𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍

eighteen

『 eighteen 』

THE MALL WAS ALWAYS an interesting place to spend your Wednesday afternoon.  

Fascinating decorations, families and children running everywhere, huge bookstores, jewelry counters to blind you, new shop everywhere you turned. The merry go round at the grand entrance was always running. Someone was always having a date. 

It was a very good place to spend a casual Wednesday afternoon with your mother; the last casual Wednesday before school began. 

Everything started off fine. Parking was an easy task. For a while, they were the only customers in any store were the two of them and a couple stragglers. The crowd didn't really start streaming in until noon. Their local mall was a state icon. It was never empty. The afternoon crowd was enough to fill a good college. 

By then, Natalie had done her fair share of shopping, and Leila had trapped herself inside her favorite department store. Natalie knew there was no pulling her out of there before the five o'clock sale. So she moved on to the food court for lunch. 

Every line was long, as per usual. Two of the windows were closed. That only left Chinese, sandwiches, and pretzels. Natalie opted on the sub shop; a favorite from her childhood. And it looked to have the shortest line. 

She had chosen incorrectly. The other two lines may have been longer, but they certainly moved quicker. The customers in front of her seemed like stone figures. No one was moving. Other than a few coughs here and there, or a watch check every now and then, you would have actually assumed they were statues. She ended up debating whether or not to move lines when someone called for her. 

"Sunny!" Miguel shouted from behind. Natalie turned around, where Miguel came jogging up to her. 

Natalie gave him a fist bump. "How's it going, Mr. Diaz? It's been a minute!"

It had been two days. 

"What are you doing here?" He asked, when she had joined him in the back. 

Ten extra people had been added to the line. He gave her a skeptical look. "I wasn't getting up there next anyway," Natalie waved it off. She watched the kids ride on the merry-go-round in the middle of the court. "I'm here with my mom. She disappeared in the back of Christopher Banks a while back. I knew there was no point waiting. I think her record in there was three hours."

"I needed to get something for my Yaya's birthday. Kind of last minute," he admitted. 

"So disappointing, Miguel. I would've expected better from you," she mumbled, clicking her tongue and shaking her head like a disappointed grandmother. Miguel didn't respond, only smirked. 

They moved up in line. Natalie absently played with the pop socket on her phone. The line was painstakingly slow. Someone at the front was having trouble with their money. The person ordering behind them had to change their order after being told they had run out of the proper kind of bread. Natalie knew she should've gone to the Chinese place. 

Miguel spoke up again after five minutes. "Listen, so Tory and I were planning on spending next Thursday night at the roller rink. She's working that night, but it could still be fun. She takes two breaks a night," Miguel explained. 

Natalie looked back up at the menu. It did sound intriguing, and her schedule had majorly been freed up after the injury. But one crucial detail stuck out to her...

"Huh, yeah. Sounds fun. I would be third wheeling?" She asked. 

"No? No. I'd never let you third wheel. It's just three friends hanging out at the roller rink. It's eighties night on Thursday, so that would be fun! I know how much of Footloose you've memorized!"