Mall Ghosts

ten

The next day Bobby came through for Elliot's Emporium and was able to donate some free samples for the Grape Grill. Elliot and I left the store and set up a little table by one of the big fountains on the main floor. We had a sign up form ready and made sure to mention the need for models for our fashion show, which was a little more than a week away.

I could tell that Elliot was pretty nervous about how the recruitment would go, but in the end, there really wasn't a reason to be. People signed up. They were all around my age. When we had twelve models total, Elliot put away the sign up sheet. She and I both knew that you had to have a minimum of twelve looks to qualify as a complete collection. She had a little more than that, but we both agreed that I would be the one modeling more than one look since I had the most experience on the runway.

Elliot gathered everyone around to give out important information, such as the dates for fitting, adjustments and rehearsals walking the runway. A few of the volunteers admitted that they had never walked a runway before.

Elliot patted my shoulder. "No worries. That's why we've got Aqua. We're holding a coaching session in my store later today if you want some practice."

"It's pretty fun once you get comfortable with it," I said. "And Elliot's got some looks completed, so we can try those on to make it feel like the real thing."

Everyone present, including myself, liked the idea of playing a little dress up in order to settle the nerves. A handful of the volunteers agreed to stop by later. Right after the free samples ran out, everyone began to leave. That was our cue to start breaking down tables and getting ready for the next phase.

"Hey. You were awesome," Elliot said, relief in her eyes. She high-fived me and added, "Tell that Bobby kid that I absolutely owe him one."

"You can tell him yourself because he'll be at the runway show."

Elliot's face lit up. "Sweet! Is Sean going to be there too, or – oh, shoot. I mean..." she trailed off awkwardly.

I shrugged. "It's okay. He said he would before everything happened, but he's going through a lot right now, so it's fine if he doesn't make it."

Up until now I had done a pretty good job at hiding how worried I was about Sean. I still had his phone, but I didn't know how I would return it to him. That little flip phone was all I could think about.

I was up pretty late the night before, sitting on my bed staring at Sean's cell, going back and forth on whether I should watch that video file or leave it alone. What was so important that the weird guy from the day before would encourage me to invade someone's privacy?

I went so far as to open the phone, search through the files and look at the thumbnail. My chest felt like it caved in a little when I saw the victim slumped on his side right there on the mall's speckled tiled floor. The image was fuzzy, probably from Sean's hands shaking as he was approaching the body.

For a long time, my thumb hovered over the play button.

But I didn't watch the video.

I took a deep inhale, closed the phone and went to sleep.

It was easy to ignore my mounting stress over the cell phone when I had Elliot to distract me. I let her stress about the fast-approaching runway show and all of the looks that she was rushing to get done take me away from my own problems.

By the time our little coaching session rolled around, I still wasn't ready to make a decision about what to do with Sean's phone.

As I donned Elliot's most complete look in the fitting room, I let go of everything related to paranormal officials, purple tents, and Sean Mori. If I wanted to build the other models' confidence in themselves, I couldn't go before them with a clouded head.