“Mom, I need to go shopping!” I yell down the stairs to my mom since I just realized I only have shorts and tank tops, which will not cut it down here in New Jersey.
“Okay, but I have no idea where one is and we have no Internet!” she yells back, the scent of coffee drifting through the air, even though it’s 1:00 in the afternoon, but the jetlag is catching up to us.
“Fine, I’ll go and ask the Castronovos then!” I say jokingly, but she takes this seriously and yells back “Good idea!” leaving me to go over there. I roll my eyes and change into my last remaining clean jeans and a warm sweater I found and head downstairs to the Castronovos. I walk through the large front yards and over to the neighboring house in the rain, shivering the way there. As I arrive at the door, I start knocking and about ten seconds later, the older sister, Alessandra, answers the door.
“Hi Kahtea, can I help with something?” she says with a warm smile.
“Yeah, I was wondering where the closest mall was?” I ask in an innocent voice.
“It’s down the street, take a left on Chadswick, go down the street for about 10 streets, then take a right onto Harlington, and there it is. But, you know, Bianca and Vinny and I are going there now, you want to come?” she asks, looking as though she really wanted me to come. Plus, mom needed to unpack anyways, so why not?
“Um, sure, let me just grab my things and I’ll be back in, like, five minutes. Is that okay?” I ask, unsure.
“Yeah, that’s perfect! I’ll grab everyone and just knock when you’re ready, okay?” she says, smiling. I just nod and walk back over to my house to grab my stuff and some money from my parents. As I walk in, I see my parents on the couch, drinking coffee and holding looking at the furniture they have arranged, seeing of they like it or not.
“Um, mom, they said I can go to the mall with them, so I just need some money and I’ll be off.” I said, startling the two of them.
“Oh, great! Here: here’s $500, get yourself LOTS of new clothes.” She tells me, placing the stack of money in my hand. I stare at her with a wide mouth and she smiles at me. I smile back and run upstairs to grab my Pendleton Messenger Bag and my phone, just in case. I ran down the stairs, as usual, and said bye to my parents, walking over to the Castronovo’s front door, knocking.
“Hey, are you ready?” Alessandra says as she answers the door and I nod and smile. “Bianca, Vinny, come on, we’re leaving!” she yell sup the stairs, motioning for me to follow her out to her car as I hear people run down the stairs. I get into the backseat as Bianca and Vinny walk over to the Audi A4.
“Hey Kahtea!” Vinny says with a large grin plastered on his face.
“Hi! Did your sisters drag you to come?” I ask, smiling.
“No, Vincent actually likes shopping. Weird, huh?” Alessandra says from the front seat as I climb into the car and strap on my seat belt. I look at him surprised and he just looked down and blushes a little. I smile and look out the window at the rain and listen to Bianca and Alessandra fight over which station to listen to.
Twenty traffic- filled minutes later, we arrived at the mall. We all climbed out of the car and walked over to the first shop: Forever 21. We were walking through the large store together, laughing and shopping together when I turn around and froze.
Tiffany.
“Holy shit, Vinny hide me.” I say in a hurry, running behind him.
“What, what, where, what’s wrong?” he asks, surprised.
“Oh my god, is that who I think it is? It is! Kahtea! Oh my god, how are you! When did you move out here?” tiffany yells in that annoying rich- girl oh- I’m- so- popular voice.
“Tiffany! I didn’t even see you!” I say, awkwardly rising from behind Vinny’s back. She gathers me up in a awkward hug and does that weird kiss- both- cheeks thing that grown- ups do. God, it’s like she’s the richest woman at a high- end country club.
“Oh my god, it’s been forever! When did you move here?” she says, all preppy. Ugh, I forgot how much I hate her.
“I just moved here yesterday, I was gonna call you, but I lost your number.” I say sadly, plus I forgot she moved here.
“Oh wow, that’s so soon! So who are they?” she asks, gesturing towards the Castronovos.
“Oh, right. This is Alessandra, Bianca, and Vincent.” I say, gesturing towards each of them. she looks at each of them and smiles, hovering her eyes at Vinny.
“Oh, are you and Vinny dating or something?” she asks, making these weird flirty eyes at him.
“Oh, no. we’re just friends.” I say quickly.
“Really?” she says, taking a step towards Vinny, making him look even more uncomfortable. I shake my head and put my head in my hands in my hands as she grabs a piece of paper and writes down her phone number flirtatiously. I look up apologetically at Vinny as he stiffly grabs the paper from her hand and awkwardly smiling. I look over to Bianca and Alessandra to find them laughing under their breath with each other.
“Um, thanks.” Vinny says to Tiffany awkwardly.
“Oh, Kahtea, it was so nice to see you! I missed you, and we def need to hang out soon!” Tiffany says as she spins around to face me, splashing Vinny in the face with her fountain of hair and making him scrunch his nose.
“Yeah, for sure!” I say back with as much enthusiasm as I could fake as i laugh a little from Vinny's face.
“Kk! Well, Vinny has my number, so call me, kay? Kay. Toodledoo!” Tiffany says as she walks away. I turn back towards the stunned group and give them all apologetic looks.
“Sorry. I actually hate her, but we’re family friends so I can’t do anything about it.” I say to them.
“Hey, it’s cool. Vinny’s face was so worth it.” Bianca says as she and Alessandra start cracking up.
“Well, if you want to see this phone number again, I suggest getting it now because it’s going in the trash.” Vinny says, crumbling it up and handing it to me.
“I’m good, thanks.” I say and he shrugs and throws it away in the trashcan next to us.
“So, why do you hate her so much?” Vinny asks as we pay for our things and walk out of the store. There’s the question I was trying to avoid.
“Well, each time I got a boyfriend she would start to flirt with them, and every time I caught them cheating on me. That’s why I’ve only had two boyfriends; I couldn’t risk another heartbreak.” I say, frowning at the memories.
“Well, now it’s a new city, so you can totally ignore her since she doesn’t even go to our school.” Vincent says reassuringly. I smile up at him as Alessandra and Bianca lead us into the next store.
AFTER 2 AND A HALF HOURS OF SHOPPING
“Wow, that was quite the shopping trip!” I say, my arms lugging many bags of new clothes. We all climb into the Audi and drive over back home. “Thanks for driving me there and stuff; it was really fun!” I say to Bianca, Alessandra, and Vinny.
“Don’t mention it; it really was a lot of fun!” Bianca says back to me with a warm smile. I grab all my stuff and lug it back over to my house, waving goodbye as I step into my house and walking up stairs where I find my parents watching T.V. in the media room.
“Hey mom! You’ll never guess who I ran into at the mall: Tiffany.” I yell to her as I drop my bags off in my room and heading over to their nice master suite.
“Ugh, I’ve always hated that girl.” She says absently. Looking shocked, she snaps her head at me as I smile.
“I always knew you were my mom.” I say as I walk out of the room, grinning form ear to ear.
