Into the Light

34 Anna's POV

"No. I'm so done," I replied, holding my hand to my stomach. "Can we just go lie down? I love it but there are no beds." "We can always make another trip of it, some other day," Colby replied and stood up. "Come on, let's get back to the hotel so you can rest before you go shopping." My head popped up and I met his gaze. "Shopping?" He laughed and nodded. "Yeah, remember? You need to get some clothes. Kat and Tara said they would go with you. You guys can just make it a girls trip." I looked at Kat and Tara and they smiled at me. "If you guys just want to go ahead and do that, then I'm okay with it," I said, softly. I didn't want to push them into shopping with me, especially if they were tired. I was feeling a burst of adrenaline over just the thought of getting new clothes. "I'm always down to shop," Tara said, standing up. "I need to walk and work off all of this anyway," Kat replied, standing up too. "Which car do we get? I want the Audi!" "What?" Sam exclaimed. "No way!" "Sam, just let them use the car," Colby sighed. Sam glared at him for a second, then pulled the keys from his pocket. Kat held out her hand and he dropped them into it. "Traitor," he mumbled under his breath. Kat giggled, and leaned up on to kiss him. He growled and wrapped his arms around her waist, then dipped her back. She squealed with his lips still on hers. "Oh!" she exclaimed, when he brought her back up. She winked at him, then waved to the rest. "See you boys later. We're about to have some fun! Come on, Anna!" She reached over and grabbed my arm, so I had no choice but to allow myself to be dragged from the building. I looked back over my shoulder and waved to Colby. He smiled, and waved back. Tara jumped in the back, and allowed me to have the front seat. The leather interior literally felt so smooth, that I just slid into the seat. "Do you know where you're going?" I asked, buckling my seatbelt. She shook her head, and messed with her phone. "No, but Siri does. We're headed to the mall." "You have a Siri in your phone too?" I asked, confused. "Does everyone? Why is there so much in a phone? It seems like it would be too confusing." She laughed and backed out of the parking lot. "I guess maybe it can be, but it's just normal to us. It's not that hard, once you figure it out. You'll love it. Do you plan on getting a phone...now that you don't live with your grandma anymore, I mean?" She glanced in the rearview, realizing that she almost said too much around Tara. I hated that they had to lie and hide so much from their friends just for me. "Um, I don't know. I don't have any money. How much is a phone?" "Well, the latest one is around $1k, I think, but I'm sure Colby will get you a good one, since you can't afford it right now. Maybe he'll just add you to his and Sam's plan." I was still stuck on the price. "$1k? As in, $1000? Why in the hell would anyone pay that much for a phone??" I asked, amazed. She shrugged, and turned onto a busy road. There were cars bumper to bumper, and it made me nervous. "I don't know. Because it's the latest technology, I guess. It has great features, like camera and video quality. The memory storage is updated. $1k isn't as much as it used to be." "Sounds like a hellacious amount to me, just for a phone," I murmured. I looked out the window at the cars and buildings that we passed. In my past life, I had been used to busy towns and people hardly every slowing down. It seemed worse now. Like no one had the time to just stop and look around. They were all racing to get from one place to another. When they finally got there, they didn't even acknowledge it, because their faces were stuck to their little screens. People walking or hanging out together, didn't even talk to one another. They had little things stuck inside their ears, and their thumbs were flying across their screens. I wasn't so sure that I wanted a phone. I wanted to be able to look around me and enjoy what I saw and the people that I was with. I glanced in the backseat at Tara, and saw her holding her phone out, while she posed. I guessed that she was taking a picture of herself. "I wonder where we're going tonight," she said, catching my eye and smiling. "I don't know," I replied. "Colby just said we were going out. A club, I think." She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Well, yeah, but there are a lot of clubs," she answered. "Have you ever been to one?" I nodded, slowly. "Once, when I turned 21. With my best friend, Holley, and her boyfriend. It wasn't really my scene." "You've never been with us!" Kat exclaimed, pulling into a giant parking lot. "You'll have a ton of fun, I promise. Now, let's go find you something to wear for tonight." We climbed out of the car, and I looked up at the building. It wasn't as big as I remembered the one near my old home being, but it large tv screens in some of the windows playing ads for underwear or perfume playing over and over again. "Maybe we should've went somewhere with more of a selection," Kat murmured, looking at the building. "No, this is fine. I only need something for tonight and maybe a couple of shirts and pairs of jeans. This will be fine," I insisted. "Yeah, we can always just take her shopping again, when we get back to LA," Tara chimed in. "That won't be necessary," I almost whined. "Please, I don't need that much. I plan on finding a job as soon as I can. That way I buy my own clothes and stuff." They exchanged a look, then laughed. "Anyway," Kat said. "Let's just start from the front and make our way around." From the second we walked inside the mall, I was dragged from store to store, pushed handed clothes, and pushed into dressing rooms. As soon as I would walk out and show them one outfit, they were shoving another into my arms, and turning me back to the dressing room.