Dannika Dark: Six Months

“We need to close the shop, Alexia.” I tapped my electric-blue fingernail on the glass.

Alexia Knight had recently inherited the candy store when our boss, Charlie, died of cancer four months ago. Lexi had given me an unexpected promotion, despite the fact I was only twenty-two.

I’d never thought I’d be a store manager so quickly. After college, I had submitted my résumé to all the top companies in the area, hoping to get my foot in the door.

Unfortunately, I discovered many businesses preferred experience over education. I wasn’t paid a great deal managing a privately owned candy store, but the position would look great on my résumé if the business became stagnant and I decided to move on. I liked my job because it not only gave me leadership experience, but I also rocked at it. Lexi had relinquished complete control of all the hiring and firing. Luckily our part-timers were reliable and I hadn’t had to let anyone go yet. I not only worked the retail angle but also was in charge of scheduling days off for the staff, coming up with the work rotation, and monitoring inventory.

“April, I keep telling you to call me Lexi ,” she complained from a crouched position behind the white counter. “That’s what my friends call me and I think you qualify. Where did you put those little coupon books?”

A clap of thunder rattled the windows and we shrieked in unison.

Lexi sprang to her feet, clutching her heart. “What the hell is going on out there?”

“ Armageddon ,” I said in a jittery, singsong voice.

After securing the locks on the doors, I watched people scurry to their cars with shopping bags over their heads. I was thankful to be at work because the last place I’d want to be during a tornado was in my Airstream trailer. It looked like those old-fashioned models you hook onto a truck, only this one was bigger. I’d worked at Sweet Treats for over a year and Lexi didn’t have a clue where I lived. There were nice trailer parks in the area, but mine had a reputation for housing drug dealers and ex-convicts. People often judged me on where I came from, not where I was going.

“Can you turn on the radio, Lexi?” My hands were shaking as I straightened a few packages of Japanese gum on the shelf. “Maybe if we have some music going it’ll block out all the thunder.”

Lexi lifted a portable black radio from beneath the register. I’d bought the radio a week after my car had died. My younger sister used to pick me up from work in her VW and I hated waiting in the empty store late at night—the silence rattled me. Rose, my sister, had recently wound up in a whirlwind romance with a guy named Shane. He had a counterfeit smile and sold plenty of cars at a dealership located just a mile up the road. A few weeks ago, they skipped town and moved in with his aunt in Arizona—something about him being promised a better job. I couldn’t believe Rose ditched me on short notice, and I’d been walking to and from work ever since.

Lexi switched on the radio and stopped on a severe weather alert. After the intermittent squelching, an automated message came on. “Sounds like a tornado watch,” she said in a distant voice, adjusting the antenna. The announcer confirmed the adjacent county was under a warning, although no tornadoes had been spotted.

“Do you think we’re safe in here with all this hard candy?” I glanced at all the aisles filled with plastic canisters, laughing at the idea of being whipped to death by licorice.

“If the big one hits, I guess the firemen will have to eat their way to our rescue.”

“ Not complaining ,” I sang.

She slapped a hand over her mouth to smother her quirky laugh.

I threaded my long bangs away from my eyes and hugged my arms when the wind began stripping the leaves from a few pear trees outside. I should have been used to storms by now, but I just couldn’t stay calm when it came to an all-expenses-paid trip to Oz.

Lexi switched the radio station to a classic rock song and belted out a few lyrics. I smiled when my boss swished her brown hair around a few times. Lexi had a sarcastic bite and enjoyed making me laugh. She’d recently hit a rough patch with some personal family stuff and had split with her ex, Beckett. I hadn’t seen him in months, not since the night he drove by and tried to win her back. Lexi seemed like a changed woman ever since she met the new guy, Austin Cole.

Austin was easy on the eyes in every conceivable way. He had the kind of masculine body women fantasized about, except for the bold tattoos on his upper arms and shoulders. I’d never been a fan of ink, but Lexi loved tracing her fingers over the intricate lines whenever he wore a sleeveless shirt. Tall and built, Austin looked like a guy who knew how to take care of himself. Any woman would melt if his thick arms were protectively wrapped around her. His dark hair and brooding eyes made it seem like someone important had just walked into the room. Whenever he swung by the shop, his eyes stayed glued on Lexi. She usually had to leave him and assist customers, so Austin would lean against the counter, watching her with a molten gaze. Sometimes he put on a pair of fringed leather gloves and she’d scowl at him.

Lexi had once admitted she thought the gloves were sexy as hell, but Austin wasn’t allowed to know that. I found out they’d known each other since childhood, but it had taken years before they were both in a place where being together made sense. I was surprised at how quickly she’d moved in with him, but then again, I wasn’t exactly the spokeswoman for relationships.

My love affair was with paperback novels and hair lightener. I had natural blond hair, but I began dying it a platinum shade back in college to change my image and wore it short in back, tapered to the base of my neck. It worked with my fair complexion, and my best friend had told me it was fashion forward. I’d had a rough time in high school. A group of boys used to bully me right up until the eleventh grade, calling me a dumb blonde. Then one day they’d spray-painted “slut” on my locker and hung up a picture of a porn star who resembled me. Crying in front of them had only made it worse. After that, I kept to myself, studied hard, and didn’t date. The less ammo I could give them, the better. My life had changed by college, but I still worried about running into those boys someday. Chances are I would, but I hoped by then I’d be able to outshine them in my achievements.

Thunder rattled the windows, and while we lowered the blinds, the Rolling Stones sang “Gimme Shelter” on the radio.

“Well, at least we can take a break,” she said with a heavy sigh. “I’m not going to be able to serve customers if glass is flying around.”

I gave her a sharp glare. “You should be used to it by now. I’m surprised my little fiasco didn’t end up on the Internet.”

Lexi snorted. “I haven’t figured out how to use the camera feature on my phone yet. Seven years, April,” she teased.

A week ago I’d attempted to straighten a large mirror on the wall. The mirror gave the illusion of extra space, and more importantly, allowed us to keep an eye on mischievous kids who liked to stuff candy in their pockets when they thought no one was looking. I should have just left it alone, but the mirror looked crooked and when I tried to straighten it, the cord snapped and glass shattered at my feet. Two guys laughed and turned away, not offering to help. So much for chivalry.

My mother had once said I was an accident waiting to happen and it started with my conception.

“Whoa, those clouds look creepy .” Lexi cupped her elbows as she peered between the slats in the blinds.

The streets were black as sin, as if something hellish were preparing to crawl up from the underbelly of the earth. Fat drops of rain assailed the windshields of passing cars, and the wind began to bend the trees in the parking lot. I hurried to the back room, my heart galloping. I stood amid a wooden bench, a plastic chair, a vending machine, a silver water fountain, and a unisex bathroom. It was where I retreated at night, after hours. I’d lie on the bench and read one of my novels until my sister knocked on the front door after her shift ended at Sonic.