Shorts #1

I.

I suppose in the slightest of strange and awkward, the girl approached the video clerk-
“I want a movie about fighting octopus, slightly cannibalistic”
The clerk, feeling a bit defeated that he’d lost his own game of “guess-what-the-customer-will-rent” replied,
“Um..I suppose I could do a keyword search on our database.”
He was discomforted by the idea that he had never heard of such a movie, especially being as campy horror happened to be one of his most favored genres. Clicking through the database, the girl heard the computer make a clicking noise, some sort of affirmation that the film did in fact exist. In anticipation of some auditory response, she noticed the clerk pull up a piece of paper, take the pen from its secure place behind his right ear, and write down the words “Bitter. Sweet.” And believing to be unnoticed, tucked the small piece of paper into his left back pocket.
“There’s one…” he started, “it’s called Bitter. Sweet.”

“No, No that won’t do-” The girl grew a sour face, her brown hair swaying across her forehead.

“Why not?”

“Because that means it’s bitter, and sweet, and the two of those-put together? I hate that emotion.”

“I guess the title doesn’t quite reflect the idea of cannibalistic octopus-”

“You’re right. It doesn’t”

She then walked away, and watched as her hair moved side to side with her step. The clerk reached into his back pocket. pulled out the piece of paper, and threw it into the trash receptacle.

The both of them, unknowingly of the other, sighed simultaneously. It was time for him to go back to work.