Through The Dark (1D Fanfiction)

3: Shopping Surprise

I blinked my eyes, confusion tingled my body but I decided to ignore it. I knew she had a habit of talking to herself at times. Must be the pressure of going to college.

Anyway, we made it to the mall with no more almost-accidents and I parked nicely on a spot only a few metres away from the entrance. We high-fived each other when a bunch of football jocks flipped us the bird for stealing "their" parking space.

Cool air hit my skin as soon as I stepped inside the mall. The familiar bustling and murmuring of people welcomed me and I could not help but whistle. An old habit of mine when I was being sarcastic.

Charlie was rambling on and about clothes, and I tuned her off. Not because I wanted to but a man with brown hair was staring at me as she and I went up on the escalator. His eyes never left mine, his face was contorted with an unreadable emotion that sent shivers down my spine. I had to look away when I got to the second-floor landing. I turned around but what I saw was empty space from the spot where the eerie guy was standing a few seconds ago. As usual, I let the matter slide.

We walked into a shoe store I could not quite pronounce the name since it was in French. I'm sure it's French. This time, a different scent hit my nose. I guess if sophistication had a smell, this would be it. Dapper looking saleslady greeted us, and the one with the shiny red hair came up to us with a smile.

"Hi! What are you, young ladies, looking for?" she asked in a chirpy tone that made me take two steps back. Charlie, on the other hand, smiled as warm to her and started speaking in fashion. Meaning, I could not comprehend anything except for skirts and blouses.

While the two were busy chatting, I took the tag on the nearest dress from me and my eyes almost bulged out of their socket. This dress costs almost a quarter of my car! And that baby is hella expensive, I tell you.

My attention was brought back when Charlie decided to pull me. Being me, I almost tripped over my own foot if it had not been for my good reflexes. She dragged us towards a wide array of cute sweaters and I grinned.

Charlie looked at me knowingly. "I'm not here to make you look like a different person so we'll stick with your endless love for sweaters. But we have to pick some blouses and shirts that are more age appropriate for you," she said and I just nodded.

Parting the racks, my inner girlish side was trying to break free as my eyes laid on varieties of clothing. I picked a cream-coloured sweater with a cup of coffee stitched in front. The other one was a white one with pink sleeves that had a unicorn over a rainbow on it. I took some darker garments too like skirts, shirts, and even two dresses. My savings will surely have a dent because of this.

It took us an hour to finally sort out everything we need from that store and we moved on to buy some shoes. Charlie collected varieties of shoes since she was eight so the ecstasy she might have felt was insane as she ran inside one of the stores. I let her run around a few minutes, then she dragged me to try on some heels, although I snuck some time to buy the most awesome sneakers that I saw. I paid to the cashier and dump the smaller paper bag into a larger one. I went back to see her standing in front of a mirror, a six-inched bloody red heel was resting on her foot.

"What do you think?" she asked, her eyes trained on the death machine, as I like to call it.

I shrugged. "It looks murderous so it's cool." My comment earned a cough from the saleslady assisting us and I could only smile sheepishly.

"Alright. I'll take this and." She stopped when my tummy let out a growl. "Well, you can go find something to eat while I check out some stuff."

"Are you sure?" I asked, my eyebrow raising in question.

"Yup." She shooed me away and I happily obliged to be out there. Everyone knows that Charlie takes hours to buy shoes.

"Text me when you're done," I said and walked away.

My pace was fast since my feet hurt from hours of walking. My face fell when I saw the escalator was closed for maintenance. I groaned in annoyance and begrudgingly trudged towards the staircase.

As I walked down the stairs, I noticed five guys gasping for their breath. I tried to walk quietly and ignored them, but seemed like fate had a different plan. Or I'm just really unlucky. One of them looked at me and let out a scream. The tiniest shrill I have ever heard in my entire life.

I winced as the sound reverberated through the walls and I could have sworn the guard would have come to us to arrest someone.

With my ears almost bleeding, I said, "Oh, will you please shut the fuck up!"

The brunet, which I now noticed was the smallest of them all, continued shrieking like a girl being stabbed repeatedly.

The other guy on his right slapped his hand over the shrieking man. Quite hard. "Shut up, Lou! They'll find us!" he said and looked at me with apologetic eyes.

"But she scared me!" the guy named Lou said.

Another brunet with shorter hair than the one named Lou came behind them. "We're sorry. He was just a bit... shocked to see you," he told me and I nodded unconsciously.

"I've noticed," I replied with utmost incredulity.

They were whispering to each other and I took that as a cue to leave. However, a hand took a hold of my wrist, making the bags I was holding sway backwards, hitting the person. Hard.

I turned to look at the blond who was trying to look at me whilst grimacing. He had his hand on his stomach and coughed a few times. "Uh, can I help you?"

A wide grin, a contrast from his pained frown, broke into his face as he dragged me back towards the four guys. My hands felt sweaty, and I highly believed that I would regret not running away from them.