The Love I Was Looking For (Halal love story)

||Chapter 10: The Price||

To Macy's, Dillard's, and Nordstrom, all the way to Kate Spade, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci. Every high-end brand you could ever imagine is in this mall. You can really feel the excitement in the air. People are running back and forth between shops.

The smell of the little bakeries and food from the food court, the laughs of children riding on those animal rides—seeing them so happy is adorable, and it honestly helps the parents shop around with ease.

Apparently, I'm still being dragged by Shyla, and Sajid and Harris are just a little far behind us. I look up at Shyla and ask, "Uh, where are we going exactly?"

She laughs, "I was thinking we should start at Macy's or Loft, whatever comes first. I heard they have more of our type of clothes there." I look behind us, and Sajid smiles and waves. "Oh, that's good, yeah, we should start there," I said.

I look ahead, "Oh, there's Loft. Come on," we pick up the pace a little and enter the store. Mannequins everywhere with the most fashionable trending clothes. We walk in through the doors, and the lights are so bright. "Why hello, dears, welcome to Loft. May I help you?" the shop employee says.

I look at her, "Hello, my friend and I are looking for long, baggy, long-sleeve shirts." The woman looks around, "Ah, yes, we have some on this wall," she says. We walk to the end of the store to the wall with all the long-sleeve shirts.

"Ooo, Aisha, look at this one," Shyla says as she pulls out a pretty black long-sleeve shirt with red flowers. I pull one out too, "It's really pretty."

I look for a medium and large just in case, and Shyla does the same. The lady smiles and points to the rack to the side, "There are some long, baggy pants and long jeans over there to go with it," she says.

We both took a pair of pants and went straight to the fitting room. Not going to lie, it was so cute. We stepped out of the fitting room. "Oh my god, we look so adorable matching," Shyla said. I agreed.

We spent almost an hour just in Loft, trying on whatever we found. In the end, we bought three outfits, which cost a bit, but we were loaded with cash.

Shyla drags me out of the store, and we look around to find the boys. "Well, they're nowhere to be seen," she says. I take my phone out and call Sajid, "I'll just see where he is." It rings for a minute, "Asalamu Alaykum, jaanu," he says, picking up.

There was a moment of silence. I was smiling so much. I couldn't tell if I was blushing or not. It just always happens when he calls me jaanu. "Walakum Salam, uhh tum kaha ho? (Where are you?)"

"Harris wanted to go to Adidas, so we're in there. Are you guys done?" he said. "Yeah, we're done. We can go to Adidas and meet you guys there. See you soon, Allahfiz." I put away my phone and turned behind me, trying to find the store. "Sajid said they're both at Adidas, so we're going to meet them there."

Shyla walks over to the map and tries to find the store. She gestures for me to come to her. I walk over to her, looking at how complex this mall really is. "Look, so we're here right now, and Adidas is downstairs under us somewhere to the right," she says.

"Alright, we can take the escalator down and find them." We take our bags and start walking to the escalator. Honestly, this is really fun. I'm so glad I went out with my friends.

We got to the bottom floor and looked around for Adidas. I point to the right, "Look, it's over there." Shyla and I head to the store quickly. We went in and saw crowds of people inside. Damn, what sale are they having, I wonder.

We walk to the back of the store and see them. "Yo, did you guys buy anything?" Shyla asked. Harris holds up two gym bags, "I can't decide between this bag or this one," he says.