by D. Levesque
Heading to the front of the store, I walk through the door and stop dead in my tracks. There is a man in front of the counter, but he isn’t buying shit. He has a gun in his hand, and it’s pointed at Joshua. The man has a ski mask over his face, and he suddenly turns towards me, with the handgun tracking my way.
“Whoa, whoa!” I shout at him, putting my hands up.
This isn’t my first robbery in five years, but looking at Joshua, I can see he is white as a ghost. Working the day shift, he has never been robbed before. “Listen, if you want the cash, we can give you the cash. All right? It’s cool, man. Just my boss there, he will open the till and pass you the money. Good?” I tell him in a calm voice.
“What the fuck, man,” the robber says, turning the gun back towards Joshua. “I asked you if you was alone, and you said yes. You fucking lied to me, you fucking asshole,” he tells Joshua, waving the gun back and forth threateningly.
“Whoa, whoa!” I shout again, focusing his attention back on me, which unfortunately also means the gun is now facing my way again.
“He didn’t know,” I lied. “I came in through the back door and had been reading a book in the back room. Normally I would come in through the front door about this time, for my shift,” I tell him in a soft and calm voice, even though my heart is in my throat from having a gun aimed at me.
“You’s lying,” he says, taking a step towards me, but I stand my ground. “You probably already called the fucking cops,” the robber shouts in what I can now see is a panic. His eyes have gotten bigger, and his breathing has gotten quicker. Shit, is this guy jacked up on something?
“No, seriously, dude. I didn’t call the cops. Listen, let my boss get you the cash from the till, and then you can go. We promise not to call the police, all right?” I tell him, unsure of what he will do. Most robbers at night are pretty well either drunk or nervous. This guy is going into full-blown panic mode.
Suddenly, I hear a scream from the doorway. I turn, and there is an old lady who must have just walked through the door and seen us being robbed at gunpoint. Instead of acting like a normal person and backing out quietly, she screamed. Really?
Shockingly, I hear a loud explosion, and something slams into my forehead that fucking hurts worse than the time I got a marble in the forehead from a slingshot when I was 11. And that is the last thing I remember before everything goes black.
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