Bates & Landon [Wattys2015]

BATES

Carter Jenkins will play Bates. (Picture to the side.)

Bates

Cece took me to the mall. "Now," she was walking backwards, "this place . . . is awesome. Not because of shopping like almost every damn girl loves to do, but, just being here." When I raised an eyebrow at her, she kept talking. "As in, how barely anyone knows who you are, and it's so loud. Plus," she grinned, "they have amazing food."

"Ah, food sure is good, isn't it?" with a smile, she led me to the food court. We split a pizza. It was good, greasy as always, but really good.

"I hate this," she says, "just being so . . . limited all the time, ya know? Bates, answer this question, how many lives do we get?"

"Uh, well depending on your religion and beliefs --" I began, wiping my face with a napkin.

"The answer is one," she interrupts, "one, Bates. One life to do whatever you want. But, you know what? Does anyone get to, I mean, really live? Like, look at it this way, only certain age groups can do this and that. And, others can't because of their age. And it sucks. Everyone is so damn limited that we can never live!"

"Well, would you like seeing a ten year old driving a car and drinking and losing their virginity? No, because we need the age limitations. If not, the world would be mobocracy."

She wrinkles her nose. "Mobocracy?"

"It's a synonym," I say, "for chaos." She just nods. "Anyways, we need it. The age limitations, but I see what you mean as in wanting more freedom. Although, we can, as a people, make our age limitations a fun thing. Even if some people can't drive or they can't drink, people can still have fun."

"Yeah, I guess so." She said, then brightening up, she says, "hey, wanna do something crazy?"

"Like??"

"I don't know," she shrugged, "maybe, like, run around the mall or something?"

"Like Hide-and-seek?"

"Yes!" She grinned. "Let's do it! You count!"

"Ok," she was already running off before I even began counting.

•••

I was running after her; I had found her hidden in a clothes store, skimming through ripped jeans. When she saw me, she squealed and ran off.

I ran after her. We looped around the whole mall, she wasn't dumb enough to run into a store so I could corner her. So, passing people as swiftly as I can, I keep running after her.

But as I rounded a corner, running at a fast speed, I couldn't stop as I heard a gasp and slammed into another person. They fell to the ground, and so did I. It didn't feel too good either. "Ouch, damn you, watch where you're going! Man, I think I --" I had ran into Landon, and she broke off whatever she was going to say when she looked up at me from rubbing her -- I assume -- hurt elbow.

"Landon?" I said, voice full of surprise. I didn't expect to see her anywhere, well besides school, and she was looking at me with big eyes.

"Um, Bates," she said, "you're still on me and, uh, your elbow doesn't feel so good jamming into my --" I had already removed my elbow, flushing slightly and stood up. Holding my hand out, I looked down at her. She seemed hesitant at first, looking at my hand, then her eyes meeting mine before she finally slipped her hand in mine.

And my hand didn't fit hers like it was made just for me(yes, a One Direction reference), no, it felt just like, well, holding someones hand. But it felt nice. And it made me want to squeeze her hand tighter and say "No, I'm not letting you go," but I didn't.

I let her hand go. "Sorry about that," I say, "I didn't mean to run into you."

"It's fine," she said as she rubbed her elbow. Then she looked down at the frozen yogurt on the floor. "It didn't hurt that bad, I've felt worse."

"Sorry about the frozen yogurt," I apologize.

"It's K." She says and looks down.

"Why were you running anyways?" Barbie, as I called her, asked me.

"It's kinda a long story," I rubbed the back of my neck and began to explain.

"Bates! There you are!" Cece, running up to me, interrupted. Landon and Barbie turned their eyes to her.

"Hi Cece," Barbie says, her voice tight and eyes cold.

Cece looks at Barbie and Landon, an emotion flashing across her face before her face hardened. "Hi, Alice. Hey, Landon." She looked at me. "So, what happened here?"

"I ran into Landon -- literally." I told her.

She threw her head back and laughed. "That's hilarious!" She said after she calmed down. "Oh, my, I wish I could've seen that."

"Haha," Barbie glared at her. "So funny."

"It sounds like it!" Cece Jakes grinned. "Anyways, what are you two perfects doing here?"

"We have names," Landon said quietly.

"I know."

"Then use them." says Barbie.

"Anyways," Cece said. "We are here to hang out."

"Same." Barbie says, looking long and hard at Cece. With tension thick in the air, I cleared my throat.

"Um, so," I look around, "I think we should be heading back. . we'll see you guys at school, okay?"

Barbie nodded. Landon looked away. "I hope we don't see them, ugh." Cece muttered to me as we passed them and they began walking away.

"Why?"

"How can you stand them?" She avoided the question. "Because I can't!"

"They aren't that bad, I guess." I said, a slight edge to my voice. "Why can't you stand them?"

Cece gave me a look. "Nothing. Don't worry about. I just can't stand them. That's all." We were silent for a little while, and we kept walking. She was lying, if it wasn't obvious enough.

"Yeah, so, I had fun." She says. We were heading towards the doors. "Nice hanging with you, but I gotta go! See you at school?"

"Um, yeah sure." I stuck my hands in my pockets. "So I guess I'll be calling someone to pick me up??"

Cece smiled coldly. "Oh, yeah, you can. Or," she smiled wider -- looking bittersweet, "you can have the perfects drive you. Whatever. Bye!"

And she walked off, leaving me standing alone.