"S'cuse me ma'am." said a security guard, coming out of nowhere as is the shop's custom, "Can I please see your bags?" then he noticed me.
"Hello Charles, how's your wife?" I asked sweetly, as if I'd bumped into him in the street.
"Uh, Miss Roberts." He said. He knew me. Everyone in the shop knew me – I had a platinum card here, youngest person ever in Orange County, too. I was known for spending thousands here a day.
"There must be some mistake." He said, frowning, "It's Miss Roberts!" he called to the cashier. He flinched.
"Are you sure?" he called back. I raised an eyebrow.
"Duh!" I sighed. It was so pathetic. Am I sure I'm me? Lame!
"There must be some mistake." Said the security guard, "Probably left the tag on something you bought. You can go, girls."
I nearly panicked…I needed Anna to be busted or it'd be totally screwed up. Luckily for me, Anna caused her own downfall.
"No, you can check our bags." She said, completely innocent, "We have nothing to hide. You know how rumours get started," she said to me, "Might as well quash them before they can possibly begin."
"Totally." I said, anticipating the minute Charles opened our bags. He went through mine first, and blushed a bit at a booklet I carry for some light reading called "10,000 FANFICTIONS" from this website Cohen advised me to visit. I guess he thought I didn't know how to read or something, that ass. My favourite authors in the book are these two girls called Secret Smile and Mariposa Gema. They're really good at angst and death and stuff. Another girl called Behind A Mask, or maybe it's Behind The Mask, whatever, she's really funny too. I mean, I totally don't spend my life on the internet, because my fingers are delicate, but some stories are really good and I totally have to keep visiting the site and reading them. I wonder if someone would ever write a story about me. They could call it "Summer Roberts, Teen Queen and Party Princess." I'd like that. Or one about the ocean. I love the ocean. It's so beautiful and mysterious. When I'm stressed, I always take a long bath. When everything with Mum and Dad went all retarded I would keep myself under the water and block out the anger that always seemed to dig under the water. Happiness is frail – misery is forever. It's kind of scary – I can get so depressed and all the beautiful people around me just wither away. My Mum withered right out of the picture, Dad withered to work, and Cohen withered to Anna. That's why I have to fix his problems for him. I have to stop him withering away from me. He needs me – for both our sakes, he has to be with me. If only for a moment.
"Oh…my…God." She breathed as Charles unearthed the pink-punk dress, an expensive pair of ruby-and-solid-gold earrings, a bottle of perfume, three lipsticks and a Von Dutch T-Shirt and skirt ensemble. The Von Dutch duo was a stroke of genius – Anna adores that label but I despise it. Maybe that'll throw her off my scent. Doubtful.
"I've never seen this much stolen stuff…ever." She said breathlessly. Charles looked angry as.
"And you'll never see it again. I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation here." He growled, "This dress, this perfume, this jewelry concealed in your bag is worth over ten thousand dollars – you can go to jail for this."
I flipped around to Anna, my face masked in a pretty pout of shock and hurt.
"I can't believe you, Anna!" I chided her angrily, "I bring you to my favourite shop, where everyone knows me, and you abuse that to do a little free shopping! Trashing my reputation and stealing – I can't stand this! I thought you were my friend!" my little speech was embedded with hypocrisy, but I let my acting get a little carried away, "Eeew, I so won't be able to come here anymore. Thanks, Anna." I added sarcastically.
"But I didn't steal this stuff!" she said, gesturing wildly at the small pile in Charles' hands. The security guard looked way pissed off.
"I think we can safely assume you did. It's not as if Miss Roberts did it, so I think we'd better take you down to the cop shop for questioning."
"But Summer was with me – she knows me well enough to know I wouldn't do this!" she said desperately, "Tell them Summer, I'm not a thief."
"I thought I knew you, Anna." I sighed wistfully, "But obviously I don't know you at all."
Or you know me.