Craig stormed into his dorm room that evening, slammed the door and threw his things down onto his bed. His roommate, Paul looked up from where he was sitting at the desk, typing on the computer. "Bad day?"
"Yeah. I got lost, got lost some more, and then this girl that I used to know lied so she could get a job at the photo place." Craig took off his jacket and tossed it onto his beanbag chair then collapsed onto the bed. "She told the boss that I recommended her for the job so now if she messes up it's gonna be my fault. And she knows nothing about photography."
"That sucks. Is she another fellow Canadian?" Paul asked with a smile. He was from Brooklyn and had ragged on Craig a bit during their first couple of days together.
"Yes," Craig replied, rolling his eyes. Despite the teasing, he was actually happy with the pairing. Paul was very funny and they both played guitar and had similar tastes in music. "She went to high school with me."
"What does she look like? Is she hot?"
Craig shrugged. "I guess. She's a total brat though. She used to be friends with my ex-girlfriend although I never really understood why."
Paul grinned mischievously. "You don't happen to have her number do you?"
Craig threw a pillow at him. "No I don't and I have no intention of getting it." He sat up. "I'm hungry. Wanna grab something downstairs?"
Paul glanced at the computer. "Well I do have to finish this report…"
"You already have a report? It's the first week!"
"It's for Psychology. It's actually a lot of fun."
Craig shook his head. "You have one twisted idea of fun. Come on, it won't take long."
"Fine. But you're paying," Paul told him as they left.
"Ha ha, that's funny," Craig replied. He pushed open the door to the stairwell and they walked downstairs to the cafeteria. "I'm gonna be in debt for the rest of my life going to this college."
"I'm gonna be in debt in my after life. Saint Peter's gonna be asking me for interest in order to go through the pearly white gates," Paul joked.
Craig laughed but fell silent upon entering the cafeteria. Sitting at a table with another girl was Paige. She looked up and hesitated for a second before excusing herself and getting up to come over to them.
"Whoa, who's she?" Paul whispered.
"The person I want to see the least right now," Craig replied.
"Hi, Craig," she said cheerfully as though nothing had happened. "I didn't know this was your dorm. My friend Alison dorms here too."
"Oh. That's nice."
Paige bit her lip. "Look I'm sorry about before. But it's no big, right? I mean, I just told a little white lie to get the job. I'm sure you've done that before."
"Actually, no I haven't," Craig said coldly. "And I've never put someone else's job on the line either."
"What do you mean? I didn't do anything like that."
"Uh, yeah, well when you have no idea what you're doing, who do you think Lou's going to blame? Me, the one who supposedly taught you everything you know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I had a hard day at work and need some food." He brushed past her and headed to the line. It was a few minutes before he realized that Paul wasn't behind him. Craig craned his neck and saw his roommate laughing at something Paige was saying. He groaned as Paige handed him a slip of paper, obviously her phone number. Paul then hurried over to get on line behind Craig.
"What was that about?" Craig asked.
"What? I thought she was cute and we're gonna go out on Friday." Paul picked up an orange. "Is it just me, or does this look like it's been lying out for twenty nine days?"
"But I told you that she's manipulative, and lying and—"
"Hey, what's the big deal?" Paul raised his eyebrows. "Are you jealous or something?"
"No," Craig answered forcefully. "I'm just saying, she's bad news."
"Maybe there's more to her than you think."
"I doubt it," Craig muttered.
+++
Craig had enjoyed his music theory class the next morning and was in a good mood until he remembered that he had to train Paige at work that day. He arrived with a feeling of dread in his stomach. Sure enough his boss told him to show Paige the equipment then how to develop the photos. Between this he also had to help customers.
A customer arrived after Craig had given Paige to short tour around the backroom. She gave Craig two rolls of film then told them that she would be back in an hour and that the film had better be ready.
"Okay, first you take the film out of the canister," Craig said slowly, as though speaking to someone learning English for the first time.
Paige made a face at him. "Yes I know that, thanks very much."
"We don't have anything high tech like they do in the places you're probably used to going to," Craig said. "We use a dark room which takes a little longer but gives you better quality prints."
"What do you mean, the places I'm used to going to?" Paige asked as she followed him into the room, closing the door behind her.
"Oh you know, like the mall," Craig replied as he shut the lights. The red safety light came on, which gave them enough light to work by but wouldn't ruin the film.
"Oh, please, don't talk like you know me." Paige crossed her arms. "Just because you're pissed because of how I got this job, doesn't mean you have to be so nasty."
Craig sighed. "Whatever. Let's just do this." He showed her the procedure slowly with the first roll then let him assist her with the second. To his surprise, she caught on rather quickly and the film was ready in time for the woman to pick it up.
"Um, okay good job," Craig said reluctantly.
"Finally, a complement." Paige strode over to the wall and hung up her apron. "I'm going to go take my break. Cover for me, will you?" She grabbed her purse then strode out the door.
Craig watched her go in disbelief. And I actually thought she might not be so bad to work with, he thought.
It was a half-hour before she returned with a shopping bag and a coke. "Has it been busy?"
Craig motioned to the large pile of envelopes several customers had dropped off while she was gone. "Ya think?"
"Well aren't you supposed to be Mr. Expert with film? I figured you'd be able to handle yourself." She put down her bags then donned her apron.
Craig took a deep breath, willing himself to remain calm. "Well somebody was supposed to deal with the customers while I developed the film. I shouldn't have told Lou that you felt dehydrated and went to get a drink. You're lucky he's gone."
"He left?"
"Yeah his wife was sick or something and he said he wanted to get home early. So it's just you and me closing up tonight." Unfortunately, he added in his head. "We're closing early tonight though. Probably around eight-ish."
"Great," Paige said. "The earlier the better."
They worked in silence (apart from a few gripes from Paige about getting only one break) until seven thirty. No one had come in for twenty minutes and Craig decided to start closing up. "Why don't you start sweeping? I have some stuff to do in the office. If you need help with anything, just yell for me."
"Oh joy," Paige said. "Sweeping." She gingerly took the broomstick Craig handed her.
Craig just rolled his eyes then went into the office. He didn't really have anything to do, he just needed to get away from Paige for a few minutes. He wandered around the office aimlessly then took a seat at the desk.
"Paige you're fired," he said quietly, imagining how happy he would be to say those words to her. He glanced down at the desk and noticed two files. One had his own name on it while the other was Paige's. Knowing he had no right to be looking at it, he picked up the file and opened it. The first two pages were general information about her, such as her birthday and past work experience. However, on the final Paige under the question about any medication she was on, he noted that she had taken Paxil, an antidepressant, for a year while they were in high school, and had been on and off it since then. Upon reading the reason why, his eyes widened. She had been raped.
He sat there, trying to digest that information for several minutes. He couldn't believe it. He never would have guessed anything like that had happened to someone like Paige. She seemed like the type of girl who never had a thing go wrong in her life, never had to deal with hardship. He remembered the pangs of jealously when he saw her with her parents at graduation. They had been hugged her and her mother had been crying with pride. He had wanted so desperately to have a perfect life like the way he had imagined hers to be. Instead he had to stand there with Joey, Caitlin and Angela and pretend like he was just as happy.
Just then, he heard the familiar sound of the front door opening. He opened the office door and poked his head out.
A tall man wearing a baseball cap and long trench coat stood at the counter, pointing a gun directly at Paige.