"I'm telling you, Wil, Levi's got a crush on you. Why else would he be tweeting the things he has been? And he followed you! That's clearly a sign!" Val announces as she comes out of H & M's dressing room, a mountain of clothes in her arms.

We've been at the mall for an hour now, and while I got my shopping taken care of in the first half of it, Val is another story.

I sigh as I get up to help with the things Val doesn't want, handing them to the girl behind the desk. We make our way through the store, and Val is still on a roll.

"We should see if there's a party coming up. That'd be the perfect place to find Levi and try to get you out of your shell!"

"Val!" I interrupt as we exit the store.

Val whirls around, eyes wide at me as if she'd forgotten I was actually there. "What's up?"

I give her a tired look. "Are you going to drop this anytime soon?"

Val knits her eyebrows together, looking at me in bewilderment. "Why would I?"

"Because...don't you think you're going a little bit overboard?" I ask, a laugh lacing my words. "Just because Levi followed me doesn't mean he likes me."

An impish look washes over Val's features, and suddenly she's smirking at me like she knows when the world's going to end.

"I know," Val chimes. "But you gotta admit. Don't you want to know?"

I quirk an eyebrow as if to say 'Me? Please.' But she's right. I do want to know. Maybe it's the curse that comes with a popular guy talking to you, but I wanted to follow this mystery through to the end. I've had a thing for Levi since I was thirteen, and if something came out of it at long last, I wanted to know.

Val grins, exposing her pearly white smile. "I knew it."

Before I can protest, she loops her arm through mine and we start down the hall, passing people and shops and kiosks.

"So, I bet you're wondering just what my plan is," Val says with an airy tone.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," I quip.

With a grand flourish, Val twirls out in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. "You, my lovely Wilhelmina, are going to learn how to flirt with someone you just met."

I would have been more comfortable had she asked me to go sky-diving. Instead, I blink at her in absolute bewilderment. My stomach feels like it's shriveled up like a worm.

"You want me to what?" I manage to choke out. My throat feels like it's closing, and Val must know, because her face shifts.

"I know how you feel about spontaneity!" she rushes back to my side, looping her arm through mine once more.

"I hate it," I say,

"I know," Val assures, "but if you're going to want to solidify this thing with Levi against what he may or may not have going on with Melina, then you need to stock up on some spontaneous confidence."

I take a deep breath as we continue walking, my steps feeling like I'm in a funeral march. The idea of talking to someone of potential authority intimidates me so much that I need at least three to five business days to think of every possible way it could go, let alone talking to a cute boy. Let alone talking to a cute boy I've just met!

"Val, I don't know." I turn around to look at her. "You didn't see me the other day. I was this close to freezing."

Val gives me her trademark Val look, an expression that she wears when she's settled on something and nothing come hell or high water can shake her from it. She wears intransigence like designer clothes. "Wil, I trust you, but don't you want to learn to trust yourself? You have it in you!"

I chew on my lip, unsure. I do need to come out of my shell...

I shut my eyes, sighing deeply. Maybe I can find a way to get out of this as I go, but for now--
"I'll do it," I say.

Val beams, clapping her hands excitedly. "Yes! Now, come on, let's get started!"

"Where are we going?" I ask. "We're already at the mall."

Val gives me another look. "Where else are we going to find cute boys?" She raises her chin. "We're going to the food court."

☼

The food court, ever the watering hole of youths and teens in small suburban towns, is packed. Val and I maneuver past the various restaurants like we're trying to fight our way across a mosh pit, until finally, we come into a clearing. We flop down at a table, and Val sets to work at surveying the crowd.

"There!" she says at last, averting my attention towards the giant carousel in the middle of the food court. Leaning against a nearby pillar, drinking a smoothie while looking at his phone, is a guy about our age. From what I can see, he's tall, blond, and reasonably attractive.

"Do you have a radar for this or something?" I ask Val, who shoots me a look as if to say girl please. I put my hands up in mock surrender. "Alright, alright."

"You know the plan," Val says, an evil grin on her face. "Just be yourself!"

As I roll my shoulders back and start towards Blondie, I mutter, "Isn't that what we're trying to avoid?"

Val, of course, doesn't hear me, so I march across the food court, target locked. However, just as I'm about half-way across, a girl sashays up to Blondie, stealing him away. I step dead in the center of oncoming traffic, dazed. Now, what?

The answer doesn't come to me in time, because in that moment, I find the floor reeling towards my face. Someone grabs me and pulls me up, their arms around me like in some kind of tango dip. I look up and immediately wish I hadn't, yet thank myself for having done so.

Looking down at me with a peculiar sort of amusement is a very attractive guy, with dark hair and pale green eyes. His lips are set into a casual sort of smile, like he's about to start chuckling to himself.

"Careful," he says, his voice deep and melodious. "Deaths via faceplant claim ones of lives every year."

A sheepish sort of laugh escapes my lips and I'm unsure I even willed it to happen. My hero sets me upright, and I am immediately aware of the absence of his touch.

"Sorry about that," I say. "Guess I just got kind of dazed."

"Understandable," he says simply, motioning around the food court. "What with all the chaos."

I nod, pressing my lips together. I look back up at him. "Well, thank you for catching me. You didn't have to do that."

The guy puts a hand to his chest, which is clad in a white t-shirt and leather jacket. "And let a fair lady meet her doom amid a sea of frantic teenagers? I think not."

Fair lady, huh? The words blossom into my mind and spiral through my body, wrapping around my heart and pulling my lips into a smile.

"Well then, guess we should all be fortunate enough to have heroes like you on the sidelines," I say, almost surprised at myself. If Val could see me now.

The guy's lips quirk up into a smirk. "I'm afraid I'm one of a kind."

I've exhausted my quota of flirtatious wit for the month, so I find myself staring into his eyes, a lazy smile on my face. For a moment, we just stand there, looking at each other, until his face shifts and he pulls out his phone.

"Well, I've got to run," he says. He glances up at me with an impish look in his eyes. "Think you can make it to wherever you're headed without another incident?"

I laugh. "I think so. Thank you again!"

The guy nods, turning on his heel. "May we meet again, fair lady."

And with that, he's gone. I watch for a second as he disappears into the crowd, and once he's out of sight, I seem to snap back into myself. Did that just happen...and did I just flirt?

Baffled, I head back to the table, where Val's face is frozen in shock. It's good that I'm at a loss for words, because Val never is.

"I saw that!" She beams, leaning forward and whacking me on the arm. "That was so smooth! Did you plan to trip when you saw that guy coming?"

I make a face. "What? No." I shake my head with a laugh. "My clumsiness is authentic, I assure you."

"I'm glad it is," Val says with a wink. She gets to her feet. "Works every time."

I roll my eyes, following in Val's footsteps as we start heading up the stairs into the mall proper,. "Where to next?"

It isn't until we reach the mall's wide open center overlooking the food court when I spot Levi Graham and a few other guys on the football team head our way.

"Let's head to Express and loop around to Garage, I think they're having a--" Val's saying, but I cut her off by dragging her into the nearest store: Bath and Body Works.

Val pulls away from me, her eyes wide. "What the he--"

I clamp my hand over her mouth, forgetting that there's the raucous music of Bath and Body Works as well as the clamor of the mall to cover her voice, and nod my head to the hallway. Val follows with her eyes, and I watch as they widen when she sees the boys.

We stay like that until they pass, and I let go of Val's mouth.

"You were saying?" I begin, but Val's already initiated her plan.

"We're following them," she says, her voice grave as if she's sentencing someone to death. I suppose the someone is my sanity. "And we are going to flirt with them."

The panic button is pushed in my brain at that. My eyes widen, and as Val turns to leave, I grab her hand, pulling her back. "Nononononono."

"What?" Val asks. "You just proved to yourself that you can flirt at the drop of a hat!"

I bite my tongue. I wouldn't go that far, but Val's got me beat. My shyness will not serve as a sufficient excuse this time around.

"You want to find out if Levi likes you?" Val asks, her eyes gleaming. "Well, now's your moment! Let's go!"