~~~

“It was horrible, Amy! Deplorable! Absolutely miserable!”

Amanda merely hummed in reply, not even bothering to turn around. Her eyes, like the rest of her senses, were focused on a clothing rack and its many identical sweaters. She liked the design, but this store didn’t seem to have the shade of blue she was after—a pity.

Waynesville Mall usually had everything one could want.

“Ugh, you should have been there.”

“You just said it was absolutely miserable,” Amanda pointed out as she moved to the next rack. It occurred to her that she could just ask if they had what she was looking for in the back, but that would require talking to the people who worked here. Amanda hated having to do that. She hated it almost as much as she hated a sales associate coming up to her to ask if she needed help. It was always so terribly awkward. “Why would I have wanted to be there?”

“Because that’s what friends do,” Sophie said as though it were obvious. She put her hands on her hips. “It should have been all three of us traveling through Europe. But nooo. You had to go for that internship.”

Amanda rolled her eyes at her… Friend? Yeah, she supposed Sophie was her friend. Her best friend, sad as that may be. Their friendship was largely rooted in their parents moving in the same social circles and organizing several playdates for them when they were little. Somehow, it stuck.

“Excuse me for worrying about my future.”

“Oh, please.” Sophie didn’t roll her blue eyes at her, but only because she thought doing that made her face look wrong. “You could have interned with either of your parents. It’s what Kate and I are doing.”

Amanda sighed. Sophie was going to do a quick internship at her father’s car dealership and say she had worked there the entire summer. Kate wasn’t much better, but at least she’d give it her all.

For good and ill, Kate didn’t half-do things.

“Excuse me for taking this more seriously than either of you. Speaking of Kate, I can’t help but notice you left her in Europe.”

That had come as a surprise. Sophie and Kate were not supposed to be back in Port Stanley until about two weeks before school began. That Sophie had ditched so quickly had gone a long way towards easing Amanda’s guilt. The Europe trip was something all three of them had planned months in advance, but then Regum had posted that offer. It wasn’t the sort of opportunity she could pass up, so Amanda had chosen to stay behind.

“I didn’t leave Kate in Europe. I left her in France.”

“Is there a difference?” Amanda asked, still going over the clothing racks. She had already given up on finding what she was after but didn’t feel like stopping until she was finished.

“Absolutely. Great food. Great sights. Great stores.” Sophie held up the purse she had bought there: a cute, white one with gold brooches. “Sadly, it’s full of French people. Worse still, Parisians.” Sophie’s wavy black hair shook lightly as she faked a shiver. “It was dreadful. Daddy says living close to the Germans has made them weird.”

A vast oversimplification of complex social issues, but Amanda didn’t care enough to fight Sophie on it.

“I simply couldn’t stay there. Neither could Kate. We were in full agreement on that.”

“I sense a but coming.”

“But Kate wanted to go to Germany.”

Amanda blinked.

“What?”

Sophie sighed miserably. “Oh, you know how she is. I tried talking sense into her, but she wouldn’t listen. Lines were drawn, Amy. Lines were drawn.”

Amanda stared.

“Please tell me you didn’t let her go there alone.”

Sophie gave her a sharp glare. “Do I look stupid? Of course, I didn’t let her go there! I called her dad. Got her grounded. In Paris.” She winced. “It was super awkward after that. I just had to get a first-class ticket back here.”

“You poor dear.”

“I know!” Sophie nodded so emphatically most people would have assumed she had missed Amanda’s sarcasm entirely.

She hadn’t.

She had just chosen to ignore it, so she could focus on herself. That she could do that so easily was one of the few things Amanda respected and envied about Sophie.

“Who’d have thought the prize for being such a great friend was spending twelve hours next to some old lady who couldn’t stop showing me pictures of her grandson? Did you know little Sammy won his first archery contest when he was seven? I do! I close my eyes and see him holding that trophy with that big, dumb smile on his face.” She sighed theatrically, one hand on her forehead as if she were about to faint. “If only one of my two best friends had been sitting next to me instead! If only!”

Amanda shook her head. It was going to be all day with this.

Sure enough, thirty minutes later, the two were leaving the store, and Sophie was still going over the same lines.

“All I am saying is there is a balance to these things,” Sophie said, her purse swaying as she moved her hands. “Taking care of Kate is a two-person job. We know this. That’s why we’re a trio. It ensures the crazy one is always outnumbered.”

“And yet, I’m suddenly alone with her.”

“Amy, we all take turns at being the crazy one. This one is mine. I’ve earned it. You’ve just been doing boring office stuff all summer.”

“It is not office boring stuff!” Amanda said, even though it had basically been all boring office stuff. Move this. Make coffee. Scan that. Oh, how she hated scanning things! There were days she wanted to throw that damn copy machine out the window. “Regum is an amazing company with lots of talented people.”

She didn’t even have to make up that part. Even Valerie, who was just a few years older than her, felt so worldly and smart.

Come to think of it, were it not for Ms. Martel’s existence, Amanda would have probably been envious of her.

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“We’ve all been in The Blade, Amy. It has a nice view, but it’s still just an office building. They are all basically the same.”

Amanda wanted to tell her Regum was different, but she wasn’t sure how much she was allowed to say about The Blade. Perhaps it was a little silly to worry about it; it wasn’t as if anyone would know she talked to her friend about it.

Unless Sophie talked.

On second thought, she wasn’t going to tell Sophie anything.

“I still don’t get why you didn’t just go to your parents. Kate would kill to intern with your mother and-Hey!”

Sophie yelped as someone bumped into her, a man wearing dark clothes, clearly in a rush to get to his destination. It took Amanda a moment to notice he hadn’t just bumped into Sophie; he had wrenched away her purse.

He was stealing it.

It took Amanda even longer to realize he had barely taken a step away from them.

Unlike Sophie, who was wearing a blouse and too short skirt that kept drawing glances to her tanned legs, Amanda had taken the opportunity to wear something more casual, a cotton smock top and a pair of jeans. Since her legs were fully covered, she had little hesitation in taking a step forward and sticking one out.

The thief fell. Amanda barely felt him trip on her leg before he went sprawling onto the floor. Sophie’s purse slipped from his grasp as he somehow ended up flopping on his back like an unfortunate turtle.

The thief blinked.

Amanda blinked.

Sophie stared.

The whole thing took about a second, yet somehow it didn’t seem to end. Amanda found herself rooted to the spot, unsure of what she was supposed to do with the now downed thief who just kept staring back at her in frozen shock. The more the second lasted, the more Amanda’s brain started to pick out other things. How the thief’s clothes were not only of poor quality but dirty as well. How his skin was pale and his eyes bloodshot. How he smelled like he hadn’t bathed in a couple of days.

He was definitely not the sort of person who belonged in Waynesville Mall, and while true, Amanda instantly felt bad for thinking that.

That seemed to be the trigger.

The long second finally ended; the thief immediately scrambled to his feet. Not one to ever be outdone, Sophie sprang into action as well.

“Thief!” She yelled with all the force her lungs could muster, which, despite her petite frame, happened to be quite a bit. “Thief! Security! Police! Help!”

The thief was already running by the time Sophie finished the second word. He didn’t even bother grabbing the purse. It took maybe two seconds for a security guard to show up. As he talked into his radio, and Sophie hurriedly told him everything that happened, Amanda kept staring in the direction the thief had run off to.

It was a silly thought. Not one worth contemplating, but as Amanda watched the thief get away…

She had the oddest feeling it’d have been easy to catch him.

~~~

“Hi, honey! Something happened at work.”

“Did the new manager finally show up?”

“I wish! No, just some unruly customer.”

“Did he cause a big ruckus?”

“Just a little one. Nothing you’ll see on the news. You know the new girl? She handled the sale just fine.”

“Is that so? Do I need to be jealous?”

“Please, don’t joke about that stuff. You know you’re the only one for me.”

“See you at dinner then?”

“Don’t see any reason not to.”

~~~

“What. Was. That?”

Sophie talking about herself? Amanda could handle that. She had been doing it since grade school.

Sophie talking about her?

“Sophie, please.”

That was harder.

“No. Seriously, what was that?”

They were walking out of the mall. Security had failed to catch the thief, but they did manage to get his face through the security footage and would be on the lookout for him. That hadn’t exactly pleased Sophie, but as soon as she had finished yelling at security for not doing enough, the subject had slipped from her mind in favor of focusing on Amanda.

“I have never seen you move that fast. If we didn’t have PE together, I don’t think I’d have ever seen you run. You were like a character out of those silly Chinese movies Kate likes.”

Personally, Amanda believed the wuxia genre was not appreciated enough, and it was good Kate had one perfectly harmless interest, but that was neither here nor there.

“It was literally nothing.”

“You beat down a thief.”

“I took one step and tripped him.” Amanda shook her head, her ponytail swaying. “I swear you always have to make such a big deal out of everything.”

“You were on my right. Then you were in front of me. Then the thief was down,” Sophie said, using her hands for emphasis. Her face wrinkled into a frown. Her eyes narrowed like a camera zooming in. Amanda involuntarily leaned away from her. “Say, have you been working out?”

“What? No.” She replied without thinking. Then she realized that wasn’t true. “Well, I have been running lately.”

Every day. Without fail. It was something normal parents wouldn’t have failed to notice, but she barely saw hers nowadays. To be honest, she was starting to wonder if she should maybe use the gym at Regum.

“Running? You? I have asked you to run with me dozens of times, and you’ve never said yes.”

Amanda gave her a dry look. “You asked me to run marathons with you. That’s not the same-Hey!”

“You are a bit more toned,” Sophie said, humming as she touched Amanda’s arm. Amanda quickly wrenched it away from her. “Not muscly or anything like that, but you are not quite as skinny.”

“You thought I was skinny?”

“Twiggy,” Sophie replied without shame. “But whatever you’re doing, it’s clearly working. I did notice something was off when I saw you, but I thought you had just gotten better at using makeup or something.”

“Wow, I am so glad we’re friends.”

“Oh, don’t be so touchy,” Sophie said with an easy, practiced wave of her hand. She immediately clapped her hands in excitement. “Oh! You know what this means, right?”

“I am not sure wha-”

“You can finally run a marathon with me.” It was too late. Sophie had taken hold of her arm and was dragging her back into the mall, no doubt to some sporting goods store. “There’s a 10K coming up in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be great! Trust me!”

Amanda groaned.

~~~

“Bruh, I can’t believe you fucked that up.”

“Fuck off!” Joey hissed, hiding under a blanket in the backseat of a red Audi S8. “You told me it was supposed to be easy!”

“I did.” The driver yawned as he turned left, away from Waynesville Mall. “You said you needed money. I go out on a limb for you and bring you here. It’s fucking Wayesville, brah. Fucking walking-talking ATMs all over the place. How did you fuck it up?”

“I don’t fucking know! Okay!”

“No, brah. Not okay. You got owned by a pair of rich girls. That’s like losing to a baby when trying to take its candy! I told K you had the stuff! I tried putting in a good word for you. And this is what I get?! You’re lucky you didn’t get caught.”

“It was a fucking fluke!” Joey yelled, finally taking the blanket off and sitting down. He stared out the window like a sulking child. “My brain’s been all weird lately. If I could just have another-”

“No.”

“But I need-”

“No,” the driver repeated, glaring at Joey through the rearview mirror, all traces of friendliness gone from his face. “You want more? You bring the money. That’s the deal.”

“Look, if you just let me sell-”

“No, brah. You look. If you want to sell, you gotta prove yourself,” the driver said, his car coming to a stop. “There ain’t free rides in life. Get out.”

“What?”

“I’ve already driven you around enough for the day, brah. I ain’t having you stinking up my car any more than this.” He pointed to the door with his thumb. “Get the hell out, and don’t call me until you have the money.”

Joey’s hands clenched around the edge of his seat. “Where the fuck am I supposed to get the money if you don’t help me out?”

“Based on what just happened?” The driver yawned again. “Try an old lady or a little kid. Seems more your speed.”

Joey left the car in a huff, the driver’s laugh following him all the way.

~~~