"Come on man. Let's go already." Cash could never get me to go without urging, no matter how many times we had done this together.

"Alright, alright. Let's go." I always gave in. We put on black hoodies and Cash patted me on the back. He was always there to make me feel ok.

We did our routine handshake: slap, clap, slide, pound it , gunshot!, smooth. We made that up when we were just little kids. Cash walked through the door with me behind him, and I felt the chill go straight through my hoodie and to my bones. I got like this every time, and there was no stopping it. We walked past the registers, avoiding eye contact with the workers. Cash walked through the first aisle. Cleaning supplies, Paper Goods, Laundry Needs. We always pass this one by. Candy, Cookies, Gum. Cash strolled over the usual spot and motioned for me to follow. Please let us get out of this safe, please oh please. If you do, I won't bother mom for a week. I recited my prayer in my head, and hustled over to Cash.

"You Ready to go, Maika?" Cash asked.

"I've been ready dude", I answered. I'm such a liar. I've never been ready in my whole life. We lived in a neighborhood that held some rivaling gangs, and I've been scared ever since we moved here. Cash was the complete opposite though. He was never afraid of anything or anyone.

He quickly unzipped his hoodie, and started filling the inside pockets with all of the candy a kid could ever want. I followed suit and started getting the chills again. I'm pretty sure they weren't because of the freezer aisle either. We were stuffing our over-stuffed pockets, and a man walked past. Oh god. Cash turned me right on cue, so the man couldn't see anything. That was so close.

"C, let's go before someone catches us." My voice was trembling and so was my body, but I didn't care. I wanted to get out of there.

"Calm down man. People's gonna be suspicious if you walk out looking all weird like that. Breathe," he told me. Iiiiin, oooooooout. I felt a little better. We walked down the aisle towards the exit. With hoods over our heads, we pushed through the door and rode our bikes home.

"Haha! Look at all the goods we got this time Maika!" Cash was smiling that great smile of his. He was always happy when we collected. "We could do this forever! Those supermarket people don't even see us!" he exclaimed. He took out his diary, oh I mean "journal" and wrote about what we'd just accomplished. He wrote everything in that book and use it up faster than anything. I bought him a new one almost every three months.

"Heh. Yeah." I hope they don't.

My phone was vibrating and I woke up to look at it. ONE NEW MESSAGE it said. I hit read now.

"Hey dude, its me. Rdy for anthr steal 2day? Get up nd come 2 my house. - $$$" Cash, you always have to wake me up like this don't you? Eh. Whatever. We'd been doing this for years, me and Cash. As we grew older, we went on to bigger and better things, but never seemed to get caught. We went from candy, to toys, and finally CDs at a little store in our town. Now, we were just two fifteen-year-old partners in crime.

I rode my bike over to Cash's, and we took off towards the store. We parked our stuff in front of the place and went through the same routine: slap, clap, slide, pound it , gunshot!, smooth, except for some reason, today, I forgot to say my prayer. We stocked up, and were about to walk away, but we heard someone say,

"STOP! SOMEONE HELP, THEY'RE ROBBERS!" I looked back and saw the screamer was speed walking towards us, and my body froze up while my eyes got wider and wider.

"What are you doing man? Run!" Cash pulled on me and we ran off together. We hopped on our bikes and rode down the street.

"Slow down, Maika!" Cash screamed to me. My feet wouldn't let me slow down. This had never happened before. It wasn't supposed to happen this way.

"MAIKA!" Cash was still yelling for me to wait for him and my feet were still going as fast as the speed of sound. Then, I heard the shot. I screeched my bike to a halt, and looked back to where Cash was riding behind me. Except now, he was lying on the ground.

"CASH!" I pedaled my bike over to him and jumped off it and next to Cash. "Cash, buddy, come on! Get up man! " I cried and cried. I even tried to do that CPR thing. I couldn't just lose my best friend, my only friend, my life like that. No. No, this wasn't happening. I'm just dreaming. I tried to pinch myself, but all I saw was Cash lying on the ground. I was panicking now. I had no idea what to do, and my feet took control of my mind. I got up and felt the wind flying in my face. Looking back, I saw Cash getting smaller and smaller as I went faster and faster.

I rushed to Cash's house and jumped through his window. The window we've jumped out of together so many times I thought. I tore up his room looking for those journals. Finally, I found it and let my emotions take me over. I grabbed the oldest one and ripped out every paper. I hadn't noticed the fan was on, and the papers started flying everywhere. After I finished with that book, I went on to the next and did the same. Then the next one, and the next one, and the one after that I tore every last paper out and the pages were swirling around me like a tornado. In all my rage, I found one journal left. This was his newest one. I opened to the last page and read it. The entry looked a little like a poem. It said:

Now we just drive away

From everything I know

You're counting days on the back of your hands

You turn the pages 'til you have no more plans.

Yep. I made that one up myself. Pretty good, eh? I guess it's about Cash and me, you know how we're always doin this stealing thing together. It's just, sometimes, I think it's getting dangerous. I mean, I saw some of those gang guys eyeing us the other day, and I wonder if they've ever seen what we've done. They might want us to stop, you know, doin stuff in their territory. I won't tell that to Maika though, cause I have to stay strong for the both of us. He'd get freaked out, and then get hurt. Can't have that happening. Later. - Ca$h

I dropped down a cried my eyes out. Why did it have to happen like this? You turn the pages 'til you have no more plans. There were no more pages for me.