Mallrats
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Matt didn't know quite what he did that was so horrible in a previous life to deserve what he was going through now. But, whatever it was, he was pretty sure it had been absolutely criminal.
"Hold this," Mimi ordered, handing him a plastic bag loaded down by shirts and skirts she had just bought.
He made sure to take it with his right hand, which was already holding a large bag. This way, it balanced out with the four smaller bags he was precariously holding in his left hand.
Why he was holding these bags, instead of Mimi, Matt wasn't sure of. Maybe it had something to do with him being a huge sucker when it came to being a gentleman. He sighed. Damn. The one thing his father tried to teach him that actually stuck in his head... it just had to be manners towards ladies, didn't it?!
Following Mimi's quick lead, Matt glanced around the mall corridors, looking for some sort of salvation. He had gone in with Mimi, Tai, Sora, T.K. and Kari just an hour ago. Matt had thought himself safe. But then, Tai and Sora had managed to slip into a sports store, and disappeared, chances are to find as much gear as they could. T.K., sneaky little thing that he had grown up to be, had grabbed onto Kari, and had snuck away before Matt had noticed.
Not that Matt had to panic about T.K. disappearing. His little brother wasn't so little anymore. It had been eight years since Matt had met his new friends, eight years since he'd been reintroduced to his brother. T.K. was now a--Matt shuddered--teenager, and Matt himself had just past the eighteen mark only a few months ago. No, Matt really wasn't worried how safe T.K. would be. He did, however, worry about how safe Kari would be. T.K. was, after all, a normal, hormonal teenager. Then again, Kari would probably smack him silly if he tried anything.
However, this predicament left poor Matt with Mimi. Now, in any other situation, Matt was positive he could handle being alone with Mimi. But, this wasn't any other situation. This was Mimi, not in the Digiworld. This was Mimi, not on the soccer field sidelines, rooting on her friends. This was Mimi, not getting offstage after a singing gig at a local club. This was Mimi... in a mall. This was her home turf.
Matt didn't stand a chance.
When they had noticed they were alone, she'd turned on him, and Matt had known the true meaning of fear. She had tilted her head, swiped some pink hair away from her pretty face, smiled brightly, and had said, raising her already sweetly soprano voice an octave higher, "Matt, will you help carry some of my bags?" The only way she could've made it worse was to bat her eyelashes outrageously. Fortunately, Mimi didn't take it that far.
She didn't have to. Matt was already a beaten man, and he knew it. He had simply hung his head, and mumbled out, "Sure." The next thing he knew, Mimi's hands were practically bag-free, while he was being bogged down.
Damn his stupid gentleman instincts!
Mimi suddenly grabbed onto his arm, and started dragging him along to keep up with her. He stumbled along with her. It was all Matt could do not to fall flat on his face. She stopped for a moment to choose a store to go into, and he took a breath, wondering if he could sneak away without her noticing. He doubted it.
She snatched his arm again, and Matt groaned as he was yanked along. Mimi, apparently oblivious to his discomfort, made a beeline to a particular store. Matt looked up, and blinked.
'Victoria's Secret? Wait, I know what that... Oh, no! No, no, nononono!!!' Matt panicked. He opened his mouth to voice his objections, but was horrified when all that came out was a desperate gasp. Even his legs didn't seem to be cooperating.
Two feet in front of the dreaded entrance, Mimi paused. She let go of Matt's arm, and turned to him, a slight blush on her face. "Uh, you probably would want to stay out here. Right?"
'Yes!' Matt's mind screamed. But, he simply flushed a bit, and nodded.
"Okay," she nodded back, and smiled. "I'll be out in a minute or two."
'Translation:,' he frowned, 'You might wanna take a seat, Matt.'
He looked around for a bench, and spotted one near a fountain a few stores away. He was about to walk to it when he noticed just who was sitting there. Men. Not just men. Men, holding bags. No, not just men holding bags. Boyfriends holding bags. Their girlfriend's bags.
Matt cringed. He was not Mimi's boyfriend! So what if he carried her shopping bags? So what if he sometimes acted like an idiot when she smiled at him a particular way? Didn't mean anything. He had never asked her out, or vice versa. And a relationship just couldn't be implied, ya know?
No, he was not going to sit down there. He might as well just wear a sign that said, "Yes, I'm whipped." No way, no how. He would just hang out near the outside of the store... but not too near. He had his pride, after all.
Slouching near the entrance, Matt tried his best to look brooding and intimidating, and anything else but a boyfriend.
"Excuse me, young man?" a middle-aged clerk popped out of the store, smiling. "Do you need help?"
Matt blinked. She couldn't possibly be talking to him. "Huh?"
The clerk, a peppy blonde woman, smiled brighter. "Well, I saw your girlfriend walk in a few minutes ago. I thought maybe you'd like to buy something for her. Ya know," she chuckled. "As a surprise."
'Girlfriend?! Surprise?!?!' Matt's brain froze, and his tongue soon followed. "Well, uh, ah..."
Mimi watched from inside the lingerie store. Poor Matt. He looked like a baby deer caught in the headlights. She giggled at his situation, and picked up a satin bra, fingering the material. Oh, well. He should've gone to sit on the bench with the other guys.
As if feeling it, Mimi looked up, and noticed Matt was looking past the clerk, who was still chatting, and was glaring at her. Mimi stood frozen for a moment, then, realizing what she was holding, dropped the bra like it was a snake. Much to her dismay, she could feel herself blushing furiously. Out of the corner of her eye, Mimi spotted Matt smirking slightly.
"Jerk," she muttered, without much venom.
Making sure to ignore Matt, she began to look through the lingerie again. Her hair fell into her face, and she brushed it aside with her fingertips. Still, pink strands dangled in front of her, tickling her nose. Impatiently, Mimi blew at them. They simply fell back into her eyes. With a very unladylike grunt, she raked her fingers through her hair. That did it.
Allowing herself a small victory smile, Mimi glanced over to her right, and noticed a woman staring at her, oddly. Well, to be more precise, the woman was staring at Mimi's hair. Mimi gave the woman her best glare, and felt vindicated when the woman turned away.
Mimi pulled on a pink lock, self-righteously. There was nothing wrong with her hair! Sure, she had died it from light brown to the power pink it was now, but so what? Lots of people died their hair unnatural colors. And she hadn't really done it to grab attention. That was part of it, yes, but not the major part.
Growing up, there had always been one constant in Mimi's life. Silly, but constant. Pink had always been her favorite color. And, when she was a young girl, she easily got away with wearing pink nearly every day. But, when her teen years hit, pink was suddenly not what a proper girl her age wore. If she did, people thought her stupid, and flighty. Even a crybaby. And she was not a crybaby! She was just emotional, dammit. There was a difference.
However, Mimi was not about to give up her favorite color because of peer pressure. She found out a wonderful little trick in the strange world of teenagers: If you wore a pink shirt, you were a baby. However, if you wore your hair pink, you were a babe. Simple as that. Problem solved.
Mimi shot a quick glance at the woman, who was still not looking at her, which was fine by Mimi. She snatched up a bra, finally deciding what to buy, and walked to the cash register, making sure to sniff indignantly as she did so. Mimi paid for her purchase quickly, adjusting her purse strap more securely on her shoulder, before picking up her new bag.
She walked out of the store, and glanced over to where Matt was, leaning against the wall like he wanted to be any place but here. Which he probably did. She didn't know how he had managed to get the clerk to go away, but she certainly hoped he hadn't been rude. Matt had a way of being very short with people who annoyed him. She knew firsthand.
He caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye. "You ready to go?"
Mimi shook her bag. "Yup. Wanna try to find the others?"
She could've sworn Matt looked like he wanted to hug her. "Yes."
"Right," Mimi nodded. "Sports store first? If Tai and Sora are still there."
"Knowing them," he shrugged, "they will be. Let's go."
She followed his lead, only a step behind him. She wasn't speaking a mile a minute, which Matt found particularly odd. Normally, Mimi would be gushing about her new clothes, or gushing about the clothes in the stores they were passing, even gushing about clothes he should buy. Gushing and clothes were usually Mimi's deal at this point in a mall trip. But she was being so quiet, Matt wondered if she was still behind him.
Matt's thoughts were answered by a gasping, "Oh!"
He turned and spotted Mimi frozen, her brown eyes fixated on a store window. He walked over, and looked in to see what was so fascinating. It was a dress. A beautiful, dusty rose one, sleeveless and floor length. Satin or silk, Matt couldn't tell. He was never good at that sort of thing. But, whatever it was, Mimi's eyes were hooked on it.
"Isn't it fantastic?" she asked, her voice an awed whisper.
Matt shrugged. "It's nice, I guess," he offered, indifferently.
"I think it's gorgeous!" Mimi stated, dreamy. "I'd love to have that for the prom."
Prom? Matt frowned. Ah, yes, Mimi's prom. He had nearly forgotten that it was that time of year. Wait... someone was taking her and he didn't know? ...Not that he cared. It was just that he figured she would tell him about something like that. Yeah.
"Then why don't you buy it?" Matt asked.
"I'd love to, but," Mimi's face fell, "no one's asked me to the prom."
Matt blinked once. Twice. Three times. He wasn't quite sure he had heard her right. Now, he went to a different high school than Mimi, but he couldn't imagine why any guy in his right mind wouldn't ask her. In fact, from all the times he'd seen her walking out of her school, at least half of the male population there would give up their right arms for a date with Mimi. Sometimes more. It just didn't seem possible she'd be dateless for the prom.
"No one?" he questioned, a brow raised.
"Well," she relented, sighing, "a few, yeah. But, no one that I would want to spend the prom with. After all, it's the prom! It's the single, most important event in a teenager's high school existence!" Mimi declared, looking up at him. Her voice softened. "You should spend it with someone who means something to you, ya know?"
Yes, he did know. But, what did she want him to do about it? She couldn't possibly be thinking what he thought she was thinking... could she? Mimi stood there, giving him an unusually intense look. Matt swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. Why was she not just gibbering away, like usual? And why was he suddenly nervous? Something trickled down the back of his neck. God, that wasn't sweat, was it? Matt tried to swallow again. Why was Mimi still looking at him like that?
He opened his mouth to say something, anything to breach the suddenly unbearable silence. A dark blur zipped past Matt before he could. A blur that quickly grabbed Mimi's purse, ripping it off her shoulder, and sending her tumbling to the ground.
"Ow!" she squeaked, then paled. "My purse!" Mimi looked behind her, where the purse snatcher fled. "That jerk stole my purse!"
Going on reflex alone, Matt dropped all the bags he held, and ran in hot pursuit of said thief, who had gained quite a bit of ground. He kept his eyes on the fleeing guy in the dark sweatshirt. It wasn't hard to do, since not only was the guy running like he was competing in a marathon, but he was holding onto a bright, shiny pink purse. Inconspicuous, he was not.
The hard part was trying to keep up with the thief. The mall had gotten more crowded since they first came, and Matt found himself trying to weave through the mob without tripping. Every time there was a small break and Matt was able to speed up, he'd have to slow down again as people would suddenly be in his way.
As much as he hated doing it, he began pushing people aside, and quickening his pace, forcing his legs to go faster as he got closer to the thief. They were aching when Matt was finally in arm's length with the guy. He lunged, sending them both to the ground, as the people around them yelled at the commotion. He felt the air rush out of his lungs, as the thief elbowed him hard in the stomach. Matt clutched his chest, as the guy scrambled up, Mimi's purse still in his hands.
Oh, no. Matt hadn't ran that hard just to lose now. Ignoring the burning pain in his abdomen, he dove low, grabbing onto the thief's legs, and sending him face first onto the hard floor. Matt kept on top of him, reaching over to pry the purse out of the thief's fist. But when he tried to, Matt was pulled off of him.
"Hey!" Matt struggled, angry that he was suddenly yanked away from his goal.
"Just what do you think you're doing, young man?" asked someone with a deep, authoritative voice.
Matt looked up, and blinked at the tall, middle-aged man holding who still had a grip on him. A mall security officer. Oh. This was actually a good thing, really.
"Well, ya see," Matt began, refusing to cower under the officer's glare, "that guy stole-"
"My purse!" Mimi screeched, breaking through the crowd, all her bags dangling heavily from her arms. She let them unceremoniously drop to the ground, and she pointed to the thief, who was beginning to stumble back to his feet. "That creep stole my purse."
The thief froze for a moment, before making a break for it through the crowd, dropping Mimi's purse as he did so. The security officer, deeming the thief more important than Matt, ran after him, demanding he stop, which of course, he didn't. In a bit of a daze, Matt crawled over to the dropped purse, and picked it up.
Mimi knelt down beside him, beaming. "You got back my purse, Matt. Oh, thank you!" She suddenly wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, nearly toppling him over. "Oh, that was so brave of you. Thank you so much. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't gotten it back for me!"
Matt felt his face grow warm, and he gently pushed Mimi back a bit. "No problem," he mumbled, handing over the stolen purse. Something struck him, and he frowned. "Hey, how did you get through the crowd so easily?"
"Hn? Oh," Mimi shrugged. "I just kept yelling that someone stole my purse. They let me right through!"
Matt hung his head and groaned. Of course. When he looked up, he noticed her arm was red. A nasty fabric burn from where her purse strap had scraped along when the thief had grabbed it.
"You okay?" Matt asked, pointing to her wounded arm. "Looks like it hurts."
"It stings a little," Mimi admitted, gingerly touching it. "But, it's not too bad. Nothing I can't live with."
He shook his head a bit, taken aback. She wasn't going to complain? Or whimper? Or cry? How very... un-Mimi of her. Well, we all grow up.
"I'm just glad you got my purse back," she hugged it, tightly. "I have my mother's credit card. She would've killed me if I'd lost it! So," Mimi stood up, "should we go?"
Matt nodded, getting up himself, carefully checking to see if he had gotten injured. He'd probably have a few bruises on his arms, and possibly one or two on his chest the next day. The price for playing hero, he supposed. He walked over to Mimi, and helped her pick up her many bags. When they were all collected, Matt noticed he wasn't holding as many as before. Mimi was now carrying more, almost as much as he was.
"Let's go," she chirped, her eyes shyly avoiding his.
They walked in silence, Matt stealing glances of her every so often. She caught his eyes once, and smiled, turning her head away, blushing. He thought he might be blushing, too. But, God, he hoped not. He had his pride. Still, Matt continued to catch quick glimpses, surprised at how nice he found it just to look at her. Not that any other guy wouldn't find Mimi nice to look at. But, looking at her next to him was nice. Really nice. Surprisingly, intensely nice. He liked her being next to him. Strange, but true.
"So," Mimi said, snapping him out of his reverie, "we're still going to the sports store first?"
Matt swallowed, his throat dry again. Damn. Well, if he did what he was thinking, it still didn't make it official, right? He didn't have to sit with those other trodden guys on the bench, right? Right. Anyway, you only live once.
"Well, I was thinking," he started, nonchalant, "you'd probably wanna buy that dress you liked."
She blinked. "But, I don't have-"
"Ya know," Matt interrupted, coolly, "cause I figured I'd take you, if need be."
"You would?" Mimi asked, shocked.
"Well, yeah," he shrugged, indifference personified. "I mean, it would be dumb to miss your prom. But, if you'd rather not, I-"
"I'd like to go with you," she said, smiling a knowing smile. "I'd like it a lot."
'Thank God.' "Cool." Matt nodded.
So, he got a date with Mimi. Whether or not either of them stated it was a date or not was irrelevant. It was definitely a date. A prom date, in fact. And he didn't even have to be her boyfriend. No bench sitting for him. Matt smiled. Cool, indeed.