What's Your Story?

“Where’re we going anyway?” Amber asked. She sat in the backseat of Conner’s car, he drove and Kylie rode shotgun. Amber was sitting forward in her seat so that her head was between the front seats.

“The mall,” Kylie said before hiring the radio. Katy Perry’s Waking Up In Vegas blasted through the speakers.

Amber bobbed her head along with the beat. “I love this song! I’ve wanted to go to Vegas for years but I never got to go for my twenty-first birthday. Conner, have you ever gone there?”

“Once for my cousin’s wedding about two years ago. We went to the casinos for the bachelor party.”

“That sounds like fun!”

“I guess, we just got drunk and gambled until the one guy that stayed sober made us leave. I felt so bad for him the next day.”

“Have you ever gone to Vegas?” Amber asked Kylie.

“A few times. My sisters like to go there during the summer and I was able to get a couple stories for the third book.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met your sisters.”

“No, they live in Jersey so we barely see each other and my younger sister’s in college at the moment so it’s hard for her to get away.”

“Are they a lot like you?”

“No really, we’re all different. Marianne, the oldest, loves math and science and she’s working in labs. Sierra’s the free spirit of the family. She loves painting and protests. She wants to stop animal cruelty and she’s in college studying Art.”

“I met Marianne, right?” Conner asked.

“Yeah, last year when she was spending the weekend.”

“I never saw her,” Amber said.

“That’s because she wanted to be out and about all day. We were up and out of the apartment by eight and we didn’t get home until midnight. The only time we were home was to sleep and shower.”

“I want to meet your sisters, especially Sierra, she seems cool.”

“You haven’t heard about her brothers, they’re hilarious,” Conner laughed and Kylie shot him a look.

“You have brothers too? Wow there’s so much I don’t know about you.”

Kylie sighed and shot Conner a look before speaking. “My twin brothers, Peter and Ben, are two years older than me and two years younger than Marianne. All of us are two years apart; my parents wanted a big family. They were good kids growing up but then Ben got involved in the wrong crowd. The hilarious stories Conner knows are from that time.” Kylie’s voice hardened as she continued. “But he eventually got back on track, after a year in jail of course. He went to college and now he’s a construction worker and Peter’s a lawyer.”

“Why don’t you ever talk about your family?” Amber asked.

“You know how each family has that one child that was always in the background? I grew up being that child and that’s who I still am even though I have the book out. One day a year everyone will call or email to say they read the book but besides that it’s all about Marianne’s work, Peter’s latest trial, Ben’s new project, or Sierra’s paintings or whatever she’s working on. It doesn’t help that I moved away as soon as I could.”

Amber and Conner didn’t say anything, Amber was too afraid that she would say the wrong thing and Conner knew to let her calm down.

They pulled into the packed mall parking lot and found a spot near the back. Conner walked between the two women and Amber couldn’t look happier.

“So what stores are we going to?” she asked when they stepped into the warm building. The girls smoothed down their windblown hair.

“I need to go to J. C. Penny and DEB’s. Conner, do you think you can find whatever you need by yourself?” Kylie asked.

“Yes, Mother” he said with an eye roll.

“I’ll go with Conner and help him,” Amber volunteered.

“Sure, whatever. We’ll meet up at the fountain in two hours for lunch.” Kylie left them before they could say anything else.

All she could think of as she walked was the conversation. Kylie knew she shouldn’t get so mad at Amber, she didn’t know anything about Kylie’s family, but Kylie still couldn’t help feeling so upset.

The first store she went into was J. C. Penny, they were having a huge sale on pants, buy one get one for eighty-eight cents. She desperately needed new dress pants and at least one pair of jeans.

The store was crowded and by the time Kylie found four pair of pants in her size and gotten into a dressing room she was ready to murder someone. No one had manners anymore.

Everything fit so Kylie high-tailed it out of the dressing rooms and looked around the store. She found bras with fun designs and got two just because and then she got a bathrobe.

The check outline took forever; the women at the registers had no idea what they were doing. When Kylie finally got up there and was out of the store she had less than an hour before it was time to meet at the fountain. DEB’s was close by and the store didn’t look too crowded so Kylie took a chance and walked in.

The first things she saw were the dresses. There were ones for all occasions and she was immediately distracted. There hadn’t been a need for a new dress in about two years because whenever Sierra grew out of her old clothes she would save them for Kylie and she had dresses occasionally. Kylie was about to leave and look for what she originally came for, socks, when one group of dresses caught her eye.

They were black and knee length with spaghetti straps. Underneath was black tulle which made the dress look like it would be fun to twirl in. Then on the bottom and in a tiny strip around the waist were bands of color, there was red, green, and blue. They were simple dresses and Kylie had no where to wear it but the dress looked pretty and it looked like something Sierra would deem too plain and Marianne was too practical to buy a party dress for no reason. Talking about her sisters had made Kylie want to prove to herself how different she was from the two women.

Kylie found a dress with the green trim in her size and went to the dressing room, her step lighter than before. The dress fit perfectly and looked great, she changed back into her clothes, much happier than before. She found the socks she needed and grabbed black tights to go with the dress.

As she left the store, Kylie checked her watch. She had fifteen minutes to get to the fountain. Her three bags swung slightly as she walked towards the center of the mall. Gold, green, and red stars hung above her, a sign that Christmas was less than two months away. The Santa station was being set up, a sign reading ‘Santa will be here starting December first! Don’t miss him!’ was in front of the gold painted fence. Snow made form stuffing cotton sat on the floor, woodland animals were dotted throughout the setting and a little house sat in the middle. Hidden from view was Santa’s large red chair, which sat on the other side of the house. Children going past stopped to stare before their mothers’ tugged on their hands, pulling them forward.

Kylie remembered when her mother used to take all of them to see Santa. They would stand in line for what felt like forever. Kylie and her siblings would talk about what toy they would ask Santa to bring them. Then the poor worker who was dressed as an elf would let them up to talk to Santa. A group picture would be taken and they would ask the department store Santa to bring them this doll or that toy car. Then it would be over, all of that excitement, over in five minutes.

Kylie reached the fountain and found Conner and Amber sitting on the bench in front of it, bags lying at their feet.

“Did you find everything?” Kylie asked as they headed towards Ruby Tuesday’s.

“Yeah, did you?”

“Yes and I found some great sales. Amber, if you need pants go to J. C. Penny,” Kylie said, startling Amber.

“O-okay?”

Lunch was chatter-filled. The three discussed what they bought. Amber loved Kylie’s dress and Kylie was glad she got it. They decided to go to Barnes and Noble before leaving for the day.

They entered the quiet store. Not many people were there and Kylie was thankful for that. Occasionally there would be a group of teenagers who shouted across the store and were overly obnoxious.

“Hey, Kylie!” the man behind the counter came around and pulled Kylie into a huge hug when she came in. He let go of her and Kylie smiled up at the man.

“Hiya, Chuck. Anything good come in?”

“We have the paperback of that one book you were looking at last time. It came in a few weeks ago.”

“Lock and Key?” Kylie asked, already moving towards the teen section. Chuck followed behind, smiling at the girl.

“Why do you love these girlie books so much? There’s no depth or action. Just drama, kissing, and more drama.”

“Because they’re so sweet at the end.”

“But I thought you hated all that romance crap.”

“It’s different in books.”

“You’re so weird.”

“Yep and you’re the one who decided to befriend the weirdo.”

They bantered back and forth while Kylie checked the rest of the teen section and the adult section. She found three more books and went up to the front to pay. Amber was looking at the new releases and Conner was looking at car books.

Chuck rang up Kylie’s books and took off the member discount.

“So, guess what we’re getting in next week,” Chuck said after the books were in a bag.

“Um a section on musicians?”

“Nope. The paperback copy of What’s Your Story? Volume Four.”

“Oh yeah, Conner was telling me about that. Wow, it feels like it was just released.”

“It’s been out for a few months.”

“I know but everything’s been happening so quickly.”

“I heard about the trip you’re going on. Would you be interested in buying a book of maps?” Chuck asked with a large grin.

“Hm tempting but we have this new fangled invention called a GPS system and if that fails a laptop with internet access for MapQuest. I think we’ll be all right.”

“Fine, be that way.”

“I will.”

“Hey, Ky, you about ready to go?” Conner called.

“Yeah, just give me one second,” she turned back to Chuck. “So I’ll see you when I get back?”

“Yep. Have fun.”

“Thanks. Try not to throw too many wild parties while I’m away and don’t harass any pretty ladies.”

“Me? Never!”

“Bye.” they hugged over the counter and Kylie grabbed her bag. “Don’t get arrested and I’ll see you in a few months.”

“See you, Kylie.”

Kylie left the store with Amber and Conner. Amber waited until they were a few stores away to speak.

“So, who was that guy?”

“Chuck?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s just some guy I know. I’ve been going to this Barnes and Noble since I moved here and he’s worked there forever so we’ve become friends over time.”

“It looked like there was something more than friendship there,” Amber said with a smile.

“No, Amber, we’re just friends,” Kylie replied firmly.

They got outside and the late afternoon air bit at their bare skin. Finding the car was easy and the first thing Conner did was put the heat on. Kylie talked about the books she got for most of the ride, mostly to keep Amber from bringing up Chuck again.

They reached the apartment building within an hour.

“Thanks for letting me tag along,” Amber said to Conner in a sugary voice.

“No problem.”

“Promise to see me before you leave?”

“Sure, I’ll come by tomorrow. Goodbye, Amber.”

“Bye!”

“Amber, you go on in. I need to talk with Conner about packing.”

“Okay, I’ll see you upstairs.”

Amber grabbed her bags and left the car, closing the door too hard behind her.
“Be by tomorrow at seven and I’ll just spend the night at your house then we can start out Sunday morning.”

“Okay. And see, Amber coming with us wasn’t that bad right?” he asked with a smirk.

Kylie stuck her tongue out at him and left the car. As the door closed she could hear him laugh. He pulled away and through the closed windows she heard Waking Up In Vegas playing. Conner was such an ass.