As if it were instinct, Ally checked her pockets and found a cigarette. She put it in her mouth, then lit it. Being nine, she had never smoked in her life, but she breathed in the smoke as if she had been doing it for years. Of course, she wasn't a 9-year old girl anymore. She was an 18-year old guy, a high school dropout. Wait, how did she know that?
"Damn it! Eric, you little shit. Are you smoking in there again?" a voice rang out from nearby.
Ally tossed the cigarette on the concrete floor and put it out with her shoe. Shortly after, a large grizzly man entered the room.
"I thought I told you to never smoke in here," he said. "There's a lot of expensive fucking stuff in here. The boss would have my ass if he ever found them damaged." He gave Ally a shove. "You listenin' to me, boy?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now ..." The man was about to say something, but the mirror caught his eye. "What the fuck is that doing out of its box?"
"Uh ... it was already out," Ally said. It still felt strange for her to talk with such a deep voice. Unfortunately, she may have to get used to it.
"Don't give me that crap," the man said. "You were trying to steal something, weren't you?"
"You know what? Fuck you," Ally said, moving past him. But then she stopped. Why did she say that? She had never cussed in her life. What was wrong with her?
The man grabbed her arm and yanked her back, the boy's long hair flailing in the air.
"You're not talkin' to me like that, boy!" the man yelled.
"Let go of me!" Ally cried. But the man wouldn't.
