Closing Time | Lain & Open
The last hour of the shop being open finally arrived and Lain was glad it did. She didn’t know what it was but everyone was particularly irritable today, but once they did a little shopping they seemed to get better. Retail therapy was a real thing and she saw it work constantly. It worked for her all the time, most of her paychecks went immediately to rent but the remaining went to her clothing addiction.
The girl flipped gently to the next page of her novel, pushing a stray hair out of her face when she realized the clock had struck 8PM and the store was now closed. The young girls that had scampered in earlier had scampered their way out again just in time for closing. “Yesss, it’s time!” Lain leaped off of her little stool behind the counter and jogged lightly to the front of the shop so she could flip the cursive OPEN sign to CLOSED. She checked made a round, counted the register and gathered up her things.
Lain’s long maroon and blue pattered dress swayed in the wind outside as she double checked the lights were off. She turned to lock the door with her key, jiggling it just to double check before she saw a figure approaching the shop out of her peripheral vision, “I’m sorry the shop’s closed for the evening, we’ll reopen tomorrow at 9.” She said with a sigh before putting her keys back in her purse. She flipped her circular sunglasses that sat atop her head down onto her nose, even though the sun was setting it was still light, she loved her glasses. She gave the figure a two fingered salute as she began to walk away, “Have a nice evening.”
Nate had been avoiding cops all week and was in desperate need of a shower, a bed, a decent meal, and, most importantly, a new set of clothes. It was risky roaming about during the day, so he usually slept in alleyways until the shops were just about to close. That’s when there were the most people out and the most cover from someone who might recognize him.
He saw the sign for a clothing store down the way and made his way there just as the storekeep locked the door. Before he could plead with her, she was walking away. Nate grabbed her arm frantically and pulled her back with a force he hadn’t used on women in a long time, and it brought back memories of the man Nate used to be, a man Nate despised.
Despite those memories popping up, he kept the harsh demeanor to get his way. “The store closes when I say it closes. Let me in.” He reached into his pocket and shaped his hand into a gun shape so that the woman would assume he was actually armed. He hoped it worked and that he’d be in and out before anything went wrong.
