"Becca," I called to my sister. "I'm going for a walk. Do you need anything?"
"Are you going by 7-11?" she asked, walking into the living room from the kitchen while wearing her pajamas. It was late but I had just gotten off of work, and going for a walk helped me to burn off any excess energy I might have before going to bed.
"Probably. What do you want?"
"Get me a couple of those smoothies that I like. I think they're called nakd or something?"
"You don't know the name?"
"I drink them, Kate. I don't read them."
"Fine. Anything else?"
"Nope. Thank you!" She smiled and put her chocolate brown hair up in a ponytail as she laid down on the couch in front of a reality show called, Are you the one?
Becca and I have lived together since we were able to hold down a job. Our parents had a strict rule that they were fond of repeating to us during our early teen years, "When you finally turn 18, you're out." While it hurt to hear the people who raised us be so eager to be rid of our presence, neither of us were very interested in sticking around anyway. Our dad was always quite verbal about how he wished that he had boys instead of girls, and when he was drunk, he would tell us how much we owed him for the cost of raising us. Our mom on the other hand was like a ghost in our household. She never fought for us, never fought for herself even. She just existed. So, when the time came, we jumped ship and never looked back.
The night was cool but not quite cold. The amber light from street lamps above the sidewalk illuminated the dark air with an electric warmth, its coil filament humming alongside the chirps of crickets in the grass. I tucked my hands into my pockets and stared down at my feet as I paced along the sidewalk of the quiet road. Everyone must have been in bed, I'd thought. Married couples, children, elderly, even other people my age. They all had careers. Plans. Goals and intentions. All of the things I was supposed to have, but didn't. I was too busy floating. Stagnant. That's how I felt, anyway. The rest of the world had momentum, and I was a thousand-pound boulder in the middle of a plateau. I was going nowhere.
I entered 7-11, its bright as fuck fluorescent light bulbs shining out through the windows like a beacon in the night. A man held open the door for me as he exited and I quickly made for the snack aisle. I was craving something cheesy. Something orange and dusty and messy as all hell. So, naturally, I settled on a party size bag of Cheetos before heading over to the cooler section.
"Kate!" a man's voice called as I opened the cooler door.
"What's up Anthony?" He was wearing a red collared shirt with a stripe down its side and a hat with the store's logo on it.
"Just work. I'm off in about thirty. You?"
"Just got home myself. Grabbing Bec and me some snacks. How's it been today?"
"Fine, mostly." Anthony's voice lowered to a whisper. "But did you see that guy just now?"
"Guy?" I repeated, matching my tone to his. I looked around the store, rising up on my toes to peek over the shelves, but saw no one.
"He just left a minute ago. He was... weird."
"Weird how?"
"He was talking to himself a lot. I mean, he seemed normal enough at a glance. Maybe a little tall, but he walked in here pretty confidently."
"A tall guy with confidence? Wow. What a freak." I smirked and shut the cooler door, now clutching Becca's smoothies in one hand.
"It wasn't just that though."
