All I'm Dreaming Of

As to be expected, the mall was packed. The mall, one could say is a safe haven for people who want to get away from the weather. Or for people who have nothing else to do, like me and Emily. We go to the mall so often; we could navigate through its stores with our eyes closed.

I followed her into the closest shoe store that happened to be Foot Locker, and surveyed the shoes displayed on the wall.

"Oooh, I like these," Emily squealed, holding up a pair of high top Nikes that were fluorescent colored.

"Ouch," I said playfully as I pulled out my sunglasses. "Those are way too bright."

"True," she said thoughtfully. "But they would go perfectly with some stuff I have in my closet. Could I have these in a size six please?"

An older guy nodded in her direction and moved off to the back of the store to get her shoes.

I eyed a classic pair of Nikes near by and lifted the shoe off its rack. They were black, with baby blue lining around its base, but the swoosh was hot pink that matched the laces.

"Do you think these shoes come with baby blue laces also?" I asked Emily. If the shoes I bought came with another pair of laces that matched the shoe, I would put one color on each foot. Some people were even stupid enough to ask me if I was wearing two different shoes. I mean really!

The guy came back with Emily's shoes and I asked for a size ten in the shoe I was holding.

We walked right up to the register and waited for the guy to return. We bought sneakers so often we didn't need to try them on.

After our shoes were paid, we walked deeper into the mall, passing by kids we knew and said the casual 'hellos.'

"Nice! A sale at American Apparel!" I exclaimed, rushing into the store.

Moving fast, I selected a few pairs of long sleeved tops for the fall and got in line to check out.

After leaving American Apparel, Emily and I moved around the mall, stopping here and there to buy more last minute school things.

"Want to get a smoothie?" I suggested as Emily and I approached the food court.

"Um, definitely," she agreed and sped past me to join the line in front of Mr. Smoothie.

"Can I help you?" a girl asked from behind the fresh fruit on display.

"Um, can I have a large strawberry pina colada please?"

"Sure, that'll be $4.45," the girl yelled, over the blender. "Would you like whipped cream on that?"

"Yes please," I said while taking out a five dollar bill and handing it to the guy at the register. The girl handed me my smoothie and I sipped at it though the straw while surveying the food court.

I recognized a few people from school, mainly by the Cloverdale hoodies or hockey jackets.

"Oh look there's Jeffery!" Emily squealed and hurried over to sit by him and his friends. I had no choice but to follow.

"Hey Jeffery!" Emily gushed as she squeezed between him and some other guy. "How's your summer been?"

There were no empty seats, so I stood casually next to their table.

Jeffery smiled at Emily and his eyes crinkled up in the corners. "Great actually, besides the summer work outs."

"I hear you!" one of his friends exclaimed with a groan.

I snickered and slurped more of my smoothie, watching a group of guys in dark blue hockey jackets move into the food court. Ah the Bellport hockey team has arrived. This should be interesting.

The large group of guys crowded six tables near the one I was standing by. Something was going to happen between the two teams, I could already feel the tension in the air.

Emily caught my eye and she darted her eyes back and forth between me and the table of Bellport guys.

I casually glanced over at the table at all the unfamiliar faces then back at her, a 'what the fuck' look on my face.

She mouthed the words 'Gabe' and nodded back at the table.

When I glanced over again at the table, I found Gabe's face almost instantly. Compared to the hockey picture online, Gabe looked much different. The sharp angles in his face weren't defined in his team picture, but were totally noticeable here in the food court, especially with the light playing off them.

Before he could look up and meet my eyes, I made a 'yuck!' face at Emily. She shrugged and wiggled her eyebrows, right as the first hamburger bun was thrown.

Oh this should be interesting.