Cell Phone || Marco Reus

Chapter 10: Mine

Is it just her or is she being watched? She certainly feels so. Sara-Maria looks around the shop, where there are five girls at the calendar section. They're talking in a low voice so she can't hear it from the checkout counter, but she swears that they have their eyes on her every now and then. She shakes the thought off; maybe it's nothing and she's just being paranoid. Although it can be that people have found out about Marco and her...? Surely they will sooner or later.

The girls make their way to the checkout; one of them puts three black journals on the counter. Sara-Maria smiles at them and scans the items. "That will be €24," she says.

The girl with long, dark blond hair hands her a VISA card. When Sara-Maria returns it after processing it, she notices that the girl is looking at her nametag. "Is there anything else?" she asks the girl.

Her answer is not what Sara-Maria expects to hear.

"You're Marco Reus's new girlfriend, aren't you?" the girl asks, while the other girls behind her are looking at Sara-Maria intently, as if eagerly waiting for her reply.

"I'm..." Sara-Maria starts. It's in times like this that she wishes Emily is here, then at least she wouldn't be alone. It's silly to feel ambushed, when she knows that the girls won't harm her. But she can't help feeling exposed, and she doesn't like it.

The girls are still waiting for her to answer. Then Sara-Maria sees a guy line up behind the girls; she feels relieved and says, "I'm sorry, but I would rather not talk about personal things at work. I hope you understand. Now, if there's nothing more I can help you with, I have to move on to the next customer. Thank you."

After some shrugging, the girls finally leave. Sara-Maria breathes in relief and begins to help the guy pick suitable colouring pencils for his daughter. Instinctively though, she feels that this is only the beginning. It will only get worse from here with Marco's fans.

Her instinct proves to be right. As the day progresses, there are more and more people (mostly girls) come into the shop and observe her (mostly not so subtly). She knows that it's Saturday and there are normally more people than on weekdays, but the number of young girls today is way beyond average, even for a Saturday. When Emily comes later and checks the feedback box, the amount of papers there is shocking... like the amount of feedback for a month. And it's only one o'clock.

"What the hell?" Emily exclaims, opening the folded papers one by one. "This is ridiculous."

"What is it?" Sara-Maria asks warily, although she already can guess what it is about.

Emily looks up at her, her expression a mixture of annoyance and distaste. "Apparently people have found out that you're dating Marco. It's all about you. Here look 'Is it true that you're Marco's girlfriend? How come?!' and another one 'You're so plain. What does Marco see in you?' They're all pretty much like that," she says.

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out," Sara-Maria says.

"What are you going to do about it?" Emily asks, crumpling the papers that she has read, turning them into a giant paper ball.

Sara-Maria shrugs. "Nothing. I know this will happen sooner or later. Considering how popular Marco is, I'm not surprised."

A customer walks towards the counter so Emily doesn't reply, but she smiles encouragingly at Sara-Maria before scanning the customer's items. Another customer approaches the counter, asking about a certain permanent marker. Sara-Maria checks on her computer and tells the customer that it's out of stock at the moment and that she expects a new delivery on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

When she walks to the folder section to check something later, she notices that some people are standing outside the shop watching her, don't even try to be discreet anymore. "Here it is," she tells the female customer who is with her. "This is the one with five colours."