"Do you see Sarah and Sammi yet?" I ask Ashton. We're at the mall with Luke from swing, Ashton's best friend, waiting for my roommates. They came separately because Sarah had class later and Sammi was her ride.

    "No, I don't. You know they're always late." He answers me, then turns back to Luke. The three of us are sitting at a table in the food court. It's our rendezvous point, always. There are lots of people here today, even though it's a random Tuesday night. I search the crowds of people laughing and talking, looking through the bags slung across shoulders or held in hands and the children running around, past the man yelling about free smoothie samples, but I don't see my friends anywhere.

    I sigh and turn back to the boys. I start to listen to their conversation and suddenly I feel like slamming my head against the table. They're talking animatedly about cars. Luke pulls out his phone and shows Ashton a picture. Ashton whistles and grabs it, his eyes wide.

"Wow, that's hot." I take a peek over his shoulder at the car--actually it's a truck. It's black and the back is long and the tires are really big. That's about all I care about it. They prattle on about things I don't know about and I look away in disgust. I don't care about trucks. Or cars.

    "I'm sorry, Vi. I know you hate this." Ashton says grabbing my hand and looking at my sympathetically. "We can talk about something else." I'm touched that he's willing to sacrifice guy talk for me.

    "Awe, thanks Ashy. You don't have to do that though. I don't mind. You've endured plenty of girl talk for my sake. I can listen to car talk for a little longer." Ashton shudders thinking of last night, while Luke says, "Trucks," like it actually matters. The other night, my roommates had a conversation about tampons in front of Ashton. He was mortified.

    He leans over and kisses my cheek.

    "This is why you're the best girlfriend ever." I smile. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean Ashton can't. That's not fair to him. I don't want to be like this girl I knew in high school who only let her boyfriend talk about things she was interested in. He was miserable for the three months they dated. I could never be like that.

    "You guys!" Luke squeals. "You're so cute together!" I blush.

    Ten minutes later, which was nine minutes after I was regretting my decision of allowing them to continue, Sammi and Sarah showed up.

    "Oh, thank heavens!" I exclaimed, jumping up out of my seat. "Thirty minutes of car talk, that's what I had to endure because of you." I scold them.

    "Hey, we talked about trucks, too!" Luke said defensively. I don't think he gets the fact that I don't care about the difference...

    "Well you can take some time to get over that trauma while we go shopping." Sammi says. Her brown hair is braided to one side, secured with a pale blue ribbon that matches her keds. She's got a charcoal grey shirt and dark blue skinny jeans. The boys get up so we can start going, but Sammi shakes her head.

    "Oh, no. Girls only."

    "What? Why?"

    "We need girl time."

    "Can't we come?" Ashton asks.

    "Well, I suppose you can...but you have to hold our bags in Victoria's Secret." Ooh, harsh. Sammi grins at their horror-struck faces.

    "And come with us whilst we buy tampons." Both boys make gagging noises. "Maybe you can help figure out which size is best for—"

    "Gross!" Luke cries, interrupting her. He walks away, hands in his pockets, head hung low. Ashton trails behind him, looking back at me over his shoulder. I shrug back helplessly as I'm dragged away by my friends.

"Where do you buy tampons in the mall?" I ask.

"I'm not even sure they sell them here. I just said that to get them away so they won't follow us. They'll probably go to the record shop or the guitar shop. Luke is into music, you know."

"Is he, now?" Sarah and I share a meaningful glance.

    "Yes." Sammi says stiffly, regretting mentioning him at all. "He told me so. Anyway, I want a pretzel." We all look at each other, eyes wide.

    "Auntie Anne's!" We squeal at the same time. An old lady gives us a look, disappointed in our volume, but we keep walking so we don't bother her and go to spot in the mall we know best.

    "Three pretzels, please." I say.

    The girl behind the counter, "Dani," her name tag said, takes three pretzels from the warming rack and hands one to each of us.

"Any sauce?"

"Cheese for me, please." Sammi says. Dani hands her a little container of some pitiful yellow substance that kind of resembles cheese, then presses some buttons on the cash machine.

"Your total is 6.87."

"My treat," I say sliding in front of the girls before they can get their cards out. I had my wallet prepared.

"Vi,"

"Nope. I won't hear any complaints." I put my card back in my bag and turn around to find a table to sit at.    

I find a booth in the corner and slide into the seat facing the rest of the mall. I like to watch my surroundings and see what other people are doing. Sammi slides in, and Sarah sits next to her.

We eat our pretzels and talk about school, our clubs, and life. Even though we're roommates, we don't often see each other because we're all so busy.

"So what's with this sudden attention towards Luke?" I ask, wiggling my eyebrows suggestively. Sammi blushes.

"Nothing."

"Well how come you  know so much about him?"

"I don't. I just mentioned he likes music!"

"Vi hangs out with him all the time because of Ashton and she doesn't know that."

I keep quiet because I actually did know that. We've started hanging out quite a bit since meeting at the Halloween party. He mentioned it last week when we passed a guitar shop and Luke practically drooled as he looked out the window, wishing he could go inside.

I withdraw from the conversation now because I don't want to keep talking and possibly reveal the fact that I know quite a bit about him. I look around the small cafe. At a table next to us, a boy and girl walk over. They look middle school age. The boy pulls the seat out for the girl and I watch her face turn bright red as she sits down, smiling shyly at him. Aww, that's adorable. I chuckle as I look past them and notice two women gushing at them; their mothers, I'm assuming.

There are a lot of people walking in and out of the stores that surround us. I scan the crowds, looking for someone to stand out. I stop when I see a man dressed in all black clothing. He stood right next to the staircase. I noticed his hat, drawn down to cover his eyes and nose. I can feel him staring at me, even though his eyes are covered.

    "Hey, do you see that guy looking at us?" I ask interrupt Sammi and Sarah's conversation. They'd changed topics to discuss some video about a dog they saw on Facebook.

    "Why, is he cute?" Sarah asks, looking around animatedly. I roll my eyes and she scoffs. "What? You already have a boyfriend."

    "Where is he?" Sammi asks.

    I pause, looking back towards where he was. I could just see the top of his hat as it descended the stone staircase.

    "Oh, he's gone now." I say, brushing it off. I pray that my voice doesn't betray the uneasiness I feel. They're having such a good time, I don't want to ruin their fun with my paranoia. It was probably nothing anyway. But it really creeped me out...

    "What did he look like?"

    Well, I can't tell them it wasn't the good kind of looking at me, so I look at the next boy I see and describe him.

    "Super cute. Short, spiky blonde hair, green eyes, dimples, dressed like he was about to walk onto a boat."

    "Awe, too bad I missed him!" Sarah pouts. "Which way did he go?"

    "Oh, stop it." Sammi scolds. That's actually Sarah's ideal image for this boyfriend she envisions in her head. "We're not going to follow some guy around the mall. Again." I raise my eyebrows, but Sammi just shakes her head. "Plus, he was looking at Vi, not you."

    I stick my tongue out at Sarah and she throws her napkin in my face.

    "No fair." She pouts.

    "Let's go shop." Sammi suggests.