I awoke to my phone ringing yet again. Did these people ever give up? Glancing at my clock I realized it was 9:30. Good thing they woke me up. I needed to leave, like, now. I flipped open my phone as I rolled out of bed, rubbing my eyes.

“Hello?” I asked drowsily.

“Hey it’s Sakeena.”

“Oh hey what’s up?” I asked.

“Not too much just chillin’, you?” She was chillin’ this early? Jesus.

“You definitely just woke me up but it’s cool cuz I gotta go to work soon.”

“Oh I’m sorry!” She apologized.

“No it’s fine.” I just told you it’s fine.

“Ok well I was wondering if you wanted to come to the mall today.” Sakeena asked.

“Uhm sure. What time? Cuz I gotta work till three.”

“How about three-thirty then?”

“That’s cool. How about like, three cuz I work right next to the mall.”

“Where do you work?”

“Quizno’s.”

“Oh cool! I’ll meet you there a little early ok?”

“Fine by me. It’s so boring.”

“Ok, bye hon. Love you.” I snapped shut my phone as I pulled on a different shirt and my Dickies. I stumbled out of my room, left a sticky-note saying “at work” on the fridge, grabbed my iPod, and went out to my car. I plugged my iPod in as the engine woke up, and I scrolled down to Hot Hot Heat. I needed something peppy to wake me up. I cranked the volume as I pulled out of my driveway and headed over to Quizno’s. I wished they served coffee. I wasn’t allowed to bring in outside food and stuff, which totally blew cuz I could really use some Starbucks. What kind of crazy place hires a 17-year-old girl like me, who is not a morning person no matter how you swing it, to work the morning shift without even giving her any coffee?

I settled for some Red Bull I found in the cooler across from the register.

--

An excruciating 6 hours later, I heard the bell on the door ring, and I looked up to see Sakeena walking in. Salvation.

She was shorter than me (everyone was though. I was 5’6”. Come on it’s not like I’m going to be super petite), half Indian (actually from India, people), spunky, super activist, OCD, and had wicked long hair which she thought was frizzy but was actually very pretty. She’d just re-dyed it this really cool purple-y color. Oh and another thing, she was a total sweetie, and a lot more touchy-feely than any of my other friends (which is cool cuz that’s how I am).

“Hi!” She exclaimed when I looked up from my perch on the edge of the counter. 3 o-clock on a Sunday isn’t a very busy time around here. Luckily I had the rest of Spring Break off cuz I’d worked so much beforehand. Not only that but I had a decent amount of money saved up from all of that.

“Hey Sakeena,” I replied, my enthusiasm not quite matching hers.

“What’s up?”

“I’m just dancing on the ceiling, as you can see. What about you?”

“Oh Paige, I love you. You’re hilarious.” When she said that I smiled. I liked being funny. It’s a total ego trip (as Andrew will only too readily attest).

We chatted for a little bit longer until my shift was finally up. I ripped off my smock as I passed my little working buddy Todd on the way out the door. He was pretty chill. We usually worked the same shift but not today. Sadly. He was super hot, super funny, and super nice. Great combination. Made work scooping meatballs almost bearable.

We walked out to my car, when I paused to ask her how she even got there. Even though she was 16, she didn’t have her license yet. Or a car. She said Liz and Gav gave her a ride.

“Well where are they?” I asked.

“At the mall too.”

“Oh.” Well duh. I should’ve known.

I threw my smock into the car, pulled my hair out of its hair-tie, and slammed the door. We walked in the opposite direction over to the mall. It was like, thirty seconds away and I wasn’t going to drive 50 feet just cuz we’re lazy. Anyways, it was a nice day, at about 70 degrees, and I’d been stuck inside of Quizno’s all day. I wanted a breath of fresh air.

I pulled open the door to the mall and was hit with a wall of air-conditioning. Good to know they keep this place cold. We walked through Macy’s (I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything there) and into the main area of the mall. You know, where it’s all open and there’s all the good stores?

I think I’m physically incapable of not buying something anytime I go somewhere. If I go to the mall, I have to at least get photo booth pictures and food. If I go to a show, I have to get a shirt or a CD. And that ends up with me being broke. But luckily I had a 20 bill on me. So as we were strolling through the mall, we ended up getting food (Taco Bell – it’s a tradition. Ever since I was there with Emily and John I have to get a number 5 at Taco Bell and Mountain Dew. The Mountain Dew is unquestionable under any circumstances though– I’m addicted), photo booth pictures (which are always a lot of fun – especially in those ones where there’s a TV on the outside for people to watch you making a fool of yourself), and then we ended up in Hot Topic. Typical, right? Well luckily, nothing there costs under 20 so I was safe. Otherwise I would’ve had to splurge on these awesome little armband things. Just the weekend before I’d spent 50 on a The Used zip-up – which was now my pride and joy.

After we walked out of Hot Topic empty-handed (which is never any fun – I could spend hours in there wishing I had more money), we walked over to Sam Goody, which was having a closing sale. I walked in and straight over to the CD section. My friend had told me that you could get Regina Spektor here, and considering I’d had her stuck in my head for the past few days, that definitely sounded like a good idea. I strolled over to the Rock/Pop section and started digging through the S’s. Springstein, Smile Empty Soul, Britney Spears … yyyyeah, not what I was looking for. I scanned the tops of all the CD’s in the area to make sure she wasn’t over there, before looking up to try and find someone that worked there. I couldn’t see anyone. Just my luck. I turned around, meaning to go find Sakeena and ask her, when I ran head-on into someone.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry.” I apologized quickly.

“It’s cool, don’t worry,” the person said back.

I looked up into their face to see that it was…

No. You’ve got to be kidding. You’ve GOT to be fucking kidding me. There was no way this was happening.

“Luke…?” I said uncertainly.

“Yeah, how do you know my- wait, Paige?”

“Yeah. Holy shit! I can’t fucking believe this,” I practically shouted. “What the hell!” I yelled towards the ceiling. Couldn’t my life be normal for one fucking day?

“I, I, I never thought I’d be seeing you ag-g-gain,” he stuttered. Aw, it was cute. No! Bad Paige!

“Yeah, ditto. What the FUCK!” I screamed and fell to the floor, cradling my head in my hands. What the hell did I ever do to this world?

“Uhm, you ok?” he asked, nervously.

“Yeah, fine and fucking perfect. This is so weird.”

“Yeah it is. Uh… do you wanna go talk or something?”

“Shit, yeah, hang on.” I made him stay where he was (I tied his bracelet to the CD rack) and went to go find Sakeena.

“Hey, Sakeena?”

“Yeah? Why were you screaming?”

“Uhm, cuz I met this dude I never thought I’d see again. You can go find Liz and Gav, I’ll meet back up with you guys, ok? I have to talk to him and uh, yeah.”

“Ok, fine just ditch me.” But I knew she was cool with it. (God, this whole situation was so fucking weird.)

I went back over to Luke, untied his little hemp bracelet, took his (freakishly familiar) hand, and we walked out to the food court. I led us to a corner seat on a booth, and sat down in the corner, pulling my knees up to my chest and resting my head on them.

“So, why the hell are you here? I thought you said you lived like, two hours away from here,” I began our conversation. So what if it wasn’t super-polite?

“Uhm, I lied. I live here in Altamonte Springs.” His deep, teasing voice still had a hypnotic effect over me. Damn it, Paige.

“What the hell! I live like 20 minutes away!”

“Haha, really?” The flirty-ness in his voice was like poison. But oo it was nice poison.

“Yeah, really! I don’t fucking lie to people about where I live!”

“Yeah, well. I don’t want flings knowing where to find me.” He winked.

Maybe this would be a good time to explain how I knew this kid?

Okay, well, I’d gone to a concert two Saturdays before. It had been absolutely amazing in every sense of the word. And more.

But he’d rounded off the night into absolute perfection.

See, during the last band, my friend and I had gotten separated. So, I moved closer to the front. It’s just what I do. I feed off of everyone’s adrenaline and go absolutely crazy, even if I don’t know any of the words. So I ended up like, three people back from the barrier. There was a really sweaty dude in front of me to my left, a fat chick in front of me, a drunk chick on my right, and a really tall guy behind me. Guess which one I ended up making out with? Yeah, that would be the really tall one. It was so cute how he did it though. I kept getting landed on by crowd-surfer’s cuz I couldn’t see behind me and stuff. So he would catch them for me. I turned around to say thanks and he put his arms around my waist. I turned back around, just to see what he would do, and he brought his mouth down by my face, and whispered, (loud enough for me to still hear him though) “I got you.” With that, I brought my lips to his in a full-on kiss.

I don’t know how to make this all romantic and sexy sounding, so I’ll just say it straight up.

We ended up making out for a good 45 minutes at the concert, at least. He fingered me a few times, I gave him a hand job, blah blah blah. We were still jamming to the music though and at one point, the song went “Kiss me girl, one more time” and he pulled away and sang it to me. Of course I grabbed the back of his neck and wrapped my arms around him and treated him to an extra special kiss, just for that. I think at one point the techie guys for the show put a spotlight on us, because it got really bright (I could tell through closed eyes) and every time (hm, how do I put this?) our mouths opened onto each other again, the crowd cheered and I heard the lead singer laugh and then they launched off into another song. But whatever. I don’t care if like three hundred people saw me making out with a total stranger. The first time we pulled away from each other he mumbled “nice to meet you” in a totally sexy, cute, funny voice. And then he told me I was “a great kisser.” Notice he said great, not good. I’m very proud of my tongue-manipulating skills, thank you very much. Oh, and he called me gorgeous. I knew it was all talk to make me happy, but hey, a girl can feel special, right? We got thrown into a mosh pit while still attached at the lips (and, ahem, hands/pants) at one point, which was pretty interesting. But afterwards, when we were waiting for everyone to leave, and we were actually talking, he was like “where are you from?”

“20 minutes north of Orlando. You?”

“I’m from Jacksonville, haha.” He answered.

“Oh that’s kind of far…”

“Yeah I’m in town with some friends. And of course I had to come see the Starting Line!”

“Yeah… I’m definitely here for Gatsby’s American Dream.” I replied. I love Gatsby’s, they are amazing.

“Oh…yeah. Hey what are you doing after this?”

“Uhm… going to my friends house, what about you?”

“Nothing, I’m in town alllllll night though,” he said suggestively. He was so trying to fuck me. I loved it.

“Mhm well I might be able to ditch my friend for the night. Don’t think she’ll mind so much.” I replied. Couldn’t resist.

“Really?”

“Really really.” (I love Shrek)

“Cool. Well let me go find my friends and tell them I’ll catch them tomorrow. Meet me out by the ticket thing.”

“Alrighty.”

I walked away and went to go find my friend, Mandy. I didn’t really think he was going to go through with it. I really didn’t.

“Hey, Mandy? Change of plans. I have to go home, ok? Sorry!”

“Oh no it’s cool. Just call me in the morning, k?” I watched her walk away, and I turned around to go wait by the ticket booth. I’d come in my own car, so if I got ditched I could just drive home.

I flipped my seriously sweaty hair out of my face, and fanned myself, trying to let the cool night air seep into my skin. I probably looked disgusting. But who does look good after a show? Besides all the perfect little scene kids that always look perfect. (I have issues with perfection, by the way) I had just turned around to scan the crowd for this kid when he walked up. Let me describe him to you: about six-foot-three, with medium length dark hair that came down to his mouth when it hung in his face. It was mostly straight but a little curly where it was wet. He was pretty pale, and had a nice mouth. He was skinny as hell, and wearing girl pants and a Starting Line T-shirt. I looked down at myself… so was I. Hey, we matched. What a cute couple. (Note the sarcasm)

“So what’s your name, beautiful?” He said to me in that sugary sweet deep voice.

“Paige. Yours?”

“Luke.”

“Nice to meet you,” I stood on my toes (like I said, he was tall. I had no idea how he could wear girl pants and be that tall) and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around my waist, one sliding down to my ass, and I pulled him close.

We finally separated, and, holding hands, walked out to the parking lot.

“Do you have a car?” I asked.

“I rode with my friends here, so not with me.”

“Ok well… I do.”

We walked out to the very back of the parking lot (where I had been unlucky enough to have to park) and I bleeped the locks on my car and we got in.

“So where are we going, Mr. Luke?” I asked playfully.

“Well, I’m staying in a hotel about 15 minutes away,” he answered.

“Yeah, I live like 50 minutes away. We’re going to your hotel,” I stated. Pause. “Where is it?” I asked, softer.

He put a hand on my leg, and slid it up, sending shivers down my spine. It was like seventy degrees, dammit, how could he make me shiver? He leaned over and whispered some directions in my ear, and then began sucking on my earlobe as I tried to pull out.

“Goddamnit! I almost hit that car! Hang on a second. I’m not good at multitasking when it comes to things like that,” I said a little meaner than I intended. He pulled away quickly. “Sorry, that sounded kind of bitchy. Didn’t mean it to come out like that.” I felt his hand press down on my leg again.

We drove off, and I actually made it all the way to his hotel without getting lost (or more importantly, in a crash). We climbed out of the car, only a little bit awkwardly, and I took his hand and followed him into the elevator. He quickly pushed his body up against mine as the doors shut, and licked my lips, demanding entrance. I opened my mouth up to him, and wrapped my arms around his slender hips, pulling him closer. When the elevator dinged, we detached ourselves and walked down the hall. I waited for him to slow down by a door, and when he did, I waited patiently. He dug around in his pockets (expelling gum, a concert ticket, a drivers license and a decent amount of fuzz before finding his card key). He pushed open the door with a smug smile on his face, and I waltzed inside, grabbing him by the waist and dragging him after me. Our lips collided in the darkness as I felt my way back to a bed, and I pulled him on top of me.

Now, I’m not going to tell you the details. Because that would take all the fun out of things. Fill in the blanks yourself.

But anyways, the point of this massive deviation from the storyline was to show how I knew this kid, and why I was freaking out that he showed up in my mall. My mall.

So what was the last thing he said? Oh, so he went, “Yeah, well. I don’t want flings knowing where to find me.”

“Uhm… well that plan failed drastically, I would say.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, but I don’t find myself running screaming from you, so it can’t be all bad.”

I didn’t know what to say to this, especially considering I had no idea what the hell he meant. So I said something bitingly witty:

“Uhm, ok.”

“So… do you want to … go back to your friend, or something?” He asked.

(Why was his voice so friggin hypnotizing? Why couldn’t I stop watching the way his mouth moved, the way he flicked his hair delicately out of his eyes, oh don’t even mention his eyes…)

“I probably should, but I don’t want to ditch you either,” I said. He just shrugged. But I had another question.

“Wait, if you live in Altamonte, why were you staying in a friggin hotel? Couldn’t you have just… gone home, or something?”

“Good question. I had a few friends come in from out of state, and we were hanging around Disney for a few days, so I figured it’d be easier to just get a hotel room.” Luke answered.

“Ok. Still, that’s kind of weird.”

“You’re kind of weird,” was his clever comeback.

“I take great pride in that. Why the hell would I want to be normal?”

He licked his lips. “I like it when you cuss.”

“Oh, sorry… but I think censorship is bullshit. And if I have to censor every fucking thing I say, then that must be bullshit too,” I was trying to throw in more cuss words. Wasn’t hard, just put fucking between every fucking word and you’ve got a fucking R-rated conversation! I didn’t know why I was trying to please him, or whatever. It was weird. He was just soooo damn hot, I wanted him.

“Don’t apologize, I just said I liked it.”

“Yeah, wow… whatever.” I didn’t know what to say, so I just ended up sounding like a complete and total imbecile.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, not necessarily an uncomfortable one, just a silence, like we’d run out of stuff to say. For the moment, at least.

He was the one to break it though. We’d locked eyes, and since I refuse to break eye contact with someone (unless I get seriously distracted), we ended up basically gazing into each other’s eyes. His eyes were grey. Sigh. I loved grey eyes. They had so much depth. I was searching his eyes, looking for something, looking for him, cuz you know, the window to your soul is through the eyes (which, by the way, is 100 percent true. Sometimes you just have to look harder). I blinked, because my eyes were getting dry, and leaned forward a little bit.

“Your eyes are beautiful,” he mumbled. I’m sure I blushed, which sucks, cuz I hate blushing.

“Yours are better,” I said quietly, and shyly looked down. Dammit, I broke the gaze.

“Haha, yeah sure. Grey? Bo-ring!”

“Yeah well… hazel’s not much better,” I complained.

“Whatever, Paige,” he said in a joking-irritated way.

After a few more seconds, I said, “So what the hell are you doing here?”

“I have as much freedom to go to the mall as I want,” he retorted. Oops, I was sounding like a bitch again.

“Ok, just for the record, if I ever sound like an overly hostile bitch, it’s cuz I try to be honest. Like, always.”

He shrugged.

“That doesn’t solve the problem of why the hell you’re here,” I said in a softer voice.

“I was looking for a Regina Spektor CD, that’s why I was in Sam Goody. I don’t normally go there,” he answered.

At this I just stared at him. “You’re joking,” I said, in shock.

“What?” He raised one eyebrow quizzically (it was really cute, too).

“That’s definitely what I was doing in there,” I muttered shakily.

“What?” He repeated, this time more in disbelief. “Are you – are you serious?”

“As a fucking heart attack.”

We just stared at each other, but this time more in a wow-we-have-weird-stuff-in-common way.

And I’d love to tell you something unbelievably romantic or something crazy happened here, but it didn’t. What did happen was that I began to giggle, which quickly spiraled off into hysterics, and believe me, that is never a good thing. Luckily, when I caught my breath, I looked up to see Luke kind of laughing too. If he hadn’t been, I would’ve been mortified beyond imagination. I finally composed myself and reached up a hand to smooth my hair self-consciously. I brought my eyes up to his and smiled, a bit self-consciously. Who knows why? Not me.

A/N: I’m not too sure how to go into the next part… so it might be a while before this gets updated again. Review and tell me what you think so far. And if it makes sense ((more sense than Eden?, that is. I got so much crap for that story oh my god)).

On the other hand, My Chemical Romance never fails to astound me, no matter how many times I listen to their CD’s. I can’t wait for their new one. Anyone agree?