Mall of Vetis

"Okay okay," Heaven said, waving her hands to cut off the boy's angry tirade, "We at Macy's would like to apologize for making you smell good."

"I smell like a girl," the kid said for a hundredth time. Heaven sorta wants to hug him.

She could see Spencer Smith storming up from behind Parker, and she inwardly flinched, hoping Sarah hadn't sniped him. Spencer likes to make Heaven cry. But Spencer snapped at the still complaining kid (Ryan) and Heaven held back a snicker. Then Spencer was dragging him away toward the coffee shop.

"By the way, Ryan!" Heaven shouts at him, "Vanilla is definately your scent! You smell like cookies!"

"Shut up Heaven, he smells like a whore!" Spencer yells back.

Heaven is going to punch Spencer in the throat. He's skinny, she can totally take him. Or, okay, no, because Spencer seems like someone who would fight dirty. And his mean face is worse than her mom's mean face. But she might punch him in the kneecaps (she's totally short enough to reach them) and then run.

**********

Heaven leans against one of the tables toward the back of Forever 21, shuffling through the nicely folded piles. After Parker got back from her break Heaven took her own, and wound up stopping in at the girl clothing store. Her and Gabe have been close every since Heaven and William started dating their junior year of high school.

They'd been perfect for each other for three years, and then one morning Heaven had woke up next to William and said, "I think we're finished."

William had said, "Yeah, no kidding." And that had been that. They'd been best friends since they were eleven and it was so easy to fall right back into that.

She pulls another pair of jeans out of the pile, leaving the stack messy, and half unfolded, and tosses them to Gabe. Gabe shucks his pants and pulls the pair on in the middle of the aisle. Gabe shrugs, turning his butt her direction and looks thoughtful.

"How's my ass?" He asks, looking down.

"Non-existant. Like usual," she says, hiding a grin. Saporta really doesn't have that bad of an ass, truth be told. It's just, small.

"Hmm," he says, "Nothing I can do about that." He kicks the jeans off, leaving them on the floor, and pulls on another new pair.

Nicole storms up from the front of the store, arms crossed and irritated. She puts her finger in Gabe's chest, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Trying on pants," Gabe says, and Heaven knows they've had this conversation a zillion times.

"Use a dressing room," Nicole snaps. Gabe shrugs, hopping on one foot.

"Those are girls dressing rooms," he says rationally. Heaven snickers, and Nicole pins her with a glare.

"We're a god damned GIRLS CLOTHING STORE!" Nicole shouts. The customers all stop and look back at them. Heaven waves, because yeah, awkward. Just like that time she got drunk and made out with Gabe in a closet when she was fourteen.

"I'm out of here," Heaven winks at Gabe and skips out of the store. She waves across the floor at William, who's washing the window out front of Hallmark. He waves back, and she continues on to the food court. She really wants subway.

"I need a Spicy Italian on regular italian bread. Toasted," she says. Mikey nods and starts to cut her bread.

Frank smashes into his side, and he goes flying. His skinny arms flail as he falls to the ground. Heaven leans over the counter.

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to ask that you wash your hands and put on new gloves before you touch my food," she says, holding back her laughter. It never gets old seeing Mikey fall down. He's all gangly limbs falling.

"I suggest you order something different," Frank says. Heaven wrinkles her nose.

"A veggie delite maybe," Frank hints, pushing the bread down the counter.

"A spicy italian."

"How about a tuna melt?"

"A spicy italian," Heaven says again.

"How about a--"

"You give me my mother fucking spicy italian on italian bread right the fuck now," Heaven says leaning as far as she can over the counter and grabbing him by his collar, "And you better put alot of fucking pepperoni on it."

She shakes him for good measure.

"Okay okay, fine," Frank says, muttering, "Murderer."

"That's right," Heaven says, "Now fix my sandwich before I fuck you up."

"Why is it," Frank whines, "That whenever you talk to me you say the fuck word sixty times in one sentance, but you're nice to every one else."

"Because you're an irritating son of a bitch," Heaven says, pointing out her vegetables. She makes him make a veggie delite for Tarra, since that's her next stop. She skips away while Frank complains about meat eaters. She gives him the finger in front of a mom and her three children. She's not on the clock, it's okay.

Java the Hut has a huge line, and Heaven cuts straight to the front. She's got an in with the owner. The people in the back of the line complain, and the shouting follows the line up. She ignores them. The cause of the slow service happens to be tall, pretty, and smells like vanilla.

"Hi Ryan," she says, "I need a vanilla latte, stat."

"Did you just cut the line?" Ryan asks, staring at her. He raises an eyebrow, and yeah, screw hugging him. Heaven wants happy naked time.

"Yes, yes I did," she waves a hand, "Vanilla Latte."

"What's the problem Ryan," Spencer sighs, coming in from the back of the store.

"She cut the line," Ryan says, pointing. Spencer takes a look at the huge line. Heaven can see him thinking that he'd cut the line, too.

The customers are complaining louder, now. Tarra pops her head from the back and frowns.

"What's the matter?" she asks. Ryan points at Heaven.

"She cut the line."

"He's stuck on repeat," Heaven says, "All I want is a vanilla latte."

Tarra gives her friend a look that says she knows all the dirty things Heaven's thinking. Heaven sticks her tongue out at her.

"Well," Tarra says, "Fix her drink." Heaven pushes the veggie delite across the counter.

A loud groan starts from the back of the line up and Tarra grins.

"Don't forget her discount," Tarra calls as she disappears into the back of the store.

"Yeah," she says smugly, "Also, I think I want some lemon cake."

Spencer mutters while Ryan mixes her drink.

"If you drop that cake I will make you wear it," Heaven says. Spencer looks down at his lesbian unicorn shirt and cringes. That's right Spencer Smith, be scared. (Also, Heaven thinks, he should totally wear his red apron right if he doesn't want to get messy.)

She gives Ryan a cuddly smile when he hands her drink over, "Thank you, Ryan."

"Yeah," Ryan says, and then proceeds to ignore her. She frowns, and Spencer notices and starts laughing.

"Keep laughing, Spencer Smith," she says, "I am going to punch you in the kneecap."

"What?" Ryan looks over at her incredulously.

"Nothing.Bye," she says, grabbing the plastic container with her cake and running. Spencer's loud laughter follows her.