Boys Will Be... Cats?

Chapter 5

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As much as Dan trusted Louise, he didn't trust Louise. They were at the mall at 5:30 on a Friday night. It was packed.

"Come on," said Louise. "We don't have much time." She started to make her way to the other end of the mall. Dan glanced at PJ for help. He got none. PJ just smiled at him and followed Louise.

They ended up in a kid's party shop... in the pinata section. Dan felt a part of his soul leave his body when Louise walked to the end of the shelves, stood up on her toes, reached for the top shelf, and picked up a llama pinata with a grin as big as Dan's growing dread.

"Absolutely!" PJ exclaimed.

"Absolutely not!" Dan groaned loudly.

"Aw, come on, Dan! It's exactly what you need," PJ stated. He put his arms out and Louise placed the llama in his arms. "Look at its face. It wants a home!"

"It won't have a face if we bring it to a party. That's the literal point of a pinata." Dan rolled his eyes (like the sad edgy teen he was) and simply said, "We are not bringing that home."

20 minutes later Dan was standing at the bottom of a ladder watching PJ hang a llama pinata from his ceiling fan. "Why do I let you two talk me into these things?"

"Because you love us," Louise said as she draped her arm around Dan in a sort of side hug.

"And because we're always right," PJ said as he stepped down off the ladder. "It looks good. Embrace the pop of color, Dan. You can't be a depressi emo teen forever."

"There goes my plan," Dan deadpanned.

"Let's go, Mr. Serotonin Deficiency. You need to get ready. We have a man to impress."

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Phil was walking through the mall, headed to the clothing area, when he heard it.

"Absolutely!" / "Absolutely not!"

He couldn't believe he was still able to recognize Dan's voice in a crowd. Though, to be fair, he was kind of yelling. Phil decided he had enough time to take a short detour into the party store. He just wanted to... check it out. He wasn't spying. That would've been creepy.

Phil spotted Dan's mess of brown hair before he saw his face. Dan was turned the other way arguing (quite loudly) to two other people in front of him. Phil recognized the girl from school, but he had never seen the boy before.

When they turned around and walked to the check-out line, Phil quickly slipped out the door and headed for the clothing department. He still needed more than one pair of socks for his trip.