Mall of Vetis

The world hated her, at least that’s what she had been telling everyone since New Years, and Valentine’s Day was just as bad. She had woken up to someone pounding on her and Heaven’s front door, and that person had been a delivery man with a dozen yellow and pink roses for her from none other than Brian. When she got to work, Spencer did nothing by try to talk to her as she just locked herself in her office, until the opportunity to spend time with Parker and Heaven came about, and that’s when Parker had basically forced her to go see Brian.

When she went on her lunch break, he tried to stop her to ask her if she got his flowers, but she quickly ran to hide from him. So in short here it was almost two months after the double whammy and she was still refusing to face either one of the guys about the kiss. She spent her lunch breaks hiding either with Frank in the back room of Subway, or with Heaven and Parker at Macy’s, Nicole in Forever 21, and even made it to help Nell out at Hallmark a few times.

Tarra looked down at her watch to make sure that she wasn’t skipping lunch and to her horror it was only ten in the morning. Groaning she began to repeatedly slam her head on her desk. Today was getting boring; she’d done all the work that needed to be done in the shop minus the inventory that won’t be done until after she closed for the day.

A hand reached out and stopped her head from slamming on the desk, and she glared up at Gerard as he just smirked at her.

“Hey Gerard, did you need anything?” She asked rubbing her head. He took a seat on her couch and looked at her with his head cocked to the side.

“Did you know that Frank’s been going on and on about the fact that you two are talking like you did while you was together, and it’s starting to freak him out, because he’s with Jamia?”

“It’s freaking him out that we’re talking?”

“Basically,” Gerard shrugged. “I think it has to do with the fact that you two flirt when you talk.”

“I don’t flirt when I talk-”Gerard gave her his all knowing look. “Okay I do flirt when I talk to Frank, but I can’t help it, he flirts first.”

“Ah, the aged old argument between the two of you,” Gerard smiled at her. “He started it, she’s creepy…”

“He said I was creepy” She pouted, which caused Gerard to laugh.

“No, Ray did.” Tarra made a mental note to kick Ray in the shin next time she seen him.
******

Tarra glared out the door of her office before making a mad dash out of it, completely ignoring Ryan’s laughter, Spencer’s pleas for her to talk to him, as well as the few customers that she had knocked into. She didn’t stop until she ran face first into the locked Employees Only door of Subway. Arms failing about her, she fell hard on her ass causing a loud yelp to escape her mouth and Frank’s booming laughter from behind the door. She glared at the door while standing up off the floor.

“Frank Anthony Iero, I swear by all that is in this ‘verse I will have Matt guard my shop and not let you step a single toe in it ever again.” There was a loud gasp behind the door before it quickly opened and four arms reached out to yank her into the back room. “That’s more like it, Mikey, I say you get free coffee tomorrow, I didn’t even threaten you and you helped!”

Frank pouted as he walked back to the front of the shop and began to make her a Veggie Delite.

“Are you hiding here, or just came for food and a visit?” Mikey asked as he took a seat in one of the chairs that they had in the back or the open area.

“Mainly just a visit and food,” She smiled at Frank as he brought over her six inch sub and waited as she pulled the three dollars out of her pocket to hand it to her. “Did you know your brother came to see me today?” She asked looking over at Mikey then turning to wave at Gerard and Ray that was across from them. Gerard let out a loud enough laugh for her to hear and waved back.

“He did, what’d he say?” Frank asked sitting down next to her and Mikey.

“He said I was scaring you,” she smirked over at him as he fidgeted in his seat.

“I … I … yeah, about that,” Mikey started laughing at him, until he noticed something else, a tall fedora wearing something else.

“Um, Tar, Brian’s on his way over here,” just at the mention of his name and she was army crawling on Mikey’s clean floor to the back where Brian couldn’t see her. Frank strut up to the counter to Met Brian just as Tarra had squatted behind a stack of boxes.

“What can I do for you?” She heard Frank draw there was mumbling coming from Brian’s throat that she couldn’t make out, then it came from Frank. The next thing she knew Frank was tossing her over his shoulder and running out of Subway, but not before slapping Brain on the back. That’s when she heard the words that would be the dread of the entire mall goers.
“Hide and seek!” Frank yelled out as he passed by Picasso Pizza. She heard Gerard’s shout of glee, and Ray’s groaning.

“Who’s it?” A now sauce covered Gerard yelled out to the two as Frank was still running.

“Brian!” Frank then tossed Tarra onto the ground not really caring that she had now landed on her ass for the second time that day. He was running from Shop to shop telling everyone that they were playing hide and seek.

Tarra groaned to herself knowing that she seriously sucked at this game, even though she could hide in the little places, much like Frank could, she still somehow ended up being found by Heaven every time they played. What she couldn’t figure out is how Heaven always seemed to get caught first.

Groaning to herself she ran toward the security offices. Matt glared at her from behind his desk as she slammed the door open.

“What can I do for you?” He asked looking from the monitors to her standing there.

“Frank has declared that we’re all playing hide and seek,” she stated shrugging her shoulders.

“Who’s it?” Dan asked from the opposite side of the room from Matt, which meant that Bob and Jeph were the ones walking around the mall or at the information desk.

“Brian,” Matt started laughing and pointed to the screen where Brian was still standing outside of Subway. “Does he even know he’s it?”

“He should, Frank’s loud when he yells these things out.”

Matt started cursing as he jumped out of his swivel chair causing the said chair to go crashing into Dan, who also jumped out of his, and fall to the floor before jumping up. They looked at each other and groaned. Tarra couldn’t help but want to know what was going on. She’d been sitting at Jeph’s desk and coloring in his Batman coloring book.

Looking up at the screen she shook her head. All the employees of the mall were running around to different stores talking to one another before running off to hide. The costumers looked on in interest as kids that usually got the beat down from some of the employees took it as their opportunity for their five finger discounts.

Matt yelled into his walkie talkie for Bob and Jeph to get the three kids while Dan was announcing over the intercom that the mall goers had exactly five minutes to get out of the mall before the doors would be locked.

“This is total chaos,” Matt was yelling out as he made his way toward the door with Dan following behind him. “When I get my hands on Iero I’m going to make him wish he never started working here.”

His voice drifted down the hallway as they kept walking completely forgetting that Tarra was sitting there.

Tarra sighed as she finished coloring in the scenery in the picture then wrote a quick colored by Jeph’s number one fan before making her way to the back of the room and opened the door in the back of the room leading into the locker room. She shook her head before climbing into the small closet that no one ever noticed. Her stomach was grumbling as she wished she wouldn’t have left her sub back with Mikey, as she closed her eyes and slowly fell asleep.