“We’ve already been to like ten stores. I think we should just stop now.” I huffed, trudging behind Jess. She had like five more bags than I, but was still basically running through the crowds of people.
She wouldn’t let us stop for a second, I swear! I think she was trying to kill me. I could barely breath as I rushed after her. We weren’t even on a time limit, but she made it seem as if we were.
“Jess.” I whined. My feet hurt. I had comfortable shoes on too! Suddenly my stomach grumbled. I rolled my eyes as I followed Jess into a store.
“We’ve only been to like five stores, now come on.” She gripped my arm and tugged me along. I groaned, but continued to follow behind her. I sighed loudly as she raced over to a few racks of clothing and looked through them. Jess made a face and glared at me from behind a few shirts. Knowing it bothered her, I sighed again, this time louder. She huffed and dropped the hanger back onto the rack.
“Fine. Go to the food court or something.” I smiled. Victory was mine!
“Really?!” I asked, shocked. She rolled her eyes and nodded.
“Yes.” A smile made it way onto my face and I jumped for joy.
“Sweet, I’ll see you in a bit!” She just waved me off and as happy as I was, I darted out of the store. I hadn’t even known which one it was. I was in and out too fast.
I didn’t even pay attention to where Jess was to know where to come back to find her. I’d just text her or something. It sounded like a good plan to me. I hadn’t been to this mall before, but as soon as I saw a map of it in the middle of the walkways I went over and searched for the food court.
This mall was huge by the looks of the map and it scared me. How long would Jess be here for? The food court wasn’t that far away so I wouldn’t be too long, I hoped that it would be farther away so that I wouldn’t have to go back to Jess’s crazy shopping spree.
I continued on my way, passing by people without caring if I bumped into them or not. I was on a mission and when I was hungry, you really couldn’t stop me. It took me a little while, but I got to the food court and saw all of the stalls.
McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, etc. They went on and on. I really hadn’t decided what I wanted or anything, but when I saw a certain someone in the Taco Bell stall, behind the cash register to be exact, I rushed over to it.
The line wasn’t that long, but it had a few people in it so by the time I got to the cash register that I wanted, I had totally made my mind up on what I wanted.
“Next.” He called. A smirk crossed my lips and I walked up.
“Um, can I get a 5 bucks box with a soft taco and a medium Mountain Dew Baja Blast?” When he looked up my smirk widened.
“Anya?” He asked.
“Chris?” I retorted. He smiled wide and I couldn’t help, but smile back.
“Damn, you eat like a pig.” My jaw dropped.
“Jerk.” I mumbled. “At least I’m not working behind a Taco Bell booth in the food court.” I stuck out my tongue. He rolled his eyes.
“It pays alright. I needed the job.” I looked away. I wouldn’t know how that was… John and Sarah had all the money you could imagine.
“Sorry.” I muttered, not picking my eyes off of the mall floor.
“It’s alright. Now, let’s get this monster her order.” I rolled my eyes and he laughed. I just handed him my money and then grabbed my receipt. “So, who are you here with?” He asked. I shrugged.
“Jess, but I couldn’t handle the constant suffocation behind the bags she was handing me.” Chris just chuckled. “It’s not funny! I was literally dying back there.” He only laughed harder.
“Chris.” A deep voice cut off our conversation. We both looked behind him and I saw a man dressed in a Taco Bell uniform, but you could tell he was at a higher status. “Get back to work. You can flirt with the ladies another time.” Chris just rolled his eyes in response.
“Sure Keith.” He grumbled back. You could tell he didn’t like his job. I felt bad for him.
“Geez Chris. Can’t you leave these young ladies alone?” I joked, trying to lighten his mood. He just smirked at my comment before walking back over to the cash register.
“Here you go Miss.” I looked up to see a girl who had my bag of delicious greasy tacos.
“Thanks.” I told her, nodding to Chris before walking off to go find a table.
____________________________________________
“Are we done yet?” Jess grumbled, handing me one more bag. I didn’t even think I had enough room to handle it.
“Yes, let’s just get these back to my car and then we’re done.” I smiled. I had endued four more hours after I had gotten food in my system. I didn’t even see Jess eat. She must’ve been starving, but not noticed because she was so caught up in shopping.
“Sweet!” I cheered. This was the first time today that I was dragging Jess someone and not the other way around.
“You know, you can put mine in the trunk and yours can go in the back.” I nodded at her command and watched as the trunk opened up. I dumped all, but three bags into the trunk and Jess frowned.
“What?” I asked her.
“I thought I had fewer bags than that.” I just shook my head.
“I can put mine in the front with me.” She would take up the whole backseat and trunk with all of her bags alone.
“Sounds good.” I didn’t really know how many times Jess went shopping, but she had top have a closest full of clothes and shoes. I mean come to think of it I don’t think I’ve seen her ever wear the same thing twice, yet. This was probably why.
“I heard that there was an art show this weekend if you’d like to go.” Jess nodded eagerly.
“I heard about it too. I think some of my stuff is in there.” I raised an eyebrow.
“Really?” I asked. Jess didn’t tell me about it. I couldn’t understand why because she was an amazing artist.
“Yeah.” She smiled sheepishly. “Our art teacher wanted me to enter some of my things and I said that I would.” I nodded. Understandable. My artwork was crap compared to hers.
“Well then it’s a deal. We’ll go to that art show this weekend and then…” I tried to think of what to do after. I heard Jess mumble something and I was scared to ask what she had said.
Please don’t be shopping…
“We can have a sleepover!” She declared, smiling. I shrugged.
“Sure, why not. Whose place?” She shrugged as well.
“We’ll decide in class this week.” I nodded.
“Sounds good.” She pulled into my new house’s driveway and then stopped.
“Do you need help getting your bags?” I gave her a look and pointed to the backseat. She just laughed. “Oh right.” Laughing as well I grabbed my bags and tugged them out of the front seat with me. I waved to her good-bye and she drove off. As happy as I was to finish shopping with Jess, I really didn’t want to go inside the house.
There was a car I didn’t recognize making me realize we had company. It wasn’t Nadine’s car, Toby’s, Sarah’s or John’s. I didn’t have a car so it couldn’t have been mine… unless.
I opened up the front door and instantly I was welcomed in.
“Oh Anya! There you are. Welcome back. We’ve got company.” Sarah informed me at once. Well, the car wasn’t mine… should’ve expected that one.
“I’ve got to drop some things off into my room and then I’ll be down.” I replied back to Sarah, hurrying up the stairs. My room was the only room I could really find; that, the kitchen and the bathrooms. The kitchen I had just learned the other night when Sarah had showed me for about the millionth time that I had been here.
I shrugged my bags off of my arms and then slipped off my shoes, letting them fall carelessly onto the floor. I turned on my heel and then headed back down the stairs. I didn’t know where they were, but when I caught sight of John’s face in a room, I entered it.
Sitting on the couch opposite of me was Sarah and John. Someone was across from them, but I couldn’t see their face. It was a man by the haircut. I knew that, also by the clothes that he was wearing. The blonde hair shined in the sunlight that made its way into the room, but I still couldn’t make them out.
“Oh good, Anya we’ve got some news for you.” I took my gaze off of the strange man and looked up at Sarah.
“What is it?” I asked. She bit her lip debating on whether to tell me or not.
“Daniel here noticed the same green van that Maria had talked about and called it in.” John informed me, not waiting for Sarah. Daniel? Who was Daniel? The weird guy on the couch?
“Oh and we offered him to stay for dinner.” Why would you just invite a random guy to dinner? Suddenly the man turned around and I gulped.
He wasn’t a stranger.
“Hello Anya.” My name ran off of his tongue gracefully.