𝙅𝙐𝙎𝙏 𝘼 𝙈𝙊𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏 // 𝙒𝙄𝙇𝙇 𝘽𝙔𝙀𝙍𝙎

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A man with visibly oily hair that just about reaches to his shoulders stands, leaning, on top of the checkout counter. He stands in a small comic bookstore, the only place that would hire him. Not many people frequent this place, and if there was someone here it was always someone, he could nerd out with. Or not be bothered by it because they knew what they were looking for.

But of course, at a job, you'd have to work sometimes, doesn't mean he likes doing it though. So, when a teenage boy walks in wearing a letterman jacket, his mood immediately sours. The boy spends five minutes looking around the small store before walking up to the counter with nothing in hand.

"Hey, sorry to bother- but you wouldn't happen to have X-Men..." He pulls up his arm and pushes back his sleeve, a watch shines in the clerk's face, "X-Men 314?"

"I don't know."

The boy's face scrunches up, "Can you at least I dunno... check?" The greasy man groans before walking out from behind the counter. He does a beeline to where he thinks it could be and skims the shelves. He has a feeling if he doesn't find it out here, then the boy would make him look in the back for extras. So, when he finds the book, the last one, he's somewhat relieved. He walks back to the boy, hands it to him and walks back behind the counter. "Great! You found it! How much does this cost? There's no tag."

The clerk bites back a scoff, "It's twelve dollars and fifty cents." That's what the average book sells for! If he's buying one of these, he should already know that!

"Twelve! I don't have that." He stops moving completely, like a robot or something. Before he powers up again, "Wait- bro, could you hold this for me? I'll get paid next week and then I'll come back for it. Deal?"

Was that comic worth it to put it on hold? They don't have to restock it very often because one out of one-hundred people buy it when they do. This guy seems very desperate to get this specific one, so maybe he'd do something for it, "I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to do that. I could get in a lot of trouble."

"Bro, please, I really need this comic."

"I might do it for an incentive." He says, eyeing the watch. The boy doesn't immediately catch on to what he wants so he empties his pockets for something valuable, until he finally catches the watch in his vision. He without hesitation unlatches it, and snakes it off his arm.

"Is this enough?"

The clerk grabs the watch, "Oh, it's plenty. Don't worry about the book, I'll keep it safe." He sticks out his hand for the comic, and once he has it, he places it in a drawer behind the counter. "See ya next week, bro!"

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