Crossed Paths (LH)

1- "In a hurry?"

"Vera please!" Alena begged into the phone.

"Dude, I wish I could go. You know I'd never pass up a trip to the mall!" Vera replied.

"Okay, Okay. I'll just go by myself because I really need to find something." Alena and Vera quickly said their goodbyes.

Alena was not one for dressing up, so when her mom said she had to go to a dinner party she was already dreading it. Although the dinner party was tomorrow night, Alena took her sweet time putting her shoes on, getting her keys, and walking to her car.

God I wish I didn't live in the middle of nowhere, Alena thought to herself.

She didn't really live in the middle of nowhere, just a small college town. There was a mall in the town over, but it was sad and not up to Alena's standards for this dinner party. So the next best thing was to drive 45 minutes to a better mall. She loved driving but usually just to pass time and not having a destination in mind. She blasted her radio and sang along to the music. In no time she was parked right in front of the mall.

I do not want to do this, at all

Alena was not the biggest fans of crowds, hence the begging to Vera on the phone earlier. She usually did better with a friend. The thought of herself walking through the mall by herself made her embarrassed for some reason. She thought it made her look like a "loser" for lack of a better word.

Just act like you're talking to someone on the phone, no one will know

With that plan, she hurried to the doors to get in and out as fast as possible. Walking quickly past the food court and through the mall, she pulled out her phone and started texting a random number. Soon enough she was ranting in a big paragraph about something that happened a few days before. Somehow entranced in this fake conversation, she ran straight into something. Or someone. Losing her balance, she stumbled over but before she could fall, the someone caught her.

"In a hurry?" the random man questioned.

Feeling incredibly embarrassed, she started spewing out multiple apologies. Now noticing a spilled drink on the floor she asked him, "Did you spill your drink?". All he did was nod, and she started up again with the apologies. Offering to pay for a new one or get him lunch.

"Actually, I haven't eaten anything today, so lunch doesn't sound too bad." He said. They agreed on a place in the food court rather quickly. Alena silently thanking god he suggested panda express, because she probably wouldn't have eaten anything else.

After paying, they stood in an awkward silence before Alena spoke up. "Again, I am so sorry for running straight into you. I'm Alena." She said, extending her hand for him to shake. He took it, "I'm Luke, strange way to meet someone, but nice to meet you." Soon enough they took their food and sat at a table right in the middle of the food court, and began eating.

"Only noodles?" Luke asked.

A small blush appeared on her cheeks, not usually embarrassed by her weird picks, but something about him made her nervous. "Uh yeah, I'm really picky. I was really glad you chose chinese because I wasn't sure what I would eat from anywhere else." Alena admitted.

A small laugh from Luke was heard. "Glad I chose correctly," he said and Alena smiled. "Were you in a hurry earlier?" He asked, but before should could respond, he kept going. "You were walking pretty fast and aggressively texting someone." He said with another small, breathy laugh. Once again, the blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Yeah, I have this fancy dinner party tomorrow night and I have nothing to wear. But I was texting a friend and filling her in on something." She replied nervously. "What about you? Why are you here? If you don't mind me asking" She said rather quickly.

"I was looking for a nice shirt, as you can tell I'm not really the dressing-up type" He said pointing to his very worn t-shirt. "But I think you're lying to me" He said, narrowing his eyes at Alena.

"Uh what do you mean?" She questioned him.

"I don't believe you were texting your 'friend'" He said, putting the last word in air quotes.

"Okay, and what lead you to 'believe' that?" She said, using air quotes back.

"Well from what I could see, you were texting a spam number, like the ones that send you coupon codes" He answered with a wide smile.

Completely embarrassed, confused about how he saw that, and not knowing what to say, Alena just stared at him.

He spoke up again, "Well?"

With her face very red and not wanting to produce an actual reply, she pulled out her phone and showed him the screen. His smile got bigger, the went down again. She looked at him confused.

"I was right but I'm more concerned at the message you were typing to the urban outfitters subscription number" He said looking back at her. Knowing what she wrote about but not the specifics, she looked down at her phone. Now actually reading the paragraph about how one of her close friends kissed her ex-boyfriend. "You alright?" He questioned.

"I just get nervous going out in public by myself, so I tried to look busy but accidentally distracted myself, which is why I didn't see you. I didn't even realize I wrote all that" She said with a breathy laugh, trying to get off the topic.

"Well if you want, I'll walk with you while you look for something. I couldn't find anything but I only went in one store and wasn't really looking anyway" He said with a nervous smile. Alena was somewhat stunned. Why would a stranger offer something so nice to her.

Is he a serial killer? Please if he is a serial killer someone send me a sign right now

He continued to look at her. Realizing she hadn't answered his question, her mouth spoke before she could even think about it. "You're not a serial killer right?" Immediately she slapped her hand over her mouth, totally embarrassed by what she just said.

Luke dismissed it with a laugh and said, "No I am not a serial killer, just someone who could probably use some help with shopping." With that, Alena agreed and they were on their way to various stores.

After about an hour and a half of shopping, they both found something they liked and were once again walking through the food court. Before they reached the doors, Luke stopped and looked down at her. Pulling his phone out and reaching his contacts, he handed the phone to her. "If you ever wanna rant to an actual person, put your number in." He said. Alena hesitantly took it and put her phone number in as well as a contact name.

"Alena, in parentheses I'm sorry" He said as he laughed at the contact name she decided on. Quickly typing then putting his phone in his back pocket, he still stood looking at Alena. Her phone buzzed with a text from who she presumed to be Luke.

(xxx-xxx-xxxx): Luke, and it's okay :)

Alena read the message and smiled back up at Luke before they both started towards the door again. Once Alena reached her car she went to say bye to Luke. Somehow they ended up parked right next to each other.

"Meant to be" He joked, looking at her from between their cars. Alena laughed and started to speak, "Thank you Luke, for uh walking around with me" She stopped to laugh at herself. "It weirdly meant a lot especially from someone I just met" She finished. "Anytime Alena, don't forget to text me when you need to" He said with a smile as he got into his car.