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“He ain’t seen shit,” Becky said, as if they were flies to be swatted. “Will’s a simple man, he ain’t got nothing to do with nothing. I’ll thank you to leave him be if you know what’s good for you.”
“Becky, baby–” Richie started.
“I ain’t your baby,” she interrupted, voice dripping with venom. “But I am thinkin’ I should give your momma a call and let her know you’re wastin’ everybody’s tax dollars trying to bully a man stocking groceries.”
“Becky, c’mon,” Gary said, sounding annoyed, “you don’t need to cover for that f–”
“One more word,” Becky cut him off, “and you’ll be pickin’ your teeth up off the belt. I know ya’ll’re looking for a scapegoat ‘cause you ain’t got no leads. You wouldn’t leave him be in high school, and you need to grow up. Unless ya’ll got some kinda court docs, you aren’t welcome in here no more.”
“Adrián said–”
“Well he ain’t here right now,” she said, sharp as a blade. “And after I give him a call and tell him about how ya’ll’re scaring his customers away and hurtin’ his business, I don’t know he’s gonna side with ya’ll. Hear me?”
One of the men said something Will couldn’t hear.
“Fine,” one of the men said.
A few seconds later, the front door opened and shut.
Will hesitated where he was still hidden behind the door.
“You can come out now,” Becky called. “Coast is clear.”
Will pushed through the door.
“Don’t think I meant anything by calling you simple,” Becky said as Will returned to the front. “Sometimes it’s just best to let people think you’re dumber than you are. Being underestimated can really come in handy sometimes.”
“Why’re you covering for me?” Will asked. He didn’t want to address it, but he couldn’t not. Not now.
Becky looked at him. “You know, I saw what the boys did to you in school. I never got into it, didn’t really feel like my place, but,” she snapped her gum, suddenly looking troubled. “It wasn’t right. Not what they did, and not how we all just let it happen. I owe you for that. You’re a good man, someone should’ve stood up for ya.”
The words were an unexpected pain in his side. “It, uh, it wouldn’t have changed nothin’,” Will said, clearing his throat.
“Maybe not with them,” She nodded to the front window. “But it would’ve mattered to you. I could’ve at least tried. I was too much of a coward then, and that’s not who I want to be now.” She reached up to fiddle with her necklace. “Consider it an apology.”
Will shook his head. “You don’t owe me nothin’,” he said, and he meant it. This place was just how it was. Becky might have not struggled the way he had, but women here had their own issues.
Becky rolled her eyes but reached down the belt where a variety of single serving snacks were stacked. She grabbed a bag of chips and a candy bar. “Do you like these?” She asked, holding them up for inspection.
The non sequitur caught Will off guard. He nodded.
“My treat since I took your donuts.” Then Becky was scanning the items and running through the check out. She pulled out her wallet again and made her own change with the till. “You’re too thin, you should eat more.”
After Becky tucked her wallet back in her pocket, she cracked the chip bag open and offered it to Will.
He watched his hand reach for one of the chips. “Thanks,” he managed to get out.
“I should be thanking you,” Becky said as she reached her own hand into the bag. “Whatever you’re doing down on Mercale, don’t worry, your secret is safe. You’re doing us all a service.”
Will stuck the chip in his mouth, tasted the salt. He blinked at Becky, somewhere between shocked and touched.
“We protect our own here, don’t we?” Becky said with a wink.
Will didn’t know what to say to that. He’d always imagined Becky as the ultimate popular girl. Vain and self-centered and cruel. He’d painted her in cold, pink swaths of stereotype in his mind. He’d been so sure he knew exactly what kind of person she was.
Will watched as she turned back to her magazine. He looked at her blond ponytail and puka shell necklace. At the shiny lip gloss she wore and the pink of her perfectly manicured fingernails.
And Will considered that maybe the assumptions he’d made all his life were wrong. That maybe some people weren’t the reductive caricature he’d always thought they were.
