"Kurt, can't we please just go home? We have been here six hours and we've already made at least ten trips to the car to put bags in there. Besides, Burt and Carole promised to heat up the leftovers when we got home and I'm getting hungry." I heard Blaine whine from behind me.
Blaine and I were Black Friday shopping at the mall. I've found that it is the easiest day to do my Christmas shopping on. I am able to get great deals on everything and it saves me from procrastinating.
"We're almost done. I just need to pick out a present for Carole, Rachel ,and Dad. Oh, and of course you, but that I'll take care of that later." I explained as I grabbed Blaine's hand that wasn't currently carrying our newest bag and we wove through the crowd into the kitchen store.
This would be a perfect place to pick out a present for Carole. I've heard her mention that she wants a new cookware set. Besides, nothing can beat a really great deal.
"Look, Kurt. Over there is a light blue set. It's hidden behind those blenders. Isn't that her favorite color? Oh, but there's only one left." Blaine said while pointing twenty feet in front of us to an expensive cookware set that was 60% off. It was actually the one I was hoping to find.
"Blaine, you dummy! Stay right here!" I exclaimed as I shoved the bag I was holding in his hands when I saw several other people turn their heads to where Blaine had pointed. I took off in a sprint and pushed through the crowds of people before hurriedly snatching the box off of the shelf and hugging it to my chest.
"That was mine! I saw it first!" A lady beside me yelled as she tried ripping it out of my hands.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but I got to it first. That makes it mine." I politely said as I knocked away her hands and started walking towards Blaine.
The lady was not going to give up the fight that easily though, as she began to shove me and try prying the box from my grip once again.
"Ma'am, I live in New York. I'm used to being shoved and harassed way more than you're doing right now on an everyday basis. Please just leave me alone and try finding another set to buy." I tried once again to politely get rid of her but she still was not going to give up. She began to kick me and hit me as hard as she could.
Honestly, she wasn't doing much damage. She was small and petite and held no strength behind her punches. Much like Rachel.
"Kurt! Honey! Security! Security! This lady is assaulting my fiancé!" I heard Blaine yell as loud as he could as he rushed towards me as fast as the crowd would allow him to get through.
"Blaine, baby, it's okay. She's not bothering me. Come on. Let's just get in line." I tried soothing him as I ushered him towards the checkout line.
"No, Kurt, it is not okay. She is harassing you. Ma'am, please stop hitting my fiancé. He has been nothing but kind to you and he does not deserve this kind of treatment." Blaine said as he placed himself between the aggressive lady and me.
"Mind your own business!" The psycho lady exclaimed before aiming a punch towards Blaine's face and shoving him as hard as she could. Blaine stumbled backward and fell on top of me, causing us both to crash to the ground.
"Oh, honey. Are you okay?" I sighed as I sat up carefully trying to avoid any further injuries to Blaine or myself. I was pretty sure I had a concussion after that fall. I didn't want to make it any worse.
"I'm sorry Kurt. I didn't hurt you, did I? You broke my fall. I'm okay. My eye will probably swell up, my nose is bleeding, and I fell on those pans so that'll bruise but I'll be okay. " Blaine carefully stood up before reaching a hand out to help me up. I grabbed it with my free hand and stood up as quickly as I could despite feeling like the room was spinning.
The lady saw this as her opportunity to try grabbing the now smashed box out of my hands, but Blaine quickly stepped in her way and blocked her.
"Ma'am, you've already assaulted us. Please just leave us alone."
I knew Blaine would willingly take any shove or punch that this lady would deal out. Luckily, our earlier altercation must have caught the attention of the security guards as they were now walking towards us. It took two men to remove her from the store. She had actually held more strength than she showed. This provided Blaine and me an opportunity to pay quickly and leave the store.
"Okay, honey. Let's go home. I'm going to need you to drive though because now I have a really bad headache." I took Blaine's hand in mine and together we slowly made our way towards the exit.
"Oh! Kurt, wait. Can we please go make a wish in that fountain first? I have something important to wish for."
Sometimes I swore my fiancé was actually a five year old, but I let him pull me towards the huge fountain. What harm could a wish make?
Blaine proceeded to pull a bunch of coins out of his pocket. Before he threw each one in, he would close his eyes and whisper what he was wishing for. It was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. I was so in love with this man.
"Kurt, you have to make a wish too." Blaine insisted as he shoved a handful of coins towards me. I took a few and made wishes also.
"Okay honey, now please, let's go home. My head feels like it's going to explode. I need to go lie down."
Blaine happily obliged and laced his fingers in mine and we started off towards the exit. Every so often, he'd interject about how beautiful a display was but he was relatively quiet until we were walking past the arcade.
"Please, Kurt. You have to let me win you a stuffed animal! You know I'm really good at these claw machines. I need to win you that cute penguin with the hat. He'd go so great with the bow tie penguin you won for me."
I gave in and followed Blaine over to the machine. He dumped a handful of change in my hand to hold while he played. After three tries, he won the penguin.
"Here you are, my love. One penguin for you." Blaine bowed as he handed me the stuffed animal and flashed a cheesy grin. He was a goober, but he was my goober.
"Thank you, honey. Now please, let's go home. My head is killing me. I really need to lie down." I dumped the change back in his hand before grabbing the other one so we could go to the parking lot.
"Wait, Kurt. Where's my lucky penny? You didn't give it to me, did you?"
"You can't even use pennies in that machine. Why would I give it to you? I'm sure it's somewhere in your pocket. Can we please just go?"
I was ready to beg to just go. Later I would find a penny somewhere and pretend it was his just so we could leave now.
"But it's my lucky penny. I had it in my pocket the day I met you. I've kept it with me every day since. It's my good luck charm. It got me, you. I can't just leave it somewhere. Please Kurt, can we look for it?"
As much as I wanted to protest, Blaine's puppy dog eyes did me in every time. I'd never been able to resist him when he gave them to me. I knew this time it wasn't even intentional. He was genuinely upset over losing his penny. I'd never forgive myself if I didn't help him recover his lost penny. Obviously, it meant a lot to him.
"Okay, sweetheart. We'll look. Can we try to make it quick though? I really do need to lie down."
Blaine grabbed my hand and together we retraced our earlier steps. We walked everywhere through the arcade, back into some of our previous stores and eventually, we ended back up at the fountain.
"It has to be in here Kurt. I know it. I must've accidentally thrown it in when I was making wishes. We have to get it back. Will you help me find it?"
I thought Blaine was insane. There were hundreds of pennies in this fountain. Every one of them looked exactly the same. There was no way we'd be able to find his one particular penny.
"Okay, but let's just look. Don't pick up every penny you see. Try to be sure before you reach your hand into this gross fountain water. Think of all the germs that are in there."
Blaine agreed and began his search. He was picking up ten pennies at a time despite my objections before he'd crinkle his nose and shake his head and throw them back in. He continued to do this for about ten minutes when suddenly I heard yelling behind me. I turned around to find two security guards running towards us.
"Sirs, I ask you both to step away from the fountain! You are being detained on the count of taking change from the fountain is illegal! You will both be put in a cell here while it is decided if you will be officially charged."
"I'm sorry. This is just a misunderstanding. We didn't take any money out of the fountain. See I lost my lucky penny. It's very important to me and I thought maybe I had accidentally thrown it into this fountain earlier. I was just trying to get my penny back. I would've replaced it with a different penny if I had found it. We weren't going to steal any money."
The guards' appearance had caused quite a scene and there were already onlookers gawking at us and recording the ordeal with their phones. I decided to shush Blaine and willingly follow the guards back to where the security office and holding cell was. I figured it'd be easier for us to make a case without everyone watching us. Besides both Baine and I had careers that required us to be in the public eye. We didn't need the bad publicity.
"Okay, the both of you are waiting here. You will be held here while we review the tape footage and see if there is a ground for an official charge. If you really took no change as you said, then you'll be free to go."
The guard unlocked the holding cell and both Blaine and I walked in. The guard shut the door and locked it behind us before he went to the office in the adjoining room.
In the cell, there were two benches against the wall. I dropped all my bags on one before I gingerly laid down on the other. I used the stuffed penguin to cover my eyes. My head was still killing me and the lights were very bright in the cell. Blaine sat on the end of my bench and I eventually moved to lay my head on his lap.
"Hey Kurt, do we both still get our one phone call? I don't want to be the one to have to tell Burt I got us locked up in mall jail. Can you use your call to tell him?"
"Blaine, this isn't a real jail. We don't need phone calls. They said they're going to release us after they watch the tapes. Let's just sit here and wait."
Blaine tried to argue with me, but he gave up when he realized how much pain the loudness of his voice was causing me. We sat in silence for about three minutes until Blaine decided he wanted to get his phone out of his front pocket. He accidentally elbowed my head as he was trying to get it out so I decided to sit up and lean my head against the wall instead.
"I'm sorry Kurt. I didn't mean to hit you. Are you okay?"
I knew Blaine was worried, but I couldn't even think straight with the pounding in my head so I just hummed in response and leaned my head on his shoulder. I could hear him talking on the phone in a low voice, but I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. I instead let the sound of his voice lull me into a sleep.
I was awoken by a loud crashing of the door being thrown open and the sound of two men arguing. The sound made my head feel like it was going to explode and I let out a whimper that Blaine must have picked up on.
"Excuse me!," Blaine cut in "Can you please not yell? I'm pretty sure my fiance has a concussion and the loud sounds aren't helping."
"You two! Get up! Now! I have to put this guy in there so you're free to go. Don't go near the fountain again! Just go home. Merry Christmas."
The guard didn't need to tell us twice. Blaine quickly helped me up and grabbed all our bags in one hand and grabbed my hand with the other. He thanked the guard before leading us out of the security office.
Blaine and I walked in silence for a while. I'm sure we were quite a sight with Blaine balancing all our bags in one arm while having the other one wrapped around my waist, supporting me since I was walking with my eyes closed and just relying on him to get us to the car.
"I called Burt. I told him we'd be late coming back since we need to go have your head checked out. He told me to call as soon as we got there and he'd bring us some food and sit with us."
"Blaine, you didn't have to call my dad. I'm really okay. I just need to get some rest and I'll be okay in the morning. Let's just go home."
"No, we have to go get you checked out. It's better to be safe than sorry. Now come on. Let's go make sure you're alright. Can you grab the keys out of my jacket for me and unlock the doors?"
As I reach into Blaine's pocket and grabbed his keys, a coin tumbled to the ground. I reached down to grab it and I was met with a sheepish look when I stood back up.
"Kurt, that's my lucky penny. It was in my jacket pocket all along I guess. You were right."
"Of course I was right." I sighed as I lightly hit Blaine with my penguin. "Thanks for getting us locked in mall jail for nothing."
"Well, at least we now have a cool story to tell our kids one day. They're never going to believe that their dads got locked in a jail cell all over a penny."