Truth or Dare by Peg Cochran Page A

candles.  Mary could tell by the atmosphere that she wasn't going to be able to afford anything in the place.
         Pamela zeroed in on a display of jewelry at the front of the store, and Mary and Deirdre trailed behind her.  She picked up a heavy silver bracelet and slid it over her slender wrist.
         “What do you think?”  She turned her arm this way and that.
         “It’s nice, I guess.”  Mary reached out a finger and touched a tiny glittering heart necklace that was carefully arranged against the black velvet of the open jewelry case.  “I wonder how much this is?  It must not be real or they wouldn’t have it out like this—it would be locked up behind glass or something.”  She liked the way the heart was a little off kilter.  Kind of like her own heart—trampled and bent and slightly out of shape.
         Pamela watched her for a moment.  "You really like that, don't you?"  She put down the silver bracelet she'd been modeling.
         "Can I help you?"  A sales clerk glided into view.  She wore a sleeveless black dress with a large starburst pin on the shoulder and had creepy long toe nails painted blood red.  
         "How much is this necklace?"  Pamela took the heart from the case and held it out.
         The saleswoman fished for the pair of reading glasses that hung from a tortoise chain around her neck. She perched them on the end of her nose and peered at the tiny price tag tied to the necklace’s chain.  "Forty-nine dollars."  She stared over her glasses at Pamela before carefully rearranging the little heart on the shelf. 
         A phone rang somewhere in the rear of the shop. "Excuse me."  She turned her back on them and disappeared behind a rack of sale items.
         "Dare."  Pamela turned toward Mary.  "I dare you to take the necklace."
         "I can't do that."  Mary stole another look at the silver and diamond heart.
         "You know you want it."
         "No, I don't.  I could care less."  Mary turned away from the display case reluctantly.  The truth was she did want the necklace.  Badly. 
         "Take it."  Pamela's eyes gleamed, and she put a hand on Mary's arm.  "Go on.  Do it."  
         Mary shook her head.  “I can’t.”
         “Come on.”  Pamela gave her a little shove toward the case.  “I know you’ve already taken money from Sobeleski’s.  What’s the difference?”
         Mary started to open her mouth to protest, but what was the use?  Pamela was right.  She’d stolen once already.  Okay, more than once, but that didn’t mean she had to keep doing it.  It was one thing to take money for her SATs and for the book her teacher had recommended for help with calculus—it was another thing to take this necklace—something she didn’t need and didn’t have to have. 
         She wanted it, that was all.
         “Alright, then.  I’ll take it.”  Pamela looked around and quickly palmed the necklace, dropping it into the open top of her purse.  “Come on.  Let’s go!”
         They burst through the front door and ran half way down the street, Pamela giggling wildly.  "Here," she dangled the necklace in front of Mary tantalizingly.
         "Stop it." Mary looked around, but the door to Elle's Boutique was firmly closed.  The sales lady must still be on the phone.  "Come on.  Let's get out of here before that old dragon realizes the necklace is missing."
               
"She really was an old goat, wasn't she?"  Pamela skipped down the sidewalk waving the necklace in front of her.
        
    To Rivka, the days leading up to the end of June and the trip to Pamela's beach house seemed to be twice as long as usual—as if some demented scientist had taken hours and minutes and seconds and put an evil spell on them so that they were stretched out to double their normal length.
    The more she talked to Lance, the more excited she became about the trip to the