Geeky Turn On!

That Robin Sparkles song is a bop

Now, what to eat? I head on down to the food court, where there's a wide variety of stalls to choose from. We've got Panda Express, which is as Chinese as fortune cookies. Which is not at all. Next to Panda Express we've got Burger King, which is basically diarrhea in a bun. Then we've got a Pizza Hut stall, but I personally think the restaurants are better because they have more variety. Then we've got Taco Maker, which is a damn good taco chain because the tacos are made of meat instead of isolated oat product. Then we've got Subway...no thanks. And finally, we've got a KFC, which I'm no fan of. Plus I'm actually watching what I eat now, thanks to Sam's guidance.

Taco Maker it is. I got in line for some tacos, but I noticed that they were having a special today: a taco, a burrito, a drink, and nachos for six bucks. That's a damned good deal, so I'll be ordering that.

I sat down and ate my meal: a chicken taco, a chicken burrito, and some nachos with a diet coke. Shit tasted GREAT! Man, what a great idea of mine to come to the mall for lunch! I checked my phone for the time; 1 PM. And...no response from Paige. That's fine. That's totally fine.

Ya know what I haven't done ever? Check out the mall by myself! I've always had to be accompanied because of my bad anxiety, but I feel more confident, and I feel like I could totally check out the mall by myself!

OK, let's do like Robin Sparkles says and hang out at the mall!

FIVE HOURS LATER...

That kinda sucked. The mall's mostly clothing stores and jewelry stores, and none of that's interesting to me. They had a toy store, and I checked that out, but they barely had Star Wars toys, and most of them were discount toys from the Sequels. Bleh. There was also a gaming kiosk that sold used games, but they didn't have a good selection. Gabe's store has WAY better selection anyway.

There was a bookstore, and I checked that out. They had some OK books in there, but nothing that caught my eye. I don't know; I'm not a book kinda gal, personally. I prefer video games, computers, that sort of thing. But, you know, it was fun.

Ya know what else I did? I went to see a movie! There really wasn't anything playing that I WANTED to see, but I opted to watch this movie called Stage Mom. It was directed by Patty Jenkins, the woman who directed the Wonder Woman movie, so I was like "hey, I liked Wonder Woman! Maybe this movie would be good, too!" So I bought a ticket and caught a showing.

There were like ten people in the theater, tops. This was so weird to me, because I usually go to the big tent pole movies. I'm not...

I'm not like Paige, who enjoys smaller, independent movies and can talk about them and their directors for hours and hours. That's what I got to thinking when I saw who was directing this movie, and I was all "fuck, Paige would probably LOVE to watch this type of movie!" So I bought a ticket and saw the movie.

And ya know? I liked it! It was the story of this girl who wanted to be a singer, and her mom who also wanted to be a singer when she was a kid. So the mom pushes her daughter to become a singer, but they start hating each other, and...and ya know what? I don't wanna spoil it for you. I liked it, I really did! The two lead actresses were GREAT, ESPECIALLY the mom! She was played by Katee Sackhoff, of all people! I mean, I always knew she had acting chops, but WOW!

After the movie I figured I could have some dinner. As I walked back to the food court, I noticed there was a space for rent between a fat people clothing store and a health supplements store.

I chuckled at the irony.

Anyway, I looked the empty space over and thought "hey, this could be a super awesome place to set up a shop." And I honestly felt EXCITED about that! What was that, even? It's been a long, long time since I've felt excited over a hypothetical that didn't involve me getting my pussy eaten. I think the last time I was this excited for something was when I was looking forward to The Force Awakens back in 2015!

I was going to ask about it, but then I figured that, so far, my business has been nothing but a dream. I gotta AT LEAST start off with a website for it, and maybe get like a warehouse or something, I'm not sure, but me and Dad are working on it together to get it off the ground.

As I reached the food court I checked my phone for messages. Jolie was asking if we were still on for anime streaming tomorrow night; I wrote back sure. Todd had uploaded a new video about the latest Yu-Gi-Oh card sets; it was up for two hours and already he had five thousand views! Amy had uploaded a new song to SoundCloud, and you KNOW I'll be giving that a listen later! Gabe and Sam were out on a date; good for them! They'd been seeing each other for two weeks now, and from what Gabe's told me, there's a future there.

Nothing from Paige, though. Huh, I guess it really is over...

I decided to hit the Panda Express and eat some fried rice, orange chicken, and a coke. After dinner I decided to head back home. But as soon as I left the mall, I noticed that the rain was starting to pick up again. So I bought an umbrella from a stand close by, got on the bus, and left.

Once I reached my stop I noticed the rain was getting harder and harder. MAN was I glad to have bought that umbrella! As I walked back home from the bus stop, I noticed that it was getting darker. That's when my phone rang.

"Hey, honey?" It was Sarah. "Your father and I won't be able to come home tonight; will you be OK by yourself?"

"Yeah, don't worry," I said. "I already ate anyway."

I proceeded to tell Sarah about my afternoon, and she was glad to know I had fun all by myself.

"It sounds to me like you'll be OK ," said Sarah, and I could feel her relief. "I know it's not been an easy road, honey. And I know it might feel like you're so behind everyone else. But you and I know it's not true; you just had more obstacles than most people can appreciate. You've had to come to terms with some traumatic experiences in your life, and you've had to deal with some disadvantages you were born with. But here you are, at the cusp of making your dreams come true. It's not everyone who can say that."

"I know," I said. Then I said "When I was younger, I never really understood why you'd be so nice to me. But I'm thankful that you are."

"Well, you're my kid," she said. "Maybe I didn't birth you, but I've considered you my own daughter ever since I met you."

"Me too, Mom," I said, tears in my eyes. Sarah really is my mom; Liliana was just the woman who birthed me. It took me too long to realize that.

I hung up and kept walking. I was soon reaching the house that used to belong to Jerkface; he was chased out of town by one hell of an angry mob that was led by Todd.

"Excuse me," said a familiar voice behind me. "I'm trying to find this address, but I'm a bit lost; can you help me?"

I turned around, my eyes wide with shock. "Paige?"