Who: Teagan and Open When: November 1st, Monday afternoon (around 2:30pm). Where: Local grocery store. What: Trying to make a return. Warning: Frugality is not a crime! (None.)
"Ma'am, this is a seasonal item," the harried woman behind the counter explained. Again. Her patience was wearing thin on the matter, but the wide-eyed brunette was neither budging or blinking, really. Drugs. It had to be drugs. Drugs would also explain the smell coming off the girl in waves. It wasn't the ammonia smell of meth use, but it was definitely weird. Having a son in rehab made the woman sympathetic to addicts to a point, but this was ridiculous. She couldn't spend her whole shift arguing this point. Manicured nails drummed on the counter impatiently for a moment before nudging the opened cellophane bags back towards their rightful owner. "We can't accept returns on used candy."
"It isn't used," the wide-eyed girl insisted. The smell grew stronger, inexplicably. Unbeknownst to the cashier, the smell was triggering a fight or flight response in the local insects within a small radius. Cupboard moths, fruit flies, ants, beetles... all were driven to either flee or attempt to kill one another. "That's the point. There were way too many corns in the bag."
"You opened it, though." The cashier sighed, fidgeting and looking around the store at the other patrons. Co-workers. Anything except the unblinking girl in the animal print crop top and obvious 'fuck me' boots. It was possible that the girl was special needs, but that made the outfit that much worse, to think that someone else had dressed her like that. "Look, you can't just return open bags of candy for a refund, honey. Not unless there's something wrong with them."
"There is something wrong!" The girl insisted. "There were too many candied corns in the bag. You can give me a refund for the corns that weren't eaten, and still sell them to people who will eat them." She pointed a long finger at a bin of discounted candy, where there were other bags of Brach's Candy Corn, piled innocuously among the Smarties and Tootsie Rolls that were still left over. "You're still selling those bags!"
Resisting the urge to rub her temples, the woman tried to explain it again. "Those bags weren't opened. Yours are contaminated."
"I AM NOT CONTAGIOUS!" The girl yelled, outraged. Along with her obvious offense, the smell increased, shifting a bit to something new.
For some reason, being in proximity to that smell made the cashier feel a powerful hunger. Her mouth watered, and she caught herself reaching for the open bag of candy on the counter between them. What the hell am I doing? She asked herself. I hate candy corn. Clearly, she was overdue for a lunch break. She was suddenly starving, tired, and a customer was screaming at her because she wouldn't refund used Halloween candy. Maybe she needed a new job. "Calm down! Oh, my God. Fine. It's against policy, but I'll refund your money... what was it, like a dollar ninety-nine?"
"Yes," Teagan agreed, immediately regaining composure. The smell abated somewhat as she considered, and the hunger went with it, leaving the cashier feeling vaguely nauseated and confused. "Though I did use a third of that bag, so I'll accept one dollar and thirty-three cents as my refund. Thank you."
It was a small price to pay to get the girl to go away, so the cashier gave in, surrendering the money without protest.
Teagan thanked her again, and abandoned the candy corn on the counter. Instead of leaving right away, however, she detoured to the makeup aisle in order to look at discounted costume makeup and novelty eyelashes. After all, she now had an extra dollar to spend.