disposition. | jack gilinsky

| Chapter 23 | - Final Chapter

Maisie and I were practically best friends now considering she basically saved my life. She was so happy to hear from me when I called her and jumped into my arms when we met up at the mall. I hugged her so tight.

She had done more shopping than I did. I wasn't really in the mood to focus on my fashion sense even though she made me try on a couple things in Forever 21. Maisie feels I should incorporate more color into my closet...but...the color black is the new black. And that's how I'll always feel. So she'd roll her eyes and give up trying to persuade me to buy things in powder blue.

I looked forward to lunch time and as we approached the food court on the upper level, I headed straight for the Japanese place. I was seriously craving orange chicken with fried rice. Maisie decided to get Chik-Fil-A and we sat at one of the small tables that were against the glass walls, overlooking the rest of the mall.

"I can't believe you still eat Chik-Fil-A," I said to her.

"It's amazing, why not?" She shoved a few fries into her mouth.

"They're against gays."

"Wait, what?"

"You never read that?" I sipped on my Pepsi.

"I'm a 15 year old girl that lets boys & unnecessary amounts of homework take up her time," she replied.

"...Point proven."

We chuckled as we continued eating. I looked around the mall at everyone. It was like I was being taunted. Newborns and toddlers were everywhere. Babies in strollers being fed. A little girl being fascinated by a balloon animal. A toddler getting happily tossed up & down by her father while the mother looked on. Every other day I would just see guys staring me down, but today was a display of haunting innocence.

To make matters worse, I looked past the escalators and to the other side of the mall where I saw that red flannel shirt. It stood out to me like a fly on a white wall. And he was with her...about to get dragged into Victoria's Secret. He kept shaking his head no as she pleaded with him in a flirtacious way.

"Imogen? What's wrong?" Maisie asked, breaking my trance. Her eyes followed to where I was looking and she sighed. "Do you wanna leave?"

All I could do was shake my head and hold back any sign of sadness. I was pissed when I felt my eyes filling up and I knew she could see how glassy they were becoming.

"Don't be sad," she continued. "You did the right thing."

"What if I didn't?" My voice was coarse.

"If you didn't, then you'll find your way back to each other."

I chuckled as I thought to myself about what Jack once said. I looked back at Maisie and wiped my tears, clearing my nose. "You know he once said that he felt we were meant to meet. And I laughed at him. I told him not to talk to me about that cosmic shit." I painfully laughed and looked back over there.

He was sitting on the bench next to the store. Sylvia had gone into the store without him. He was going through his phone as usual and looking up every now and then. I noticed every single girl he looked at would all have the same look. Long dark hair, bold lips, & combat boots. Basically...he was looking at similar clones of me. He took a lot of deep breaths and even pounded on his chest as if it felt tight. I took out my phone, ready to text him, but saw those three bubble dots. He was already writing to me. Either he was writing an essay or he couldn't think of what to say...writing, deleting, writing again.

But then the dots went away and I looked to see that he was leaning forward with his head in his hands. Sylvia soon emerged from the store with a tiny bag, smiling. She sat on the bench next to him and showed him what she had bought. It was too small and far away for me to see, but I knew it was black and stringy.