Mall Ghosts

eight

Six days had passed since they arrested Sean Mori outside of Ocean Park Mall. The mall was open again, but Sean hadn't returned to work. When I next saw Elliot, she confirmed that Sean had been taken in as a suspect. Adding to this, she said, "But the cops let him go once they saw the footage of the victim having what was very clearly a heart attack."

Sean was the one who found the body and notified mall security. Naturally, the way it all happened had freaked everyone out, which made him a prime suspect in what might have been a murder case.

I guessed the reason Sean wasn't coming back was because of the sheer humiliation of getting arrested outside of your own place of work.

"I can't believe they reopened the mall that fast," Elliot said as I was helping her unlock her shop. "Not that I'm complaining."

Other people definitely were though. The logic behind reopening the mall was that the death had not been an act of murder. Clearly, that didn't mean anything to some of the shop owners who were convinced that customers weren't going to waste their time making their way out to the storefronts.

Not to mention, there were those like my parents, who really weren't happy with the idea of me going back to work.

"But Mom, Dad! Bobby Reyes works at the food court and his parents are letting him go back to work."

At the time I had no idea if this was true, but I knew they would take my word for it. It wasn't until later when I was hanging out with Bobby that I discovered he used the same lame excuse.

We were sitting by the lockers inside of Disco Haze, the all-in-one roller rink and indoor skate park. In the middle of getting on our skates, Bobby had me cracking up.

"So I told my lita: you remember Aqua Moore from middle school? She was the pretty tutor that you said I absolutely had no chance with?"

I tried to contain my giggles in the palm of my hand, but it wasn't working. Bobby's facial expressions were just too good.

He went on. "Yeah, well guess what? She's a model and she's got teal hair now, and her parents are letting her go back to work at Ocean Park because they aren't superstitious hags like you!"

"You did not say that to your poor grandma," I managed to gasp between fits of laughter. "She's just looking out for you."

Bobby dropped his comedic eyebrows and smiled normally. "You're right. I would never say that. She'd fry my ass, but you're right. Lita is a chronic worrier. I did tell her that you were here and you needed me to protect you from the ghosts. That worked out pretty well."

I finished strapping and tying up my skates, planted both my feet down on the starry shag carpet, and patted a little rhythm on my legs.

"I can protect myself from the ghosts, thanks."

Bobby glanced down at my feet. "Okay but can you tie your skates on good?"

I gave him a playful shove, insisting that they were on right. Bobby said they weren't on tight enough and if I didn't let him help me, I was going to sprain my ankle. I knew he was probably exaggerating, but I let him kneel down and secure the skates.

"So you really thought I was pretty even back then?"

Bobby made eye contact with me over the top of my knees. "You're really going to ask me this while I'm trying not to stare at your legs?"

He was doing a good job so far, despite the fact that I was wearing my shortest pair of cutoff denims.

Before I could respond, he lowered his eyes back to the task at hand and whispered, "Yeah and I still do."