Highland Plaza: a Collection of Short Stories

Ikea

Parrish stared on as Genna and Tessa ran into the Ikea in front of them. He'd been here before, so he wasn't as excited as they were. Last time he was in here, his parents were with him, buying furniture for his apartment. But this was going to be a much better experience than that. Parrish had been hanging out with these girls for a few weeks now, since that fateful day when Tessa apparently mistook him for a postal worker and Genna gave him his first tattoo the Saturday afterward. Its edges were still a little raised, but for the most part, it was healed. He had decided to get a bouquet on his shoulder. Numerous red roses, white daisies and a few bright red poppies bound with navy ribbon stood out against his caramel skin. He knew it was cliché, but it was the first large bouquet he'd put together all by himself. He thought it was beautiful, so he didn't care what anyone else said about it. It hurt like a bitch, but Genna didn't make fun of him for whining about the pain. She told him people had different pain tolerances, and she wasn't going to judge him for his.
Genna and Tessa were waiting for him to catch up. "Hurry up, dumbass. There are couches in there that I need to sit on," Genna sounded harsh, but Parrish knew that there was no malice behind her words. Parrish wasn't scared of her anymore. Most of the rumors, he found out, weren't actually true. She did punch a guy in the dick, though, because he wouldn't stop catcalling Tessa. The more outrageous ones he knew were false, but he still hasn't figured out if the one about her parents was true. He wasn't going to pry. It was, after all, Genna's life. She'd tell him when she was ready.
Tessa waved over to him. "Come on, Parrish! Don't you want to jump on the beds with me?" Tessa was just as peppy as ever. Her hair was sage this week, and she had cut it to her shoulders. She wasn't as enthusiastic as she was when they first met, but her happy attitude always made him feel better when he was in a bad mood. Tessa was the one who hung out with him the most, because Genna was so busy injecting ink into people's skin for a living. He usually just hung out in the lobby when he could and talked to Tessa while she answered phones, set up appointments, and finished any work she had left on her thesis.
Parrish sighed and moved to walk into the large store with them. The escalator was waiting patiently for them. When they got on it, it moved at a snail's pace, showing off the beauty of the blank walls on either side. It finally reached the first show floor, and he felt like he had been on that escalator for eons when they got off. They were now in the living room section of the store, where showrooms were neatly organized and displayed. Parrish wondered if their manager walked around each set with a ruler, measuring each new area to assure perfection. The first display that caught Parrish's eye had orange chairs. There was a chandelier blooming from a plank overhead. The glass coffee table was in front of the larger chair, and there was a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf on the back wall. He tried stepping closer to it, but Tessa pulled on his arm, and the three of them kept moving.
Genna stopped in front of a normal, family-friendly living room. White was the only color Parrish saw. The couches were white, the rug and the coffee tables were white, there was a bookshelf on one side of the set, but Parrish couldn't get a good look at it. Genna walked right onto the set and plopped in the loveseat facing Tessa and Parrish. She sank into the couch, with a calf balanced on her knee.
"You guys go on ahead. I'll be sitting here if you need me," Genna stated, leaning her head back and sinking lower into the loveseat.
"You sure, Genna? I don't know if splitting up is a good idea," Tessa responded.
"Yeah, but you have my number. Parrish will be with you the whole time, right Parrish?" When Parrish heard his name, he jumped. He nodded almost too quickly in response, and Genna nodded at him. "See? Now look at the beds and don't let anyone catch you."
"Okay!" Tessa replied, grabbing Parrish by the arm and dragging him to the bedroom section of the store. "I'm so excited, Parrish!" she said once they were in the kitchen section. Tessa wouldn't let him look at any of the kitchen sets, she was so determined. The kitchens were his favorite part, and he wanted to see what had changed about the section. Unfortunately, all he could spot were blurs of dark wood, glass, and white paint. They slowed when they turned a corner to the dining area of Ikea, and Parrish could see that it was just as beautiful as the living room. The sets were calling for guests to sit at the table and wait for dinner.
"Can we just... stay here for a while?" Parrish asked, hoping Tessa would say yes. Parrish didn't need a new dining set, but that wasn't going to stop him from looking at all the dining tables and chairs this store had to offer.
"Nope!" Tessa replied cheerfully, and continued pulling him until they turned one final time and reached the rows and rows of beds. Tessa wasted no time and immediately hopped on the bed, sitting on it. She bounced on it, testing it out, before looking at Parrish with a glint of mischief. He never expected Tessa to look mischievous, but she was Genna's best friend after all. Before he could stop her, she placed her shoe-clad feet on the mattress and stood. She started jumping on the bed, giggling as she did so. Parrish couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't think she was actually going to jump on the beds. She was going to get herself kicked out. He tried telling her so, but she didn't listen and continued jumping from bed to bed. Parrish was starting to get nervous watching her jump from mattress to mattress. Tessa was landing so close to the edges of the beds, and he worried she was going to fall. So he moved closer to her to make sure that wouldn't happen.
      While Tessa bounced away, the small green stems of the flowers branded into the skin of his arm caught his attention. When he told his parents about it, they were none too pleased. His dad wasn't mad about his getting a tattoo. He was angry that his first tattoo was of flowers. He didn't understand why Parrish had to get something so girly instead of something manly, like a skull or something. His mom was even worse. She questioned why he got a tattoo in the first place. She didn't know why he had to mark up his blemish-free skin with something so..."trashy". He hadn't spoken to them in two weeks because of it. When he looked back up at Tessa, she was still happily jumping on a particularly squishy mattress, so he pulled out his phone and started playing Candy Crush. He would only play it whenever Genna and Tessa weren't paying attention, because he knew they'd give him shit for it.
Parrish had gotten through three or four levels when he looked up to tell Tessa that they should head back to Genna soon, except he didn't see her at all. He moved further into the bedroom section of the store where he thought she would be, but she was nowhere to be found. The cold fingers of anxiety were crawling through his stomach and spreading to his heart, forcing it to beat faster.
Parrish couldn't see her anywhere in the bedding section, so he paced through every aisle of the dining sets to look for her. She was nowhere to be found. He tried texting her, but she wasn't responding. Walking calmed his nerves, but only by a small percentage. He walked back the way they came, and he didn't see Genna where they left her. His heart threatened to beat right out of his ribcage. He couldn't find them anywhere. He checked downstairs, and they weren't in any of the rooms there. He took a deep breath. He knew Genna and Tessa wouldn't ditch him; he drove the two of them there in the first place. He figured they'd get bored with the store soon and walk out. So he decided to eat some meatballs and call them to come to the front whenever they were done.
He took the escalator back to the second floor to get to the café. When he got to the top of the escalator however, he froze. Tension melted away from him when he saw Genna and Tessa sitting at a table in the café, eating meatballs and talking. Anger bubbled in his bloodstream and he stalked up to the pair of them. They didn't see him coming, but he made sure that his presence was made known to the two of them.
"Where the fuck have you two been?" he swore as soon as he was within hearing distance. The curse word felt slimy coming out of his mouth. Tessa stared at him wide-eyed when he said it, and Genna looked slightly amused. "I thought someone had kidnapped you, Tessa!" Tessa had the decency to look contrite.
"Dude. It's fine," Genna said. Her mouth was full, and he could see a meatball she hadn't quite finished poking out the side of her cheek. "I told Tessa to meet me at the café when she was done jumping on the beds. No big deal," She speared another meatball with her fork and crammed the whole thing into her mouth.
"But..." Parrish tried to argue, but the words fizzled out in his throat. He tried again, and successfully formed words this time. "I texted you and you didn't respond. "
      Tessa's eyes widened. She pulled her phone from her purse and checked it. "Oh my gosh," she put a hand over her mouth and the rest of her words were muffled. "That was definitely my fault. I started to respond to you, but I forgot to send it."
      Parrish checked his phone again and there they were – those three ominous dots taunted him from the messaging window. They disappeared as Tessa deleted her message to him.
      Parrish chucked, shaking his head. "I do it all the time. Just... try to remember to send the text next time please so I don't have a heart attack, okay?"
"So, are we done talking about feelings now?" Genna interjected, eyebrow raised. She took their silence as an affirmative and continued. "Sit your ass down and eat with us. Our food's getting cold, and we wanna go home after this." Genna pulled his wrist and forced him to sit down in one of the chairs across from them. Parrish looked at Genna and Tessa, surprised they hadn't left his company so soon. Most of the friends he made in the past would either stop inviting him places or didn't talk to him period. Parrish wondered why they stayed. He brushed the thought away and sat in the plastic chair properly and ate the food placed in front of him. Despite the hype, the food at Ikea was not as amazing as people made it out to be. For under five bucks, though, it was pretty good. After Genna finished eating, she stood up and slammed her hands down on the table.
"Come on, losers! We're not gonna take good naps today if we don't hurry up!" she said. When he looked at her, she was already halfway to the sluggish escalator.
"Coming!" Tessa shouted back, rising from her chair and moving toward her. She turned back to him with an arm outstretched, as if waiting for him to make a decision.
"Yeah, I'll be right there," he answered, dumping his disposable containers into the trash. "My friends are great," he muttered before shaking his head and following the two of them down the escalator and into the light of midday.