May 16, 2008 3:18pm Los Angles – Stan's Swifty Mart.
The black Porsche Boxter pulled into the aging parking lot, avoiding the pot holes as the driver deftly pulled into a spot, the engine purring to a stop as a slender, well dressed, brunette stepped out of the drivers seat. A tall, muscular, raven haired boy followed from the passenger's side.
"Damn, Ash, you weren't kidding. That car rides like a dream!" The guy excitedly said, using his hands as he spoke to emphasis his words.
"Yeah, I know. I still can't decide though if I want to get this one or the BMW we drove yesterday." Ash, the dark hair boy's companion, replied as she waited for him to open the large glass door. They both walked into the cool canned air of Stan's Swifty Mart convenience store in desperate need of rehydration.
"Well than just get both." He replied as if he was suggesting she get two different lipstick colors and not two very expensive cars.
"Yeah, Aiden, because my accountant would love that." The brunette rolled her eyes at her dense friend. Ashley's dark brown eyes glanced behind her at the half empty parking lot. "And where is Kyla? We weren't going that fast."
Aiden laughed, "For Kyla going over 35 is fast. She drives like a little old lady, no, wait, I've seen little old ladies pass her by."
"Okay, not everyone drives like they're in NASA."
"NASA?" Aiden snorted, "You mean NASCAR, you airhead."
"Ugh, whatever, like I care. It's not like I'm some hick living in a trailer out in the middle of Bumble Fuck Nowhere that needs to know these things so I have something to talk about with my other white trash neighbors while we hang out at the Laundromat."
"Um…ok than…Want a Red Bull?" Aiden asked as he pulled open one of the many glass doors lining the side wall of the store.
"Ew, I haven't changed my mind about liking that crap since the last time you asked me, which was yesterday." Ashley opened the glass door next to him and grabbed a Diet Peach Snapple.
Two aisles away a short, slightly stocky guy was trying to locate some two ply toilet paper, growing frustrated that there only seemed to be the scratchy Scott's brand single ply. He mumbled to himself about how anyone could think saving less than a dollar was worth using something so harsh, besides, it wasn't really a savings if you had to use more. He ran his hand through his shaggy brown hair and sighed, convinced that he had seen some Charmin here just yesterday.
From the front of the store, a loud chiming sound went off, indicating that another patron had come through the door.
"Spence!" The blonde guy working behind the counter shouted at the young blonde girl that had just come in. "What brings you by? Don't you have class?"
Spencer smiled as she shook her head at the blonde guy in the polyester striped polo shirt. "No, my last class was canceled; I think the professor was drunk or something… He came into the classroom, told us to write a 5 page paper on our favorite vice and then stumbled out."
"Wow, that's weird." The guy said as he rubbed the dark blonde stubble on his chin. "So, what brings my favorite sister by?"
"I'm your only sister, you ass." She laughed as she leaned over the counter to playfully shove him. "Anyway, I stopped by because Mom was complaining about those papers that have been sitting on her counter for a week now. I told her I'd drop them off to you because I was sick of hearing 'Glen is so irresponsible, I've been telling him for a week to come pick these papers up.' Oh and she said you need to fill them out and get them sent in as soon as possible to make sure you get your money before the next semester starts."
"It's only May! I still have four months." Glen shook his head incredulously.
"Well, you of all people should know how slow the Army is."
"Ok, but they've been paying for soldiers to go to school for a long time, I'm sure it won't take that long to get my GI Bill money. This is just typical Mom, trying to control my life."
Spencer just shrugged, knowing better than to get in the middle of yet another one of her Mother and Glen's issues. Every since he had been discharged for reinjuring his knee their Mom had been riding Glen to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. So far the only things the guy seemed to show any interest in was partying, girls and doing as little as possible to get by.
"Excuse me, do you have any diapers?" An older black woman asked. She smiled at both Spencer and Glen, while clutching one of the largest purses Spencer had ever seen.
"Yeah, they're over there at the end of the fourth aisle, just past that display of chips." Glen replied with a bored tone, pointing out the area to the woman.
"Thank you." She smiled again. Spencer found herself smiling back at the woman's warm brown eyes. The woman gave a friendly nod to the siblings as she headed towards the indicated aisle.
"I get off at six, if you want, we could go grab a bite to eat before you start your paper." Glen offered. Before Spencer could answer her brother a loud buzzing noise could be heard from the back of the store. The older guy rolled his eyes. "Wait here a minute, Spence, that's the delivery buzzer."
"Okay." Spencer called out as Glen quickly made his way to the back of the store where the office and storeroom were. She glanced at the headlines of the magazines that lined the front of the counter. She shook her head as four of them had pictures of Britney Spears on the cover. Seriously, she was so tired of all the coverage, was it really considered front page news that she was now able to see her children unsupervised?
"…she had the nerve to tell me that not everyone knew who I was and slammed my drink down on the bar. I mean, can you believe that, Aiden? I own 40 of that club and some waitress is going to act like that to me? I basically sign her paycheck! Of course, I had Mark fire her. If she's going to be that rude to me, imagine how rude she would be to the customers?" Ashley ranted on, while beside her, Aiden stood there, nodding his head at the right moments, his eyes glazed over. Years of knowing the girl had given him the ability to zone her out when she got into one of her little bitching moods, which was often.
"You can go ahead of me, I'm just waiting on my brother." Spencer stepped to the side of the counter, allowing Ashley and Aiden to set their stuff down on the worn out Formica.
"Thanks." Aiden smiled as he suddenly snapped out of where ever it was his mind wondered off to when Ashley was bitching or things were too hard for him to understand, which was often. He openly stared at the blonde girl next to them, his green eyes floating over her body as his smile got wider.
Spencer shifted uncomfortably at being looked at like a piece of meat. Her attention quickly turned to the short brunette standing next to the offending guy, who slapped him on the arm none to gently.
"God, Aiden, rude much?" She asked while quirking an eyebrow at the jock. "Sorry about my friend, he's taken a few too many shots to the head in the ring."
Spencer felt a slight blush creep up her neck as Ashley's shining brown eyes met her blue ones.
"Hey!" Aiden protested a moment later as what Ashley had said finally registered.
"See what I mean?" Ashley teased the taller guy while smiling at the shy blonde.
"Hey, man, I don't know this company you're from but you can't bring those boxes out here. You must have the wrong store." Glen called out as he followed behind a guy pushing a dolly with four large boxes on it from the back room. The guy ignored the confused convenience store clerk as he continued to push the dolly towards the wall with the freezers. Glen kept looking down at the papers in his hands, clearly not knowing what was going on. He flipped through a couple pages then looked back over at the guy with the dolly. His hat was pulled down so it that his face wasn't visible. The three at the registered turned around to see what all the commotion was.
"Look, just take these boxes back out to your truck because they don't belong here, we already got all our beverage orders for the week." Glen ran his hands through his curly blonde hair in frustration as the delivery guy continued to ignore him. He'd been working at Stan's for close to four months and nothing like this had ever happened before.
While he was wondering if the guy even spoke English, the front door chimed. Another delivery guy walked in with another dolly filled with four large boxes, dressed identical to the delivery guy his was already dealing with. He groaned, what was going on?
"Hey, buddy, I already told your friend here, you've got the wrong place." He yelled from the middle of the store at the second delivery guy. The second guy just ignored him as he stopped his dolly in the front of the doors. "You can't bring those boxes in here; just take them back to your truck."
"Carlin, what's going on out here?" A Hispanic girl demanded as she walked out from the back office. Her face set in a scowl as she stared at the curly haired guy.
"Don't worry about it, Madison, I've got it under control." Glen called out to the girl, who looked to be around the same age as him.
Her hazel eyes surveyed the scene in front of her, a line of customers at the register, two delivery people with uniforms she'd never seen before out on the store floor with dolly's loaded with boxes and a very flustered looking employee. "Are you sure, because it certainly doesn't look like you've got it all under control? Who are these guys? We shouldn't be getting any more deliveries today." She flipped her long brown her back off her shoulders, annoyed that nothing ever seemed to get done right unless she did it herself.
"I know, I don't think they speak English or something because they won't answer me." Glen took a deep breath, it really wasn't turning out to be his day, the last thing he needed was Madison thinking he couldn't handle the store on his own.
"Hey¿habla español?" Madison called out as she started walking towards the guy by the coolers. "Lugar incorrecto. No necesitamos sus mercancías."
The little hairs on the back of Spencer's neck started to stand up, she didn't know why but something about the entire situation was making her uneasy. Ashley seemed to feel the same way as she took a couple side steps closer to the blonde, pulling Aiden close to her at the same time.
Glen stood in the middle of the store, trying to get any response out of the two guys with the dolly's, while Madison was quickly approaching the one that had come in first, stopped in front of the row of coolers. The air was starting to fill with an unknown tension as everyone watched the events unfolding.
"Hey, you need to get your shit and leave before I call the cops. You have the wrong store." Madison spat out, frustrated with the whole situation, as she stopped a couple feet in front of the delivery guy.
The front door chimes went off causing a momentary distraction as everyone turned to see who had come in. That was all that was needed. The guy moved quickly. He pulled Madison towards his body. Turning the Latina around, he wrapped his arm firmly around her neck. There was a quick flash of silver as he brought a gun up to her temple.
As that was happening, three more men walked through the front door, dressed like the first ones, each pushing a dolly loaded with more boxes.
"What the hell…" Glen questioned as he turned around to look back at Madison. His face went white as he noticed the gun held to her head. "Madison…"
Spencer felt Ashley pressed up against her as Aiden stepped in front of the two girls. Her heart felt like it was going to thump out of her chest as she saw Madison being held at gun point. Something told her that this wasn't going to be just a simple robbery. There were too many of them and they seemed to have brought a lot of boxes with them.
The last guy came into the store, turned around and locked the door behind him. They all had on dark blue delivery jackets with their baseball caps pulled down low so that none of their faces could be seen. From her position though, Spencer had a side view of the last guy. He had what looked like a white nylon screen over his face, so that even if he didn't have the hat on, he wouldn't have been identifiable anyways.
"If you cooperate, you will leave here alive." A robotic voice broke the stunned silence. It was coming from one of the guys near the front of the store. "If not, you will die."
Ashley felt her knees get weak as she leaned even more against the counter pressing into her back to keep standing upright. The guy who was talking was obviously using some type of voice changing device to conceal his voice, but damn if it wasn't the creepiest thing she had ever heard.
Every time Ashley had ever seen a robbery on television there was a lot of yelling and movement, but this was completely the opposite of anything she had ever seen. The five men seemed calm and in no rush. There was no sense of urgency; everyone seemed to be frozen in their respective spots.
Glen was frantically looking around without trying to make it obvious. His three years in the Army hadn't prepared him for what to do when five men came into the store he was working at and held his manager at gun point. Normally, in his training he had had at least a gun as well. He looked over at Madison who seemed to be holding up well considering the gun pushed into her temple and the strong arm around her neck. He tried to reassure her with his eyes but he wasn't sure what to do. So far they hadn't made any demands, or even acted like they were interested in the money in the register.
Some unspoken communication went through the five men as the four who were in the front of the store took off their hats and jackets then opened the top box on their dollies. Glen felt the blood in his veins freeze as he immediately recognized the very large, very scary guns each man was holding, AK-47's.