Heartmate | ✔️

t w o

"Tell me why I agreed to this again?" Jason groans. He stops the car at a signal and gives me a look through the rear-view mirror.

As usual his complains fall on deaf ears. Kyle turns the volume up high on the radio when Shape of You comes in.

The club isn't the best place to find a lover
So the bar is where I go
Me and my friends at the table doing shots
Drinking fast and then we talk slow.

Kyle and I dance in our seats and sing along loudly. Jason hits head against the steering wheel repeatedly cursing incoherent words under his breath.

"Will you two stop it or at least tone it down? People are starting to throw funny looks at us!" Jason shouts. He moves his hand to turn the volume down, but Kyle quickly slaps it away.

Say, boy, let's not talk too much
Grab on my waist and put that body on me
Come on now, follow my lead
Come, come on now, follow my lead.

I snicker as Kyle wiggles his eyebrows at Jason clearly enjoying the turn up of the lyrics at the correct time.

"You're impossible!"

I lightly punch my brother in the shoulder, and he stops puckering his lips at Jason to look at me. I nod my head at the car near us.

I roll my window down and smile at the little girl watching us with her big brown eyes.

Kyle suddenly yells, "Boo!"

The girl screams and falls back in her seat. Her mother throws us a dirty look as Jason speeds away, not wanting to do any more harm than we already have.

"Idiot."

I smack him upside the head.

"Ow that hurt."

"It was meant to."

I look through the rolled down window of Jason's black Mustang as he drives us to the Mall. We thought we'd finish up with our Christmas presents shopping. Christmas is just a week away anyway.

Kyle and I get off at the same time Hailey and Melissa get off Cole's baby blue Beetle. We wait at the entrance of the mall till the boys park their cars. Melissa and I haven't gotten our own cars yet, but the boys and Hailey do. Kyle's still in depression about running his car into a pole. It's still at the mechanic's getting patched up.

Apparently, he was trying to make a U-turn and a cat ran in between just then. He panicked, reversed, and crashed the trunk into the pole.

He crashed it and blamed the pole for being there. That's my brother for you.

We go separate ways into the mall once the boys get back. We agree to meet at the food court when we are done with our purchase.

I pull out my list of presents I'm getting for each person and quickly give it a once over. I look up to see that the book store is the nearest.

"Books it is then."

I notice Jason in the Build-a-Bear workshop about an hour later and smile in amusement.

"I wonder what he is doing in there."

Shifting the numerous shopping bags in my arms, I make my way to food court. I see my brothers and Melissa already seated in one of the tables and walk over to them.

"-agree that Batman is so much cooler Superman. I mean, who wants to see a grown man flying about the city with his underwear over his pants!" Kyle says.

"It's still better than getting fried in the heat wearing black spandex and a wannabe Maleficent mask!" Cole retorts.

I raise my eyebrow at Melissa, and she mouths back, 'Boys' and rolls her eyes making me smile.

I sit down in the empty seat beside Kyle. He glances at me and his face brightens up instantly.

"Don't give me that look. It usually doesn't lead to anything good." I say quickly. He pouts at me and gives me his famous puppy face.

"El bear, you know you're my favourite sister. So-"

"I'm your only sister." I deadpan mid-sentence.

"-you do support me with Batman, right?"

I glance at Cole to see him shaking his head at me furiously. I turn to Melissa for help, and she puts her hands up in surrender, popping a fry into her mouth.

"I think-"

"Yes?"

I glare at Kyle and shift in my seat.

"I think I like-"

"Superman better, I know." Cole finishes.

"-Spiderman the best. He's cute, funny, can climb walls and swings from building to building using basically a thin thread. Plus, there's no cape involved. Totally superhero material for me." I give them my biggest grin and watch as their jaws drop open.

I high five Melissa while they grumble and sip their smoothies.

"What did we miss?"

Hailey settles her bags next to mine and takes the seat beside Melissa. Jason plops in next to me and I discreetly search for any package that seems to be from Build-a-Bear.

I frown when I find none.

"Something wrong El?" Jason asks.

"Oh nothing. Nothing at all."

I plaster a smile and bite into a fry. My eyes look around aimlessly and that's when I spot a hooded figure leaning against at the wall.

Nothing would have seemed wrong if he weren't looking straight at me. I blink in surprise and when I see again, he's gone. I look around to find no trace of the mysterious hooded man at all.

When everybody's done eating, we make our way to the cars.

"You sure you're, okay? You seem distant. Are you not well?"

I hear Jason asking me again. His warm hazel eyes cloud with concern and I force a smile.

"I'm good. I just thought I saw somebody I knew."

He stares at me for a moment before nodding. I glance at the place the hooded figure had stood when we pass by. There seems to be nothing wrong at all.

Must be my imagination. I decide after looking around a couple of times. I could still feel someone's eyes on me. But no one seems to be staring at me.

Weird.