Alyssa slouched behind the cash register and stared at the clock. Only fifteen minutes to go until she was due back at the pet shop and forced to catch geckos and potentially be taken to jail for destroying an entire store.

She scrubbed at her eyes and hoped desperately that the pet store owner wouldn't shout at her and make her cry again.

She wasn't usually this much of a ditz. Okay, so it wasn't entirely out of the realm of normal for her–she knew the things they called her behind her back (stupid, clumsy, a total klutz)—and there was definitely some truth to them. But she could normally at least count out change semi-competently, and she also normally knew to watch where she placed her feet when she was surrounded by nine-foot-tall stacks of precariously-balanced gecko cages.

It all came back, she thought with considerable bitterness, to Dakota fucking Malaitai.

Devious, friend-stealing Dakota, who was the only person Sandra seemed to want to hang out with anymore.

Selfish, life-ruining Dakota, who had agreed to date Sandra when she'd asked him out for Valentine's Day in front of the entire school.

If she hadn't been so much of a coward and told Sandra how she felt, would Sandra have asked her out for Valentine's Day instead of Dakota? Alyssa supposed she'd never know. But she had absolutely no doubt that all hope had been lost the moment Dakota had waltzed onto the scene. He'd been getting closer to Sandra throughout the year. She often glimpsed them studying together, holed up in various corners of the library, Sandra waving her hands in the animated way she did when she was excited about something, Dakota smiling patiently. At one time, Alyssa would've been the one at that table instead of Dakota, joking with Sandra and laughing about their favorite TV shows together, but what with college applications and Alyssa's new job at the mall, it felt like they almost never really hung out with each other anymore. Even their texting had gotten less frequent.

She probably saves all her texting for Dakota, Alyssa thought sadly, as she slouched her way toward the pet store. That's probably why she never texts me anymore—she's too busy talking to him.

But Sandra was happy, Alyssa reminded herself. That was what was most important. Alyssa might hate Dakota for taking her friend away from her, but she would never hate Sandra, who'd been her best friend since middle school, who'd always been the one to cheer the loudest for Alyssa during track meets, whose laughter filled up every room she walked into.

It had been a long time, Alyssa thought, frowning, since she'd heard Sandra laugh. Just like her text messages, she was probably saving her laughter for her true love, Dakota.

Quite a crowd had assembled by the time Alyssa arrived at the pet store. It seemed like several security guards had volunteered to help, and the pet store owner was handing out nets and carriers. He scowled at Alyssa, shoved a net at her hands, and jabbed a finger at a black-and-gray gecko that was zipping toward the fountain.

Glumly, Alyssa started after it.

Geckos, Alyssa realized within about thirty seconds of chasing them, were fast. They were basically tiny race cars in lizard form–race cars that also possessed the unfortunate ability to launch themselves off fountains and skitter up escalators at light speed. It wouldn't have been so much of a problem, except the mall was packed due to the Valentine's festivities, and Alyssa was having to hip-check, elbow, and shoulder her way through the coupley crowds to keep pace with the black-and-gray monster that was streaking its way god-knew-where.

"Excuse me, coming through, excuse me, I need to—"

"HEY, WATCH IT!" bellowed a girl in a fast-food uniform.

Alyssa suspected she was already too far past the girl for her muttered "Sorry" to register. She skirted past a lurid pink tent that was parked inconveniently in the middle of the mall, ducked around a crying girl who was sprinting toward the bathroom, and narrowly missed colliding with an older man and woman gazing lovingly into each other's eyes.

At one point during high school, she'd been one of the fastest members of the track team. With school and work and college apps, track had taken a back burner. Now, she cursed how out-of-practice she was. The gecko was outrunning her. It was maddening.

As if hearing her thoughts, the gecko looked back at her. In its beady eyes, Alyssa imagined she saw Dakota's smug expression a few days earlier, when Sandra had handed him those roses in view of the entire cafeteria. If she squinted just hard enough, she could almost make the dark stripes on the sides of the gecko's head resemble Dakota's black hair, tied back in that obnoxious hipster ponytail he seemed to favor.

"Oh no you don't," Alyssa snapped. She slammed her net down on the tile, narrowly missing a toddler with an ice cream cone (he burst into terrified tears), and even-more-narrowly missing the gecko, which darted off in a different direction, toward a clothing store.

Imagining Dakota's stupid face superimposed on the gecko's ugly head gave Alyssa a burst of energy she hadn't known she possessed. She sprinted after the gecko with newfound speed, chasing it through aisles of bralettes and lingerie, then down a sock aisle, and finally, past several thousand pairs of panties. They zigged and zagged through the aisles, narrowly avoiding another house-of-dominoes catastrophe, and then emerged once again into the main lobby of the mall.

The lizard leapt onto the edge of the fountain. Here it paused, head angled saucily, as though the last twenty minutes of their chase had barely affected it. It was taunting her. Alyssa, who was still barreling toward the fountain at top speed, raised her net threateningly.

"I've got you now, buddy."

But she was horribly, hopelessly wrong.

At the last second, the gecko darted out of her way. It skittered to safety across the fountain, far out of reach of her net. Alyssa, who was charging toward the fountain too quickly to stop, tried to follow its course–and overbalanced.

With a shriek of horror, she sailed over the edge of the fountain and landed face-first in the water.

~~~~~~

CMF_Wright
CMF writes a combination of humorous and dark fantasy peppered with high-stakes situations, smart female leads, and quirky characters. (Also angst. Lots of angst.) Alyssa and Sandra both play minor roles in her Rest is Riddles trilogy, an intricately-crafted epic adventure filled with magic, mystery, and egotistical sorcerers. If you're looking for bantery romance, lighthearted chaos, and animal catastrophes, you might also enjoy CMF's ONC project, Eight Legs Too Many!