I yanked my arm out of her grip and slid to the ground. It was so hot in here. I couldn’t breathe.
“Look underneath the door,” she whispered. “Tell me if someone walks by.” She started to sing the lyrics to “Invisible” as she grasped the tag with the pliers. It snapped a couple seconds later and she handed me the remnants, which included a sharp pin. “Hold this. Anyone coming?”
I glanced under the door and shook my head, my breaths coming out fast. Naomi put the black slip back on, tucked it inside her jeans, and then pulled her T-shirt over it.
“Now yours.” She took the white lacy slip from my hands and repeated the process, still singing. “Put this on under your clothes.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Fine, whatever.” She stuffed it down her jeans, then grabbed the broken security tags from me and tossed them under the divider into the adjacent fitting room. “Let’s get out of here.”
When we opened the door, the salesclerk came around the corner smiling. “How’d it go?”
I felt like there was a knife twisting in my stomach.
Naomi handed her the doll gown and the unidentifiable pink thing. “Neither of these were me. Maybe next time.”
“Would you like to try a different size or color?”
Naomi took my hand, pulling me forward. “No, no. The cut just didn’t work.”
We’d almost left the store when the salesgirl asked us to stop. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the security tags in her hands.
“Run.” Naomi took off in a sprint.
I tried to follow, but running through crowds was near impossible. Every time I avoided one major collision, someone else appeared out of nowhere. Two security guards were jogging in my direction. I sucked in my breath and froze, watching them close in on me.
A hand grabbed my arm and pulled me into a hallway with a green exit sign. “Come on!”
I chased Naomi toward the sign, but I could hear the buzz of radios and voices behind us. The two guards entered the hallway just before we reached the doors.
“Found two females matching the description,” a breathless guy said. “They’re running out the south exit. Over.”
Naomi pushed the door open, and I dug my heels into the pavement, using every last bit of muscle to get to her dad’s car.
“Duck,” she said, bending over and weaving between the cars. The sound of opening doors and footsteps rang out behind us.
“Search the southeast parking lot,” a guy said. One set of footsteps ran in another direction.
Naomi pushed the unlock button and opened the silver door of her dad’s SUV. “Scrunch down in the seat so nobody will see you,” she whispered.
I squeezed the handle, and the passenger door creaked open. It sounded more like a scream. They must’ve heard it. I’d gotten us caught.
Naomi threw a blanket over my head as I climbed in, closing the door with as little force as possible. I squeezed my eyes shut despite the darkness. All I could hear was Naomi’s labored breathing and the roar of the car engine.
“We’ll be okay,” she said over and over again. A metal song blared out of her speakers, and she tapped her hands against the wheel.
The endless turns made me dizzy. Stop. Go. Stop. Crawl. Stop. Every second seemed like an eternity. And the screaming vocals certainly weren’t helping the mood.
Finally, Naomi let out a wicked laugh and tore the blanket from my head. “That was such a rush.”
I gaped at her grinning face. “Are you crazy?”
“Probably.” For whatever reason, she seemed proud of this.
We made a right onto the main street and got onto the freeway on-ramp. “We should go back and return the stuff. They saw us—and they probably have cameras.”
Naomi shrugged. “I didn’t see any. Besides, it’s not like we robbed a bank. We stole some overpriced lingerie.”
“
She rolled down the window, sticking a cigarette between her lips. “You can’t tell me your friends back in San Francisco or Vegas or
“We went to parties and clubs and stuff.”
Her blue eyes lit up. “Ooh, you got a fake ID?”
“No.”
She sped up to eighty-five. “How’d you get in? Did you flirt with the bouncer?”
“The speed limit is sixty.”
“I had no idea. Tell me again.” Her smile faded, and she pressed harder on the gas.
