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"Excuse me, ma'am, you have to pay for those." Orren's dull eyes tracked the woman across the storefront as she headed for the door. She managed to balance her bounty in one arm long enough to free her other hand and flip him off. Orren blinked, sighed, and pulled out an inventory loss slip. What could she have possibly wanted with that many pregnancy tests anyway?

He filled out the paperwork in his sloppy handwriting and put in the already formed pile. People stole from this store a lot. Orren certainly didn't get paid enough to go to heroic measures to stop it. 

Time passed like both cold molasses and a speeding bullet. Every time he sat down and opened his book, another customer magically appeared. The process of getting them checked out dragged. Sit down, open book, new customer. Finally, his relief showed up. 

She was a small, perky girl named Terra. Her hair was a mousy brown with a few streaks of pink that were clearly a DIY at home job. She always had a handful of college prep books, which meant she was probably going to be one of the lucky ones that made it out of this town someday. 

"Orren! I'm so sorry I'm late! My roommate was sick and I had to drive her to the hospital and-"

"It's fine." He was really too tired to listen to her story. He just wanted to count down the till and get out of here. 

"Oh. Okay then. Well, let's get this done so you can go home and rest. You look like you could use it!"

She didn't mean for that to sting, he was sure. "Yeah." Once the register was traded off, Orren grabbed his backpack and headed out. Going straight home was pointless; it wasn't like he could sleep anyway. He'd probably stop at the nearby cafe and get a sandwich or something. His current grocery situation at home was sad at best.