Try to Scream

I drove Cora and I to the Augusta Marketplace. There were lots of stores to go to and though it would take too long to walk around all the stores, Cora and I wanted to. We decided to hit a couple clothing stores, Walmart and Barnes & Noble. We could have picked more places to go, maybe even Home Depot for the hell of it, but we knew the boys would be back and most likely wanted to do something. If not all the boys, Zayn would want to spend some time with Cora.

When we arrived, we found Barnes & Noble first, so we parked and walked in. Cora rushed to the music and I made my way to the books. We agreed to meet up in an hour to head to Walmart. We picked the shelf with the 20 Q’s game on it to meet. We’d have to play a round before we go; it was sort of a tradition with us.

I started walking through aisles of books. For me, if the cover didn’t first catch my attention, I couldn't read it. Next the title had to be good and then the description, if I could get through all those. I would read page one. If I could read that page, I would buy the book. I was a picky reader. There were times, though, when all those things didn’t matter and I just wanted the book because I heard great things or I saw the movie or TV show based off of it. That was how I read the Pretty Little Liar series and The Lovely Bones. Otherwise, I don’t think they would have mattered to me. It was the honest truth, as weird as it may seem.

I walked down 3 aisles and looked through many, many books before I finally found something I was interested in. Sarah’s Key, the title alone had me, the description was amazing. As I read page one, a soft voice scared me, “Excuse me.” It said as a hand came beside my face, gripping a copy of Sarah’s Key and disappearing behind me. I jumped and turned to see a tall guy standing there. His blue eyes showed caution as they peaked out of the fringe of his brown hair.

He reminded me of DJ Qualls. But he was much healthier looking. He had muscle and didn’t look anorexic. Not that I thought DJ was, but the guy was scary boney. He was also really attractive and it made me slightly nervous. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you.” He laughed uneasily.

“Oh, no. It’s fine. I was hogging the section.” I smiled and let my gaze fall to the copy of the book in his hands. “You’re going to read that?” I asked. The book didn’t seem to fit him. He seemed like a science fiction type person. Then again, Sarah’s Key didn’t seem like a guy’s book. But I could be wrong.

“I heard great things about it.” His hand extended to me, “Alex.”

I gripped his hand lightly, “Munro. I-I have to go, my friend and I are trying to get through some places before we are wanted back at the hotel.” He let go of my hand and nodded.

“In town for the concert?” He asked. I bit my lip and shook my head.

“I’m sort of…touring with the band. Won a contest. My sister loves them and she was willing to risk my sanity to get a shot at meeting them.”

“Well that’s nice of you.” He smiled again and I knew I blushed slightly. “My sister is a fan of the band, only reason I knew they were playing. I probably sound creepy.” His laugh was a bit more relaxed than before.

“No, I understand, like I said, my sister is trying to drive me mad with these boys.”

“You should get to your friend. It was nice meeting you, Munro.” He lifted his hand and shook the book. “Enjoy it.”

I gripped the book to my chest and smiled. “Thanks, nice meeting you too Alex.” I headed back to the Games and Toys section of the store and saw Cora sitting on the floor impatiently.

“You’re late.” She said, Standing. “Let’s go pay and move on, we don’t have time for the game today. Zayn texted saying they would be at the hotel in a few hours and he wants to have dinner together.”

I started walking with her to the counter, “Like out in public dinner?” She shook her head. “Ah, room service. Such a romantic one, isn’t he?” We laughed and paid for our things and started out toward the car. As we placed our bags in the car, she asked me why I was running late. “I was talking to this guy.”

“Is he cute?” I shrugged, “Did you get his number or twitter or something?”

I put the book in the backseat and locked the car. We decided to walk from place to place; it wasn’t like it was that far. “No, I…that would have been creepy. We were talking about the book.” Cora just nodded and continued walking.

We walked around Walmart for an hour and shopped for clothes for 2. We ended up with a couple bags of tops and some jeans and shirts. Cora wasn’t as big on dresses and skirts as I was. It was rare to find me in pants. I begged her to give me 20 more minutes in American Eagle. I wanted a couple new dresses and from the window, I saw at least one that I was going to buy no matter what.

When we finally finished and made it back to the hotel, I was more than satisfied with my buys. Cora abandoned me the moment we exited the elevator. Josh and Niall helped me carry my bags to my room, it was an unnecessary gesture. I made it all the way here without anyone’s help. But for helping me, they asked for something in return.

“Do a Twitcam with us.” Niall begged.

“Um…why? I don’t want to be on webcam with a bunch of fangirls hating every inch of me. I get enough abuse on twitter and tumblr myself, thank you.” I sat on my bed and started folding my clothes.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.” Josh sat beside me and rested his hands behind his head. “You don’t have to worry about hate. It’s hard enough to read the tweets as they come in anyway.”

I sighed and started placing the clothes in my suitcase. “Okay, but only for a little while.”

An hour later the boys and I were arguing over which Pokémon was better. “Look at that, they all agree with me!” I said triumphantly. “Ha!” I said to Niall as he glared at the computer screen.

“You guys are supposed to be on my side!” He pouted as the doorbell rang. “Pizza!” Josh and Niall fought to get to the door first. They let the guy in and I turned the computer to face him. “Say hi to my fans. There are a lot of people looking at you right now.”

The pizza guy looked wide eyed at the computer and then at Niall. “Hi.” He said quietly. I turned the computer back to me and read the tweets pilling in.

Many asked if the pizza guy was as cool as “Nickname” who was apparently a rapping Pizza Man. I shook my head, noticing how uncomfortable the guy was. There were lots of “Awe’s” but there were also some “Tell him he’s awesome.” “We love him.” “BYE PIZZA MAN!” I read off each of the tweets, it made him smile. After he left, I turned to Niall, “Don’t hog it all, gimme some!”

“Say please.” Josh said, sitting beside me again and taking a huge bite of his slice.

“Niall, please hand me a dang piece of pizza!” The boys laughed. Niall handed me a slice and I downed it in no time. The rest of the Twitcam wasn’t as eventful. I can admit, it was fun. I didn’t expect the fans to be as tame as they were. I expected them to say some nasty things, but they were far too distracted by “Nosh” They asked if it was real and the boys didn’t answer. I spoke up after awhile showing my support to the Nosh ship. It made the two boys look at me awkwardly, and let me tell you, as I sat between them, I knew their eyes were drilling holes in my cheeks…I knew it without even looking at the video of us on the screen.

We sat around my room for a while and ate the rest of the pizza while watching some weird movie playing on TV. I got distracted part way through and curled up with my new book. When the movie finished, the boys quietly said goodnight and left me to change and fall asleep.