A Childish day at the mall

One depressing Sunday afternoon, I was trapped in to going to the mall. I hated the mall. I saved all my money in the bank and was unwilling to take out any to buy clothes. Clothes I did not even need. Alright, I admit. I wasn’t really trapped into going anywhere. However, my friend Aarika asked me to go. She was meeting some friend of a friend. Apparently, they had been talking online for a while and needed a few friends along so she would be “safe”. So, a group of us went to the mall.
The ride there was great. Well, mostly great. The only downers were the couple among us. Michael drove, with Nina at his side. They played their boring music. And just sat there, refusing to get involved in any of our games. Oh, they were games, childish ones but fun nonetheless. The backseat of a car is truly the place to be.
In the backseat, were my best friend Samantha. She was the “punk” among us. I believe her hair was purple then, a deep purple that seemed to absorb the sunlight coming through the window. Through her gray-green eyes, Samantha saw the world in her own way. Nothing was boring or empty with her around.
Aarika, the reason for the trip sat behind Michael. No matter how much she was having, she was still serious. Her blonde hair was done up as usual. There wasn’t much else to do with her hair. Like all good Pentecostal daughters, Aarika never cut her hair and wore skirts all the time.
We took pictures with phones, listened to music and had a blast the whole time to the mall. Finally getting there, we were grateful to be able to move. Through the mall’s doors we went, and into the twisted hallways, stuffed with stores and kiosks filled with all sorts of colorful things. My favorite kiosk was fairly empty. They sold phones. Why, you ask should this be interesting to me? Because of the guy who stood there. As we walked by, he tried to get our attention.
“Miss, miss!” He yelled. “Look at this phone isn’t it wonderful?”
I guess it had been a long day for him, because when we did not answer, in an explosion of frustration he yelled-
“Ma’am, sir! ANYBODY!”
The poor man got no response. We arrived at Mrs. Field’s cookies, a delightful little store. It had a long white and red striped counter. In the counter, you could see piles and piles of freshly baked cookies. Chocolate chip, Sugar cookies, the really big ones for birthday presents. I loved their cookies. It was my favorite place in the whole mall. Getting our cookies, the five of us went to wait for Aarika’s man outside the store. Soon, he arrived. Blonde, somewhat short. The only pretty thing about him or even the only noticeable thing about him was his eyes. They were a bright, vibrant blue.
Being the cranky people they are, Nina and Michael soon hauled us off to where they wanted to go. Coney Island for chili cheese fries. It was at Coney Island, where Michael’s friend Sean showed up. I thought it couldn’t get any worse. I had known Sean for a while, and at first, he was great. Nice personality and pretty cute. But underneath it all, he was a jerk. Selfish, no one matter as much as he did. I could not stand to be around him.
Therefore, I sat down in the booth with Samantha, Aarika and her friend-Warren. I turned to Sam. “Did you see who just got here?”
“No” She answered eating a French fry. I jerked my head in the direction of Nina and Michael.
“Eww, lets leave.” At last, someone was speaking my language. I quickly went to tell Michael that we were leaving. I made him promise to call me when it was time to go. Sometimes, Nina became very lofty and would just leave without us.
We walked around the mall for a while. Not knowing where else to go, we ended up in JC Penny. That is truly a great store. Not because of the racks and racks of clothes, or for the beautiful shoes. It is much simpler than that. They have escalators. Samantha and I love them. We were like two overgrown children as we rushed toward them, quickly losing Warren and Aarika in the Sunday crowd. Up we rode, reaching the top, we ran to the left. Through some kid pillows and bedspreads. Sadly enough, we became distracted. There was a beautiful pillow. Soft and green, it was one the ones that looked like it had hair. I am sorry to say that we spent a while there, comparing this pillow to that one and so on. Finally, we got on to the down escalator. It was when we were stepping off, that we realized we had lost Warren and Aarika. Whoops. Where to look?
We decided to think logically, where would two “in online love” teenagers go? Ah! The shoe department! It seemed very logical, so we headed over there. No such luck. They weren’t there…Alas; pretty shoes distracted us. Then, to our surprise, we saw Warren and Aarika. Immediately our attention was drawn away from the pretty shoes to a backward game of spy. Right there, in the middle of JC Penny. Samantha and I crouched down. She by a rack of sleazy looking bags and I by a shoe display, the footsteps drew closer and closer…then! Aarika was standing above me. Giving me a look. The stupid look. I have seen it often. The “how can you be so childish?” one.
I am afraid to say that my day got more childish. We decided to play a warped hide and go seek. It is the most fun I have had in any store in years. The experience helped me see how my childhood is not lost- not matter how far away it had been feeling. I don’t care how stupid I looked hiding by a shoe display. The realization that my childhood wasn’t gone, that I had Samantha to keep me young at heart- was worth more than a little loss of dignity.