I knew it was a terrible idea, but I still did it, spurred on by peer pressure and stupidity. Afterward, it bothered me so much that I didn’t even enjoy the gum; it felt like dirt in my mouth. That night, knowing the rest of the pack was in my dresser, I couldn’t sleep at all because of the guilt. In retrospect, the gum heist wasn’t even much of a crime. But this? Entering someone’s home without their permission? This was a thousand times worse than shoplifting gum. But Scout seemed so sure that everything was going to be fine and he somehow knew things, things no one else would know. I wanted this journey to have a happy ending, and I wanted to believe him. Scout drove the van into the garage, which was fairly empty except for a motorcycle parked on one side. Once in, we lowered the door and locked it. From the road, no one would be able to tell that anyone was in the house. With the van taken care of, we locked all the doors and went through the place, room by room, looking for anything that might help us.
