For The Win (Gamer Girls, #6) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,63
else saw it. She needed to be at home so she could tell her dad and brother. No, she should leave town, get out of sight long enough for it to all blow over. Something! Anything. Her mind was whirling in a panic because she couldn't figure out what came next, but she knew it all started with leaving work right fucking now!
Carl turned around with a smirk. "Oh, you saw the paper?"
"Can you stay for an hour?" she begged.
His brow furrowed. "What?"
"I need to find someone to cover my shift." That was first. It had to come first, and it was all she could think about.
The guy just scoffed. "Sorry. I have to get home before my girlfriend leaves or she'll kill me." Then he gestured to the rack of papers. "Some kind of costume party or something?"
"Yeah," she agreed. "Kinda."
But it wasn't. That had been sometime between rounds. Nothing special. She had no idea who'd taken the picture, but it was there for anyone to see. Grabbing a copy, she hurried into the office knowing that she only had two options, and neither of them were good. First, she could quit and leave it to the management to figure out what to do, or she could try to fake it, hoping no one put two and two together.
Or she could try to do both. Grabbing her phone, she found the manager's number in a list hanging on the wall. While that rang, her eyes frantically scanned the article, trying to figure out what was going on.
"This is Todd," the guy answered.
"Todd, it's Ethan," she said. "Carl just left, and I need someone to cover my shift. I'm not going to be able to make it to the end of the day."
"What?" he asked, sounding like he'd just woken up. "Why not?"
"I'm not feeling well," she told him, because that always worked. "Can't promise I won't puke."
"Ok," he groaned. "I'll see what I can do, but it'll be awhile. I need you to stay there until I call back."
"I'll try," she said, wondering how the hell that would work.
What if she just locked herself in the bathroom and said she was vomiting? No, because if someone left the store without paying, she'd get fired. But if she was really sick, and was honestly hanging over a toilet, then what? It wasn't as if she could just ignore it! And puking was still high on the list, right up there with bolting to get home and make sure her dad didn't see the paper.
When Todd hung up, she was trying to decide if it would be bad to hide the papers. If nothing else, she'd turn the top one upside down. Once that was done, she would need to call some of the other day shift workers, but her time was up. The first cars were starting to pull up at the pumps. That meant it had to be seven thirty, and all of the locals were making their way to work.
She barely got the stack turned upside down, and then, one after the other, the customers streamed in. Each time someone grabbed a paper, she almost lost it. Needless to say, it didn't take long before a customer in line paused to look at the front page. The man was in his early forties, most likely, and she knew he recognized her when his smile turned into a scowl.
"Is this you?" he asked.
"No!" she almost squeaked, unable to think of anything better.
But he turned to the person in line behind him. "That's him, isn't it? Dressed like some queer."
Yep, she was going to hurl. Rhaven tried to hurry him through the line, but this asshole just wouldn't take the hint. He demanded that she explain herself, but she couldn't. She could barely talk! All she wanted to do was run away, cry, or maybe even both.
Then a random savior spoke up. "So fucking what? This is a free country."
"It's photoshopped," she tried, hoping that maybe someone would believe that.
The asshole just scoffed at her, paid for his stuff and stormed out. "I'm not shopping at a place that lets freaks work there."
"Idiot," the nice man said under his breath.
And for a moment, his presence felt like a lifeline, but the woman behind him was still glaring. When she made it to the register, Rhaven knew it was going to be bad. Sure enough, it was.