Boys And Their Toys: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Troubled Playthings 1)

“I always thought you were keen to do this work long-term, Callie,” he said. ?

?That’s the reason I took you on at seventeen, with no qualifications.”

I didn’t think it was just Lucas having made me sensitive to my work situation that had me seeing the barb in that. “I think I always did the work to an acceptable standard, so why even bring that up now?”

Dane didn’t have an answer.

“There’s no point in us fighting,” I said. “But it has to be said that in all the time I’ve worked for you, I haven’t gotten any pay increase, even though you started me off low because you had to train me up first. You haven’t really given me any opportunities to learn about the business of managing as a whole, even though I’m essentially keeping your business running… I just have to sit near the front window and do your numbers all the time. And I have a few questions these days about exactly why I need to sit where everybody coming in and out and near will see me.”

“This is all because of that new boyfriend of yours,” Dane said. “He’s been putting ideas in your head.”

“I do have a few ideas that got in there all by themselves, Dane,” I snapped.

He put his hands up. “Like you said, Callie, let’s not fight about this. If you want this to be the first day of your notice period, that’s fine with me… but I’m going to give you an opportunity to go back on that at any point before the weekend. I’m not so old I can’t remember being a kid and making some rash decisions now and then.”

What rash decision did Dane think I was making here? I’d thought my justification for leaving was as solid as any employee could give.

“I’d better get to work,” I told him. “I’m not going to leave your paperwork in a mess, at least.”

Dane grunted, and retreated to his back-room bunker, leaving me alone for virtually the whole time I was there that day.

He barely looked up when I peeked in and told him I was leaving at the end of my usual hours, but I wasn’t going to bother calling him out on that either. I just gathered up my stuff and left.

It wasn’t on my way home, but a short while later I found myself driving by the mall Lucas had taken me to when he’d bought me my new phone. I parked and strolled in, and though I didn’t let myself consciously admit I had a goal at any point on the journey there, of course I ended up entering the ridiculously glitzy phone store. And I even walked right to the back, where the expensive products were lined up with far too much space between them like they were celebrities.

And then the girl who had recommended my phone to me was standing in front of me.

“I seem to remember we’ve met before recently,” she said. Now that I wasn’t distracted worrying about what Lucas was doing next to me, I could take in her name badge: Amanda. I felt like she was taking in a lot of things about me as she stood there, apparently only mildly looking in my eyes.

I wasn’t fooled. This girl was someone who had managed to hold her own with Lucas once… and if there wasn’t any more to know about their relationship that I didn’t have yet, she was someone I could learn from. And not just about how to deal with the likes of Lucas, because hopefully that wasn’t going to be an issue any more.

“Um,” I started, rather gracefully. “I… I noticed there’s a sign outside saying you’re looking for a new shop assistant.” I didn’t consciously remember taking that in, either. My body seemed to be just going with the flow at the moment, entirely without my input.

“Yes,” Amanda said, “just an entry-level position really, nothing complicated. Are you looking to apply?”

“I don’t have a résumé ready,” I said, feeling very awkward in my barely-public-facing usual work clothes.

“Oh, that’s fine,” Amanda said, “like I told you, it’s entry-level, perfect for a graduate really.” I squirmed, even though I wasn’t even in my school uniform this time around.

Amanda glanced behind her at something. I realised the store was almost empty, and I was going to ask if I’d come in just as they were about to close, when Amanda returned her attention to me. “Actually, my manager is in at the moment, if you’d like to interview. We really aren’t interested in some polished performance and reference checks, we’d like to see what you can do when you’re under pressure a bit. Especially with the more expensive stock, you know, you’ll have people who come in and try all sorts of things to get you to give them a discount you don’t need to or throw in some extras, and you can’t afford that in this job. You’ve got to be able to cope with a lot of, well, shit being thrown your way.”

I’d been about to squirm my way out of the possibility of an interview, but that wording made me pause. Who were they going to interview who was more experienced at having shit thrown their way?

“You know what,” I said, “that sounds like a great idea.”

Thirty minutes later, I had the job.

It was a few weeks after my start date before I was able to find out whether Amanda had further contact with Lucas after our phone-purchasing expedition.

We were straightening all the merchandise in the cases after closing—somehow Amanda could see fractional misalignments in the phones that were beyond my powers of perception and would insist we adjust each of them personally—when she made some remark I wasn’t paying too much conscious attention to, until she said the words your boyfriend.

I nearly dropped a Samsung loose in the case, saving it by the skin of my fingertips. Amanda was an easygoing supervisor, but the gloves were off for anyone who clattered the display devices. Excessive scuffs or scratches made it impossible to sell them as like-new floor stock, and cutting down on your margins was the pinnacle of failure in this business. Not a lot of things scared me these days, but Amanda’s attention to detail scared me. If I could become like her one day, there was no man or woman on the planet who would look down on me.

“Boyfriend?” I made my voice sound confused even though I knew exactly who she was talking about, of course.

“That one you came in with to buy your phone,” said Amanda.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I told her. “I don’t see him any more, actually.”