Along for the ride

Chapter 2

"Where are my shoes!?" Valorie cried, staring at the empty rack.

"We just sold the last pair this morning," a tall, middle aged man informed her.

She slumped her shoulders, looking at us with sadness all over her face.

"Hey, it's okay, sis. There are plenty of other stores in the mall that sell shoes." Rhyan put his arm around her, comforting her.

She just shrugged him off.

"Hey, let's go upstairs and try on some dresses at Rue 21." Sophia offered.

"Yeah! I've been meaning to get some things from there. It'll be fun, Val " Danielle smiled, showing off her mint-green braces, her sea green eyes twinkling.

"Fine," she said, after a few seconds, "Just get me out of here before I cry and drown in a pool of my tears."

"That's a bit dramatic don't you think?" Tyler chuckled.

"Zip it, Tyler."

He put a zipper over his mouth, taking Sophia's hand.

As we started walking towards the exist, I stayed behind.

"Actually, you guys go ahead. I saw this super cute top the other day and I wanna see if it's still here." I said, taking a few steps back.

Everyone shrugged and exited the store.

Once they were gone, I walked over to the tall man, who was fixing some crooked shoes.

"Hey, Scott." I greeted, with a smile, "Do you have them?"

He nodded, and lead me towards the counter. He shuffled through a few things before setting the box on the surface.

"Are you sure these are it?"

I opened the shoe box and sure enough there were the same gold Michael Kors sandals that Valorie wanted.

"Yeah, these are the ones. Thanks for coming through."

"You're lucky I got a hold of these. This lady was pretty upset when I told her that these shoes were on hold. She said if it was about the money, she had it in cash," he shook his head, then smiled, "You must really care about her."

I smiled softly, placing the lid on the box, "Yeah, I do."

Valorie's birthday is coming up, and if I waited until then to buy her gift, the shoes would be gone.

My phone began to ring viciously in my hand. It was the almost-birthday girl herself.

"Can I pick these up tomorrow?" I asked, ignoring the call.

"I won't be here all week. I'm going to the Bahamas with my family. Just stop by anytime next week and you can pick them up then."

"Oooo, sounds nice! Have a safe trip. I'll be here next week."

I turned around and began to walk towards the exist with my eyes glued to my phone.

Valorie had sent me at least six messages in the past minute.

"Chill out, Valorie." I muttered, to my phone, running my fingers across the screen. "I'm only down stairs-"

I'm suddenly slammed into a hard body before coming in contact with the floor.

My phone flew out of my hands and landed flat on it's surface.

"Ow," I bleated, mutedly, unknowing of what just happened.

I heard a chuckle.

What's so funny about a girl running into a stranger and falling to her doom? Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit, but you get my point.