Tiffany's POV
"Are you sure you can't pick me up?" I ask over the phone.
"Yeah I have to report to the ER, I'll pick you up at 5," my mom says.
We say bye to each other and I hang up. I guess I'll be staying here for 5 more hours on my last day of school before winter break. I sit down in the quad, alone, because who would stay at school during break? I read a book for about thirty minutes and then put it down. It's only the start of my vacation and I'm already bored. I stand up and walk to the vending machine to get something to eat.
"Hey," someone says from behind.
I turn around. "Oh I didn't know you were here."
"My parents are busy so they can't pick me up until 6," Justin says.
"Me too!" I say.
"Seriously? You wanna go to the mall to chill while we wait?"
"Sure," I say with a smile, "Lemme get my wallet first."
I run over to my bag and grab my wallet and then run back to Justin. We walk to the mall. Everyone goes there after school cause it's only a 5 minute walk from here. On the way there, we talk about finals and everything that's been happening in our lives recently. When we pass by the fountain in front of the mall, we see little ducklings and their mother swimming in the pond.
"They're so cute oh my god," I say.
I hear the sound when you take a picture on your iPhone camera and turn around.
"Did you take a picture of me?" I ask.
"I took a picture of the ducks," he says, laughing.
"Oh," I say, embarrassed.
I turn around and we walk to the mall cafeteria. My heart keeps beating and I feel a bunch of butterflies in my stomach. It's like when you're going down the tower of terror at Disney California adventure and you feel that weird feeling in your stomach, or when you go on the swings. It feels weird, but nice. It's kinda like that, but different in a way. We order from Burger King, then sit down in the cafeteria.
"You ordered a kid's meal?" Justin asks.
"I always do," I say.
"But why? I swear, if you are trying to starve yourself..."
"Are you crazy? I get it for the free toy," I say.
He laughs out loud. It's really cute actually, like seeing a puppy or a baby. I take out my free toy. It's a character figurine from Alice in wonderland.
"Reverse product placement," I say.
"You're really funny, you know?" He says.
"Thanks, I try," I say with a bowing gesture.
We finish eating and get our stuff together.
"Where shall we go now?" I ask.
"Arcade?" He suggests.
"You don't even need to ask," I say and immediately head to the arcade.
We walk to the arcade on the bottom floor of the mall. It's still a weekday so no one is really here. Inside, there are all sorts of games that you see in an arcade. There's skee-ball that I'm awfully terrible at, claw machines which don't give me anything, and much more. I love it. We go to the coin machine to get change. The first thing I go to is dance dance revolution, my favorite. We fail horribly and I almost trip on my own feet, but it was still really fun. Then we go to the claw machine. I try getting the Rilakuma bear that sits there looking at me, but I fail horribly.
"What do you want?" Justin asks.
"Forget it, these machines never work," I say, "they're only built to eat your money."
"I can get it, trust me, I'm the best at these," he says.
"If you don't then you have to sing a song in the karaoke box," I say.
He tries, and naturally fails. It's okay though, cause now we can go to karaoke. I take a video of him singing and post it on snapchat for the world (well just my friends) to see. Then I sing a song and we go to the next game. After a while, we get tired of the games and I sit on the railing.
"I have a great idea," I say, "Let's go on one of those massage seats."
So we go on massage chairs and laugh as the vibrating seats make us sound like aliens when we speak. Then my phone rings and I answer it.
"Where are you? I've been waiting here for five minutes!" My mom says over the phone.
"I'll be right there, sorry!" I say as I hang up.
"Do you have to go now!" Justin asks.
"Yeah, I'm gonna run back," I say.
"I'll run back too," he says.
We walk out the mall and then quickly run back to our school. Even though I should be scared of my mom cause she's going to get mad at me for making her wait, I'm just really happy. I haven't had this much fun in a while, and it was even more fun cause I was with someone special. When we get back to school, I grab my stuff and walk out the gate.
"I had fun today!" Justin says as I leave.
I turn around and wave. "Me too!"
As I walk back to my mom's car, I think about everything that happened today and a smile that spreads from ear to ear forms on my face.
