Five Seconds

Newt

"You really think my feet are that small? Those are about half the size of what I need."

I blushed again. What a terrible time for an inappropriate joke to cross my mind. I turned around to survey the dark mall. I was really hoping we would find a vehicle. If we found a vehicle then I wouldn't have to deal with this idiot and his sense of style. I could only imagine walking beside him for three days. A shudder ran through my body. "Should we get you a proper hiking jacket as well?"

"Andy. It's just a hike to your aunt's place. We can figure it out after that. I'll be fine I'm sure."

"You never know what we might run into out there." It came out cooler than I meant.

My flashlight lit up a familiar sign and my heart skipped a beat. "Parker, how much longer are you going to take?"

"I'm working on it. What should I do with my sneakers?"

"I don't know. Leave them there."

He made that weird noise again. "You know these shoes were almost 250 bucks."

I whipped my head around. "Why'd you waste so much money on such ugly impractical pieces of cow hide?"

"You're quite rude don't you know."

The flame of anger snuffed out. "Just looking out for you," I muttered. "But if you ask me if your shoes make your ankles look fat I may snap."

"These shoes don't even go with what I'm wearing."

I let out a sigh. I spent two years hopelessly devoted to this guy. And unfortunately even if he did have these sorts of faults, he still had his moments, and now was not one of them. "Just hurry up. I think I may see something in our favour."

Parker finished up and took his ugly sneakers with him. I darted across the mall, careful of my surroundings, and walked towards a conveniently placed House of Knives.

"Now if only we had bags to pack some of this stuff in," I muttered to myself.

I grabbed a package of tinder, and pulled reflective blankets from survival kits

"Why don't you just take the whole kit?"

"We don't need more than we need."

"How do you know what all this stuff is?"

"I wasn't holed up in a fancy house all day where I couldn't touch anything like you were."

"I played soccer," Parker retorted.

I didn't hide my smirk. "Think we'll need some carabineers?"

"You expect me to scale a cliff?"

"Hmm, good point." We walked past dozens of hunting knives. I had an old one from home that was still just as sharp, which currently resided with Parker. My eyes spotted a very expensive knife, and I brought it closer to examine.

"Wow. Fancy."

"They all look the same to me," Parker muttered.

I murmured to myself under my breath, weighing the pros and cons of the sharp tool. I flipped it in my hand, and peered closely at every little detail. It was sharp and it was long, but it didn't have a serrated edge. It would be useful for some things, but what was the point of having this if we had my old hunting knife?

"You're cute when you ramble," Parker said almost to himself.

My eyes widened and I felt that familiar flutter of butterflies in my stomach, but quenched it just as fast as it came. Love was not an option. All it did was end.