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Parallel: Part 1
“42.98.” The cashier tells me with a smile, handing me my bag, “Have a nice day.”
“Thanks .You, too.” I answer. I take the bag by the bottom, not bothering with the flimsy handles.
I pull my cell out of my pocket and start texting.
Mom-
at front entrance. Katie and Molly already left. Come soon.
-India
I click send and stuff my phone back in my pocket, dropping a chain necklace that I borrowed from my sister’s room. I pick it up and clasp it behind my neck.
If I know my mom, it’ll be a while until she picks me up.
I walk over to the girl’s room and step inside. I pull a little come out of my purse and wet it under the sink, putting it through my frizzy bangs. As I walk out, someone steals my purse.
“Hey!” I shout to the man, who was running outside. I’ve never been the type of person to shy away from danger that involves me. “Get back here!” Good thing I decided to wear my sneakers and not my heels.
He pushes open the automatic doors and an alarm goes off.
“Great,” I mumble, much too quiet for anyone to hear, “a crazy man just set off the fire alarm and took off with my purse.”
I still won’t give up. The only picture left of my brother is in that purse.
I don’t obey the orders to “stay calm” or “exit in single file.” I dash out the door onto the sidewalk. The man throws my purse down an alley in-between the two sections of the mall. I sigh and go in after it.
The alley is dark, and smells of car exhaust. I bend down to pick up my small, leather bag when someone pushes a dumpster to block my only exit.
I am trapped.
I hear chuckling. A sly man emerges from the darkness.
“You see,” he says, suddenly serious, but still holding his sly smile, “The funny part is that you really thought you could get away.”
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