Luna's Ghost

23

I walked in through the mall's entrance and was immediately hit with the sounds of people talking, laughing, children screaming and crying, the bright lights that shines above as well as the smell of different foods. I saw that I was in the Food Court.

I walked over to the sign that had a map of the mall and its stores. Victoria's Secret was only a few stores down from where I was, I'd be able to find it easily.

As I walked through the Food Court, I recognized a few people from my school sitting at the tables. I winced as the voices echoed off the walls of the building and into my ears. I hated the mall with a passion. I hated the noise, I hated being around so many people.

I remembered in middle school if I were to try to make new friends and hang out with them, they would always want to go to the mall and I'd always be miserable, impatiently waiting for them to hurry up so we could get out of there. I hoped Madison would either not want to stay here long, or we could go somewhere else.

I found the Victoria's Secret store and walked inside. I was immediately hit with the smells of various perfumes and saw multiple sets of lingerie on display, as well as PINK t-shirts.

"Hi!" a cheery girl with the name tag that read LINDSEY on her shirt greeted me before I could even step into the store. "Can I help you with anything?"

I shook my head and forced a smile on my face before scanning the store for Madison. "No, just browsing."

She started telling me about the sale they had going on, which I tuned out.

I saw a flash of curly blonde hair towards the back of the store and immediately knew it was Madison.

"I hope you have a good day!" Lindsey said.

I nodded and rushed to the back. Madison was absentmindedly looking through some of the PINK shirts, her expression far away as though she were deep in thought.

"Hey," I said.

She looked over. "Hey. Thanks for meeting me here."

"No problem. What did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to look around for a few more minutes before we talk."

"Okay, that's fine." Although I really, really wanted to get the

information out of her as soon as possible, but I knew it was better to be patient.

We browsed around the store for about five more minutes. Madison

piled multiple t-shirts onto her arm as she continued to look through the store, all the while she still had that far away expression on her face. Whatever was on her mind must have been pretty big, because the rest of the time we were in the store she barely said three words to me or anyone else and she was the one that would normally talk nonstop.

She was done looking through and I waited in the check-out line with her. She glanced over at me, saw that I didn't have anything, and frowned.

"You didn't get anything?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't have any money."

"You don't have a job?"

The way she said it with a bit of an attitude irritated me slightly but I forced myself to speak calmly since it looked like she obviously had a lot going on with her. "No, not yet, but I will be looking for one. I don't have a car to drive around in yet."