Page 41 of Braving the Valley

He nodded. "No problem, boss."

The old lady walked around the counter and grabbed me by the back of my shirt, reeling me in close. I could feel the people in the store looking at us now, and my cheeks flushed with heat. It felt like they were on fire as a bunch of strangers stared at us.

"I know you stole it," she hissed at me, "you little brat. Didn't your parents teach you any better than that?"

"I'll pay," I told her quickly, shoving the dollars back at her. When she didn't take them, I threw them at her chest, dollars and coins falling to the floor. A quarter rolled into the boot of the man on his phone, and he backed away a little from it, looking confused. The bottle of water went bouncing into a candy display.

The woman sneered, and I could see all of her small, yellow teeth. She had a smile better suited for a rodent than a human. She took one look at the money littered across the floor and scoffed.

"It's too late for that," she said to me before she gripped the back of my shirt even tighter and dragged me across the tile and out of the front double doors. The sun was bright when it hit my eyes, and the asphalt baked in the sun, steaming beneath the heat of summer. The air smelled like gasoline and evaporated rain as I struggled against the lady, the Moon Pie still plastered to my skin. The hot pavement caught against the toes of my sneakers as she dragged me across the pavement. She was stronger than she looked.

An excruciating moment later, she delivered me in front of my mother, who was still on the phone My mother's bright blue eyes went wide as she told my father, "Benjamin, I'm going to need to call you back."

"Is this your little brat?" the lady practically shouted as my mother hung up the phone.

The cashier shoved me forward so that my head hit my mother before she steered me to her side. Then my mother straightened, and she looked the lady in the eye as she said her next words.

"Yes," she answered her. "What did she go?"

"Stole something," the mean lady hissed. "Got it hid underneath her shirt."

Oh no.

I backed away from my mother, and I would've given anything in that moment to be able to disappear, but God didn't favor me back then, not that he does now either. My mother snatched my wrist and pulled me in close to her.

"What did you do?" she hissed. "What did you steal, piggy?"

Her hands patted me down, hard and fast. My sides, my butt, my arms, and my pockets, until her fingers hit my chest, and the Moon Pie crinkled. It felt like the entire world disappeared out from under me when she found it.

She shoved her cold, thin hand up my shirt and grabbed the treat before she dropped it to the pavement like it burned her. My face burned along with it.

The lady from behind the counter scoffed as my mother grabbed me by the shoulders and demanded, "Why would you do that? Are you a pig or a human, Avery? Can you not control yourself?"

I felt the tears prick at the corners of my eyes first, and I started to cry as my mother released me, disgusted.

"What does she owe you for this?" my mother asked as she stepped forward and crushed the pie beneath the heel of her pump.

"The rest of what she left inside will be enough," the lady said, looking at me and gloating. "I just wanted to make sure you knew what she did."

Even now the memory brings shame, but there's something there that covers it like a shadow stretching before nightfall.

Wetness slicks between my thighs as the lingering glow of my orgasm from the creep's hands fades. It makes me wonder if maybe I'm not a piggy, after all, that maybe I'm desired and worth it.

I push off the wall and leave the room to walk to the cafeteria. When I enter, I don't see Gabe at his table in the middle of the room with his friends. His throne still sits empty. I hold my head high as I walk to the line and grab a tray.

Maybe tomorrow I'll let my mother win, but right now I'm winning.

Maybe it's thanks to him.

Or to this place.

Or something inside of me that he has awoken.

I don't know, but I do know for the first time in a long time I don't hear my motheroinkwhen I sit down to eat and stab at the salad on my plate.

15

AVERY

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