Unconditional Validation

Chapter 10

"What is it?" America asked curiously while wiping her tears away.

"You wanna ditch and go shopping? It helps me all the time!" I smiled and stood up from where we were sitting.

"Wouldn't your parents find out?" America deadpanned.

"I'll deal with those consequences later", I winked and laughed.

"Okay let's do it! Garment District?" I heard her cheerful side of herself come back.

"Yes, there wouldn't be anywhere else I would go", I chuckled at her question.

I extended a hand to help America up. She took it and I helped her rise to her feet. America and I made a beeline to her car without getting noticed somehow. We buckled our seatbelts and finally sped off to our destination.

"How did you know where I was?" America asked me while parking her car in the parking deck.

"If I'm being honest, I didn't. I was trying to find a place to hide out for the day and ended up running into you." I let out a small giggle while looking down to fidget with my hands.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked gently, placing her hand over the top of mine and gesturing for me to stop fidgeting.

"Well, you're aware of what happened at Justin's party, it's just been hard trying to handle all the repercussions that come with it." I could feel the burning in my throat from trying to fight back crying

"I see. Let's try our best to forget about everything going on and start some therapeutic shopping." She excitedly stated as we headed into the shopping district

Because of the time of day, the shopping district was fairly empty. There were a few older couples slowly walking around, a couple of parents letting their kids run around the play area, and your typical teens hiding out from the world. It was nice to see we weren't the only teenagers hiding from things going on, it makes me feel more normal in a way.

"So, what store do you want to go to first?" I asked America.

"Hmmm, let's go to Urban Outfitters first. I saw something that I wanted the last time we were here", America replied.

"Let's do it!" I smiled with excitement.

The two of us headed in the direction of Urban Outfitters. On the way, I saw my mom go into the Chanel store that was a few shops down!

Oh shit! She can't know that I'm not at school! I frantically thought to myself.

"America, we need to walk fast into the store!" I whisper-yelled to her while we were heading towards Urban Outfitters.

"Yeah?" America asked me, turning her head with confusion.

I pulled her aside in the store, so my mom couldn't see us if she decided to glance through the windows.

"I just saw my mom walk into the Chanel store!" I started to panic because I'd never really ditched school before.

"Hey, let's take a deep breath and we can figure it out, okay?" America calmly stated with a reassuring look.

"O-Okay," I slowly breathed out.

"Let's get what I came here for, quickly though," America smiled. I nodded in response.

When I was much more calm, the two of us went looking for what America wanted. It took us a bit to find the pieces of clothing. There was a cute purple tie-dye crop top and a black hoodie with an artist's name on it. America grabbed both and then the two of us headed towards the register. The cashier rang us up, America paid for her clothes, and we started walking out of the store.