Taken (Page 16)

The girls walked out of the store and headed up the escalator into Neiman Marcus. They walked over to the shoe department and began looking around at all the different pumps, sneakers and flats. Rachel picked up one shoe and flipped it over to see the price. This particular shoe had a bright red bottom with a small sticker, which read $795! Rachel thought she had read it wrong. Seven hundred and ninety five dollars for a simple pair of black patent pumps? She looked at the label on the inside of the shoe, which read Christian Louboutin. She’d never heard of this brand, but knew she was better off. She could never afford those shoes—or any of the shoes in that whole shoe department. She picked up a few others Prada, Gucci, Fendi, Manolo Blahnik, each one more expensive than the next. She couldn’t imagine who would spend $2,500 on a pair of tan suede and fur trimmed boots, but apparently they sold them, so someone must want them.

Rachel was in shock. This was the opposite of any mall she’d ever been in and she felt a little ashamed. She couldn’t afford anything in the entire store. She wished she were back in Pennsylvania shopping at Aeropostale, JC Penney’s and Wal Mart. At least there she didn’t feel like she was being judged by the amount of money she could spend.

The girls walked out of Neiman Marcus and upstairs to the Louis Vuitton store.

“Guys, I’ve been wanting the LV Neverfull so badly,” Taryn said as they walked into the store.

“What’s that?” Rachel asked. She instantly felt like a moron. She figured she should have kept her mouth shut and just watched.

“That’s it!” Taryn said, as she pointed to a bag high on the shelf.

“Can I see that?” Taryn asked the sales man.

“Sure you may, young lady. What size? GM, MM or PM?”

“PM, please,” Taryn responded.

The man pulled open a sliding drawer underneath a glass case full of wallets, belts, sunglasses and other LV accessories. He unwrapped the tan dust bag and handed her the canvas-monogrammed bag.

“OMG! Is this not the most amazing bag you’ve ever seen?” Taryn said, looking at the girls.

“Love that bag!” Jen said with a smile. “I want the Speedy 35 though.”

“I think I’m going to get it!” Taryn said whimsically to the girls, then looked back at the salesman. “How much is it again?”

“The PM bag sells for $770,” he replied.

Rachel watched as Taryn looked at the girls for encouragement.

“Get it— you’ve been wanting it for a while,” Emily said.

“If you love it buy it. It’s a classic!” Jen said.

“You’re right guys,” Taryn said.

“OK, I’ll take it,” Taryn said to the salesman, as she handed him back the bag to wrap.

Rachel couldn’t believe her eyes. Taryn was taking out her parent’s credit card to charge seven hundred and seventy dollars. This was insane. She thought for a moment about what would happen if she’d spent that kind of money on her parent’s credit card. She would be punished for life and cut off forever. She had not been brought up to spend frivolously, and she respected that. Rachel was in shock that none of the girls even thought twice about the amount of that bag or the amount of money being charged on the credit card.

“That will be $850 with tax,” the sales man said as he reached for her card. Taryn looked at the girls and giggled! “I’m so excited! I finally have my LV!”

Taryn signed for her purchase and they all left the store, excited and happy.

Rachel spotted the Gap and said, “Hey guys, can we pop into the Gap for a minute?”

The girls looked at Rachel, “The Gap?”

Rachel instantly felt ashamed. Was the Gap not cool in Westchester?

“I don’t want to go into the Gap, but I’ll be next door in Victoria Secret,” Emily said.

“OK,” Rachel said with a smile. “I’ll just meet you guys there then.”

As Rachel entered the Gap, she suddenly felt a sense of calm rush over her body. She quickly reached for a sweater to check the price tag. She wondered if the Gap in the Westchester Mall had the same prices as in Pennsylvania, and to her luck they were the exact same. Phew, she thought to herself.

She browsed the button-down shirts and t-shirts, but didn’t find anything that jumped out to her. Then she spotted the cutest scarf and hat set. They were red and had a woven thread of silver sparkly material intertwined in them. They were on the sale rack for eight dollars, so she couldn’t let this deal pass. She picked up the hat and scarf, tried them on and walked over to the mirror to see how she looked.

Perfect! She thought. She got on line to buy the hat and scarf, and was surprised to see how busy the Gap was. The line to pay was rather long and she’d been standing there five minutes already. She looked up ahead of her to see why the line was taking so long. Then, all of a sudden she heard a familiar voice.

“I thought this was on sale?” Rachel heard the woman say.

“No, this item is not on sale ma’am. I told you already, if you want this blouse, it is full price.”

“But look, it says sale,” the woman answered.

Rachel couldn’t believe her eyes. Was her mother really in front of her, arguing with the cashier at the Gap? What were the chances? How unlucky could she possibly be?

Rachel didn’t know whether to hide, or run from the store. For a moment, she just stood there, frozen in fear, hoping her Mom would leave. But she didn’t. Her Mom stood there, arguing for what felt like another hour. Rachel was panicked and didn’t know what to do. She finally decided to hide.

She dropped her hat, and ran to the back of the store.

As she did, all of a sudden she heard her mom’s voice coming closer and closer to the back of the store, in search of the manager. Rachel was stuck. There was nowhere for her to go except to hide. She jumped behind a rack of hanging men’s sweaters and sat there, peeking out of the clothes.

“Excuse me, this shirt is supposed to be on sale. I took it off the sale rack, and the cashier won’t give me the sale price.”

“I’m sorry for the confusion ma’am, we will get this all sorted out.”

Rachel held her breath, trying not to move. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she watched her mom pay and exit the store.

Rachel exhaled, relieved. That was way too close of a call.

Now she had to figure out her exit plan: she was still worried that her mom could catch her in the mall. This reminded her that it was almost time to leave. She pressed the Indiglo button on her watch and it lit up 4:05PM. If she didn’t leave soon, she was going to be late.