"The pretzel nuggets. And a Diet Coke."
Rey had worked at Auntie Anne's for three weeks. It was just for the summer- her foster dad, Luke, had actually tried to talk her out of it. He said that she worked hard enough, but Rey didn't feel right just spending her summer vacation sleeping until eleven and texting her friends all day. She had spent the majority of her life struggling to get by, and even if she didn't need to do that anymore, she felt a little better when she could slip a little money into Luke's wallet when he wasn't paying attention.
"Uh," Rey said, looking down into the case, then back at Finn, who held up an open hand at her. "We're making some more, that's going to be about five minutes on the pretzel nuggets. I apologize."
The customer took in a heavy breath, and huffed it out with a dramatic slump of his shoulders. "Well, I have to get to work. I guess I can just take a pepperoni pretzel." Rey couldn't help narrowing her eyes a little before reaching for a sheet of wax paper. She'd seen this guy a few times before. He was tall and lanky, long black hair looking like it was purposely positioned over one eye. He wore his clothes tight, from his black jeans to his inky blue and black striped v-neck, and his footwear of choice was a pair of black military boots.
"That'll be $6.04," Rey said, looking up from the register and giving her best customer service smile.
"I should get a mall discount," he said as she handed over the pretzel and soda, his voice slightly raised. He lifted up the lanyard around his neck to show off the badge that designated him an assistant manager at Hot Topic. In printed letters the name tag said Ben Solo, but that had been scribbled through with a dying marker, and above it in red was written KYLO REN. "I work right over there." His tone made it clear that he thought this should have been obvious, can't she read?
"I'm so sorry," Rey said, her voice calm, and she voided out the transaction so she could ring up another one and apply the discount. The entire time, she felt his big, black eyes on her, not even blinking. What is he looking at?
"That guy was kind of rude," Rey said a minute later, looking over her shoulder at Kylo as he clomped past the carousel in those giant boots of his. She picked up a long rope of dough and began to fold it into a pretzel shape.
"No kidding," Finn said. "I used to work with that guy, before I worked here. I can't believe they made him a manager. He's nuts." He lowered a basket of pretzels nuggets down into the fryer. "Honestly, they were all terrible. I wouldn't work there again if they offered me $100/hr."
Rey grinned, reaching over his shoulder to grab her own cup soda cup she kept stuck behind the fryer. "That's just because you like working with me so much," she said, leaning against the counter and taking a sip of Sprite.
That wasn't the last she saw of him. The rude guy. They both seemed to work a lot, so Rey often saw him on the way to and from the store. Never smiling, always wearing some varying degree of tight, black clothing. He didn't always come to Auntie Anne's- sometimes she'd see him walking back from Smoothie King, sucking on something thick and fruity like he hated the world. He always looked at her whenever he passed, though, and she didn't know what was up with that.
Weekends were the worst. The mall was flooded with three times as many people as the rest of the week, half of them middle school kids whose parents had dropped them off to be rid of them. It was shaping up to be a pretty terrible day by the time she clocked in- it was raining, and she had been forced to park pretty far away, so she was more than damp. It was Sunday, so the closed Chick-Fil-A next door wasn't drawing any customers away and they had a backed up line already when she found her way behind the counter. And-
"The credit card machine is out," Finn said, and he sounded apologetic, almost like it was his fault. "So cash only. I made signs." He pointed to the two pieces of white paper taped to either side of the glass barrier. He had written on them in big, block letters. CASH ONLY, WE ARE SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. Rey groaned, letting her head fall back for only a second before she straightened up, ready to tackle a sure-to-be exhausting six hour shift.
It was a few minutes later when she saw him at the back of the line, which stretched almost to Great American Cookie. It must have started raining even harder after she came in, because Kylo Ren was absolutely soaked from head to toe. His usually voluminous hair was now plastered in wet clumps the side of his head, revealing his kind of big ears that poked through the blackness. Rey would have giggled at the sight if she wasn't dreading her imminent interaction with him. She noticed that he kept checking his phone as the line creeped forward, no doubt monitoring the time so that he could let her know exactly how long he had waited when he got to the front.
"Took long enough," he mumbled when they were finally face to face. "I was waiting in line for twelve and half minutes."
"I'm very sorry about that," Rey said through gritted teeth. How did this guy work in customer service, too? He showed about zero understanding. "What can I get you?"
"Just a regular pretzel," he said. "Do you have those?"
"Of course," she said, in her most over-the-top, chipper voice. She took a hot one and placed it in a bag, handing it over to Kylo Ren with a smile. "Is there anything else that you need?"
"That's all," he said, and he handed her a debit card.
Rey took it, about to run it, then stopped mid-air with it. No, nooo. She turned back to Kylo and held the debit card out to him. "I'm so, so sorry," she said. "Our card machine is broken. You don't happen to have any cash on you, do you?"
Kylo stared at her. "No. That's why I gave you my debit card."
Rey wanted to scream, of course this had to happen. The manager was out for the moment, and she didn't know exactly what to do. She didn't want to get in trouble for just giving away free merchandise, and if all the people in line behind Kylo saw her do it for him, they would expect it to. "I'm sorry," she said. "We put up signs. Our credit card machines aren't working right now. I can't- I don't know."
"You can't or you don't know?" His tone was so mocking, she couldn't take it. Even if she had permission, Rey wouldn't have wanted to give him a free pretzel. This jerk didn't deserve anything free in his entire life.
"I can't just let you have it," Rey said. "I'm sorry."
"You're really going to take back my pretzel?" Kylo asked, his voice getting higher. "A three dollar pretzel?"
"Yes," Rey said, her voice becoming steely. She was done with this guy's attitude. "I'm sorry, but it's policy." Rey wasn't exactly sure about that, but she was pretty sure that wanting money for goods probably ran in line with Auntie Anne's company policy, so she was going with it.
Pretzel still in hand, Kylo started walking away, his stupid, clunky boots loud as he went.
Uh, no way. Rey leaned over the counter as far as she could, shouting after him. "Excuse me! Excuse me, I'm sorry, but you can't just take that without paying!"
"You know," he said, whipping around to face her. His chest was puffed out and the tops of his cheeks were tinted rosy with anger. "I can take whatever I want!" He held the pretzel up in the air, then brought it to his mouth, taking a big bite. Then he turned and started walking back to Hot Topic.
"No!" Rey said. She ripped off her blue visor and slammed it on the counter. She wasn't going to let him just get away with stealing. He was rude enough to her all the time, but this was just too far! Making her way across the food court, she followed him into the brick-exteriored store. Rey grabbed an arm covered in black mesh, and she tugged, causing the half-eaten pretzel to fall to the ground.
"Why did you do that?" he said angrily, staring down at the pretzel as if it was his child.
"It wasn't yours, anyway!" Rey said. "And you still have to pay for it."
Kylo just stared at her for a second, looking like he was trying to temper poorly-controlled rage. He then turned and started walking again, towards the back of the store. Along the way, he reached out and shoved adisplay of buttons and magnets over, crashing it to the floor.
"HUX! Give the pretzel girl three dollars so she'll leave me alone!"
Kylo then slammed the door to the storage room, and Rey was left standing awkwardly beside the Jack Skellington backpacks. She clenched her fists and took a deep breath, turning around to face the tidy-looking redhead manning the till. He sighed, as if this was not the first time something of this nature had happened, and pulled a few bills out of his back pocket. She tugged it from his hands and walked back to the food court.
The following Wednesday, Rey had just gotten off her shift and was sitting at a table sharing some fries with Finn and his boyfriend, Poe, who worked at Aeropostale. She was reaching over to take a sip of Poe's cherry icee when Finn lifted a finger and pointed over Rey's shoulder discreetly. "Look who is heading straight for us. You might want to duck under the table."
Rey turned her head around, and there was Kylo Ren, walking directly toward her like a man on a mission. There was really no time to hide, because by the time she had sat Poe's icee back down on the table, he was already there beside her.
"Can I talk with you for a moment?"
Rey looked up at him, but stayed firmly seated in her seat. "Go ahead."
He looked over at Finn and Poe nervously. Both of them had crossed their arms, and were staring at him with stone faces. They looked absolutely ridiculous, and Rey had to put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. Kylo wasn't laughing, though, he just shifted awkwardly where he stood. "I meant...alone? Just for a second."
Rey sighed, and pushed her chair back. "Fine. I might as well." She got up and followed him to the edge of the food court, near the Dead Sea Cosmetics kiosk. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, looking towards him. "You have something to say?"
Kylo looked at his feet. He was not wearing his stupid boots today, just black converses with different laces on either foot. He was clenching and unclenching his hands at his sides, and then he looked back at her with that same intense, almost familiar stare that he gave her every time he passed by Auntie Anne's. Like he was looking for her in particular.
"You're the girl who lives with my Uncle Luke. Aren't you?"
Uncle Luke. What? And then it hit her, all at once, as she looked again at the scribbled out name on his badge. Ben Solo. Was she just that dense? Rey knew Luke's sister and her husband, knew that they had a son who had lived with Luke for a while. 'He was a good kid,' Luke had said. 'He was troubled, though. I thought I might have to kick him out, but he left on his own before we could even talk about it. Took off in the middle of the night.' That was all he had ever really said on the subject, and Rey hadn't pressed it. She could tell it hurt him, that he still loved his nephew. Luke felt very deeply. It was one of the things that Rey liked about him.
"You're Han and Leia's son," Rey said, and she noticed Kylo visibly wince at the names of his parents. He shrugged it off pretty quickly, though.
"Yeah," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking off to the side. "Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for the other day. Sometimes I have emotion control problems. I was having a shitty day and I was a little manic, but it was still..." He took a breath, still refusing to look her in the eye. Rey could tell that he was not very practiced in apologizing to people, which maybe made it mean a little more that he was now. "It was wrong of me." Kylo paused, thinking a bit more. "And if you want, I can get you the employee discount off anything you want in Hot Topic."
And at that Rey laughed, genuinely, her little nose wrinkling as she did. "I appreciate the gesture, but I don't know what I would use that on. My Little Pony earrings? Leather armbands? Maybe one of your t-shirts with the charming, oh-so-quirky sayings on it?"
Kylo shrugged, looking a little embarrassed at the offer. "I don't know. It's just...what I can do." His face went gentle, more than she'd ever seen it. "I do feel really bad. It wasn't you that I was upset at, even though I took it out on you. Everything had just been going wrong, I'd just been on the phone fighting with my- it was a really childish thing to do. I'm trying to recognize that more often." He pushed a hand through that long black hair, voluminous again. "I hope our interactions can be more pleasant in the future, if I can stop being such a complete dick."
Rey stood there, rocking back on her feet. "Yeah," she agreed. "I'd love it if you'd stop being such a dick, too. Would make my days easier." But she said it with a smile, because Rey wasn't one to hold a grudge, not when someone well and truly apologized. And she could tell that he meant it, from the tone of his voice and the shy way he nodded before he walked away.
A few days later, when Rey came into work, there was dark purple gift bag on a table in the back. White tissue paper was fluffed out of the top, and when she picked up the tag, all it said was REY. She picked it up and brought it to the front, where Finn was helping a customer.
"Who is this from?" she asked. She flipped the tag over a few times, but no, still no other name.
"I don't know," Finn said. "It was sitting there when I opened up this morning. I just moved it to the back." He handed the woman buying an almond pretzel her change, the looked over at Rey. "Open it up! I've been wanting to know what it is all day."
Rey removed the tissue paper, throwing it into a large trash can behind her. She looked back into the bag, and there was a carefully folded t-shirt sitting in the bottom. She pulled it up, unfolding it as she did, and almost choked on her laughter when she saw what it was. It was just a plain black shirt, except for the jagged, obnoxious lettering across the front.
Come to the dark side. We have cookies.
When her shift ended, she made her way to Hot Topic. The metal gate was halfway pulled down, and Rey ducked under it. Kylo was in the middle of closing, sorting through a bunch of shirts that had just been thrown in a pile. He was the only one working, and the store was empty of customers. His back was turned to her. She stood there for a moment, watching him fold the tees with care. He was kind of graceful, in a gangly way, even if his clothes were ridiculous.
When she realized that she had been watching him maybe long enough to look creepy if discovered, she held up the gift bag and shook it loudly to attract attention. "I take it this is your idea of a peace offering?" She had a smile on her face, just in the event that he misunderstood her words as anything but playful.
Kylo turned around. He seemed surprised to see her for a second, then his expression turned warm, if not still a little apprehensive. "Was there an issue?" he asked, turning his attention back to the clothes pile. "Not your size?"
Rey lifted the t-shirt slightly out of the bag, checking the tag. "As a matter of fact, this seems several sizes too big. Otherwise, it is absolutely, 100% my style. I know I have to wear this uniform to work, but otherwise my closet is just a row of this exact t-shirt, over and over."
Kylo nodded, then pulled his phone out of his pocket and grimaced. "I understand that. Unfortunately, it's 10:00 and we are closed. I can't do any exchanges or returns tonight. You'll have to wait until tomorrow." He tilted his head. "Did you ever actually try it on? Maybe it does fit."
Rey walked closer to him, and put the bag down on the same table the clothes pile was on. She dragged the black shirt out, and pulled it over her head, over her uniform. The bottom of it skimmed her knees, and when she raised her arms, the sleeves hung like wings. "You know what? Perfect fit."
"Are you going to keep it, then?"
"I might have to sleep in it," she said, putting her arms down. "Or maybe I just don't have the rest of what it takes to pull it off. Too fresh-faced and innocent to pull off such a dark and mysterious look."
"I think I might have the fix," Kylo said, reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out a black eyeliner pencil. He uncapped it and wiggled it around in the air. "Dark side, dark eyes."
"Of course you just have that on you," Rey said. Kylo began to walk toward to counter, abandoning the folding, and Rey followed him. He pointed to the open space beside the register, and Rey hopped up to sit. He looked down at her ridiculous shirt.
"You obviously don't know the ways of the dark side," he said, with only the smallest trace of a smirk. "You need a teacher."
"And what are you going to teach me?" Rey asked. She only realized after the words had come out of her mouth just how suggestive they sounded. Did she mean them that way?
He just smiled, though, an actual one this time. It was cute; he had a tooth slightly pointed and crooked, and that only made her like it more. "Close your eyes," he said, and his voice was low, and matching with the quiet of the near-empty mall.
She closed her eyes, and after a second felt his hand rest against her cheek, surprisingly warm, and the stroke of the kohl pencil on the edge her eyelid. He drew thick lines on the top and bottom, then used his pinkie to smudge the makeup. At that light touch, Rey drew in a breath of air involuntarily. She opened her eyes slowly; her eyelashes brushed against his finger when she did. Kylo was very close to her face, inspecting his work. He reached into a small plastic box by the register, some cheap lipsticks put there for impulse buys. He ripped off the plastic with his teeth and opened the cap.
"This okay, too?"
Rey nodded, wiping her lips dry and pursing them out for him. He dragged the lipstick, a deep red, across her willing mouth. He paused for a moment at the edge, then pulled back. Rey rubbed her lips together and smacked them happily while Kylo recapped the tube.
"Are you going to pay for that?" she asked, swinging around her legs that dangled off the counter.
"Yes," he said, with a roll of his eyes. He was still standing so close, and when Rey looked down she realized that his hands were resting on the counter, one on either side of her. She looked up again. His dark eyes were looking down into her black-rimmed, hazel ones. Kylo took the collar of her shirt and rubbed the soft cotton between two fingers. "Did you mean it when you said you're going to sleep in this?"
Other stores were shutting down; Rey could see lights going off outside one-by-one. Kylo's hand was still near her throat, and he laid his palm flat against her skin. It felt electric, and Rey felt herself tremble in anticipation. It was one of those moments when you knew exactly what was about to happen, but you still couldn't quite believe it, couldn't picture your future after that moment. When his lips finally touched hers, Rey leaned into it immediately, placing her small hand on the back of his neck, taking refuge in the bliss of this gentle first kiss. His lips were so smooth and full, and when he pulled away, Rey could see them marked with the garish red of cheap lipstick.
"I like you a lot," he said softly, leaning his forehead against hers. Rey reached up and swiped a thumb across his bottom lip, attempting to wipe away some of the lipstick but only succeeding in spreading it around more. "Even if I'm terrible at showing it."
"I like you, too," she said, and her hand found his on the counter, squeezed it as she looked up at him with smile. They stayed that for a moment, just looking at each other, until Rey felt her phone buzz in her back pocket. She pulled it out and looked at it. "Damn. It's Luke. He's picking me up; my car's in the shop. He's here." She noticed Kylo's discomfort at the mention of his uncle, and she wished she hadn't said his name.
Their hands were still together. His other hand came up and brushed the side of her face, moving some hair behind her ear. "Can you wait just a moment while I finish closing?" he asked. "Then I'll walk out with you."
She nodded eagerly. Rey helped him fold the rest of the shirts in record time, watched him close out the till, and stood aside while he pulled down and locked the rolling gate. She took off the huge t-shirt and put it back in the purple bag. Then they left through the rear exit, navigating through the back areas of the mall with their fingers laced together.
Luke's car was idling right up front. She saw him look a little closer in curiosity when he noticed her approaching with a tall figure, and then she saw his face when he finally recognized who it was she walked with. Rey bit her lip, raising her hand to give a little wave. She looked up at Kylo. He kept right along beside her.
Luke had rolled down the window by the time they reached the car, and was leaning over the passenger seat. His face was hard to read. Rey stood there, feeling frozen on the sidewalk.
"Ben," he said in greeting, his voice level.
Kylo didn't bother to correct the name usage. "Hello, uncle," he replied.
"Have you been well?"
She felt Ben squeeze her hand hard, then let go. He looked Luke in the eyes, and shrugged his shoulders. "Better than I've been in a while, at least," he said with honesty, and then he turned to Rey. "I'll see you tomorrow, probably." She nodded, and then he leaned down to give her a kiss on the forehead.
As Rey slid into the front seat of the car, she remembered her silly red lipstick, and tried to wipe off with the back of her hand, to no avail. Luke didn't ask about what exactly had happened, not just then, but she knew that she would probably get a full questioning later, at home. For now, though, she just leaned her head against the cool glass of the window and smiled.