"I try to listen to your words, but I can't feel my head and it's unraveling." - Beach Fossils, Sleep Apnea
~~~
I got in the car and Avery was still silent. I didn't expect to get a peep out of her any time soon.
"Can we go to the mall first?" She asked me. Her gaze didn't leave the window.
"Yeah," I responded.
The Annapolis mall was gigantic and about 10 minutes away from the retirement home. It was all one floor but had so many passageways that led to various parts of the mall. Christmas was 2 weeks away so I expected for the building to be crowded.
I was correct. The search for an empty parking space was like searching for a granule of salt in a sea of sand.
Ok, maybe not that hard.
I had to go to one of the top levels of the parking garage by the entrance of Forever 21. Of all things, that store had 2 levels.
"Of all the stores in the mall, they decide to make this one two levels," Avery commented.
"Don't you like Forever 21 though?"
"I never said the 2 story Forever 21 was a bad thing."
We exited the car and walked into the store. It was more of a speed walk as it was fucking freezing outside. I had a coat on while Avery just had a fleece zip up covering her sweatshirt.
"Aren't you cold without a coat?" I asked.
"This is good enough," she managed to reply through the inconsistent teeth chatters.
Once we entered the heated store, the chill noticeably persisted in Avery. She began wandering the store and had various clothing items draped over her arm. I caught myself holding a shirt, unwillingly.
After the article count reached 8 in an alarmingly short amount of time, I began to question our reason for being here. Well, her reason.
"Is this just a normal Saturday or is there a specific reason why we're here?" I asked her.
She continued to intently browse through the clothes racks. "That's a nice question. It's a mixture of both. Christmas is in 2 weeks so, I can find a gift, but retail therapy never hurt anyone."
She held up a newly found The Grinch-themed Christmas sweater. "See this can be for Brielle."
"What about the other 8 things?" I asked.
She shrugged. "They are going to be worn. By who, is the question."
"You'll wear everything and you know that. Maybe give her one more shirt or something before you hog the rest."
"It's not my fault that Brielle and I just so happen to wear the same size in...everything."
I squinted, catching her obvious bluff.
"Don't look at me like that. If you really wanted a shirt so bad, you could've just asked me."
"That's not really necessa-," I said before I eyed a black hoodie with the words "for better or for worse" printed in red. "Actually, can I get that one?"
She smiled and grabbed that shirt. "I'll buy this for you if you buy me lunch."
Wait, she was the one who offered to buy me a shirt in the first place. I decided not to go against her and let her buy the shirt for me. Paying fifteen dollars for food court fare was better than paying the 20 bucks for that shirt.
She paid for everything which turned out to cost a little over $150. I wondered if she had a job and worked to earn that money or if she just got lucky with a middle-class family.
"So, what do you want?" I asked.
She looked around before her eyes stopped on Five Guys. I was in the mood for a burger anyway so, her thoughts were in accord with mine.
Her fries in the bag went beyond the fry cup the fries were supposed to be in. Whoever made my fries decided not to bless me with that privilege.
"Here, have some of mine," Avery suggested, sliding the brown bag closer to me.
"Well, that was nice to do." I grabbed a fry out of the bag and ate it.
"They always give me way more fries than I can actually eat. I say a small order, they give me a 'My 600 lb Life' portion."
"When is that ever a bad thing?" I asked before grabbing a handful of Avery's fries and plopping them on my aluminum foil.
"I don't want to waste too much food. It kinda weighs on my conscience. It's heavier than my graceful ballerina faux locs, as you would call them," she said, sipping some iced tea through her red straw. She eyed me playfully.
Oh God no. I knew she didn't remember that stupid thing I said at the dance competition. I said it because I was nervous about talking to her when she approached me on those steps.
Little did I know, she wasn't even a fucking ballerina.
What I did know was a girl that looked like Avery didn't come around every day. Let alone an attractive girl like her that would even talk to me.
"I was just joking," she remarked, snapping me out of my serious overthinking. Her facial expression was flat and it was obvious that she saw how I didn't think of it as a joke.
Ok, now I officially looked like a dumbass; a dumbass who couldn't take a joke.
☠A/N☠
Guys! We reached 1k reads yesterday and I am shooketh. So, I decided to drop this chapter a day early. I hope you enjoyed even though it was kinda short :/
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See You on the Other Side | ✓
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