Chapter 27

By: Serena Chibi

Date: July 19, 2012

Serena didn't want too much attention drawn to them when they went to the mall, so she convinces Darien to drive her Audi instead of his Lamborghini. He just laughs about how awkward she is about being the center of attention. Parking in the lower parking garage at the large mall, they get out and wander towards the elevators. Darien presses the button to retrieve the elevator for them, and Serena looks around.

"I'm actually gonna take the stairs, I'll meet you up there." Serena smiles and lets go of his hand.

"Are you sure? Cause its three floors to get up to the mall." Darien asks, surprised.

"Yea, I'll race you up there actually. You take the elevator and I'll try to beat you up the stairs." Serena smiles and laughs.

"Actually, I'll just take the stairs with you. I need the exercise since I haven't gone running today." He smiles back and opens the door to the stairway for her.

Serena wobbles her way up the stairs in her high heels, holding the railing all the while. Darien walks up a few steps behind her the whole way up. "So, you were planning on racing me up the stairs how exactly?" He laughs.

"Hey, don't pick on me! I can run if I need to!" Serena shoots him a look that she's kidding and laughs.

"Well, let's test that then shall we?" Darien smirks at her.

"You think I'm really gonna run the last two floors of stairs just cause you dared me to?" She comes to a stop and raises an eyebrow at him.

"No, I think you'll do it because I'll tickle you if I catch you." He moves up so he's only a few stairs from her.

"Oh, really? You think I honestly believe that? You don't even know where I'm ticklish… do you?" A nervous look comes across her face.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I'm not telling" Darien shrugs his shoulders and smiles at her. She turns on her heel and quickly starts up the steps with a smile on her face. Darien stands there and slowly makes his way up the stairs behind her, as she's reaching the top he breaks into a run so it looks like he'd been chasing her the whole way.

"See? I told you I can run if I need to." Serena places her hands on her knees and leans forward to catch her breath, laughing.

"Oh fine, you win this once. I'll beat you next time though" Darien laughs with her and places an arm over her shoulders pulling her close to his side.

They spend an hour wandering from store to store, looking at anything and everything there was to see. Darien was admiring a watch in a display case when he suddenly felt Serena's presence beside him disappear. Jumping up from his crouching position next to the case he looks to his right then his left, when he sees her fast walking towards a blonde woman. He rubs his eyes to refocus because he thinks he's seeing things for a second, as he notices the similarities between Serena and this other woman.

Serena had seen Mina prowling through some stores and once she appeared out of the last one, Serena couldn't help but run up to her.

Mina is surprised to see her friend out and about, let alone by herself. "Are you here with anyone Serena? Don't you have work or something? You kept saying how you were behind on something the other night."

"I'm actually here with Darien, so no worries, As for the project, that was like three nights ago, I already finished it.' Serena grabs Mina's hand and starts tugging her towards Darien. "Come on, Mina! I want you to meet him already!"

Coming to a stop in front of Darien, Serena lets go of Mina and moves to stand closer to him. "Um, hi there Darien," Mina stands and waves awkwardly at him. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"This is Mina, Darien.' Serena wraps an arm around his bicep and looks up at him.

"Ah, Mina. It's nice to meet you as well, I've heard quite a bit about you. Surprisingly Serena never mentioned how similar you both look. It's almost like looking at a reflection of her. Well, except there are small things that make it easy to tell you both apart, I can already tell."

"Yea, we got that all through high school. People thought we were twins or something, even though we aren't really related. There are some key differences, like' she pull a piece of her hair from behind her shoulders. "my hair is darker than hers, see? And her eyes are a much brighter blue than mine, mine are more dull... kinda like a cloudy day? Even though I've always had the sunnier personality" she laughs and casts a funny face in Serena's direction.

"Na-uh, my personality was so much brighter!" Serena can't help but laugh as she sees Mina's face though.

Darien feels almost as if he were in high school again. He looks to Serena's face and can't help but smile as a thought crosses his mind. If she were anything like she is now in high school, I would've definitely tried to date her if I knew her back in high school.