Page 212 of Filthy Elites

Even if it Hurts – Sam Mariano

Prologue

Aubrey

This isthe story of an absolute psycho.

A pair of them, actually.

It all started one day while I was at work, and the school mean girl Anae came in with a return I couldn’t process.

The article she brought in wasn’t even from our store. I turned over the fuchsia top and looked for a tag anyway, but there wasn’t one. The top had clearly been worn, too. There were faint pit stains underneath each arm.

Pushing the mound of material back across the counter, I told her politely, “I’m sorry, this item isn’t eligible for return.”

She had been talking to her entourage while I did my thing, but when I effectively told her she couldn’t have her way, she turned, her glossy strawberry blonde locks catching the light, and stared at me as if I were a lower life form. “Excuse me?”

I offered an apologetic look. “I can’t give you a refund for this.”

“Why?”

“It wasn’t purchased here.”

“Yes, it was.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

Her eyes narrowed at me. “Are you calling me a liar?”

“Of course not,” I said, equipped with my best customer service smile. “Maybe you bought a lot of things that day and some were from here, but this wasn’t. We’ve never carried this top before. And without tags or a receipt, a return is pretty much impossible. I’m sorry.”

She didn’t touch the lump of material on the counter. She continued to glare at me coolly before saying, “You go to our school, don’t you?”

Anae has never spoken to me before, so I was honestly surprised she even knew that. “Yes.”

“Then you know who I am.”

“I do.”

“Is that why you won’t put through my return? Is this some sort of pathetic jealousy thing?”

“No,” I said, hating life and my need for a job. Why couldn’t I have just been born rich so I could live large on Mommy and Daddy’s dime like she did?

That was the most insane part of all of it. Anae's rich! She didn’tneedto return the top, yet she made such a big deal about it.

“I want to speak to the manager.”

“The manager isn’t in right now,” I told her. “But if she were, she would tell you the same thing. We can’t return a shirt that wasn’t purchased at this store. We literally cannot do it. If you take the top back to the store you did buy it from, maybe you can return it there.”

Pushing the material back across the counter without breaking my gaze, she said, “Put my fucking return through so I can leave this crappy little boutique and never come back.”

“I literally can’t.”

“If you don’t, there will be consequences.”

What does that even mean? “Look, if you want to call back later and talk to the manager, you can, but no one will give you a different answer than I have. If I could do this return for you, I would. If I possessed a time machine and I could only use it once, I would use it to go back in time and stock this shirt at this storejustso I could do this return for you now, but alas, I cannot. There isnothingI can do for you.” I glanced behind her pointedly to a woman with a few articles of clothing draped over her arm, waiting to check out. “Now, if you’ll please step aside so I can help the next customer, that would be amazing.”

Anae’s cold glare could save the polar ice caps if she used her powers for good instead of evil. “Remember this day,Aubrey,” she said, her gaze flickering to my nametag. “Because it’s the day you put yourself on my shit list, and trust me—that isnota place you want to be.”

---