Chapter 13: Phase Two: Green Hills

"So you're going shopping… at the mall… with Luann?" Jake said for the billionth time. He found it pretty hard to believe- actually, so do I.

Jake was sitting next to me in the backseat as Jackson drove. He was dropping me off at the mall, and he and Jake were going to an arcade or something. I wasn't really sure.

"Yes!" I said loudly. Hey, a girl runs out of patience after a while. I flipped open my cell phone. It was 11:57 and we were driving into the mall's parking lot.

Jackson stopped at the main entrance. As she said she would be, Luann stood over at the main doors, leaning against a wall. She didn't notice us though.

"Here?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah," I replied and gave Jake a peck on the cheek. "Bye, guys. I'll call ya later."

I exited the car and shut the door. That's when I caught Luann's attention. She turned to me- and get this- she slightly smiled! Okay, you might think I'm crazy or something, but you should know that that is a semi-big deal because it didn't look fake!

"Howdy, cuz," she greeted when I approached her. Wow, she was in a good mood today.

"Hey Lu," I return, actually using her nickname.

Now past greetings, we walked into the mall.

"Alright, so why did you want me to come shopping with you?" Luann asks, quickly getting to the point.

"Before I can tell you anything, you have to promise that you won't tell anyone," I started off. She looked at me hesitantly.

"Fine."

"Okay… I think that I may love Jacob- I mean Jared- uh-," I stumbled with my words, and it wasn't long until Luann interrupted me.

"You can just call him Jacob, it's not exactly the most unusual name," she says, probably meaning people around us wouldn't assume anything if I called Jake by his name.

"Right. Again, I think I might love Jacob, but… I'm not sure what love is, so me and Jackson thought if I dated a couple of guys, maybe I could find out if Jacob is who I'm meant to be with," I admit. Surprisingly, it's kind of easy to tell this to Luann. I imagined it to be harder, you know, since this is Luann and all, but I actually feel that she is some-what trustworthy. "And so I invited you to go shopping with me so the I can get out without Jacob and date somebody else, ya know, to see if love is really what I feel for Jacob."

"Wow, deep," Luann said, with a sarcastic tint to it. I knew she understood though. I saw past the amused tone.

"Yeah," I reply.

"Okay, so you came with me to get a date and find out if Jake is who you love, or if he's just another guy?" she asks.

"Yep, you got it."

"Then let's go to the food court. It's the perfect place to start."

I smiled, glad that she didn't go into further questioning.

Trying to scope out a guy to be my practice dummy was hard.

They looked too innocent, dorky, or angry at the world.

The others that Luann pointed out had too much of a likeness to Jacob.

His face appeared in my mind, haunting me. The mental image made me feel guilty but I convinced myself it had to be done. After all, how else could I see if I loved Jacob?

We took a break and ordered lunch from the convenient SubWay that we had been standing next to for the past hour. Luann went to obtain a table for us to sit at while I was left to get to food. I paid the cashier and started walking toward Luann.

My right foot slipped on something that was carelessly tossed upon the floor by a passerby. I braced myself for impact against the cold floor of the mall. Seconds went by and I hesitantly opened my eyes to see a boy staring down at me. His straight black hair was astray over his concrete gray eyes. The cold stare he gave me froze my entire body.

"Thanks for saving my cuz, she can be such a klutz at times." Luann's voice broke my thoughts and the spell he seemed to have cast on me.

I realized the strange boy's tense arms around me. I quickly stumbled out of his grasp and regained my balance next to Luann. He tucked his gloved hands into his black jean pocket and continued to stare at us.

"Yeah, thanks. People should put things in the trashcan, you know. Easy to uh trip on." I said nervously.

The boy was quite intimidating and he already looked like he was a figment of my imagination again. He was too strange for reality.

He gave a slight nod in acknowledgement.

Luann nudged me slightly with her elbow obviously implying him.

I held my breath and cleared my throat. I was so unsure about choosing him. Would he even be interested? Did he already have someone?

"My name's Miley Stewart." My voice breaking the silence he had surrounded us in.

I slowly raised my hand for a handshake although I thought it was highly unlikely.

He continued his stare of nothingness for another long minute before he raised his hand to meet mine.

"My name is Ben."

"I still don't get it!" Jake exclaims. He had just gotten off the phone with Miley. Now, he and Jackson were going to pick up Miley and Luann and take Luann home.

"Get what?" Jackson questions.

"Miley going to the mall with Luann! Luann's evil, and now, her boyfriend cheats on her and then her and Miley are friends or something! When did they even plan to go to the mall anyway?!" Jake says.

"Chill, dude," Jackson said. "Who cares if all of a sudden they're friends? I see this as a good thing. I mean, last time I checked, Luann was black-mailing you and Miley. If they're friends, she might drop it and we wouldn't have to worry."

"Maybe you're right…" Jake says.

"Okay," Lilly says after they rode the Mega-Drop three more times. "Now what?"

"Uh…" Oliver thinks. "Oh! What about the space ship?" He pointed off into the distance to the black spinning 'space ship.'

"Alright!" Lilly agrees, and they ran over to the line.

After the people from the ride got off, they went in. There were mats slanted against the wall and in the center, sat the guy running the ride. Lilly and Oliver always ride this every year.

"Over here!" Lilly says, grabbing Oliver's hand and leading him toward a group of empty mats. They always try to get a lot of room so they can do tricks.

Lilly and Oliver leaned against the mats. A moment later, the guy in charge closed up the space ship. It would have been pitch black dark if it weren't for the colorful lights around the control area. The guy made sure everyone was against the mats and started the ride. It started spinning, quickly picking up speed. Soon, they were able to move while sticking to the mat because they were spinning so fast.

Oliver turned so that he was sideways. Lilly did the same, and their heads were right next to each other.

"I can't lift my head up anymore!!!" Oliver shouts to Lilly. Even though she was right next to him, the ride was making noise, and so were other people.

"Me neither!!!" Lilly replies. They had reached the fastest point of the ride and the lights at the control area were going crazy.

The space ship started to end though. It started slowing down and Lilly and Oliver moved back to there early positions of standing. They exited the ride walking funny because they were dizzy.

"That… was fun," Lilly says, trying to keep her balance while the world was spinning fast in her eyes.

"Yeah," Oliver agrees, collapsing onto the grass.

"Ollie?" Lilly asks with a sugary-sweet smile.

"Huh?" Oliver asks.

"Get up."

Oliver tried getting up, but stumbled back down.

"You're pathetic," Lilly jokes, helping him up.

"Yeah, yeah," Oliver says, getting to his feet.

A/N: Hey guys, this update was a little later than expected. I've been busy helping my family with Christmas stuff. Liz wrote some of this chapter. She even drew a picture of Ben. You can get to the picture if you go to the Links section of my profile. I'll label it 'Ben.' Lol.

Thanks: Wolfwhisperer, aprilrainer15, Xx Tohru xXx Seraphina xX, princess cutie, I'm a friggin Pokemon master, mmvok, He Breaks My Heart3 Everytime, and DRaGoN SlaYeR 4eva for reviewing the last chapter.