Chapter 1

“Tomorrow will be a good day” said Lex quietly to himself as he set the sleep timer on his TV. He rolled over and faced the wall next to his bed in the same way he did every night before falling asleep. The posters on his wall screamed of adolescents but Lex didn’t care. He was not trying to impress anyone. At the age of 24 he had nothing really going on. He gazed at the clock and remembered he had to be at work in 6 hours. He tried to focus on sleep but the sound of Star Wars was buzzing softly from the TV at foot of the bed. “I love you…” said Princess Leia. “I know” said Han Solo. Lex smiled, his insides went calm and fell deeply asleep.

Lex awoke to the sound of his phone ringing loudly from underneath his pillow. The name Chloe blinked across the screen as the Jaws theme hummed. Lex fumbled as he tried to answer it but in the process he tossed it about three feet away from the bed. He sighed and walked wobbly legged through the darkness trying to not step on his phone as he searched for it.

“ello” said Lex intentionally trying to sound more tired than he actually was.

“Where the hell are you?” asked Chloe not angry but not happy either.

“Standing here in my underwear talking to you on the phone” Lex responded.

“Well, you should be standing next to me with all of you clothes on. You’re forty minutes late for work, you asshole” The phone clicked its goodbye and Lex stood in the darkness of his bedroom still holding the phone to his head. He shook his hair out of eyes and looked at the clock. He was indeed forty minutes late.

He rummaged through his dark closet smelling his clothes as he pulled them on to make sure his scent would be acceptable enough for public consumption. He sniffed his socks, shrugged his shoulders and he deemed himself fit.

He opened his bedroom door and the light of the day smacked him in the face like a wet fish. He gurgled at the morning and began to brush his teeth. Lex ran his brush through his thick black hair trying to part the blonde patch in the front well enough to his liking. He thought he could do better but time would not allow it. He looked down and noticed that the pure black tee-shirt he was wearing was inside out. He hung his head and decided that he would deal with it after he was clocked on at work. He always had the ideal that he should get paid for everything he did as long as it would last.

Lex was about 5’ 11’ with black dyed black hair. He was born a blonde but he doesn’t like people to know that. He has 9 holes punched in his body. 4 earrings in each ear and a stud right below the center of his bottom lip. He has only a few tattoos. He has a thin red line that wraps all the way around both his wrists. He tells people that it reminds him of the blood that flows through his body but really it is to symbolize that time has a hold of him and he will never be able to escape his past. His other tattoo is of a single purple puzzle piece that he and Chloe got together when Chloe turned 18. He dresses mostly in nice blue jeans, black t-shirts, and converse high tops. He is handsome but doesn’t really think he is. He covers all of his insecurity with jokes and encyclopedic knowledge of pointless things. He would always rather feel smart than pretty.

Lex opened his door and locked it behind him. Lex lived about three feet away from his job. The owner of the video store Lex worked at had always had a soft spot for him. Lex’s parents were what people called “worthless”. He was emancipated when he turned sixteen and has a nice shiny GED to go along with it. The owner, Mr. Hughes, gave Lex a job when he was out on his own and also rented him the apartment above the store for free as long as he worked a certain amount of hours per week. Lex managed to work double that seeing as how he really didn’t have anything else to do but he was late almost every day. Mr. Hughes didn’t care and was used to scheduling him for later shifts during the day so that he would never be responsible for opening the store, Chloe was always good for that.

The bell above the door jingled as he opened it and he was greeting by a not so happy looking Chloe standing behind the counter.

“Sorry, overslept” said Lex in his best mock apology voice he could muster.

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Mr. Hughes wants to see you though. He’s in his office” said Chloe.

Lex jumped the counter and clocked in before heading to the office at the very back of the store. It was a very small room just really enough for one person to sit at the tiny desk with a small cash safe situated next to an old green screen computer. Mr. Hughes was sitting at the desk playing some kind of game on his phone.

“Hello Mr. Luthor” said Mr. Hughes as Lex entered the room.

“How’d you know that Lex Luthor was my idle” said Lex.

“Oh, just a guess. When the hell are you going to shave your head to match your namesake?” asked Hughes.

“When you grow all of yours back” said Lex mockingly shining Hughes’s impressively bald head laughing. Hughes laughed as well but then got his serious work face on.

“Remember when we did that online contest to boost rentals last month?” asked Hughes.

“Yeah, the one where you give away 100 free rentals to someone who doesn’t deserve them? That one?” asked Lex.

“Yes. That one. Anyway, I picked the winner and I need you to call her and let her know. Here is her new rental card and movie prize package.” Mr. Hughes handed Lex a small Easter basket that had been covered 99 cent stickers. Inside the basket was two packets of expired popcorn and a coupon for 3 free soft drinks. Lex looked at it and just laughed out loud.

“I like what you did here. Festive” said Lex not trying to hide his feelings on the baskets appearance.

“She won’t care Lex. Everyone loves free things and we made a shit ton of money off that contest so laugh it up boy” said Hughes turning away as if to say that the conversation was over. Lex turned to leave but heard Hughes say something without turning around. “Your shirts’ inside out by the way”

Lex hung his head and shame but did nothing to fix his shirt. Lex headed back to the front of the store where Chloe was checking in a towering stack of DVD’s.

“What did Hughes want?” she asked.

“Wanted me to call the winner of the 100 rental contest. I don’t really want to though. I hate talking on the phone, he knows that” said Lex flipping over the girls new account card in his hand.

“I’m not going to do it for you this time Lex and don’t even think of giving me that face…” Lex looked straight into Chloe’s eyes and made the face that he knew she could not resist. “You and your god damn eyes. I hate you ya know?” she said grabbing the card and basket out of his hands.

“Love you too, Lo Lo” said Lex while leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. Chloe’s face went red but Lex didn’t notice.

Chloe was about half an inch shorter than Lex. She had jet black hair that she tied back into a loose pony tail. She wore very little makeup just enough to make her eyes stand out more. Her eyes were the most amazing forest green that Lex had ever seen. They seemed to dance with the life force of the very earth itself. A shiny silver hoop hung from her bottom lip. Most people would think this would look weird but on her it looked like it was supposed to be there, like she was born with it. She wasn’t the thinnest girl on the planet but as she put it “She had all the right things in the right place, so what does it matter”. She had a classic beauty that you see in old photos of Hollywood starlets. Lex always wondered why he she didn’t have a boyfriend. She was funny and nice and always there for him no matter what sticky situation he put himself in. She was his best and only real friend. He didn’t know what he would do without her.

“Don’t call me Lo Lo. We are not little kids anymore!” said Chloe.

“Yeah, but you will always be Lo Lo to me. That will never change Lo Lo” said Lex as he walked away holding a stack of videos to place back on the shelves. Lex always loved doing this because he loved to see what people were renting. He liked the idea of being part of the process of renting and returning portions of time spent or wasted. He loved his job even though it was mindless labor that most people would see as a dead-end job. He made enough money to buy whatever he wanted, which wasn’t much, and he worked with the best people he had ever met. Not to mention that he got to sit and watch movies all day long.

The store Lex worked it was called Shockwave Video. It was opened in the early 80’s and the décor hasn’t really changed since. Lots of buzzing neon lightning bolts danced around the walls. New hires always complain about it but Lex finds it the most comforting sound he had ever heard. When Lex was growing up Shockwave was a video arcade with the same with the same name but when the arcade world crashed in the nineties it Mr. Hughes turned it into a video store and it has been the same ever since.

Lex used to come in every day after school to watch the older kids play games. He never had money to play himself but sometimes he would scrounge quarters that people dropped or left behind. Those were good days. As long as he could remember right before he fell asleep he would say out loud whether or not he felt like the day had been good or bad. It somehow comforted him as a child and it just kind of stuck with him. Rationalizing good and bad just seemed “right” to him.

Mr. Hughes liked Lex even when he was a young. He just could tell that Lex was a good kid. He was always polite, never once tried to steal, and usually let the younger kids go before him. Mr. Hughes married when he was young but his wife had died during child-birth and so did the child. He always kind of looked at Lex like the child he never really got to know. He made a habit of leaving quarters in places that he knew only Lex would look. Lex never caught on that Mr. Hughes was doing it but was always happy to find them none, the less.

Lex liked Mr. Hughes a lot simply because he didn’t press. He didn’t ask unnecessary questions but would always listen when Lex had problems. Lex felt the same way about Mr. Hughes as Mr. Hughes felt about him, but they never wanted each other to know. It just worked better that way.

Lex roamed the store even after he finished restocking the shelves. He didn’t want to be roped back into calling the winning girl. He read the back of dvd cases that he knew by heart trying to seem busy but he knew Chloe well enough to also know that she was on to him.

“Put that down and get back up here!” shouted Chloe from the front of the store. Lex jumped and dropped the dvd on the ground.

“You don’t have to freaking yell ya know?” said Lex in his best fake hurt voice. He placed the dvd back on the shelf and headed back to the front.

“I tried calling her but her voicemail is down. You are going to have to call her after all” said Chloe getting her stuff together.

“Where on earth are you going?” asked Lex.

“Oh you know, the same place I go every Tuesday at noon” she said.

“and that place would be?” asked Lex genuinely.

“School you ass. I have my graphic design class every Tuesday and Thursday at noon. It’s only been like this for about a year” she said hurt.

“Oh yeah…How’s that going by the way?” he asked going back to shuffling dvd cases.

“Fine. I will be back tonight around 6. Are you going to here?” asked Chloe.

“Yeah, I am closing tonight and I guess that also answers the question, who am I closing with tonight. We doing Chinese again?” He said giving her a cheesy smile. Chloe tried not to smile but she really can’t resist his brand of humor.

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll see you later. Get a hold of that girl or I am going to kick your ass” she swung her messenger back over her shoulder and left without waiting to get Lex’s response which she knew would an excuse rather than a solution.

Mr. Hughes left about an hour after Chloe and said he wouldn’t be back until Friday. This was pretty normal and Lex knew what it was like to be in charge and he liked it.

The store was pretty busy Tuesdays since the store ran a .99 Tuesday rental program; everything in the store for just 99 cents for one night. Lex loved Tuesdays because he could put whatever he wanted on the big flat screen that hung on the wall behind the counter and blow peoples mind with his movie choices. He always went out and grabbed his top five movie choices and it was the same every week no matter what.

Lex’s top five in no particular order: Goonies, Return to OZ, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, and Groundhog Day. He made it his policy to never rent them after they start. At least once a night someone will come in and see that it is playing and want to rent it but even though it really is against how movie rental places work he still always said no.

Chloe always calls his bluff and rents them out anyway. Lex hates this since it cuts into the flow of his night but he knows better than to fight with Chloe, when she wants to win; she does.

But since Chloe wasn’t going to be back until tonight he had about six good hours to deny anyone and everyone who came in.

First movie on the list today: Return to Oz. This movie is a quasi sequel to the Wizard of Oz, except that it is really more based off the book series than the movie. They do indeed keep the ruby slippers even though in the original book the slippers were silver. Lex loves telling this movie fact to anyone who chances to say anything about the movie while it was on.

As Lex went to place the dvd in the disk tray he noticed there was a note blocking his attempt. The note read: Stop being an ass and call Sara and tell her she won. Love you!

Lex felt that he ought to do as the note said seeing as how when Chloe does things like this she really means business and its best not to go against such a person if you want to keep your testicles attached.

Lex fumbled with the phone trying to think of something else to do instead of calling Sara but he knew it was just a matter of time before it would be too late to lie about being busy all day. Lex dialed the number hoping to God that she would not answer but once again he was wrong.

“Hello” said a sweet flowing voice.

“Hiya, is this Sara Paxton?” asked Lex.

“Uhh, yeah. Who is this?” asked Sara.

“Hi, this is Lex down at Shockwave video. Do you remember entering a drawing for 100 free rentals from us?” said Lex in his best moviephone guy voice.

“Yeah I do! Did I win?” she asked excited.

“No, I just wanted to call and tell you that you lost. We are calling all of the losers first just to make sure, you know how it is” said Lex returning to his normal voice. There was about one full minute of dead silence before Lex broke. “I’m just messing with you. Yes you won. We have a gift basket here for you” said Lex trying to smooth over whatever it was he just did.

“Ha, ok. You broke first. I expected a guy with a joke as lame as that to last longer on the awkward silence bridge to nowhere” said Sara. Lex was taken aback by her snark.

“Well, I am fairly good at making strangers cry so I thought I might try and not lose my job today” said Lex confidently.

“You make strangers cry huh? Are you really as ugly as you sound or am I wrong picturing the guy in the painting from Ghostbusters 2?” asked Sara.

“Uh, his name was Vigo and I would be blessed to look like him, thank you” responded Lex cockily.

“Well I look like Gozer so I think it’s ok if we meet. You know both of us being mega super villains for the soul enjoyment of making Bill Murray’s love life harder” said Sara. There was another small pause.

“Ok. Well Gozer-looking-Sara I will be here all day if you want to come pick up your prize” said Lex not really sure what to expect from the other end of the phone.

“Ok, Not-Vigo-looking-Lex, I will be by sometime tonight, see you then” said Sara and then she hung up without letting Lex say goodbye. Lex placed the phone back on the charger and stood staring at it for awhile. He had never had a conversation like that with a girl. He was almost sure he had been flirting with her and she back. He had talked to Chloe like that but she always ended up calling him an ass and punching him hard enough to leave a bruise. Women have always been sort of a mystery to him.

Lex has been part of two relationships in his adult life. One with a girl three years older than him that was into art way more than anyone should be, she cheated on him. The other was with a girl he had met online. She was nice until they met in real life and she turned out to be a crazy girl who liked to skin wild animals and make jewelry out of their bones and teeth. Lex equates her to being like a free craigslist couch. It might look good online but when you get it into your house it smells and you really don’t want to leave it alone with your cat.

Lex kind of gave up looking for that girl who doesn’t exist. His philosophy on women was pretty loose. “If she loves my favorite movie then she is good enough for me” is what he told anyone who asked him why he didn’t have a girlfriend.

His favorite movie was a cult classic that doesn’t really swing wide with women. He doesn’t like to tell anyone what it is because of being afraid that someone will like him too much and just lie about liking the movie. He doesn’t want to be lied to about something so important to him.

Lex walked over to the dvd player and inserted the disk and felt good for having accomplished the task of being a good worker for at least part of his day.

The movie started as it always does and Lex leaned back on the counter and watched it with such focus that anyone who saw him would think that this was the first time he had ever seen it.

The day was a lot slower than Lex really liked and he wondered what people were doing on this rainy Tuesday in the middle of October that was so important. More important than delivering him his daily dose of personal interaction. He cursed the day until the clock chimed five and people started to get off work and trickle in. He had watched Return to Oz three times and had moved onto Groundhog Day.

Every time someone would walk up to check out he would quote a line from the movie playing less than three feet away from where the most recent innocent was standing, hoping to get another quote in response but it was fruitless. What he did get was a bunch of uneasy laughs mixed with fake smiles and hurried speech.

Chloe showed up fifteen minutes before her shift, as she always did, carrying a large paper bag smelling of soy sauce and spicy pork.

Lex’s stomach growled in approval due to the fact that he had forgotten to eat anything all day.

“Effin sweet! I am so freaking hungry!” said Lex.

“Stop!” scolded Chloe.

“Collaborate and listen?” asked Lex breaking apart a pair of chopsticks with his teeth.

“Ha Ha, very funny” said Chloe “Did you do the one thing I asked you to do today or do you need to make a phone call before we eat?”

“You’ll be happy to know that I made the aforementioned phone call already and she will be here sometime tonight, thank you very much” said Lex while pouring soy sauce all over his rice.

“Wow, I am so proud of you Lexy! You actually managed to do work worth getting paid for. How does it feel? Do you need to go home and lie down for awhile?” mocked Chloe.

“I will have you know that I have been busy at work all day and I haven’t made anyone cry, yet” said Lex puffing his chest out with pride.

“Are you going to put in for a raise or just let your work speak for you” responded Chloe pointing to the overflowing box of returned dvds.

“Wow you expect me to build a mountain out of nothing and then climb it too! What do I look like to you, the freakin Pope!” asked Lex turning to change the dvd.

“Why on earth would checking in dvds and putting them back into their rightful place make you the Pope?” asked Chloe trying not to laugh.

“That’s beside the point, let’s get back to where you were proud of me for doing what you ask and just kind of hang out in that universe for awhile” said Lex humming the tune to “The Power of Love” from the opening of Back to the Future.

“Ok, we will bask in your alternate world where you are always employee of the month” said Chloe pulling up a stool, both of them getting lost in the movie while eating.

“She seemed cool” said Lex offhandedly.

“Leah Thompson?” asked Chloe.

“No, the girl who won the rental contest, she was pretty cool over the phone” said Lex “and Leah Thompson too” he added.

“Oh yeah? It’s not every day I hear you praise someone for being “cool”” said Chloe emphasizing the last word with air quotes.

“You are the only person I have ever met who actually does air quotes” said Lex.

“And that’s because I’m pretty much the most amazing person you have ever met, right?” she said warningly.

“Yes, yes that is exactly what I meant. I definitely didn’t mean that you are a mega weirdo who is going to end up living with a million “cats” who “love” you” said Lex air quoting.

“You know full well that I loathe cats” responded Chloe.

“I know that’s why I put them in quotes, duh” said Lex pushing up imaginary nerd glasses on his nose.

“Eff off” said Chloe mockingly mad. “What made her so cool?” she asked.

“She was able to go toe to toe with me” said Lex smiling.

“Toe to toe? Like fight? Put the Chloe filter on your brain for a second” she said cracking her fortune cookie in half.

“Ok, how do I explain this so you can comprehend it?” he paused and scrunched up his face in apparent thought “She-was-a-girl-version-of-me” he said pausing between each word.

“Oh damn! I was warned about this happening. I must call the president. Code chartreuse or something!” she said getting up and running to the phone.

“Are you done?” asked Lex folding his arms unamused.

“No, but I will be if you want” she said wiping a tear from her eye. “Well I can’t wait to meet female you.”

“Yeah well, with that attitude I might not even introduce you to her” said Lex sticking his tongue out at her.

“Very mature Lexy” said Chloe picking up a stack of dvds and heading walking out into the store.

“Just matching your level of intelligence Lo Lo” said Lex.

The night crawled on and Sara was nowhere to be found and nothing else of importance really happened. From Back to the Future they moved to Goonies until some hipster kid wanted to rent it while they were in the middle of it for the second time. Lex tried to protest that they at the very least needed to get to the giant octopus part but Chloe yelled at him for being a jerk and rented it to the hipster kid ignoring the glare from Lex. Lex put in Ghostbusters hoping that Sara would come in and it would remind her of the conversation they had, he had not shared this fact with Chloe for worry of being made fun of. It was getting close to closing time and he was given up on her coming in.

“I’m going to make like a fetus and head out” said Chloe looking around the store making sure that no one was around to hear what she just said.

“1: gross, 2: we still going to Hardly’s tonight?” asked Lex.

“Yeah, do you want me to order you a plate of curly fries like normal?” asked Chloe.

“Yes please!” said Lex with a big smile on his face.

“Make sure you remember to go to the bank” scolded Chloe.

“A guy loses a deposit in the backseat of his car for like a month and everyone acts like the world came to an end…” said Lex under enthused.

“Yeah well it was three months if you remember correctly and Hughes was super pissed, so just remember this time Lexy” said Chloe while zipping up her black hoodie and throwing her bag over her shoulder. “See you later.”

“Laters” said Lex to a closing door. Lex looked at the clock and half past eleven stared back. He looked outside at the empty parking lot and felt like he could probably close early and just watch the end of the movie while closing out the tills and no one would even care. He thought that the difference between midnight and eleven-thirty wasn’t big enough for anyone to make a fuss over.

He locked the door and killed all the nonessential lights except for the neon. He always left it on until he was just about to walk out.

Lex counted down all the tills and laughed at all the jokes he heard over his shoulder as the TV entertained the empty store. He wrote up the deposit and slipped in a green bank bag and placed it on the counter while he locked the other tills in the safe.

After he was done with all the work he needed to do that movie still had about a half hour left. The clock said eleven-forty-five. Lex sighed and sat down on the ground behind the counter and relaxed. He couldn’t bring himself to just shut off a movie he loved before it was over so he knew he was going to be here for a little while longer but he didn’t care since he wasn’t really supposed to close early.

He just sat on the ground saying the lines in the movie before the characters did. He loved watching movies over and over again because it gave him the feeling that he was able to predict the future and that future was always the same, always safe, always what he wanted and was used to. Just as the movie’s climax was about to go down Lex heard a soft knock on the glass outside.

Lex popped his head up and scared a girl who was standing on the other side of the door. She jumped and dropped her purse spilling its contents all over the sidewalk. Lex jumped over the counter and unlocked the door.

“I’m sorry I scared you while you were creeping outside of my work establishment” he said grabbing a stick of mascara and handing it to the girl.

“It’s ok, I have been standing here for awhile peering through the window like a peeping Sam. So I pretty much got what I deserved” said the girl.

“Peeping Sam?” asked Lex puzzled.

“Did you just call me a creep?” asked the girl.

“I think my question is more relevant at the moment” responded Lex.

“It’s an inside joke. Do I really look like a creep” asked the girl again. Lex paused and looked at the girl. She was tall with bleach blond hair cut in the Betty Paige style. She wore a tight black hoodie with a pink skull and crossbones over where her heart was. She had magnificent blue eyes that glistened like opal. Her lips were a natural red that Lex found simply stunning. The right nostril on her nose had a small silver hoop in it, it was not too garish like he usually thought when it came to nose rings. He actually thought it looked good on her. She wore red and black low top converse sneakers with black and red swirled laces. Lex took a little too long to answer the question.

“Okay? So creep it is then” said the girl finishing putting her spilled things away.

“No, not at all, I was just admiring your hoodie” said Lex trying to cover his tracks. “Where did you get it?”

“I made it” she said abruptly “are you closed or something? I thought you were open until midnight?”

“We usually are but all I have had for the last hour was a couple of roaming zombies and Jesus, but he just wanted to use the toilet. I told him there was no room” said Lex.

“Wow, throwing out the messiah like that. You must be Lex” said the girl.

“I must be. Sara?” Lex asked.

“Nope, my name is Claudia, I breed Welsh Corgis and play cricket. I could never possibly be this girl, oh what did you call her, Sara?” she said with a hideously bad English accent.

“Sara. Ok, got it” Lex said not missing a beat.

“Hiya” she said sticking out her hand. Lex shook it trying to pretend like he shook lots of girls’ hands. “Are you going to invite me inside your working establishment so I can stop creeping?” Sara asked.

“Are you a vampire? They are like cops right? You have to tell me if I ask you, right?” asked Lex taking a step back over the threshold.

“No, I’m not a vampire but I am a cop so let’s get this over with. The reason I am really here is to arrest you for all of that illegal Japanese porn you have on your computer” she said putting her hands on her hips taking a step forward in the most condescending manor that she could muster.

“It’s called Anime and I procured it legally, I’ve got a guy” he said pompously.

“Anime nerd huh? I’m pretty good eh?” she said after winking. Lex stood still and folded his arms trying to be offended.

“Ok, I’ll let you if you can guess my favorite musical” he said knowing that she could never guess it.

“How many guesses do I get? Do I get hints?” asked Sara.

“Yeah, you get three guesses and three hints. Go” said Lex. Sara put her hand on her chin pretending to think hard.

“Ok, first hint” she said.

“1979” said Lex.

“Sweeney Todd?” asked Sara.

“Good guess! But no. One down” answered Lex. He was secretly impressed with her knowledge.

“Second hint” said Sara.

“Clint Howard” said Lex.

“Ron Howard’s creepy brother?” asked Sara.

“Yep” answered Lex. Sara’s eyebrows danced on her face as if they were calculating a math problem.

“Ok, last hint because that just confused the hell out of me” said Sara.

“Riff” said Lex. Sara’s face lit up at Lex saying this.

“Rock and Roll High School” said Sara calmly. Lex smiled and nodded at her and stepped out of the way.

“You may enter” said Lex bowing slightly to her as she walked by him. As she walked past him his nose caught something in the air. She smelled sweet and he felt his face go slightly red.

“Not, everyone knows about that movie. You have impressed me and let me tell you that is pretty hard to do” said Lex while hopping back over the counter.

“I have seen it a couple of times when I was younger. I loved Riff Randle, she was an awesome role model when I went through my punk rock phase. She was not too crazy but knew how to rock, and you have to love the Ramones. The uglier the better I say” said Sara leaning her elbows on the counter. Lex had never met anyone like her. He didn’t like how actually comfortable he was around her since he had never met her. There was just something about her, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“So here is your gift basket” said Lex pulling the old basket out and slapping it down on the counter. Sara laughed out loud not holding back at all.

“That’s awesome!” she said smiling. Her smile was so bright and wide. Lex thought it looked like it could go on forever if her face wasn’t in the way.

“Really? I thought it was craptastic” said Lex honestly.

“Oh me too but how craptastically awesome, right?” asked Sara reading the soda vouchers.

“I guess so” said Lex smiling back at her behavior. “Here is your free account card. You get 100 free rentals on us but you have to rent them from this account so my boss can track everything you rent and use it against you years from now when you are on trial for something crazy like grave robbing.”

“They will never catch me, don’t worry” she said winking again.

“That’s good to know” said Lex “Moving right along then…My boss wants me to have you sign this.” Lex handed her a small contact sheet to add to the new account.

“If you are trying to get my phone number there are easier ways but I have to give you credit for printing up a contact sheet like this” she turned it over and tested the durability of the paper “Cardstock even, impressive sir” she said while filling it out.

“Well only the best for my new stalking victims, you know how it is already being a creep yourself” said Lex typing in her information as she was writing it.

“You truly know how to treat a lady” said Sara in a southern accent that was much better than her English one.

“Oh, did you just have a stroke?” asked Lex.

“Only a mild one, I’ll be better soon” said Sara handing her contact into to Lex. Lex entered in the rest of the information and they both stood in silence. He could feel Sara’s eyes boring into him, it felt like he was being scanned at the airport. He half expected her to say “Oh, how’d you break that rib, massive bellyflop?” but she just stood and stared.

“Ok, we now own your soul. Thank you for choosing Shockwave Video, for all your soul selling needs” said Lex looking up from the computer and meeting her eye to eye. She smiled sweetly but there was a hint of hunger behind her eyes that Lex was not familiar with.

“Thanks, Lex. So do I get to rent something tonight or are you too closed to help me?” asked Sara standing up straight and breaking eye contact.

“I will only let you rent one thing and I get to choose it. How does that sound?” asked Lex.

“How chivalrous of you, it’s a deal” said Sara leaning back on counter. Lex thought only for one second and rushed out into the store and came back seconds later with a dvd in hand.

“Here you go, and you have to rent it, no matter if you have seen it or whatever else excuse you have. Per our agreement of course” said Lex while ringing up the dvd before even letting her see it. He then put it in a small paper back and stapled it shut and handed it to her.

“Uh, ok you are kind of weird but I can’t say I don’t like it” said Sara taking the package out of his hand and moving toward the door. Lex followed her with his eyes as she floated across the ground. Just as she was about to push the door open she turned back to Lex.

“So now that you have my phone number it is only right for me to have yours correct, so this stalking thing can go both ways” said Sara.

“You go both ways?” asked Lex smiling but grabbing a pen and business card.

“Only once, but it was college and she was Armenian” said Sara plainly. Lex blinked trying to find a hint of deception but moved on trying hard not to think about it. He wrote his phone number on the back of the business card and handed it to her.

“This is only for frivolous conversations and worthless text messages, nothing that involves feelings or emotions and most definitely not for emergencies, got it?” asked Lex gripping the card so she couldn’t just pull it out of his hand.

“Oh I get it dude, but if you start getting strange phone calls at three in the morning about free animal checkups don’t worry about it ok?” said Sara.

“How on earth did you know about that?” asked Lex with mock astonishment.

“You would be surprised how much I know about you L-E-X” said Sara batting her eyelashes, which Lex just noticed that they seemed to go on for days.

“It’s been awful talking to you, now please leave” said Lex jumping the counter to lock the door behind her.

“Likewise” said Sara waiting for Lex to be standing next to her before she pushed on the door. “Just one more thing, do you have a girlfriend?” asked Sara.

“No, I am currently not attached to any one human being…” said Lex but as soon as the last word left his lips it was replaced by the softest and sweetest taste Lex could imagine. All of his past first kisses rushed through his head but nothing matched the feeling that was now pulsing through his entire body. She was strong but not too strong, her mouth was open just enough to enjoy the feeling without being too over the top. It lasted for only a minute but Lex felt like it was an eternity in bliss.

“You’ll do” she said as she turned and walked away. Lex watched the door swing shut behind her. He watched her walk across the parking lot and get into an older black Volkswagen Jetta, his favorite car, and drive away.

Only one thing ran through Lex’s head as he thought about just happened: “I’ll do?”

Next Chapter: Chapter 4