Chapter 14/ Marcie
Marcie Bremer smiled when Greg Booser walked into her store (Sam Goody’s) and came right over to talk to her. Thank goodness, she was free. Wearing his Hot Topic manager shirt, Greg walked right up to her and said he was on break. Marcie said, “Cool, how you been?”
They chatted about stupid stuff. He asked about her brother. Was it true Bobby had enlisted in the Marines? Sometimes, he thought about enlisting too, just to get out of this stupid town. Marcie said she knew exactly what he meant. Then he left. He almost left. Greg got to the doorway of her store, then turned around as if he had forgotten something, came back to her, and asked her out. Would she like to get a drink after the mall closed at the bar across the highway? It might be fun.
Marcie said, “Sure, why not, we can catch up, it will be so much fun.”
In fact, she had been hoping Greg would ask her out for weeks, ever since she got this job at Sam Goody and found out Hot Topics was next door and Greg was the manager over there.
Marcie had had a crush on Greg in high school when he was two years older than her and friends with her older brother Bobby. She used to write his name over and over in her school notebook. Greg Greg Greg. A schoolgirl crush. At the time, he hardly even noticed her.
The day before, Greg had come into Sam Goody’s to chat and joke and then he came in today to chat and joke again and then he almost left before turning around and coming back and asking her out for drinks. That meant he was definitely interested. It meant he was nervous she would say no. Unbelievable. She was making Greg Booser nervous! This was why he’d had to talk to her more than once before he finally worked up the courage to ask her out. Probably, he had been thinking about her every day, ever since he found out she was working here.
What if, back in high school when Greg was 17 and a senior and she was only a little sophomore, a nobody, what if even then he had harbored a crush on her, and she had never known it? Was that possible?
When she had said, sure, she’d meet him for drinks after the mall closed, he had momentarily bugged out his eyes and raised his eyebrows as if surprised and relieved. He had really nice brown eyes.
She had explained that when her shift ended at nine, she would have to take the cash bag to the bank on the other side of the mall parking lot, but after that, she could meet him at the bar.
Who knows what might happen? She got tingly thinking about it.
In the years since high school, Greg had gotten taller, at least an inch. His hair was longer and one shade darker. He had gotten a bit stronger, his arms and chest. He must work out. Like her brother, he had been on the wrestling team. Even in high school, he had been muscular.
Marcie had a low opinion of wrestling because if boys were on the team they had to make weight every week, which meant they had to starve themselves and then the moment they made weight pig-out on cheeseburgers and shakes and fries. That could not be good; yo-yoing like that could not be healthy. After his wrestling days were over, her brother Bobby had put on weight. Now he was sort of pudgy and was losing some of his hair. He was only twenty-three. But Greg had improved since high school, gotten taller. He looked more like a real man now, like a cool handsome man, the manager of Hot Topic.
Marcie had to quit thinking about Greg because she had to wait on a customer. And then another one and another one.
They got busy and then there was a little excitement because a teenager, a dork with pimples, went into a spot in the store where the clerks could not see him even with the mirrors, and broke open a plastic CD holder. So stupid. When shoplifters did that, they imagined they could get the CD out of the store without setting off the alarm. What they failed to anticipate was that when they broke open the plastic security holder and separated the CD from its magnetic button, the cracking sound they made was loud and unmistakable.
The moment she heard that loud crack, Marcie’s manager Lori ran over there and confronted the kid. The dope denied it, of course. He was holding the broken plastic holder and the freed CD in his hands. “It just broke on its own!” Lori snatched the holder and the CD away from him and marched him out of the store and told him he was lucky she didn’t call the cops. He was banned from the store for life.
Lori was fearless. That stupid kid must have been seven inches taller than her. Lori was tiny, five foot two, but when angry, she turned into a ferocious woman warrior. The moment Lori got in his face, that kid turned red and retreated. By the time she told him he was banned for life, the poor fool had tears in his eyes and slunk off, ashamed of himself.
Marcie had to help another customer.
People were buying lots of Rascal Flatts CDs today. And Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. All the high school girls in town were madly in love with Justin Timberlake.
Then her coworker Lisa poked her in the side and whispered. “Don’t look now, but your boyfriend’s back.” Of course, Marcie looked because she thought oh my god, Greg’s back. He must find me irresistible or something. But, nope, it was not Greg. It was just Val Hart, the mall security guard.
Val had a crush on Marcie and came into the store at least two or three times every time she had a shift. He said it was to scare out the shoplifters. Their store had a horrible shrink problem. All the stores did. It was getting so bad there were rumors that the entire chain was going to go bankrupt. Apparently, some stores had already been closed.
Val came in, leaned on her counter, and started talking to her about a TV show, a sitcom. Without thinking, she exclaimed, “Oh, I love that show!” Immediately, he started bragging about how he had this brand-new leather couch, expensive but worth it, and how nice it would be if he was sitting on it and she was sitting beside him. They could watch the show together. Wouldn’t that be great?
Ew.
As if any girl would ever want to sit beside Val.
She looked away and said, “I have a boyfriend.”
She did not have a boyfriend, not really, not yet, but who knows, maybe soon she would.
A customer came up with a CD to purchase, thank god. Val did not leave. He stayed there watching her do her work.
“Have a nice day,” she told the customer. “Come back again!”
She was careful not to turn or make eye contact with Val. He liked to brag about himself, about his gun collection, or else he would tell her how hot she looked in her Sam Goody shirt. He would stare at her chest and say that kind of stuff, so inappropriate and icky.
Lori her manager noticed her predicament, came over, and told her, “Marcie, I need you to go in the back and finish that inventory.” That was a lie. They really did not have to do inventory today. Lori was just saving her from Val. Marcie was able to flee into the back room and wait in there for a couple minutes until Val left.
An hour later, the big excitement happened. A tall bald guy wearing a long black coat came into the store, carrying a Hot Topic bag. It was summertime, but he was wearing a long coat like maybe he had something hidden under it, guns or knives or who knows what. Like he was one of those Columbine killers.
Apparently, whatever item he bought at Hot Topic had not been properly demagnetized because as soon as he entered their store, his bag set off their alarm. The tall guy got spooked and backed out of the store, past the alarm. The beeping stopped because Lori saw what was happening and turned it off. Then the idiot came right back into store and set off the alarm again. Beep beep beep. Really loud.
What a moron.
Lori tried to be helpful and yelled at him. “It’s your bag. It’s setting off the alarm. Come over here and I’ll help you.”
The tall guy lost his mind. He yelled back at Lori that she had no right to talk to him like that. This guy was huge, a giant compared to Lori.
She told him to get out of the store.
The alarm kept going off. There were other customers in the store looking.
Lori fearlessly advanced on the guy and told him to get lost.
The guy did exit the store, but a minute later he came right back in, pointed at Lori, and yelled, “I will get you! Think I won’t?” Then he pointed at Marci. “You too. I’ll get you! I’ll wait around till the store closes and get you both!”
Marci grabbed the phone to call the cops, but the guy left the store, still yelling threats.
After that excitement concluded, it was pretty much business as usual at the store until closing. Lori reminded Marcie to take the cash bag to the bank and then left, so Marcie was alone in the store. She put the cash into the bag, locked the front door, pulled down the metal fence. She was happy and excited, thinking about her date with Greg.
That was the last time anyone saw Marcie Bremer.
In the bar across the highway, Greg waited for Marcie for one hour. Where was she? Did she stand him up? Did she totally forget she was supposed to meet him for drinks? Each time someone new came into the bar, he looked up to see if it was Marcie. It never was. Finally, he gave up, got back in his car, and drove home.
Marcie’s car, a red, ten-year-old Honda Civic with a scratch on its fender, was sitting all by itself in the mall parking lot. It was still there in the morning.
This was gut wrenching...