Lil was about to close the door of the van when she remembered something and said, "Hey Gary, isn't the Anaconda Records store opening today?"
"Shoot, yeah," Gary said. "I got this first-day discount pass thing cause I bought a buttload of CDs from them on-line. Guess I have to come along!"
"My poor baby," said Bernie. "He has to come and spend time getting his favorite music at a discount. We'll keep the girl talk PG-rated, then." Her curly dark hair waved in the hot breeze outside the shopping mall.
Lil giggled. "No, let him have it," she said. "If my brother wants to date the girl whose mom wrote 'Free To Masturbate', he's gotta be ready for anything!"
"I think my mom the mom is going to be the real challenge, not my mom the notorious sex pamphleteer," Bernie said.
"Your mom's a sweetheart," Gary said. "Climb back in and let's go find a place inside the parking structure. We don't want to come back to an oven."
Bernie and Lil slid back into the front bench seat next to Gary.
"He likes my mom 'cause he can't see past her boobs," Bernie mock-whispered to Lil. "Pad your bra before you ask him for a favor."
Lil looked down at her modest natural endowment and shrugged. "He's my brother, he does me favors 'cause he knows I've got blackmail on him."
"Oooh, tell!" said Bernie.
"You slay me, both of you," Gary said. "Is that why you think I'm going with you, Bernie?"
"Well, the boobs get me in the door," Bernie said, "But I think I win on the T&A combination, actually. "Sharon's bigger up top than me AND blonde too, but she couldn't hold your attention for long."
Gary pretended to cringe and put on a falsetto voice. "I'm melting! I'm melting! What a world!" He laughed. "Geeze, you're brutal! Are you like this with other girls?"
"You always hurt the one you love," Bernie said.
"Yeah!" said Lil. "Uh, yeah," she added. Her face fell. "Let's talk about something else."
"Lil, I'm sorry," Bernie said. "I stepped right in it."
While they looked for a parking space, Bernie tried to draw out Lil about things to shop for, but Lil didn't seem to be in the mood to have any ideas for what would be the best shopping therapy.
"Let's just start at Anaconda," Lil said. "There's a new Billy Royce disk out, and I can use Gary's discount card."
"Oh yeah," Bernie said. "Wasn't he one of the guys they were doing the 'Small Club Surprise' contest with? Where you have a ticket but don't know who it is till they show up?"
"Yeah," Lil said. "This year they said they were gonna do it on cruise ships, not just like Chicago or New York nightclubs. I shoulda told mom and dad to look out for him." She laughed.
There was a big queue of people in front, despite the cavernous size of the new Anaconda Records store in an ex-department store space. Locals in its old hometown used to call it "The Record Store That Ate Cincinnati." Gary showed his first-day pass and he and the girls were waved to the front of the line.
Inside was a madhouse of mostly young people milling about the displays, bins, video monitors and music try-out stations. On the back of Gary's pass was a map to the store's sections, and the three of them conferred about what to do.
"There was this cool trance video I saw," Bernie said. "I want to see if they've got it here. It was just playing at a stupid party, but I got into watching it, well, more listening, and I thought it might be good to help create a nice atmosphere for um, making out."
Lil laughed. "Listening? You weren't trying it out?" she teased Bernie.
"So you're going with me for my music library?" Gary teased. "Anyway, I've got my top five things to get today. Make that ten, with the discount." He pointed to the sections of the store where his wish-list items would be displayed.
Lil said, "All I want is the new Billy Royce."
"Lil, let's look through the movie bargains," Bernie said. "I bet we could find a good girls' revenge flick."
"Maybe," Lil said.
"Nine To Five, maybe?" Gary asked.
"Not even," chorused Lil and Bernie. "Jinx!" they cried at each other.
"Geeze," Gary said. "Like it's third grade all over again."
Lil laughed at Gary.
"And your point?" Bernie asked.
"Aw, nothing," Gary said, realizing he should go easy on Lil today, even if she was being annoying. "Guess we better stick to our plan, it's too crazy today to just browse," he said.
They followed the plan, managing to escape the belly of the Anaconda in under an hour with Gary's wish-list, Bernie's trance video, and Lil's Billy Royce. Lil signed up for a drawing for an autographed "behind the scenes" video of Billy Royce's current tour.
As they walked away from Anaconda, Bernie and Gary kept an eye on Lil to see how she was feeling.
Bernie asked Lil, "In the mood for more shopping, Lil? Or should we get a snack first?"
"Yeah, where do you want to go next, sis?" Gary asked.
Lil had already popped her Billy Royce open and was drooling over the fat booklet of pictures and liner notes. "Did you guys want to get anything special for tonight?" she asked. "I mean, like, for your date? You could just drop me at the Cyber Cafe. They'd let me play a disk with earphones," she said, waving her new acquisition.
Gary looked at his watch. "I dunno, we got a little time," he said.
Bernie said, "How about..."
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