Romancing the Rebound

6

୨𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚢୧

Skylar has energy. Like, a lot of it.

I didn't realize it when I first met her, but now I can clearly see it. She's got so much energy, and obviously has no idea what to do with it. The hike we took wasn't everything I was hoping it'd be, so when we finished it, we were both a little bored. Skylar didn't want to go back to the hotel and in all honesty, I didn't either. So instead, I looked up other things to do here.

I came up with a mall not too far from the hotel that we could hang out at so our day doesn't get fully wasted, which excited Skylar. That's where we are now, and it's the place where Skylar shows me how much energy she really has.

I've lost her three times now in the crowd. Neither of us know how, but she's managed to simply shuffle away from me three times. I'm starting to think she either gets too excited and starts speed walking away from me or she sees something she wants and simply goes for it, forgetting I'm behind her.

"You need a leash." I tell her as I catch her arm to urge her away from a couple of people. She's so unbelievably unaware of her surroundings. I don't know how it's possible how one: she's survived so long without being kidnapped, and two: how she has no instinct for it whatsoever.

"Leave me alone, Daniel. At least I'm enjoying myself." Skylar scoffs, waving her hand at me to shoo me off. I let her arm go.

"Hey, I thought we agreed we were going to be nicer to each other." I remind, raising a brow at her.

"Neither of us said it out loud." Skylar counters, smiling smugly. I roll my eyes at that and choose not to bring up the fact that she was the one who got hurt feelings when I said I didn't want to be friends with her. "I want to go to the upstairs part now." Skylar at least warns me as she starts walking towards the escalator.

I give an apologetic nod to the man I bump shoulders with as I hurry after her. "Skylar," I call out, reminding her I'm still here with her. I'm not too fond of the idea of losing this girl in a country neither of us have been to. I'd rather not go home and watch the news about her being missing.

Skylar jogs up the stairs of the escalator, giggling to herself. I gasp, realizing she's running from me on purpose now. Quickly, I jog up the stairs after her. I have to swerve around a bunch of people on the way up, but I manage to make it by her side at some point. I catch the bottom of her ponytail with a huff.

"I'll use this as a leash." I threaten. It's a very empty threat.

"That's a privilege you have not yet earned, Daniel." Skylar quips, glancing up at me with a suggestive smile. I shake my head.

"I can still leave you here alone." I remind, pretending to be unconcerned with that option. I wouldn't actually do that, no matter how much she annoys me.

"Fuck off." Skylar dismisses without another glance to me. "C'mon, I'm hungry." She demands, already making her way to the spot in the mall that looks like the food court. Quickly, I follow her. I'm hungry too.

Skylar takes it upon herself to pick which place we go to. I don't really care much anyway, I'm too hungry to care. She pulls her phone out while we join the back of the line at some burger place. My curiosity gets the better of me, and I glance at her phone screen to see she's typing in some group chat.

Skylar suddenly looks up at me. I blink at her and quickly realize she's caught me snooping in on her private conversation. She doesn't seem to care though. "You wanna take a picture with me?" She asks, already opening her camera.

My nose scrunches. "A picture?" I repeat. She nods, showing me her phone screen like I don't know what a picture is. I sigh. "Sure."

I don't know why I agree to it, but I do. It's just a picture. Harmless.