The Corner Store

Chapter 20-Sure, and the sun ain't a star..

The day we all dreaded has annoyingly arrived; the weekend of the Christmas sale. Lara, Cooper, and I all volunteered to be the guides, so we were scattered around the place with other people. After my little incident with the creep stalker, Nate was kind enough to give me the choice of who I wanted to work with. Best believe I pulled Cooper right from the meat department and into the chaos that is the main floor area.

"Okay everyone, I just looked outside, and it is absolute chaos. Our parking lots are filled with people shopping for last minute dinner stuff, so we have to be patient. Have a smile on your face, be kind to them even if they're monsters to you because I am not about to bail any of you out of jail; especially you Landon. If anyone tries to be cute in any way, please call me, and I will deal with it. And do not do nothing if you see someone steal. We can always order more stock, but we can't order you another brain or eye once yours is splattered on floor with a shotgun. I am not about to look your families in the eye and tell them I lost your child courtesy of a bag of bread. Any questions?" Asked Nate, stress already eating at him.

None of us had anything to say, we just looked done with the day before it even began.

"Okay then. Thank you all for coming today, I really appreciate every single one of you. Let's go out there and show them hell." He smiled, holding the door open for us.

Everyone who volunteered to be a stand-in dummy got a cute, yellow vest with our names on it; clear as daylight. Axel decided to work with us today, because he missed it for some weird reason. I know that reason was because he wanted to spend some time with me, the little charmer. As soon as he came, he went upstairs to Nate's office and left us to rot here on the grounds of hell. Asma was back to her regular place at customer service, some senior cashiers came back from their once-a-month shifts to help out, Landon had a new hire helping him with the meat stuff, and they got about 5 different guys working the produce section. Lara, Cooper, and I all stood in the middle of the store, within reach if needed.

"What are you guys doing tomorrow?" Asked Cooper.

"Sleeping in." I said, looking around for customers.

"Whatever she's doing." Replied Lara.

"My parents are traveling to Nebraska because this might be my grandma's last christmas with us, and I..."

"Go with them." I said. "So you don't spend the rest of your days regretting this missed interaction. We only get one life, and if this might be the last christmas you get with your grandma, then go for it, Coop. Anything else can wait."

He looked at me all confused, eyeing me up an down.

"Well, yeah, no shit sherlock. I wasn't going to let anything stop me. I wanted to see if you two would want to come with me. It's a few hours drive from here, and we could go together. Of course, you don't have to feel obligated to come. It's just a thought. I don't want you losers to be alone. Especially that I know that Landon is visiting his family in New York for new year's and Axel is also heading back."

Lara and I looked at each other in awe. This was extremely considerate of him, it melted our hearts; especially considering our own shitty family situation.

We gave him a big hug.

"Thank you so much Coop, that means the world to us. But I think I'll just hang out here." I said, ruffling his hair.

"Me too. But please, enjoy your family time, and we'll be waiting for you to come back!" Replied Lara.

"Anytime."

"Hello, children. I was wondering if one of you can help me find the tomato soup and tomato paste, please."

And so we got to work. Surprisingly, even regulars had a hard time locating stuff they would usually easily find. Why do people get this anxious during sales anyways? At this point, I could probably walk around this entire store blindfolded.