All store names are fiction, any reference to a real store or its location is purely coincidental.

Chapter 4

"Well, no mechanic will even bother to come down until the weather clears up. So it looks like we're stuck in here until then." Max was overwhelmed with stress. His plans of leaving and going somewhere special for the next day were ruined.

"Grandpa, we could go check out the stores we didn't see yesterday. I mean, it isn't like they're far away. We could just walk to them," Gwen spoke hopefully.

This isn't what I had in mind when I thought we should stay here another day, Ben thought. Why can't we go down to the beach? Who cares if it's raining?

"I guess that's the only thing we can do to pass the time," he said sourly. "Ben, are you going to come along with us on this one?"

As much as Ben did not want to browse through a few stupid stores, he didn't have much of a choice. He didn't break the Rustbucket's oil system just to sit inside of it all day. If that were the case, then he wouldn't have done it at all.

"Yeah, sure, why not."

"Good. Now let's all get dressed and ready to go."

Ben and Max began changing in the main room while Gwen changed in the back with the door shut. Ben took longer than usual – trying to drag the time on – because he still wasn't too happy about all of what's happening. Why wont something interesting come up; or something come and take my mind off of everything, he thought bleakly.

As soon as the three of them had gotten their daily clothes on, Max pulled an umbrella out from behind a cabinet door and led the way out into the rain. Gwen and Ben stayed close to him. Even though the umbrella was fairly large, it still wasn't made for three people.

The boardwalk that held all the stores on top of it wasn't very crowded. There were a handful of people here and there, but nothing major. Most of them had umbrellas, but a few wore ponchos to cover themselves from the rain. Luckily, the boardwalk was large and very wide, so nobody ever ran the risk of hitting another person with their umbrella.

"Hmm, Alvin's Island? That sounds interesting. It looks to have a good selection of that 'beach-gowers' attire. What do you guys say? It beats standing out in the rain right?" Max spoke happily to his two grandchildren.

"Sounds good," Gwen replied.

"Sure," Ben mumbled, pouting.

They started the walk towards the two-story brick building with blue canvas over every window; passing a few people coming from the direction they were headed.

The minute the trio got to the entrance they pushed there way inside – eager to get out of the rain and under the sanctuary of a roof. Max retracted the umbrella, shaking off the loose water outside before completely stepping inside.

"I'm sure you two wouldn't find what I might look at all that interesting, so go with each other around the store and find something you like. Oh and here," Max pulled out a few dollar bills from his pocket and handed them to Ben. "Just in case you do find something you like."

That was all the confirmation Ben and Gwen needed to take off on their own. However, having to stay together was a bit of a downer, but neither would openly say they didn't want to go with each other. Although, neither would say they wanted to go with the other either.

The two came upon a rack of sunglasses because of Ben's lead. He decided that he never wore sunglasses and wanted to see what it was like. He meticulously chose a pair that had orange lenses and a yellow-green frame.

Looking at himself in a small mirror attached to the rack, he said, "I don't see what is so cool about these things."

"They're not supposed to be cool, doofus, they protect your eyes from the sun," Gwen said, while trying on a pair for herself.

"Yeah, I know that. Why else would they be called sunglasses?" Ben retorted with an annoyed expression.

"Whatever. Come on, let's go look at something else."

They put the sunglasses back on the rack and continued to walk around. The two cousins came across an aisle filled with old Mardi Gras masks. They were colored purple and gold and definitely stuck out amongst other things in the store. Ben picked one up and tried it on. The nose on the particular mask he fixed on his face was extremely long, and he could barely see out the eye holes. Quickly, unknowingly to Ben, Gwen pulled out her digital camera and snapped a few photos of Ben in the ridiculous headgear.

Finally realizing what Gwen had been doing, he flung the mask off his face and began to chase her. She shrieked when, through the interface of the camera, she saw her cousin charging after her. Gwen put the device back into her pocket and also began to run, but away from Ben.

Ben chased her around the bottom level of the store, dodging a few people and going through mazes of aisles. Their innocent laughter echoed across each aisle and caused a few people to poke their heads out and see what was amiss.

Gwen had absolutely no idea what Ben would do to her if he caught her. Frankly, neither did Ben, but all he cared about was to be around her. He didn't understand why he began to have these feelings about anyone, and they sent him into confusion every time they came to him.

The two winded another turn and were now sprinting down the main aisle of the store. Gwen turned her head around, while still running, and saw Ben was falling behind. Just as she stuck her tongue out to taunt him, she ran into something.

A loud crashing noise was made as the sunglasses rack they had been at earlier fell over. Dozens of glasses fell to the ground and slid across the floor.

Ben caught up with his fallen cousin and helped her up. She looked around at the mess and sulked. "Now look what I did. We're going to be in a whole lot of trouble."

In her eyes, Ben could see how sad she was and disappointed. A store clerk was walking their way. He had shaggy hair and probably couldn't even see them from the distance he was at. Quickly, Ben pushed Gwen out of the scene of the accident and into a nearby aisle.

"What happened here, dude?" the young clerk asked.

"Uhh...I fell," Ben lied.

Unfortunately the man saw right through his ruse. "Oh sure. I saw you and that girl running around here. Where is she anyways?"

"She...uh…didn't do any of this. It was all me."

The employee tapped his foot for a few seconds with his arms crossed. "Do you have any idea how long it will take me to clean this up? I'd make you do it, but I'm afraid you'll knock something else over. Just get out of the store and don't cause any trouble on your way out."

Ben was about to protest, but the expression on the man's face was all but ready to here an excuse. Muttering a few words of anger, the clerk got to his knees and began fixing the mess Gwen had made.

Still on the floor because the way Ben had shoved her, Gwen watched as Ben walked outside into the rain. He stood by the entrance door, under the blue canvas. At least he isn't directly in the storm, she thought.

The orange-haired girl began to stand up. As soon as she was stable on her own two feet, a large hand put itself on her shoulder. She shrieked and turned around – ready to defend herself.

"Whoa, you wouldn't want to put me in the hospital now would you?" Max said, startled.

Gwen relaxed and let her hands fall back to her sides. "Sorry, Grandpa, I didn't know it was you."

"What's got you so tense?"

"Nothing really," she said hesitantly, "but Ben just got kicked out of the store."

Max gave a heavy sigh, but kind of expected something like this to happen. "Well, what did he do?"

"He didn't do anything." Gwen said, while putting her hands behind her back and looking at the ground. "I kind of…ran into the sunglasses rack over there," she pointed to the mess at the end of the aisle, "and Ben took the blame."

That's odd. Now why would Ben do something like that for Gwen, Max wondered. His hand moved up to his chin and he looked like he was in deep thought.

"Um…hello? Grandpa," Gwen's voice broke into his head.

"Huh, oh right. Anyways, let me pay for these things and we can get out of here." Max held up a necklace with a shark tooth in the middle and an odd blue shirt with palm trees on it.

"Grandpa, you don't plan on wearing that shirt. Do you?"

"Of course I do, or I wouldn't be buying it."

The corners of Gwen's mouth ticked up, letting a slight smirk show. Rolling her eyes, she said, "Well, I'm going to go wait outside with Ben."

"Alright. I'll be out there in just a few minutes."

The redhead turned her back to her grandfather and made her way to the entrance of the store.

Max held up the blue shirt and made it do a few circles in the air. Is there something wrong with it, he wondered. Dashing his eyes from one side to the other, he said to himself, "I'm just…gonna leave this here." Furtively, he laid the blue shirt on top of a couple towels and walked out of the aisle to the pay counter.

The rain pounded the hard wood outside the store. Still, no thunder or lightning had appeared yet. How bad can it rain before…, Ben's thought was cut in half as something caught his eye. Walking in the open was a very pretty girl. Her silky brown hair moved in a single direction as the wind tossed it in the air, and her blue eyes glistened in the rain. His eyes were glued to the depressing scene. She was walking in the rain, letting each drop hit her as she silently moved across the boardwalk.

Remembering the money his grandfather had given him. He dashed into the open rain to the nearest gift shop – one which he wasn't kicked out of. He purchased a decent sized yellow-green umbrella. Just as soon as he had entered the shop, he was out.

Casually, he opened the umbrella and began to walk in her direction, but quicker than her so he would catch up. In minutes Ben was right behind her. Suddenly, the brown-haired girl stopped dead in her tracks. This action caught Ben off guard, and he barely dodged her statuette figure. Slipping on the wet wood, he fell onto his bottom and the umbrella was slung across the platform.

Closing his eyes in embarrassment, Ben wished he would've just stayed by the store and waited for Gwen and Max to come out. In the same moment he tried to imagine it all not happening, someone's hand tapped on his shoulder. Opening his eyelids carefully, he was surprised to see the same girl he had been following standing before him.

"I think you dropped this," she said in an angelic voice and held up Ben's newly-bought umbrella.

He took the umbrella from her hand without standing up and repositioned it over his head. Ben sat in the exact spot for a few moments.

"Do you need help getting up too?" she asked and let out a solid laugh.

Feeling very awkward, Ben answered her with breaking confidence. "Uh...no I-I can do that." Putting one arm behind him, he pushed himself upwards onto his feet and found himself face to face with the pretty figure that had been standing above him.

"Would you…um…be okay if I walked with you. You know…so t-that you don't get wet?"

She smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Relax, and yes I would like that. My name's Savannah by the way."

"Oh, I'm Ben."

Gwen watched as the two of them walked off in the direction towards a couple smaller shops under the protection of Ben's umbrella. A gut wrenching pain was placed in her chest. She didn't understand why the scene before her made her feel sad, but all she knew was it did.

I listened to the song Planet by Kyte basically the whole time I wrote this. It really is a good song.