Wild Nights, Hot And Crazy Days

Part 2.3: A Glimmer of Hope

For the rest of the summer Colin seemed to be keeping his promise. He didn't always have smokes anymore, and he didn't always have pop, chips, and things like that. He was just like any normal kid, hanging around at the arcade without necessarily having money to spend on the games. All was good. 

I was actually starting to become fond of him as a friend, and, perhaps out of desperation, I almost felt that there might be a little bit more than friendship blooming as well. After all, he was good looking, and I was a young, hormonally charged gay teenager. I suppressed those thoughts, though, and was content with just having a friend. We became inseparable.

Summer wound down into Fall, school started up again, and as it started getting colder out our focus changed from fishing to just hanging around at the mall. At school I noticed a few people staring at Colin and I, and some people would shy away, but I supposed that most people had known about Colin's past, at least a little bit about it, and they were just being wary.

As we were spending more time at the malls I started noticing something else, and it began to bother me. Every store we went into the employees would be staring at us. Often I would notice the plainclothes security guards ("Floorwalkers", Colin called them) following us everywhere we went. I should say Colin noticed: He knew who they all were and would point them out to me. He was amused, but I was embarrassed. I had always prided myself in being trustworthy and now I had security following my every move. I mentioned this to Colin, and he said "Don't worry about it. They're just watching me, they don't care about you."

He was wrong, though. One time I was at the K-Mart by myself and noticed one of the floorwalkers following me. I was getting mad, so I deliberately walked down an aisle, then quickly skipped over to the adjacent aisle and doubled back. As I came back out of this aisle I saw the floorwalker kind of hiding at the end, peeking down the aisle I had disappeared down. I quietly walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Looking for someone?"

He jumped and spun around with a half terrified look on his face, but quickly recovered. The look of terror gave way to a sly smile.

"Why yes, I'm looking for you, in fact."

"Any reason why you're following me around this store? What, are you looking to molest me or something?"

That wiped the grin off his face. "Don't get smart", he said. "You know why I'm following you. That buddy of yours is a thief, and if you hang around with him you're probably a thief too. Now that you know you're being watched, just remember that. Everywhere you go in this store we're watching you."

I glared at him.

"Now, are you here to buy anything, or are you here to fuck around?"

"I'm here to eat", I said, which was true. The K-Mart cafeteria was a popular place with teens – their fries and gravy were cheap but tasty.

"Interesting. The cafeteria is on the other end of the store. What are you doing at this end?"

The truth was I came to this end because I wanted to trip him up and catch him spying on me. I didn't want to say that to him, though, so I said the one thing that was pretty much guaranteed to make me look suspicious:

"I'm just looking around."

"Yeah, right. Sure you are. Just get your ass to that cafeteria. And remember. We're watching you."

I started walking to the cafeteria, and when I turned around I saw that he was following me. He wasn't even trying to hide it anymore. When I got to the cafeteria and sat down he gave me a final nod and wandered off into the store. I got my french fries and sat down, and the whole time I was eating I could see him loitering around the area in front of the cafeteria. I also noticed some other "customers" suspiciously hanging around the area. I was growing uncomfortable. Was this going to be my new life, now? Was I doomed to be distrusted and looked upon as a thief, just because of my friend?