Part 9
The sky drew its curtains, the darkness overhead covering the once beautifully-lit Earth. The days grew shorter and time seemed to fly. But not for the girls. 4:30pm. 5pm. 6pm. For the last few hours, they’d simply reverted to being kids, chatting and texting, talking about everything and nothing, completely unaware of the shop’s closing time, oblivious to time itself and the world beyond the wooden walls. No more dares since the swapping of the t-shirts. But that was soon to change. In fact, it changed as soon as Bella realised the time.
“Shit!”
“What?”
“It’s half past six,” she exclaimed, clambering to her feet. “They’ve probably locked up by now!”
“That was the idea,” whispered Kate.
It took a moment for the jigsaw to click into place.
“Now we know for sure nobody’s home and we can have some fun!”
“But! Kate! Seriously! How the fuck are we gettin’ out?”
“Oh stop worryin’, Bells. There’s a window downstairs at the back and I know where the spare key is,” reassured Kate.
However, by the time Kate had completed her statement, Bella was already descending the staircase outside and headed down to the shop’s front entrance by the counter. Sure enough, it was locked and bolted. Kate immediately ran after her, repeating her previous reassurance in a louder voice, this time making sure her friend was listening. She heard alright, but was still extremely unimpressed.
“Kate! I’m stood here, locked in a bookshop, half my clothes are thrown around the place and ... I’m hungry.”
“Me too. Good job there’s a fridge behind the counter, eh?” Kate smirked.
“Great,” came the reply. “And now she wants me to steal!”
Kate looked uninterested.
“It’s a bar of chocolate,” she said, rather blankly, holding out the wrapper in front of Bella’s face.
She snatched it from her.
“Fine. But as soon as I’ve had this, I’m leavin’! Got it?”
“Without your socks and stuff?”
Good point. She made a mental note and headed off in search of her belongings, Kate, again, hot on her heels.
However, after a thorough browse through the hotspots they’d hidden their clothes in, they silently turned to one another, their faces stilted, their eyes wider than usual. The socks, the bras, nowhere to be found. It wasn’t this that bothered them so much, it was the idea that somebody had clearly found these items. Even the bra which had been stuffed far behind one of the bookshelves earlier. They froze on the spot, contemplating whether they were really alone.
(They were, but for the sake of tension at this cliffhanger, let’s pretend there may be somebody else...)
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