Indecisive Heart

Chapter 2

Rory couldn't even wait until we got to the mall to start talking about boys. On the way there, she said "Sadie, I can't believe you're talking to one of the coolest guys in school and you won't even mention it to your bestest friend."

Talking to one of the coolest guys in school?

"What do you mean?" I asked. I wasn't talking to anybody. Why would I?

"Finn Gallagher! You know, the hunky dark haired guy that everybody likes. Captain of the basketball team? Sadie, don't do this to me, you know you're talking to him. Just tell me about it!"

"Finn?" I questioned. "I rarely talk to him. What makes you think we're 'talking?'"

"He finds you practically every day after school. How is that not talking?" Yeah, so he finds me to ask me how my day was, that's not "talking" though, is it?

"We don't talk about much, he just asks how my day went, usually."

"Maybe because he LIKES YOU."

No. Oh no. There is no way Finn Gallagher likes me of all the girls at Brookstown High. "No way. It's not like he asked me out. He's just friendly."

"Yeah, okay." She assumed too quickly. He doesn't like me. He's just a nice guy. He talks to everybody. I'm not going to let myself fall into Rory's way of thinking.

The rest of the way to the mall Rory just complained to me about how she wants to go bowling over break but Robbie doesn't want to. Then it turned into the old "We never agree on what we want to do" speech. Yep, I've heard it plenty of times before. Robbie never wants to do anything. Rory is more spontaneous.

When we got to the mall it was crowded. I wasn't expecting this many people to be here. I haven't been Black Friday shopping before today. It isn't at all how I expected it to be. There are people EVERYWHERE.

I felt a little underdressed, too. Rory was wearing a light sweater with maroon colored jeans and short black boots. That's the style most girls in the mall were wearing. I had a plain red shirt on with black ripped jeans, converse, and a jean jacket. Rory was always the fashionista.

Within the first ten minutes of walking around, she'd already said hi to three people she knew. I'm not as popular as her. If anything, the boys here today will be checking her out, not me. She stands out with her dirty blonde beach waves. I just have straight brown hair, kinda boring, but I don't mind it. Rory doesn't criticize me for my style. She likes me the way I am.

We went into a bunch of clothing stores and most of the time I just held things for Rory while she looked. She told me I could look around but I didn't really see anything I liked. Figures. After about three shopping bags full of clothes, she said "Alright, clearly you are not in the spirit of Black Friday shopping yet. You need fuel. Let's get you some lunch." Since the food court was so crowded, we went across the street for fast food. She was right, I did need to be fueled, but I still wasn't in the mood to shop.

Rory was suggesting stores I might want to check out, but none of them really sounded that appealing. When we were done with lunch she took me to the sports store so I could at least look around. Somehow she managed to find cute sporty clothes in there, too. I saw some awesome lacrosse sticks, but of course they were the kind I didn't have the money for.

Since I didn't buy anything in there, she took me to this other store. It was kind of small, but it had a lot of shelves with clothes on them. It was packed, too.

She said "If you don't find something in here, you have a serious problem." So I looked around, after a while of shelf searching, I found a section in the back that was just my style. I found a solid t-shirt and a striped one both on sale, so I got those. I also got a pair of ripped blue jeans. That seemed to satisfy Rory enough, so I stopped there.

When we walked out, she said "Now that wasn't so bad was it? How does it feel? You're first purchase on Black Friday!"

"It was alright." I responded. "It wasn't that exciting, I mean it's just some clothes, but at least I got something."

"That's the spirit!" she said. "To celebrate, I'll take you for your ice cream now. Then we'll go find some more places you might like."

We walked to the food court, which wasn't as packed now that the lunch rush was over, and went to the ice cream stand. The line was a little long, so I told Rory I'd take her bags to a table and wait for her there.

"Death by chocolate, two scoops in a cone." I told her.

"The usual. Got it." Yeah, we come here a lot. She comes to shop, I come for the ice cream.

I chose a table a little bit farther away from the stand so we wouldn't be near all the clutter by the line. I put our bags down and took a seat at a little round table with two chairs. Across from where I was sitting, there was The Pretzel Shop, and next to that was a pizza place, Georgio's.

At the pizza place, this girl from school was sitting at a table across from a guy I didn't recognize. I think she goes out with a new one every week. Her name is Gia Portman. She's a senior, like Robbie. Honestly, I don't know which of those two is worse. She has to be the best of the best. Gia is the top of her class, class president, president of the school newspaper, photography club, and yearbook. She plays softball and is in the drama club. Drama club is a good fit because in my opinion she's a drama queen. She is such an attention seeker. Apparently she can't hold all of her attention on one boy though. There's always someone new. I looked away. You can only look at someone like that for so long without burning a hole through your eyes.

Instead I turned my attention to The Pretzel Shop. I haven't eaten from there in a while. There used to be this nice old lady that worked there, while you were waiting for your order, she'd smile and ask you how your day was going, and when I was really little, she'd bring out a secret stash of lollipops. I didn't see her there anymore though. I was scanning the area where the workers were, and she wasn't anywhere to be found.

Suddenly a door opened from the side, and I think I blacked out a little when I saw who walked out. The most gorgeous guy I've ever seen walked up to the cash register and relieved whoever was working it previously. My heart rate immediately doubled.

What was wrong with me? I never did this. Yet all I could think about was his shiny dark styled hair flowing out above his visor. His tan complexion complements his dark hair perfectly. His beautiful smile beamed when he greeted the next customer. I couldn't breathe. He was making me breathless. He looked pretty tall, but I'd guess he wasn't over 18. I'm 16. It could work.

I didn't even hear Rory call to me when she was bringing my order over, or see her sit down right across from me. Maybe I had found something at this mall that I liked after all.