R A I N E

"If we get arrested, I'm blaming it on Angel," Julie whispers, keeping an eye out for security.

"What? Why are you blaming me? Blame Kris!" Angelina exclaims, throwing her hands in the air dramatically.

Kristin scoffs. "I only came for the food. Blame . . . Irfana!"

Fana rolls her eyes and hides behind a plant. "I didn't agree to this either, you guys literally dragged me to this stupid mall, at two o'clock in the morning! Blame Julie!"

Julie gasps. "It wasn't my idea! Blame Arih!"

"Arih isn't even here, dumbass." Angel smacks the back of her head.

"Gumass! It's gumass!" Chloe cuts in, pulling on a black beanie over her head as she moves carefully towards the food court.

"Wait, why isn't anyone blaming Chloe? She's the one who woke us all up in the middle of the night, telling us 'it's time for an adventure!' I didn't even get to change out of these pajamas." I point out, holding onto Julie's arm when she manages to trip over her own feet.

Everyone shines their flashlights on Chloe, who swears under her breath when the bright light almost blinds her.

"I'm so telling Laurel, Chloe," Angel smirks devilishly.

Chloe gapes. "You wouldn't!"

Laurel is who we call the 'Mom' of our group. She's pretty cool. Hell, she even knows how to kick ass. But when it comes to staying up late on school nights, she'll make you want to run for the hills. In the nicest way possible, of course. Then, if we do what she says, she'll get us ice cream.

"So, are we going to steal some food or not?" Kris pats her stomach.

"Um, the food is gone." I frown, pointing at all the small empty restaurants.

"Let's just break one of those vending machines, then." Chloe smiles proudly at her suggestion.

"Are you crazy?" Irfana rubs her temples.

"Uh, yeah. But, we are all crazy here. Aren't we, girls?"

"That we are," Julie nods.

"Pfft, us? Crazy? Loco? Of course we are!" Angel twirls her dark hair and points behind me. "But what do we do about that snoring dude over there?"

I whirl around and almost burst out laughing at the sight of a security guard who is indeed snoring away, but also has his head inside a trashcan, which makes the snoring louder.

"Oh, don't worry about him. He's drugged." Chloe says casually, tapping away at her phone.

"What?!" The five of us yell together, our brows raised in shock. I know Chloe is crazy, but I didn't think she was this crazy.

"What, what?" She shrugs.

"You drugged a security guard?!" I shake my head.

"What? Of course not! Angel did!"

"No, I didn't! Julie did!"

"You lie, Angel! It was Kris!" She juts her chin in the direction of the girl who is munching on a chocolate bar.

". . . Where did you get that?" Irfana asks.

"Oh, I smashed the vending machine. It's a candy bar Heaven, go stuff yourselves." Kris explains.

Oh, makes sense.

"Ha! See, at least someone thinks my idea was great." Chloe sticks her tongue out at us.

While the rest of the girls feast upon everything that spilled out of the machine, I hang back. There's no way we aren't getting into trouble now. We totally went against the "no breaking and entering" rule and destroyed property.

Doing crazy things like this together though, it isn't rare. There was this one time where we all snuck into one of my crush's bedroom and wrote "You+Me=Beautiful Babies" on everything he owned, though I didn't help at all. I shamelessly admit that I was just watching him sleep like the creep I am. Funnily enough, that's not even on our list of the top ten craziest things we've done.

My thoughts are interrupted when a deep groan fills the silence of the empty mall. We jump and freeze, turning to look at the now wide awake security guard.

"Hey! You kids, what do you think you're doing here? The mall's closed!" He starts jogging towards us, but he's incredibly slow. "Wait, is that the vending machine? Did you break it? You're going to have to-"

"Quick, everyone! Store the food in your cheeks like a chipmunk and run!" Chloe shouts, her voice echoing. I run to my friends and pick up whatever they've dropped off the floor, then look to see if any of them actually listened to Chloe's instructions. No one except Kris has.

"Get back here! What are your names? Stop running!" The guard grunts and slows down, but doesn't stop moving his legs. He also keeps having to pull up his pants every five seconds, which doesn't help his speed.

"Why would we stop running and why would we tell him our names? Geez, this guy is the stupidest security guard I've ever come across." Angel throws a toy hammer at him.

"Where the heck did you get that from?" I ask, my face heating up from all the running.

"There are toys all over the floor," Angel says.

Oh, gosh. Julie is bound to trip over at least eight, with her curse of clumsiness.

"Shit, he has a gun!" Julie informs, her eyes widening in fear.

"It's a water gun, Jules," Irfana says.

"How can you be so sure?" She leaps over a toy fire truck, but ends up stepping on a Hot Wheels car that sends her gliding across the floor like she's wearing roller skates.

"It's green, and it's plastic, gumass," Chloe yells as she tries to catch up with her.

I almost stumble into Kris when Julie bumps into me, but luckily I keep my balance and throw a glance over my shoulder. The security guard is talking into his little speaker thing, calling for backup. Shit.

By the time make it to the exit, there are already two cop cars waiting outside for us troubled teenagers.

"Hey, Officer! Long time no see, pal. What's up?" Chloe tries to feign innocence, but we all know it's not going to work.

"Actually, Chloe, it hasn't been such a long time. Two days. Two." Officer Wilson arches a brow at us.

Angel steps forward. "It was just the grocery store! Can't a girl get ice cream at night?"

Wilson shakes his head. "I'm not dealing with this tonight. Get in the cars."

Jail, here we come.

Again.

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Hey, all! There you have it, the very first chapter! What do you think? The next chapter will be posted tomorrow :)

Chloe ❤