Impossible Is Possible

Daniella rips a piece off of the pretzel herself and Roxanne are sharing. She pops it into her mouth and waves her hands around. “I feel like such a mall rat. Is there seriously nowhere else we can go?”

Shoving the rest the salted treat into her mouth, Roxanne munches on it loudly and swallows. “Dude, its Las Vegas—the only places that we can go to involves strippers and alcohol—not that I object to the alcohol, you know.”

“What about the lake that we used to walk to when we were little?” Daniella asks, completely ignoring Roxanne’s last statement. “It’s probably still there.”

“Hm,” Roxanne hums thoughtfully and takes a sip of her water. “I don’t even remember how to get there anymore…”

“Yeah, me either. I thought you would.”

Smiling sadly, Roxanne shakes her head and sighs. “I don’t remember where the path was that starts in the woods. God!” she exclaims suddenly, causing Daniella to choke slightly on her own spit. “Remember that old rope that used to swing out into the lake? And how we used to challenge each other to see who could get the farthest? Man—I really wish I remembered where that was at, now.”

“Me too. That place was the perfect little getaway.”

“I could totally use a place like that every now and then, ya’know?”

Daniella notices the sad tone in the red head’s voice and wraps an arm around her shoulders. “But, if you had the lake, then you wouldn’t come to my house and steal all my food.”

“That’s true,” Roxanne laughs and leans her head on Daniella’s shoulder, sighing. “You have such great food—ugh, now I’m hungry. Take me back to your place so I can snack properly.”

“You just ate three pretzels!”

“Uh, hence me saying so I can snack properly.”

“Why are you my friend? Really.”

Roxanne looks at her like the answer is obvious. “Because I’m amazing in every way, sense and form. I give you comical pleasure everyday and give memories to last a fucking lifetime. Duh.”

“Don’t you duh me,” Daniella says with a raised eyebrow. “I take that to offense. It’s like you’re mocking me.”

“Duh. Duh. Duh.”

“You know what? Just for that, I’m dragging you into the photography store—“

“No,” Roxanne says with a drawled out moan and collapse right there, on the mall’s filth-invested floor. She sits there with arms crossed over her chest. “You can’t make me. It’s torture! You know that drug-addict that works there always hits on me—Torture!”

Daniella laughs and tugs at her friends locked arms. “C’mon, get up. It’s not so bad! He’s cute! And the only reason you think he’s a drug addict is because he wears a dirty beanie and talks about the Beatles every five seconds.”

”Drug addict.”

“So, you’re saying if I wore a dirty hat and talked about one of the greatest bands ever, I would be considered a drug addict?”

Roxanne rolls her eyes and huffs. “Of course not, I’d think you were clinically insane.”

“And there’s my point… sort of.”

Instead of responding, Roxanne just continues to sit there with a determined look on her youthful face. As she refuses, Daniella huffs and puffs at the other girl—finally having enough she makes grab hands for Roxanne and pulls her by the crossed arm. While the struggle escalades, Roxanne yells and shouts, making the passing shoppers stare at the pair in confusion.

As if she just gave up, Roxanne slumps and lets Daniella pull her dead weight up off the dirty floor. The blonde grins in triumph and pulls her friend across the floor and into the small photography store—where the infamous man with the beanie stands behind the counter, flipping through an old issue of Spin.

“See?” Roxanne whispers and huffs. “He’s here and when he sees me his gonna—“

“Hey, Dani,” the man says with a small smile and waves. He then looks over at Roxanne and bites into a smirk. “And girl who I never learned the name of and always gives me weird looks.”

“’Cause you are weird,” Roxanne says stiffly and walks away with her chin tilted—walking back towards the chairs and photography books. “You if need me, Dani,” she says with stress on the girl’s name and glares at the man, “I’ll be withering in misery over by the pretty picture books.”

Daniella shakes her head and sighs with a small smile, then turns towards the man and laughs. “Hey, Shane, how’s it going?”

“Oh, you know, same old same old,” he says with a wave of the magazine and a roll of his bright eyes. “Nothing but old people and preteens who think photography is the newest trend.”

“When will they ever learn?”

“That is a wonderful question!” he says with an aspirated sigh and smiles deviously when he looks over to Roxanne, who is looking beyond bored as she looks at an old black and white photo album. “So,” Shane yells to the back of the store. “The Beatles are an amazing band; you should really listen to them. The Sergeant Pepper’s album is so good!”

“Shut up!” a yell comes from the shaded corner. “Leave me alone, you photo-loving-beanie-wearing freak! Go wash your hair, and then maybe you can talk to me!”

Shane laughs deep from his throat and glances over at Daniella—the girl standing there with a raised, interested eyebrow. He makes a motion with his hands. “What? It’s fun to fuck with her.”

“You do know she thinks you’re some drug addict that wants to date her, then date rape her.”

“And that makes it so much fun!” he says with amusement and shrugs his shoulders. “Besides, I don’t want to date her—not matter how much she wishes I would—I actually have a fiancé.”

Daniella reaches over and smacks Shane on the arm. “Aw! Since when? I didn’t even know you were dating anyone! Who’s the lucky girl?”

“Her name is Reagan,” says Shane with a faint blush spreading across his cheeks. “We’ve been together a little over five years and I finally decided it was time to, you know, pop the question.”

“You’re so cute!”

“Shut up,” he groans and rubs a hand over his face. “Go away and find something sparkly and stare at it.”

“Speaking of something to stare at, do you have anything new that I can drool over and wish I could have?”

Shane smiles and points to a case by antique cameras. “There’s the new Nikon SLR camera over there. We just got it in.”

Creeping slowly towards the case, Daniella yells over her shoulder. “How much does cost? Roughly?”

“Oh… I say around three grand. You want to buy it.”

“Fuck. You. You know I can’t even buy a nice, cheap camera. All I have that camera that my dad gave me once he gave up on photography.”

“It’s still a nice camera.”

“Yeah, I guess. I just want something new and pretty.”

“Such a girl.”

“Such a freak!” Roxanne shouts and sneers at Shane, before going back to the book in her lap. “Seriously.”

Daniella laughs and gazes into the case where the sleek, black camera sits perfectly. Her fingers itch to grab it gently and focus it on something—something that would hit the light in such a perfect way, that it would leave her breathless for a moment before making her feel proud. She can say that she got her obsession from her father—whom used to be a freelance photographer like Shane before he decided to get a ‘real’ job to support her and her mother.

She smiles sadly and taps lightly on the glass and thinks about the photos that she could take with a camera like that. Having something that’s heavy hanging around her neck and she walks around the city—looking for the perfect moment in life to capture.

“You know,” a voice says and startles Daniella. She turns to see Roxanne giving her a hopeful smile. “If I could afford something like that, I’d buy it for you in an instant.”

Daniella leans her head on her friend’s shoulder for a moment before sighing. “I know. Thanks.”

“No prob—Oh my God.”

“Wha—“

Looking in Roxanne line of site, Daniella sees Brendon causally leaning against the front counter, talking to an excited looking Shane. Before she knows it, Daniella stumbles into the case and nearly knocks it over if it wasn’t for her quick hands to grab it.

Through the commotion, Brendon glances over at the pair with confusion, then a smile stretches it way across his face.

“Jesus, Dani,” Shane says with a strenuous tone and breathes quickly. “Be careful!” He looks back at Brendon and shakes his head. “Don’t mind her—That’s Dani and girl I never learned the name of.”

“Oh, that’s Rox,” Brendon says easily and looks at the other man in bewilderment when Shane looks at him oddly. “What? You know I got that teaching job—they’re in my last period English Lit.”

“No shit? That’s cool, man.”

Roxanne looks at Brendon with wide eyes and sputters out. “It’s so weird seeing a teacher outside of school when you’re sober. It’s like seeing a unicorn frolicking through the meadow when you’re walking through the woods.”

Daniella looks at the redhead oddly.

“You are a weird one, aren’t you?” Brendon says slowly. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone as odd as you.”

“For your sake, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“H—How do you know Shane,” Daniella stutters and nearly smacks herself at sounding so stupid.

Brendon smiles and pats the man on the shoulder and shakes him in an affectionate way. “Shane here was my college room mate. He’s a cool guy.”

“Y—Yeah… Well! We got to go! Bye!”

Daniella tugs Roxanne out of the shop and continues to speed walk towards the mall exit—with Roxanne stumbling closely behind her, trying to catch up.

“What the hell, Dani,” Roxanne says and nearly trips through the mall’s sliding doors. “Usually I can’t get you out of that store and then today, you just rush out like it’s nothing.”

Trying to shake the feeling in her chest, Daniella shrugs and tries not to look suspicious. “It’s nothing. I just forgot that I have a ton of homework I have to catch up on. I’ll drop you off on my way home, okay?”

“Yeah… sure?”