Everything Changes

Chapter 3: Mall and torture time

         I have this feeling that someone is watching me. I opened my eyes, startled to see Emma staring at me like a creeper. "What are you doing?" She sits back, smiling. 

        "Just seeing how long it was gonna take you to wake up and notice I was staring at you." I sit up and look at my clock. It's only 10 A.M. "How long have you been staring at me for?"

        "Probably for 20 minutes now." She laughs a little. She is such a dork, and she knows it. I stretch my arms out, sitting up. Emma starts bouncing on the bed acting like a little kid looking at me. "What are we gonna do today? Huh? Huh?!" I look at her like she's gone crazy. She looks back at me with her bottom lip puffed out. "Aria, what do you wanna do today?" 

        "I was thinking that maybe we can stay inside and just hang out?" She gave me this dumb look. "You don't think I am actually going to have you sit at home during our last week of freedom right? No! We are going to go to the mall to check out cute boys while we try on clothes." I shake my head slowly, I have never enjoyed going to the mall or going shopping at any place.

        "You know my brother's not gonna wanna take us to the mall right?" She gave me the look, that I know all too well, and jumps off my bed yelling, "Wanna bet?" She walks off, crosses the hall and knocks on the door. "Oh, Andrew~," She says with a tune. "will you take me and Aria to the mall please?" I hear my brother groan. 

        "What? No." Emma gives out a dramatic huff and flips her hair in frustration. She was making sure the boys knew she was not taking 'no' for an answer. "Come on~" Her voice raised an octave, but I could hear the warning undertone in her voice. 

        "You know you want to. And it will get me and your sister out of the house- Go find some nice back to school gear?" Her voice suddenly became a harsh whisper, but I could still hear her. 

        "She needs to get out of this gloomy house, you asshole, get up." I knew she had them right there, mentioning me getting out of the house. 

        Zach chimes in. "Dude, it could be fun. We can go look and see if they got anything new at GameStop." It's like they are all ganging up together and trying to get me out. I knew that I couldn't fight them and I didn't exactly have the energy to, so I just let them have their way.

         We arrived an hour later at the mall. Seeing it's sign made my scar flare-up. The air around me quickly starts to feel heavy, my lungs struggle to pull in a full breath. Desperately trying to stay in the present, my clammy hands nervously wipe over the tops of my thighs, seemingly never getting any dryer. 

        The noise in the car seemed to be a jumbled mess of incoherent sounds growing louder by the second, competing to drown out my own sound of my breathing. Why was I so loud suddenly? I need to get a grip.

                              *Knock-knock-knock*

         It was as if a channel was changed. I blink hard at the sudden silence, quickly seeing Andrew continue to casually knock on the other side of the window. He was looking towards the back end of the car where Zach and Emma waited. I shake my head to compose myself before getting out to follow everyone inside.

         As soon as we passed the main entrance, the boys went to look at video games as Emma dragged me around. I used to fight against her, but I just don't feel like it anymore. I don't have that feistiness in me. 

        "Where are we going?" I ask in a monotonous tone. Lord knows Emma is headed towards some overbearing girly store and she's going to make me try on almost everything. "I was thinking we could go check out Forever 21, Hollister, and anywhere else that catches our eyes today!"