Day Seventy-one - Sweet and tender hooligan

That second time I was caught, I'd say was either as early as 1993 or as late as 1994 - no later than that, I'm sure. So it either was just as I was going to my ninth grade or shortly thereafter, because alongside with me was Victor, who was my classmate that year. It being a time when money wasn't exactly something we had a lot at home - quite on the contrary - and also due to the fact that Victor came from a working class family that wasn't that well off, and what with us being a lot into metal and not really being able to buy CDs very often, if indeed at all, the main source of music was the tapes I'd record ffrom off of Valter's huge collection whenever I visited him. But buying a pack of tapes wasn't exactly cheap as well, and whenever I did buy them, they were always the cheapest sort, mostly TDK, sometimes Sony, very rarely BASF. So what happened was that one day we started going to that very same supermarket I got caught shoplifting at a few years back, and again that damned hubris was our undoing. We did get away with it a few times, and man, me made sure to steal some really nice tapes... not the most expsensive, but stil of a better variety than either of us usually bought. And obviously, there came a day when we both got caught red handed. Again, as we were making our way out of the supermarket, we were grabbed sternly by our arms, and did the walk of shame. We were both sent to that small room where I'd been years prior, and though now I can't remember how Victor dealt with the issue, maybe he had money on him and just paid for the tapes, but I know I didn't... and I knew I couldn't ask someone at home for the money - it wasn't much, but it was much more than I had, and it was money I knew my family couldn't afford to part with - but I made a compromise with them, and told them that the next day I'd be back to pay for the tapes. I have no idea now what it was that I had to sell off, but I do recall it being something that was dear to me. Maybe it was some prized comic book, or maybe I sold some of the few CDs I had, but whatever the case I amassed enough money that the very next day I went there to settle that debt. Of course, we weren't really given the tapes we'd try to steal and then paid for, and I don't even know just thinking about it now whether or not the security guys just pocketed the money themselves, but screw it. It was done, it was paid, and my conscience felt a lot clearer. And this time, I did learn my lesson : I wouldn't ever steal again. Well, at least not from there...