Brooke Carries Bags

"Brooke, could you give us a hand, and help us haul some bags back to our car?" Tina said, pointing towards the front door. "Let us grab a couple more bags, and we can take you down the street where we parked. You don't mind helping, right?" She asked, her eyes clearly signaling towards the phone in her hands. My stomach formed a knot when I realized that they wanted me to assist them in doing this. Not only would I be aiding and assisting in the very crime I intended to prevent, but I would have to go outside of the store! My face flushed at the thought of this, and I tried my best to convince them to think of something else.

"I err... Could you guys please just not do this? I mean, I've already seen your faces. I know you go to the college down the highway. If I told the campus police about this, it wouldn't be hard to track you down." I said, stammering.

Tina laughed at my threat, before motioning to my body. "I would NOT be making empty threats from your position. This is mutually assured destruction. You report my ass to the police, then I share video footage of you bare assed at your job, helping us do the robbery in the first place. We might get charged with some extent of theft, but you'd have public indecency, and assault thrown into the mix as well. Not to mention that if the video REALLY takes off then everyone you know will see it. I stand to lose a LOT less from this situation.

I could tell that my threat had only made her more pissed, and decided to resort to pleading for some degree of compromise. "Look, I'll help you guys carry the bags to your car, but at least let me get dressed first! I can't just walk outside like this..." I stammered.

With a wide smirk, Tina shrugged. “Why not? You seemed perfectly content walkin’ around in the buff before we got here. No use tryin’ to hide it now. Grab some bags.” She answered calmly.

I realized that if I wanted to avoid being an accomplice to this crime, I’d essentially be dooming myself to having a naked video of me sent onto the internet. The other option, was to help them take bags of clothes out of the store. Assist them with the crime. Being pressed with such an immense decision, I couldn’t help but panic a bit.