The Way It Ends

09

McDonald's with Evan turned out to be really fun even though we were soaked through. I got a 9-piece chicken nugget meal and him a double cheeseburger. We just ate our food in his car in the parking lot as the heater was blasted up to dry our clothes. Also, I forgot to mention he has freaking heated seats! It was so refreshing and made me nostalgic of home and of the chippy.

I feel as though London has been so fast paced, like my body is just moving along with it but my mind has so much yet to still process. I think I've just mentally absorbed everything that's happened. But I am enjoying London nonetheless it's just a bit... daunting.

Well today I'm hanging out with the gang which entails Emily and Ela sadly no Dev. He said and I quote 'I'm not spending my time with 3 girls as they carousel between the same few stores deciding whether they want to get a top for an hour, only to decide 'it's like sooo last season' The last bit included a valley girl impression. We all have a shared group chat and through that I've been able to get closer with Ela since we've not been able to chat by ourselves much. She goes to the same Uni as the others of course but studies Fine Art. Not really what I expected but it was refreshing to hear.

Ela is more on the introverted side however she does have her interesting moments for example Dev told me one time she jumped from the roof of a 3-story house into a pool luckily managing to not break anything- all the while drunk. It does help that she was on the Junior Olympic GB team for diving. I'm currently in an uber on my way to the shopping centre we'd decided on. The driver was nice enough to engage in a little small talk before leaving me to my own devices.

Softly, I perched my chin just below the bend of my knuckles and stared mindlessly out of the window. The leaves were midway through their annual change of colour just when they're at the lovely crunchy stage. It has rained its fair bit but nothing extremely different from Guernsey. Everyone at the office were buzzing about the Christmas Markets that'd come soon which I was very excited to experience. Radio 1's news section filled the comfortable silence in the car. Clutching my latte, I occasionally took sips as we neared to my destination.

I made sure to pay the driver and give her a good review on Uber. I walked up the steps and came to the entrance of building surveying the crowd for two familiar faces. A pale hand waved towards my direction, connected to a body whose ginger covered head kept bobbling up and down. Alice. The girl is a few inches shorter than me, and the crowd had quite a tall average. Maybe for Christmas I should get her calcium tablets as a gag gift. Tucking my phone into my pocket, I strode my way over and could barely make out Ela as she was wrapped in four scarves.

"My mum threatened to thappad me on my cold cheek if I didn't wear them." I nodded my head in understanding. As we walked -Ela waddling- we peered around and decided to work our way round, store to store. As we entered the first shop a very perky sales assistant greeted us and I swear they must've injected themself with a redbull and a black coffee. Maybe I was just too tired but the movements they were making were so erratic to the point it seemed there was clinically something wrong with them. They was pleasant enough and after having us wait for five minutes they came back with baskets full of clothes for each one of us try on.

They gave us their best customer smile before ushering us to the changing rooms then went to harass some more customers. I slowly unstripped the clothes I was wearing and changed into the emerald chiffon maxi dress I'd been supplied with. They'd really took the request maxi heavily as the dress was four times my size. Grasping the side of the dress with my hands, I plodded out of the room to meet the others. My face contorted in a peculiar way to hold laughter as I saw Ela in an outfit that resembled an American Founding Father. Then Alex in an all-monochromatic orange outfit making her resemble a Stabilo neon highlighter. We stood there for a solid minute, the silence was so prominent that I could hear the latex on Alex's pants, then collectively we burst out raucously laughing. It was the type of laugh where your stomach would start to cramp and before you know it, you're gasping for air. After a minute Alex's face resembled a Heinz ketchup bottle with how red it was. These old ladies started staring at us and muttering most likely horrid words before scuttling away.

Once we calmed down from our laughing high, we changed back to out normal clothes and hurrying the heck out of the shop. The worker tried to speak to us again, but we just sped walk to save our little remaining dignity. But as we passed the doors an alarm went off and we all looked at each other brows raised in shock. I took my backpack off and rifled through it. Luckily nothing new. I looked at Alice and she shrugged but Ela's chestnut eyes started to water as she raised sunglasses (which were at least £500) out of her Prada handbag.

Before I knew it, I'd grabbed the sunglasses as security came over. Ela kept mouthing that she was sorry and hadn't stolen it however, I just gave her a reassuring smile. In the corner of my eye, I could see the same old ladies from earlier smirking at each other. I connected the dots in my head; they must've dropped it in Ela's bag as they walked past our bags on the chaise. Security snatched the glasses out of my hand and escorted me out of the shop without even asking what'd happened. They also made Ela and Alice come with and shoved the three of us in a room. I tried to begin to reason with them but they left and I heard the door lock.

"Call someone." A deep voice grunted outside of the door.

"We are perfectly capable young women and can handle the situation ourselves."

"Glasses need paying."

"Well I'm fine to pay." Alice retorted.

"Can't be you store policy."

"But-"

"Call someone." I sighed and tapped Alice on the shoulder suggesting there's no point bartering with this grouch. We started to call people, but Ela's phone died and Alice's phone had no signal. So I figured I'd have to get someone to "bail" us out. As I scrolled, my thumb hovered between Cal's and Evan's names in the pinned section. It did a little dance before pressing on Evan's contact. We stood in silence listening to the phone ring until it hit voicemail. I let out a frustrated groan then pressed Cal's name, who unlike someone answered within two rings.

"Hey Cal," I mustered up the sweetest tone I could, "So ya know how we're the bestest of friends?..."

"What would you like Nia?"

"Well I may have accidentally ended up in shopping centre jail for something that I didn't actually do and need bail."

"Love, slow down and speak like a functioning human being."

"One. That's rude C-Dog but anyways I may have accidentally ended up in shopping centre jail for something I didn't actually do and need bail."

"And what was the thing you didn't actually do?"

"Steal sunglasses."

"So just tell them you didn't steal them, Nia?"

"That's not possible, are you coming or not?"

"I'm already in the car."

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AUTHORS NOTE:

I'm not gonna lie it was a slight sprint at the end to get this chapter done so it is the shortest as id rather put this out then nothing. also school has gotten better withing the week i last uploaded. i auditioned for the school show and got a recall and that went well! im gonna find out if i get a part in hopefully 3/5 days. anyways hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, cal to the rescue!

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