Waiting

Chapter 1

“Hello, did you find everything alright today?” I asked with a cheery smile as I stood behind the counter.

“Yeah,” the young teenage girl replied simply.

I kept a smile on my face as I rung up her clothing items. This job was going to be the death of me.

“Would you like your receipt in the bag?” I asked after she had paid for her clothes.

“Yeah,” she replied, not an ounce of enthusiasm in her voice at all. I tried my hardest to not roll my eyes at her.

“Have a nice day,” I said as she walked away from the counter.

Today was an incredibly slow day, and I had no idea why. Usually there were a lot of teenage girls in here buying things that all of their friends had.

“Welcome to American Eagle!” my co-worker and best friend, Brenda said enthusiastically to an elderly woman who walked into the store.

The woman gave Brenda a polite smile and I rolled my eyes. Why did I always get stuck with the asshole teenagers who didn’t know what a smile was?

“McKenzie, I’m going to go fix the clearance racks,” Brenda told me, pointing to the back of the store.

I turned back and rolled my eyes. Why were customers so inconsiderate when it came to putting things back where they found them? Did they know that we were the ones who spent hours putting it together for them to just mess it all up? Probably, but they obviously didn’t care.

“Excuse me, what do you think a 15-year-old girl would like for her birthday?” the elderly woman asked politely from behind me.

I turned with a smile. This lady reminded me of my father’s mother. She was short, had short, light grey hair, a pale complexion, and a few small wrinkles spread over her face.

“Well, a lot of the girls who look to be about 15 have recently bought this,” I began, exiting the “worker’s area”, as Brenda and I liked to call it, and leading the sweet lady to a stack of lacy shirts.

The lady nodded appreciatively, “Is there anything less… revealing?” she asked, trying her hardest to be polite.

I smiled at her and nodded, “They have also bought this sweater. I bought it for myself and I wear it a lot when I go out,” I said, playing with the arm of the knit, olive green sweater as it hung off the rack.

“Hmm… is it a durable material?” she wondered.

“Yes, I’ve gotten a few stains on mine before, and they’re easy to get out without ruining the material,” I replied honestly.

The lady smiled and nodded to herself, “I think that I’ll get this, then,” she concluded with a smile.

I smiled back at her politely, “What size are you looking for?” I wondered.

“Large,” she responded.

I nodded and fished a large out of the rack, “I’ll ring this up for you right now… would you like to look it over before you purchase it?”

“Yes please,” she replied with a smile, taking the sweater from my hand.

I smiled, “I’ll be at the counter when you’re ready or if you need anything else,” I informed her before walking back into the worker’s area. Since it was an extremely slow afternoon, I decided to clean off the counter.

I had just finished with the counter when an eruption of screams echoed through the mall. I initially thought that someone was shooting out the place until I saw a man pushing the screaming girls away from whoever was in the middle of the crowd. The crowd got closer to this store and I was debating on whether or not to lock the doors.

Before I could decide, the doors were thrown open. I felt as if I would go deaf with all of the high pitched screams echoing through this small store.

“Can you lock the doors or somethin’?” a man asked exasperatedly as he attempted to keep the door closed on his own.

I fumbled through the drawer underneath the computer before pulling out the lanyard with keys attached to it. Because I felt as if I was being rushed, I dropped the keys twice on my way towards the front doors. With the man’s help of keeping the doors closed, I was able to lock the doors shut so that the girls couldn’t get inside.

“Thanks,” he said, breathing heavily.

It made me chuckle to think that a group of teenage girls could get him that winded.

“Well, well, well, would you look who it is,” Brenda said with a smirk plastered across her lips. I rolled my eyes at her.

“One Direction… I honestly never thought I’d be able to meet you guys without renting my womb out to a gay couple,” Brenda added bluntly.

The boys all laughed at her, and their security guard even cracked a smile. I, on the other hand, was used to how upfront Brenda was.

“So how are you girls doing today?” Louis asked Brenda and me.

Yes, I knew all of their names and what tattoos they had or didn’t have. I will admit to having a slight obsession with them last year, but I have pretty much gotten over it since then.

“Pretty good… I was wondering why it was such a slow day today, but now I realize that all of the teenage girls were probably busy stalking the five of you,” I replied with a smirk, smiling when the elderly lady from earlier walked up to the counter.

“So this is the winner?” I asked with a smile.

The lady smiled back at me and glanced behind me when Brenda walked back behind the counter.

“Yes, I’ll be getting this one,” she replied, motioning to the olive green sweater from earlier.

I smiled, scanned the barcode, and removed the security device from the sweater.

This lady was so sweet, and I didn’t feel like she should have to pay full price for the sweater because the clothes here were pretty expensive. I quickly typed in my employee code that gave her 15 percent off of the purchase. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

I read her total to her and she paid with her credit card. She began to struggle with the machine and I was about to assist her when Harry walked over.

“What does that say?” she asked him. I could tell that she was a bit embarrassed.

“Would you like cash back?” Harry asked her with a kind smile.

“Oh, no,” the lady responded. Harry pushed the ‘no’ button for her.

The receipt printed from the machine beside me and I ripped it off when it was finished.

“Would you like your receipt in your bag?” I asked with a smile.

“Yes, please,” the lady replied with a crinkly-eyed smile. I was almost positive that Harry had made her feel better.

“Thank you for shopping at American Eagle,” I automatically said as the lady turned.

“Is there a back door that I can go out of?” she asked, worry filling her eyes.

I smiled at her and nodded, stepping out of the worker’s area and leading the polite lady to the back of the store where the back door was.

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I understand that this is probably a weird spot to end the chapter on, but the chapter I've written in Word is 29 pages long and I don't think putting the whole thing on here at once is appropriate. d:

Thanks for reading! x