Friends

PART EIGHTEEN: PRESSURE

 A quick trip to the clothing stores, then off we go to ambush the bookstores. I destined my eyes to published books such as To Kill A Mockingbird, Watership Down, and other critically acclaimed novels. I adore these works as I aspire to be an author. I wish to have a collection but I know that every page will end up in torn pieces.

After the roundtrip, we skipped to the food court where many food stands were available. Chicken wings, Sugar donuts, Bacon waffles, and Pineapple pizza. Wayne grasped my hand and everyone followed as we ran, "What do you want? Pick and I'll purchase it for you." My eyes flew past the wind and I said, "Oh, you don't need to repay me. It was Harry's intention, not me."

Fiona bumped in and said, "In that case, can you fetch me a doughnut over there?"

"No, anyways. I'm doing it because I owe you a lot," he added.

Knowing his words are precious, I decided to give in and chose the waffle store. "Head over to your destined stalls, I'll stay here with Wayne," I said to the others as they roamed around the floor. "Rode, if I'm not mistaken, your order is a waffle with bacon bits and chocolate?" He told me my order which he remembers up to this day and that was undeniably his brilliant mind working. "Okay, make that two. Will you? How much is the payment?"

The register pulled up three dollars for our waffle. Wayne did exchange another money and change to the cashier. As the others went back from their stalls, Wayne asked, "You want a bite of this?"

Harry turned his head around fast, "Of course, thanks. Bacon bits, that's great."

"What do you have, Jade?"

She opened her package, "It's a pepperoni pizza. I love myself some pizza."

Fiona with her senses, "That smells great, mind switching?"

"No, thank you. But you can have a bite as long as I can taste your doughnut."

"It's a strawberry doughnut, but sure."

After a handful of switching and tasting other foods, we barely had enough time. "Look at the clock, it's not going anywhere. Let's speed to the karaoke," Wayne said in a good mood. As he holds his red panda, he boosts everyone up to the escalators and the karaoke. "Thanks for this, Charlie. I got something for this day," Jade said, holding the stuffed toy that Wayne didn't want: Fiver.

"You're welcome. It was not my intention but I'm glad to hear that." We headed up inside and Wayne placed his money for one song. "This is for Charlie," he exclaimed. "Choose a song for us to sing."

"Well, if you insist."

We sang Under Pressure, and Wayne honored us with the scatting. All of us started singing along. My personal favorite was the outro when David Bowie said the lines, "Love's such an old-fashioned word, and love dares you to care for." Damn, those words are heartbreaking up to the last part. Everyone went silent when the outro came and I started singing. Jade followed and sang along with me as a duo. We sang ourselves through the night. Wayne must've been tired by hitting those octaves. Specifically, all of us are. We were smiling so hard that our cheeks hurt.

Harry tossed the mic, "You have a great voice for the chorus, Fiona. This should be our jam from now on."

"Yeah, your voice sucked though in the chorus," she replied.

"Excuse me," he said, flabbergasted.

We were having fun. Singing isn't my strongest attribute but so does everyone. We truly went for the mic and sang our old souls to an old song.

As we got outside the entrance, I bought myself a journal at the bookstore that was located beside the doorway. It's colored pastel, so I will bear it.

As I got home, I started writing about every passive thing that happened that day.