Chapter Seven – G is for Goode
Sam and I walked several feet behind Six as we made our way toward the food court for lunch. It seemed that our lives now revolved around eating, sleeping and driving. This little side trip to the mall was a break I think we all needed. Being here, among other people – instead of hiding out - refreshed my sense of normalcy. As far as anyone knew, we were just like them.
Sam proudly carried two GAP bags. One was filled with his new shirts and pants while the other contained my new clothes and the sundress for Six. I really thought Six was going to hurt him when he placed the dress on the counter next to the other clothes and told Liberty confidently "We'll take this too." Instead she let Liberty add it to the bill without so much as a blink. It reminded me of the expression 'the calm before the storm.'
"I hope they have a McDonald's," Sam wished aloud. "I haven't had any McCalories in almost a week. I think my arteries are going through withdrawal."
I assured him that there would be fast food of some kind – this was a mall after all. While Sam rambled about his favorite items on the McMenu, I found myself assessing the surroundings – okay - maybe that wasn't something a 'normal' person would do. But after our incident with the Mogs back in Paradise and nearly getting trapped inside the school; looking for escape routes became a bit of a paranoid reaction for me. I never wanted to be cornered like that again. As I looked aesthetics surrounding me – I was shocked to discover there was a lot of red.
Keeping in mind what I had just seen only minutes ago with Six in the dressing room, I figured it was just me noticing red more than the any of the other colors. But I swear it was everywhere. In almost every store window was a large red "SALE" banner, the railings were red, the benches were red – hell even the tiled floor beneath us was gray with scattered red squares throughout. I turned my head toward the food court, where the red and white Coca-Cola logo on the side of vending machine greeted me. There were red plastic chairs and red serving trays. Red ketchup bottles on the tables. Red was everywhere I looked.
Every single thing reminded me of Six's thong – and of my dream. I felt myself blush at the thought. Shit! Now my cheeks were probably red.
Ahead in the distance we could see the beginnings of the culinary choices. There was a Chinese place, a Subway, a little pizza shop, an ice cream shop and a Chick-fil-A.
"No," Sam uttered in disbelief. "No… this can't be happening."
Six glanced over her shoulder at us. "What's wrong now?"
"No… Golden…Arches…," Sam panted looking around frantically. "I can't fucking believe this!"
"What is he talking about?" she asked me.
"There's no McDonald's," I told Six..
"They have a fucking Subway but no Mickey D's," Sam proclaimed. "And Chick Fil-A – who the fuck actually eats at Chick Fil-A?"
As Sam proceeded to declare the food court 'unfit', Six continued into the sea of tables and chairs choosing one that had an optimal view of the surrounding area. She sat down, kicking up her leg so that her boot rested on her knee cap. With her hands she removed the Aviator sunglasses from her eyes, blinking against the fluorescent lights. She tucked the glasses into her shirt, rubbing the lenses then held them up and inspected them.
"You're staring," Sam informed me.
"No I'm not," I replied quickly turning away from her. "I was just debating what to have for lunch."
"You were stare - ing," Sam repeated adding a bit of melody to his voice.
"No, I wasn't." I replied even though I knew I was. Why was I lying to my best friend? Why couldn't I just admit that I was looking at her?
"Well, she's definitely staring at you," Sam whispered to me. I immediately glanced back at her. Six was not staring at me. In fact she wasn't even facing our direction, she'd turned around to face the ice cream shop, no doubt reading their marquis of flavors.
Beside me Sam snorted and punched my shoulder. "Made you look."
"Dick," I said and punched him back. Yes. I'd resorted to name–calling. Why was this happening to me? I had a girlfriend. I loved my girlfriend. Sarah Hart. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah…
I tried not to think about Six but the harder I tried the more my eyes wandered back to her. She was standing now, one arm on her hip the other twisting a blonde curl. She was still looking the other way and so my gaze lowered from her shoulders down to the back pockets of her jeans. I knew what was underneath. Delicate white skin against red fabric…
NO!
I closed my eyes and forced myself back to Sarah. I was not interested in Six. This unwanted lust was simply a side effect from watching too much porn.
Sarah. Sarah. Sarah.
Channeling her name helped me put everything into perspective. I pushed away all thoughts of my fellow Lorien in favor of someone more familiar, someone who loved me. Someone who was waiting for me to return to her.
"What are you thinking?" Sam asked me.
"Nothing," I stuttered hastily. The last thing I wanted to admit was that I was practically forcing myself to think about my girlfriend instead of Six's underwear. Never watching porn again.
"Well, you have to be thinking something about lunch," the boy next to me looked back and forth between two stores. "I'm torn between Chinese and pizza."
"Tough choice."
"Tell me about it."
At that point we were talking about lunch – but we'd have a similar conversation in the not so distant future about something completely different. And this time it would be me making the tough choice.
Sam eventually decided on Chinese. I chose pizza – since my dream I had a slight craving. As obviously tempted as Six was by ice cream, she opted for black coffee only.
Sam was still up at the Chinese buffet waiting for his order. Six and I were alone at the table. I with my large everything pizza and she with a mega-sized cup filled with liquid caffeine. I hadn't seen her ingest anything other than coffee since we'd been on the road together. I knew for a fact she hadn't eaten anything today. She had to be hungry.
"I can't eat this all by myself." I tilted the pizza box her way. "Have a slice. Or two."
"No thanks," she lifted the cup to her lips, gulping down the hot fluid.
"Come on. Just try it," I peeled a slice from the pie and set it down on a napkin pushing it across the table. "It's really good."
"This is all I need," she held up the cup giving me a small smile. It was then I noticed how incredibly tired she looked. Her weary eyes seemed to fight just to stay open. I wondered how long it had been since she slept.
She took another swig of coffee before setting it back on the table. "I need you to do me a favor," she said, leaning toward me.
"Sure," I agreed.
"I need you to talk to him," her head thrust in Sam's direction. "About how essential it is for us to blend in."
"He knows," I told her. Sam and I had a long conversation about that very thing the day we left Paradise.
"I need you to explain it to him again," Six growled. "Because the next time he puts on a show like he did earlier, I will not be as tolerant as I was today." She picked up her cup, downed her coffee then placed the cup back on the table hard. It landed with a solid 'clink'. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some security footage to erase." She got up from her chair. "Don't let him do anything stupid while I'm gone."
As she walked across the food court, I looked over at Sam balancing his tray of food in one hand while trying to pull napkins from the dispenser. The tray wobbled with each jerk of his arm and all I could imagine was that the entire tray was going to tumble to the floor and create a huge mess. He yanked another handful off napkins out, his tray bobbled with the motion.
"Whoa!" he called out, as he steadied it with his other hand. "Almost lost it!" he said as he came over to me. I sighed in relief once he sat down. Six was right. We needed to be more careful.
Sam unwrapped his egg roll and began drowning it in mustard. "Where's Jane?"
"On an errand," I took a large bite of my pizza.
The food court began to fill with the lunch rush. I decided not to bring up my conversation with Six right now. There were too many people around. I'd talk to him later – in the truck. We were both hungry, forgoing conversation in favor of satisfying our stomachs. As we slopped down our lunches, I noticed two attractive girls our age sit down at the table next to us. Sam noticed it too, kicking my shin from under the table.
The two girls were just placeholders for a much larger group. At least a dozen more girls joined them, many of them wearing "Milltown Softball District Champs" windbreakers. I was able to ignore them. Sam on the other hand, couldn't keep his eyes off the red head seated at the head of the several tables they'd pulled together.
I kicked him under the table to get his attention. When he looked at me I shook my head 'no'. We were not here to fraternize with the local female population. Sam frowned and went back to his lunch. Everything would have been fine…but then…
A light serenade of giggles erupted causing both Sam and I to look up. The redhead had gotten out of her seat and was coming toward our table. I looked at Sam who, despite having a mouthful of rice, had stopped mid-chew watching wide-eyed as she approached.
She stopped at the edge of our table, waving her right hand in half circle. "Hi, I'm Delaney." Sam was incapable of speech and so I replied instead. "Hi Delaney." That was all the invitation she needed. Without asking, she pulled out the chair that Six had occupied and sat down.
"Ohhh, fortune cookies," her eyes lit up. "Can I have one?" she looked right at Sam, flashing a flirtatious smile.
"Uh huh," Sam managed to say without choking on his rice.
Delaney reached over the table and took one. Removing the package she broke it in two and removed the thin strip of white paper. "Here's your half," she put part of the cookie in front of Sam before bringing the other half to her lips.
Sam gulped down his rice without chewing and lifted the fortune cookie to his mouth, all the while staring at Delaney chewing daintily.
"Let's see," she unfolded the paper smiling as she read it to herself. "Hmmm, very interesting."
"What does it say?" Sam asked voice cracking only slightly.
"It says "What is your name?" she grinned.
"Really?" Sam blinked confused.
I wanted to slap him. No wonder he had so many problems with girls. "His name is Sam," I told her.
"Well Sam," she leaned closer to him, like a predator would close in on its prey. "Today is your lucky day."
"Uh, it is?" his confusion magnified. I sunk my head in my hands unable to watch him humiliate himself further.
"That's what your fortune says." Delaney set the paper down in between them so Sam could see it.
"Oh, uh, I guess," Sam stumbled on his reply.
If this was anyone else, I wouldn't have intervened. But after our talk the other day, I couldn't let Sam belly-flop into the pool of harmless flirting. "I think what he's trying to say is that it's already been lucky."
Delaney's smile grew. "Why don't you guys pull your table next to ours?"
Sam looked at me hopefully. I sighed. What could it hurt? It was just lunch.
We moved our table. Delaney switched seats with one of her friends so she and Sam were sitting next to each other. She asked a few simple questions, what school we went to, what grade we were in – basic everyday get-to-know-you questions. Unfortunately, Sam wasn't used to a life of lies and false identities. So he told her the truth. Told her his real name, where he was really from. It made me a little nervous, but I highly doubted these girls were in cahoots with the Mogadorians.
Luckily the topic changed to softball. Seems that's why they were all there. The Milltown High School Varsity Softball Team was playing in a tournament. Their first game was tonight. Delaney was the starting third basemen. According to her teammates, she had quite a throwing arm. The red head feigned modesty, but the others kept insisting how great she was.
Then from out of nowhere, a pair of gloves and softball appeared.
"Show 'em Dee," the girls insisted.
Reluctantly Delaney took the gloves, handing one to Sam. "Okay, okay," she laughed taking Sam by the hand and pulling him to his feet. Clouded by his ardor, Sam trailed behind her like a puppy. She led him to an empty space, telling him to stay there as she explained that in Major League Baseball the distance between first and third base is just over one hundred twenty seven feet but in their softball league it's only about eighty feet.
With that she stood quite a distance away from Sam, pressing the ball into her glove as she wound up to throw, "Ready Sam!" she called as she released the ball at lightening speed.
I should have known.
I should have stopped the ball.
But I didn't.
It whizzed through the air. A white spherical blur. Sam held up the glove defensively. He wasn't the most athletic person. The ball tipped against the leather then deflected upward hitting Sam in the face.
"Sam!" Delaney cried as she rushed toward him.
I beat her to him. Sam's lip was bleeding pretty good. "Don't let her see me," Sam whimpered. I could see he had tears forming in his eyes. Delaney did have an impressive arm. I could only imagine how much it must have stung.
"He's okay!" I called to the girls at the table who rushed to Sam's aid. "Just needs some space."
"Oh my God! He's bleeding!" one of them yelled.
"Get some napkins!"
"Do we have a first aid kit?"
Delaney put her arm around Sam's shoulders. "I'm so sorry. Are you alright?" she ran her hands over his forehead, pushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Here's some ice." An ice pack was handed to Delaney, who gently held it against Sam's lip. He was surrounded by a huddle of softball players, who slowly pushed me out of the way. As I stood on the fringe of their pack, I caught sight of Six standing several feet away. She wasn't happy.
The storm was about to begin.