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Kallen grinned. "Ready, Loser?" He pulled up in a large black car with tinted windows.
Ivalin tilted her head at the insult, but she let it slide. "What do we need to buy?"
"Need?" Kallen teased, winking as Ivalin's cheeks reddened. "We don't need anything, we're going to have fun."
The words 'there is no fun in life' almost left her mouth, but she swallowed them, and she faked a smile. Jaizya's soft grin flashed past her mind. Her shoulders dropped, and she wondered if the words, "have fun," were orders.
"Is this," Her nose wrinkled, "a normal teenage ritual?"
Kallen shrugged, his lips twitching. "Maybe. Not like I've had too many friends or too much time to do this ritual with."
Ivalin bit her lip, her hands stilling. "Did I say something wrong?"
Kallen tapped the steering wheel. "Nah, I like it. Rituals." He tried the word out.
Her chest squeezed, and Ivalin looked out of the window of the car. Her eyes tracked the dirty apartments and burned out buildings. She bit her cheek, and shifted in her seat. Silence relapsed.
"Have you done this before?" He turned his blinker on, gesturing with one hand. "Shopping for fun, I mean."
Watching the washed out people pass by in blurs, she sighed. "Not exactly." She didn't think going out with your government-appointed Micheal was what Kallen was thinking about.
He smiled, turning into a different lane. A car honked, and Kallen yelled something at the window. Ivalin bit her cheek, trying not to smile, and Kallen turned his eyes back onto the road. "I don't know about you, but at least I'm going to have fun."
Nodding, Ivalin watched the rain pour down.
Having fun had never been a priority.