Boyf Riends

Michael

I scrolled through a text thread as Jeremy and I walked through the mall. My soda dealer had another case for me.

Link To The Past: Yo Michael, I got that clear stuff.
Me: Oh?
Link To The Past: Ye, I found some clear Pepsi for you.
Link To The Past: It got discontinued in the 90's.
Me: Oh hell yeah.
Me: You're the best, how much?
Link To The Past: I dunno.
Link To The Past: Meet me at Spencer's and we'll see how generous I'm feeling.

"Michael, you good?" I was snapped out of my soda filled daze by Jeremy's concerned tone.

I shoved the phone in my pocket and looked at him. "What? Oh, yeah. Let's go."

We walked into the store, the smell of rubber and plastic filled the air. Over near the back, there was a scary looking stockboy.

He looked like a low budget X-men.

In front of me, Jeremy stopped. He turned around and there was red spreading all over his face.

"Michael, how about we just turn back? I mean, he's ignoring us so why even bother?" He said while gesturing around with his hands.

Jeremy tried ducking into a different aisle to escape, but he had come too far now. He might as well have tried to see if Rich was full of it or not.

I grabbed his small wrist and pulled him towards the minimum wage worker. "Jer, come on."

He tried escaping one last time before we got up to the guy, but I just pushed him forward.

Jeremy could hate me later.

My cardigan clad friend took a shaky step forward. "I, uh, like your sideburns. Wolverine, right?"

"Let's see the money." The man said.

"Wha-what?"

The employee sighed. "It's a grey, oblong pill that you're looking for, right? It's from Japan, and it tells you what to do."

For my spot next to the Adidas running shoes, I squinted at the worker. How did he know?

Just as if he read my mind, he answered the question.

"Oh, just look at you, Kid. So, do you have four hundred?" He said to Jeremy.

Dickhead. Jeremy didn't need a supercomputer pill thing, he just wanted it.

"Four?" Jeremy squeaked.

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

"Oh, no! No, Sir! There's just a guy at my school who's charging-"

Oh God. He was going to end up making himself pay more for this thing.

I coughed as annoying and loudly as humanly possible. My throat started hurting in protest.

Jeremy looked over at me, pure confusion was the only word I could use to describe how he was looking.

Suddenly, it dawned on him, and he edited his story after that.

"I mean, wow. Four hundred. If you insist, I guess," Jeremy said as he handed the man some money.

The scary stock boy looked over his shoulder and then pulled a box out from behind him.

"Shoes?" Jeremy asked.

He opened the box and plucked out a small grey pill. The employee pressed it into my friend's palm and shoved the box back behind him.

"Just so we're clear-" His voice low and gravely. "-this is untested technology. And it's not exactly legal. Which is why you're paying for it with cash in the back of a shoe store. I take no responsibility for what you might do with it. Or what it might do with you."

"What it might-"

The stock boy cut Jeremy off. "To activate it, take it with Mountain Dew. Don't know why. It's just something about Mountain Dew that-"

Jenna Roland walked into the store and caught the man's attention.

"I'm sold out!" He barked.

Jenna stopped in the middle of the entrance, her box braids swinging behind her. "Of shoes?"

The stock boy made an "o" shape with his mouth.

"Oh, you're here for shoes. My bad-" He then turned to Jeremy and yelled, "Scram!"

"Wait! You were saying something important?"

"All sales are final."

The stock boy jogged over to Jenna and started talking about a new shipment of pumps they got yesterday.

"Jeremy, you ok?" I carefully walked over to my friend and waved a hand in front of his face warily.

"Yeah, let's just- Let's just go."

I nodded and led us to the food court, ignoring the buzzing in my back pocket.