go back to the car. At this point, I definitely do not think this is something I could go through with. I don't know the people who own this store, what if they're nice people? They probably don't deserve to be robbed. This store was in the middle of nowhere and it probably took a while to earn the money they had, so why would I want to take away their earnings? I swallow hard.
I see a car pull up next to me in reverse from the corner of my eye. I look at it and see Lizzy staring back at me. She's questioning me in silence, I can tell by the gestures of her hands and the concerned look on her face. She must think I'm ridiculous. I basically ran out of her car as soon as we got here, hid my gun and marched right up to the door, but never even opened it. Now it's been almost ten minutes and I'm still rooted to the spot, with not even a fraction of the confidence I came here with.
"Are you okay?" She mouths.
"I can't," I mouth back.
She glances in my direction before driving her car back to her original spot. I walk back toward her car with a weight lifted off my shoulders. For a moment, I think I got off the hook. Even though this technically was my idea, all I want is an excuse to get out of it. However, it looks as though I'm wrong. She opens the trunk of her car and pulls out a hoodie, the lion and mouse masks...and another gun.
"What are you doing?" I ask as she shuts the trunk.
Lizzy pulls the black hoodie over her head and tucks the gun in the same place I did, right in the waistband of her jeans. "I'm going with you," she says. "For moral support."
"What? No, I don't want to do it at all. I'll feel bad."
She narrows her eyes. "This was your idea."
I look down at my feet before turning my head back to look at the store behind me. It sits before an empty parking lot without a sound coming from it. You might even think it was closed down if it wasn't for the bright red "open" sign in the front window. "I didn't think it would be...hard."
Lizzy takes my hand and walks me to the front door of the store. Without hesitation, she pushes the glass door open and a bell rings, immediately making the salesclerk aware of our arrival. She pulls me to the back of the store where soft drinks and water were kept in refrigerators and I take the lion mask from her hands. For now we're concealed by a shelf stacked with neatly folded souvenir sweaters.
"This is going to be easy," she says. "Just pull out the gun and ask for the money and I'll be right behind you if anything goes wrong."
I take a deep breath and nod. We pull on our masks down in unison. Lizzy's mouse mask looks at me, waiting for me to make a move and I bite my tongue before walking back to the front of the store.
A girl, about nineteen years old stands behind the front counter. She looks like a native to the area, with her sun stained skin and bleached blonde hair. She chews gum, or she was chewing gum, before it falls from her mouth as she sees me walking toward her, reaching into my back pocket for my gun. Within a second, my arm is extended out in front of me, pointing the gun straight at this girl's head.
