Store Credit
 | This chapter is exclusively available to members of Bittersweet Club International. |
| Store Credit | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Published | May 12, 2014 |
| Page count | 8 |
| Major characters | Mike, Paulo |
| Chapter navigation | |
| ← Christmas Dinner | Baby Blues → |
| Read in the BCI Members’ Library | |
Store Credit is a Bittersweet Club International-exclusive comic from 2014. Mike needs a birthday present for his little sister Haley, and Paulo invites himself along for the shopping trip. Picking the present turns out to be the easy part.
Partial synopsis
Mike sets out to find Haley a birthday gift, and Paulo tags along because he has nothing better to do. Paulo offers only crude suggestions.[1] At the store, Mike rejects one doll as too old for Haley. She is only a year younger than he is, and she gives him such a hard time about everything that he does not want to choose badly. Paulo soon loses patience, telling him, “Just find some tampons and we’re done..”[2]
Mike then holds up a small smiling toy in a top hat, and Paulo sneers that it’s “For fruitcakes like you, probably.”[2] As it happens, that jab is a mistake. Something about the little toy has rung a bell for Mike, and the sly grin creeping across his face suggests Paulo is going to regret opening his mouth...
Character dynamics
- Mike and Paulo: Paulo says he has nothing better to do, then needles Mike with crude gift suggestions.[1] In the store, he grows impatient and insults Mike’s taste, while Mike responds with a sly grin.[2]
Trivia & observations
- Veronica and Oliver announced Store Credit during the 2014 BCI drawathon membership drive as “a new PauloxMike comic,” adding “OK, OK. They don’t make out or anything. But this is as close as it gets.” The same post also promoted the member comics Ghost Stories and In Deep.[3]
- Mike says that he is thirteen and Haley is “A year younger,” placing the story in the gang’s middle-school days.[2]
- Paulo dismisses the toy as fit for “fruitcakes”.[2] In the main comic, he directs the same insult at Mike more than once.[4][5]