World of Endless Days

The shopping centre was fairly empty. It was Thursday morning, so the usual gaggle of teenagers were currently sat in school, learning the deep, valuable lessons of life. It was better off that way. It was much easier to move around, to breathe and actually walk idly around the shops, stopping to look at things, instead of rushing in and getting what you need and hurrying back out.

Right now the shopping centre was the last place Charley wanted to be. But Nick had insisted she tagged along with him and his two rather strange friends. The last thing he wanted was for her to spend her suspension alone. So he'd arrived at her apartment at eleven thirty that morning and pretty much dragged her out to John's car.

So, here they were now, standing in HMV. Charley felt extremely out of place with the three friends. They shared inside jokes, and even though Nick included her as much as he possibly could, it still felt awkward.

"Now, screw Twilight, you're going to go and buy this," John ordered at Eric, waving a CD under his nose.

Eric pulled a face and shook his head. "Go and buy it yourself." He pushed John out of the way, in an attempt to ignore him.

Charley frowned curiously at the pair of them. So far, she had observed that they acted like an old married couple. They argued over the tiniest things, but deep down, they loved each other to bits. It was clear they were close. Through her observations, Charley felt herself becoming more and more jealous. She'd gladly trade places with one of them for a day, just to remind herself how true friendship felt.

"You alright? I know the mall's not exactly where you want to be right now, we'll be going soon, once they've done arguing," Nick said, quietly to her, motioning over to John and Eric, who were currently walking towards the tills, still arguing with one another, John waving the CD around in the air.

"It's fine, it's just nice to be out and around new people," she smiled reassuringly at him.

She glanced back towards Eric and John, the latter was now stomping towards them, with a face like thunder. His eyes narrowed to slits. "Consider me and Eric done." He pushed the CD he'd been trying to persuade Eric to buy for the past twenty seven minutes into a vacant slot inside one of the racks beside them, before folding his arms across his chest. Charley chuckled, he reminded her of a small child who hadn't gotten his way.

"What CD is it anyway?" She asked, picking it up and looking at the back cover.

John replaced his frown with a grin. "My band, The Maine, we're pretty good."

Charley raised her eyebrows, placing the CD back into the slot, with much more grace than John had. "Hm, blowing your own trumpet a bit there, aren't you?"

John frowned. "Um, what?"

"She means you're being big headed," Nick informed his confused friend.

John's jaw dropped open slightly. "I'm anything but big headed!"

Charley chuckled again. "If you say so."

"I'm not!"

By now Eric had returned, a small black plastic bag clasped in his hands. He looked around at the three of them. "What'd I miss?"

"Charley thinks I'm big headed!" John exclaimed, a look of pure shock plastered on his face.

Eric giggled. "You are, dude. Now, can we leave? I'm starving."

"No, Eric, you're not starving, kids in Africa are starving, you're simply hungry," Nick sighed, clapping his friend on the shoulder, before guiding him out of the shop.

Charley hung back, an amused smile still dancing across her lips at John's shock. Clearly, no one had ever filled him in on the size of his ego. Or maybe they had and he just hadn't taken them seriously, until now.

"I'll show you I'm not big headed," John smirked.

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Go out with me. Tonight. It doesn't have to be a proper date or anything, call it an experiment."

Charley turned and looked towards the front of the shop, where Nick was laughing at something Eric was saying to him. She sighed heavily and looked back at John. "Fine. As long as you pay." She swallowed hard, hoping Nick wouldn't take this the wrong way. That was the last thing she wanted.