I woke up to the sound of my parents fighting downstairs. Looking over at the clock, I saw the time and freaked out. 10:40 AM. I jumped out of bed and started changing my clothes. I threw on my black skinny jeans, fastened a black studded belt around my waist, and tugged my Batman shirt over my head. I groaned as I realized I had packed all of my shoes already, not leaving me any to throw on. I dug through my bags until I found a pair of boots, and put those on as well. Grabbing all of my bags, I walked slowly down the stairs, careful not to hurt my side any more.
"Bye, Coraline." My mom called. She was the only person who ever called me by my actual name. No one else did because it sounded too close to my last name. Coraline Valentine.
"Goodbye, Mom." I said slowly. My mom had always been the more thoughtful of the two. Even if she was awful, she cared.
"Bye, Dad!" I called into the kitchen, where he was reading the newspaper. He grunted in response.
I walked out the door and closed it behind me, feeling a rush of relief as I did. The mall that Hot Topic was in was only about three blocks away, so getting there was a breeze. Looking at my phone, it was already 11:20 AM, so I sent Sammi a quick text.
Sorry, woke up late, at the mall now. Be there in like 3 minutes.
I hopped on the elevator and closed my eyes. My side was hurting. The elevator doors opened with a Ding! and I opened my eyes, quickly walking off and towards Hot Topic.
As soon as I was in a 100 foot radius, I saw Sammi. She was wearing a bright pink tank top, a floral looking skirt and super high heels. Easily outdoing me.
"Sammi!" I shouted when I was closer.
She turned around and ran towards me.
"Heyyyy!" She said, smiling, hugging me. I winced as her arm touched the bruise on my side.
"You okay?" She said as she released me.
I smiled. "I'm fine. Can we go? These bags are heavy."
She laughed and held up a finger, just a second. She walked into Hot Topic and called for someone, and was followed out by Jinxx and four boys I didn't know. The tallest one, who was also the one with the shortest hair, looked at my shirt and smiled. I guess he likes Batman, I know I do.
Sammi scoffed. "None of you are gonna grab her bags? You guys suck at chivalry."
The tallest one and another one wearing a bandana came over and each grabbed two bags, freeing my shoulders. I sighed.
"Thank you." I said quietly. They both nodded at me.
"Jinxx and I, and now you, only live just around the corner, so we all walked here. So let's get moving!" Sammi said, as we walked towards the doors leading out to the parking lot.
