A Beautiful Mistake (Before You Exit // All The Way Tour Fan Fiction)

Chapter 3: A Meeting with the Past

It was Lexi Michaels, she played keyboards in my old band. I don't know what came over me, but I felt the sudden urge to walk up to her and say 'hi. I just needed to. I just wanted to get things straightened out with... with my past, I guess. You see, when my parents found out about all the things that I did, they just yanked me out of my life right there and then. I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to them. I couldn't get a hold of them anywhere- not in real life or even virtually (my parents blocked them off my phone and somehow cut them off from my social networking sites). It was like they never existed. I had to do this. I just needed to get rid of Maggie first. I was thinking of a plan to escape from Mags, but she interrupted my deep thoughts.

"Tash?"

"huh?" I mumbled. I felt stupid. She was asking me something, but I didn't know what.

"Do you... want to... sleep over?... Tommorow night? So we could... catch that bus together?" Maggie said each word slowly. Like she was talking to a mentally impaired kid. Maybe I AM mentally impaired. Oh, well.

"Uhhh... yeah, that would be great!" My fingers were fumbling around nervously on my drinking straw. My feet wanted to bolt right there and then to see if the girl at Hot Topic was really Lexi. I had to keep reminding myself to be patient."I-uh, Mags?" She nodded "I have to go. Got a text from my dad, Tim is already here to pick me up" I said looking at my phone as if I was reading the text message. It was all to avoid eye contact because Maggie would know if I was lying.

"Oh-okay, Tash" She smiled weakly. "But before you get up" She took a deep breath "If something isn't going right between you and Jason... you know you can tell me. Right?" I nodded and managed to flash her a convinving happy satisfied smile.

"Yeah. But everything's fine with Jay and me" She just nodded, I knew she was worried.

"Look, don't worry, okay? It's all good. I'm just... not feeling like myself today, that's all" I gave her a smile again and prepared to get up. Oh my legs wanted to run to that Hot Topic. Be patient I repeated to myself.

"Yeah? Well, you better be back to normal for the camping trip" She said with a smile "We don't want you getting sick in the wilderness now, do we?"

"No we don't!" I said in a surprisingly peppy voice. "Now, I really gotta go home, Mags. Bye!" I waved "See you tomorrow" Then I ran off. Not straight to the Hot Topic of course. That would be too obvious. Maggie's not stupid and she's not blind either. I don't want her to know about any of this.

I took a few random turns at different shops near the mall's exit to throw Maggie off. Then when I thought I was far enough I went straight to that Hot Topic hoping that the girl was still there. If I was right that it really was Lexi, then she would probably still be there. I remember how much Lexi loved that store. She'd probably live there if she could. I hopped over to HT and there she was. She may or may not be Lexi Michaels. I want to stick on the may side. I was going to call out to the girl, but the sane part of me held me back. I had to debate with myself for a while. Should I go up to that girl? What if it's not Lexi and I risk humiliation? What if it is Lexi and the bad memories flow back into my mind? what if I'm too much of a coward to face my past? But then, what? If IT IS Lexi and I leave

now, I lose a huge oppurtunity to fix my past. So many questions. It was just too much. I couldn't take it. My breathing was heavy. I was at risk of hyperventilating. My heart was just beating too fast from fear. I could not do this. This was a stupid STUPID idea. I shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't even have THOUGHT of this in the first place! I couldn't take it anymore, it was tormenting me too much. I took a step back hoping I could step out unnoticed, but my short stumpy legs tripped on a clothes rack, making me a sitting duck.