Risky Business (14 page)

“Well, you just see to it that it never happensagain.” Donna eyes twinkled as she teased. “I have to run—dinner plans. Amy’s in back. She had to answer the door for the delivery truck. She’ll be right out. You guys have a good night.” Donna hurried out the door, and Molly was alone in the store.

Nervously she wandered between the racks of clothing, avoiding the dresses like they were rigged with time bombs. She buttoned the front of a jacket, straightened the direction some hangers were facing, fixed the accessories on a couple of mannequins and waited, thankful there weren’t any customers to distract her from her thoughts.

The back room door squeaked. “I’m going to take my break since I’m back here already. Do you need anything while my food’s heating up?” Amy asked.

“No thanks. I’m fine. See you in about forty-five minutes.”
So far, so good
.

Minutes after Amy disappeared and the back door swung shut, Jess and Sara walked into the store. Giggling loudly and bumping into things, Molly assumed they were trying to appear like normal, casual teenagers—but they were going too far. Molly glared at them, shushing them with her eyes—it wouldn’t help if they attracted attention of any kind.

“Hi. What are you guys shopping for tonight?” Molly asked, still trying to be normal.

Sara giggled again, which garnered more glares from both Jess and Molly. “Shhh. Come on, you two,” Molly hissed at them. “Keep it together, okay?”

Jess and Sara quickly grabbed a few items along with the three dresses they had chosen when they shopped together on Tuesday evening. They took everything into the fitting room and shut the door. From Molly’s post on the outside, every noise sounded like it was amplified through the PA system at school.
Amy is going to come running at any moment
.

It’s not worth it. They’re just dresses
. Molly rushed to the fitting room door to put a stop to the whole thing. But at that very second, the door creaked open and Jess and Sara came out carrying their bags—and Amy simultaneously stepped out of the back room from her break. It was almost over, and it was too late to do anything to stop it.

“We’ve decided not to buy anything.” Jess pretended to be a discouraged shopper. “Can we just leave the things we tried on in the fitting room?”

“Of course. No problem.” Molly lowered her voice to a whisper. “Don’t forget she knows you guys. Don’t try to pretend you don’t know me.”

They walked right past Amy with their bags of unpurchased merchandise.
Not stolen. Unpurchased. Borrowed
.

Molly noticed with horror that the tags of the dresses were peeking out of the tops of the bags.
Why weren’t they more careful? Just keep moving
.

Amy smiled in recognition. “Hey, you guys. How’s it going?”

Sara had already wandered away with their bags but turned to wave good-bye to Amy.

“Oh, we’re fine. Just out doing some shopping.” Jess acted nonchalant and hurried to catch up with Sara.

It was all over. They’d done it—no going back. Molly breathed a sigh of relief that they’d made it out of the store and that they’d all have great dresses to wear to the dance.
But at what cost?
She’d have to get it together. She was a part of this whether she liked it or not.

Amy and Molly stayed pretty busy with steady customers for the next hour. Molly started to relax, and her racing heart slowed to a normal pace. Sometimes she could last minutes without any pangs of guilt. She felt confident they’d gotten away with the whole thing…. Then it happened.

Molly stood at the cash register ringing up a customer when she heard a commotion at the front of the store. She looked up to see Amy talking to two security guards but thought nothing of it until she noticed Jess and Sara standing right beside them. Her heart pounded so hard she was sure her customer could hear it thumping. Her hands got sweaty, and her fingers were trembly and shaky.
Maybe they won’t tell them I was involved
. But they were her friends, so Amy would probably draw her own conclusions.
Ugh
. Amy would have to call Donna … her parents … the police? The reality of her trouble pummeled her consciousness.

Like in slow motion, the security guards steered Amy, Jess, and Sara toward the back of the store. Jess was stone-faced, but Sara softly cried and hid her face in the collar of her fleece jacket. Amy stopped by Molly’s side and said quietly, “I’m going to stay out here on the sales floor; you go on ahead in the back. They’ve already called Donna. She’ll be here in a few minutes.” Amy held Molly’s gaze for an extra moment. There was sadness in her eyes.

Molly hesitated at the door to the backroom. Her fingers on the handle, she thought about the possibility of still getting out of this. Could it be that Jess and Sara hadn’t mentioned her? Would Donna believe she wasn’t involved? Could she possibly not stand with her friends and face it with them? Those thoughts swirled around and around in her mind but had no answers to cling to.

Out of the corner of her eye, Molly saw Donna enter the store. As she approached Amy, Molly hurried into the back room. She’d better find out what was happening before Donna questioned her.

Jess and Sara were seated in gray metal folding chairs at the training table where Molly had watched the videos about loss prevention and employee theft. She’d been so horrified that most theft was due to employee dishonesty. Now she was a part of that statistic.

The security guards sat silently on two stools, towering over the girls, glaring at them with their arms crossed on their chests and matching scowls on their faces. Sara was still crying and had wads of used tissues piled in front of her. Jess looked cocky—slumped in her chair, chin raised arrogantly, arms folded. Molly pulled up a chair and sat down beside Jess,

whose face was a mirror image of the guards’ scowls. No one spoke.

Molly didn’t know what had been said about her yet. Could they read her presence there as an admission of guilt? She wondered if she should feign ignorance by asking what was wrong, playing dumb until she knew for sure.
What do I do?
It was too late, though. The door opened, and Donna hurried in, her face white. Her eyes flashed with anger behind the glistening of tears.

She looked at the guards with a question in her eyes but didn’t speak.

The guard who seemed to do the most talking stood up from his stool. “We caught these two over by the food court.” He gestured toward Sara and Jess. “They were in line to buy food, and I noticed the tags hanging off the clothes in their bags weren’t from the stores printed on their bags. When I approached and questioned them, they acted really nervous. We went back to the security office, and I took a look. They had three dresses in there from your store along with some jewelry—”

Jewelry?
Molly shot Sara and Jess a questioning look, but neither of them would look at her.

“—but no receipt. She said they had bought them and were bringing them back to exchange but had lost the receipt.” He pointed to Jess.

Donna sighed. “No, when I left this afternoon, we had yet to sell a single one of this style.” She picked up the beaded powder blue satin dress. “It just came in the other day. I could show you how many came in the shipment, and my records will show that none of them have sold.”

The security guard nodded, eyeing Jess. “Does your company have another store locally where she could have gotten it?”

“Well, no. But did she even claim that to be the story?” Donna’s sadness faded, and the anger took over. “You see, these three are best friends. Molly is—was—my star sales associate and even a manager trainee. But, like I said, they’re best friends. They probably worked together.” She turned to Molly, pleading with her eyes for it to not be true. “Is that what happened, Molly? Is it?”

Oh, God. What have I done?
Molly gasped for air as her sobs escaped. Her shoulders shook, and she couldn’t catch her breath.
Please tell them I’m not involved
, she silently begged her friends. But even if they did, she didn’t know if her conscience could handle sitting by while herfriends took the fall.
Conscience. What a joke
. She almost laughed at the thought of it giving her a nudge after all this. Unable to speak, she just nodded.

“Okay, well, that’s that. I’m going to have to call their parents. Girls, please write your parents’ names and phone numbers on this slip of paper.” The security guard handed Jess a pen and slid a slip of paper toward her. She ignored it. Sara took it and wrote the information for both of them and then handed it to Molly.

“What do you want to see happen here?” the guard asked Donna. “Do you want me to call the police? This is pretty serious. The value of the jewelry and the three dresses is over five hundred dollars judging by the price tags. Two of them would probably be charged with misdemeanor theft, and this one,” he gestured to Molly, “would be charged as an accessory. Is that what you want me to do?”

Donna rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. Molly noticed she had scrubbed her makeup off and had changed into sweatpants. She must have been sleeping or resting quietly at home—not at all expecting something like this. “I don’t think so. If it were anyone else … truly. But Molly is special. I have to fire her,

clearly—but I’m sorry to do it.”

The security guard nodded. “I had a feeling you’d say that. I tell you what, though; if I could, I’d charge just that one over there. She’s got an attitude.” He shook his head in disgust at Jess’s behavior.

“Eh, she’s a decent kid, too. She’s just scared and trying to act tough.” Donna turned and looked at the three girls. “I don’t really know what to say to you three. Molly, it’s as if you’re my own little sister who did something stupid.” She shook her head and looked at them for a long time. A single tear coursed down her cheek. “None of you can ever come in this store again, do you understand?”

The three of them nodded, and Molly stared at the ground.

Waiting for her parents to arrive was so hard for Molly.
They’re going to kill me. No, worse—they’ll be disappointed. Ugh
. What would have happened if Donna had called the police? Molly wanted to talk to her, to say something that would make it all go away, but she remained quiet, sure nothing she had to say would make a bit of difference.

Twenty minutes later—though it seemed like three hours—Sara’s mom arrived first.

Minutes later Jess’s parents appeared. They talked with Donna and the security guard who had stayed in the store to wait with them. Molly’s parents arrived a few minutes later. Mrs. Jacobs sobbed and leaned on her husband for support. She shook her head and whispered, probably praying.

Out of work, grounded for life, a social outcast at church and school, a disappointment to her parents—Molly realized a little too late that everything she’d worked for could be lost in a moment, in one stupid decision. Back on her bed again, with Rocco stretched out beside her, was the only peaceful place to be in the days since the “incident.” Molly hoped she’d be able to fall asleep so the time would pass more quickly.

Her hands linked behind her head, legs stretched out straight in front of her, she seethed. Yes, she
was
mad. Sara and Jess hadn’t stuck to the plan. They were supposed to leave the mall right away, not go eat in the food court. And then, they didn’t have to let the guard look intheir bags. They could have walked right out at that time. The security guards had no power to detain them or search their property. She had told them all that when they were planning. But no, they got ultra-confident and did something stupid that cost them everything.
Ugh! It didn’t have to happen this way
.

She jumped off the bed, too frustrated to rest, and paced back and forth across her room. She had nothing at all to do. Finals were over. They were on vacation from school. She wasn’t allowed to speak on the phone or use the computer. She no longer had a job.
What do people do who have no life?

Wandering to the nightstand, she remembered a book she had started a few months ago. She picked it up and opened it to where the bookmark held her page, but it didn’t seem familiar at all. She turned back a few pages, trying to refresh her memory about the story. It was no use. She remembered nothing about the book and had no interest in what she read.

Several days blurred into each other until it was finally Christmas Eve. Molly hoped her parents would be able to put all this behind them to celebrate Christmas together, like a real family. That night there would be a big dinner at Molly’s aunt’s house.
I’ll probably be the outcast
.

Molly helped her dad load gifts into the trunk of the car. “Dad, can I ask you a question?”

“Hmm?” He seemed distracted as he rearranged packages in the trunk so more would fit.

“What does everyone know? I mean, the family—Grandma, Aunt Pat, the kids—what do they know about me?”

“We haven’t told anyone anything, Molly. It’s too much of a shock to us still, and to be honest, your mom and I are too embarrassed. We have always prided ourselves on your ability to make good decisions. It’s hard to admit to people how wrong we were.” He shut the trunk and went into the house without another word.

Will this ever end? Will I ever be able to put it behind me?

Christmas passed without much fanfare. Molly looked over her room at the presents she’d received. She knew they were given to her reluctantly, bought during a time of celebration—before the bomb went off. She’d been given some cute clothes, some makeup, and a little television for her room she’d been begging for. It still sat in its unopened box,awaiting an unknown date when Molly’s punishment was lifted. Somehow it seemed an inappropriate time to celebrate with gifts and new gadgets anyway.

A few days after Christmas, sitting quietly in the front seat on the way to her twice-yearly dentist appointment, Molly picked at invisible lint on her jeans and played with the seat belt strap, wishing something would break the deafening silence. Molly and her mom hardly talked anymore, and Mom’s almost-readable thoughts screamed in the awkward silence.