/lit/ - Literature

>>19262298
(3/3)

The moment of truth came, and after a few false starts I marched into the store with the bag, and Amber as my ‘wingman’. It felt odd bringing something into a store, you’d walk through those metal detectors by the door and expect some alarm to go off. I went to the service desk, set the bag and receipt on the counter and delivered my rehearsed story about the blank screen.

The kid working at Best Buy - I say kid now, but he was about 5 years older than I was then - looked like that comic store guy from the Simpsons. He just looked so beat down by the world, you knew he’d be hungry to lord his authority over anyone. He looked in the bag, and then up at us. There was this long unspoken ‘you’re not fooling anyone’ eyebrow raise, and then one question I had not prepared for “Cash, Card, or Store Credit?”

It took me a minute to process what he was talking about, I was so intent on keeping our fake story straight. Eventually either Amber or I said ‘cash’ and he just opened the register and counted it out. The stack of cash just sat there on the counter between us, his large hand still on top. I can’t remember his exact words, I’ve replayed it so much I’ve probably embellished it, but it was something like “Best Buy doesn’t trust us enough to decline fraudulent returns, and they don’t pay us enough to care…but I need you to know that you’re not fooling anyone.” He slid the cash to us and we got out.

My friends were laughing and celebrating in the car, but I just felt so dirty about it. We were so caught up in our own cleverness, but the clerk laid bare the truth…we just robbed them plain and simple, and the only reason we ‘got away with it’ is because they didn’t care enough to stop us. I felt small and gross, and even now I can’t stand things like white collar crimes or tax dodges or digital piracy…under all the clever layers, it’s just stealing.

Okay, so that’s mine. What’s the worst thing you’ve done?

>Prompt: A co-worker has a hidden talent