Author's Note: Oh my flying spaghetti monster, I actually got a review! Keep them coming, please, as I'd really like to improve my writing. Also, if you have any suggestions for the story, let me know, as I might be able to fit some into the plot I have planned. Like always, I want to hear about whatever you love and hate, or even if you're just reading this out of boredom and will forget it in seconds. Thanks! -Anya
It was the twenty second of November, and we were pulled along by a crowd of Christmas shoppers from the train, through the station, and across the pedestrian overpass before being dropped into a courtyard at the heart of the enormous mall. A tree had already been erected there, and a fuzzy version of Hellomynameis' indie-rock cover of Winter Wonderland played through tiny speakers hidden in the multi-colored baubles which hung from every limb. I rolled my eyes as Tiana began to hum along.
A quick glance around showed me that there were no unoccupied benches, so I sat down cross legged, my back against one of the giant, Styrofoam blobs meant to resemble a gift box, and pulled my friend down next to me. In response to the inquisitive look she shot me from under her silver eyelids (one swollen almost shut), I rummaged through my bag, found my bank chip in the very bottom, and held it in front of her to see.
"You have two, right? Is there a limit on how much you can withdraw?"
"On my bank chip?" she looked momentarily puzzled, and then said "Oh, no, there isn't. I only have about a thousand dollars, though."
"How much is on your mom's card?" I asked impatiently, forcing myself to keep my voice down. She thought a minute.
"Probably lots," she said slowly, "because my dad always puts a lot in her account so she can pay the cleaning women and go shopping and all that." A flush crept under her porcelain skin. For as long as I'd known her, Tiana had been self-conscious about having money. She continued quickly, "Should we withdraw it all?"
Relieved I hadn't been the one to bring that up, I nodded and said yes in what I hoped was a decisive, confident manner. Tiana never usually bought my lies, some sixth sense telling her when I was insecure and out of my depth, but if she doubted me then, she said nothing to indicate it.
"There's a teller machine next to the escalators on every floor," I said, and she nodded. We stood up, the all-too-familiar silence descending like a storm cloud over our heads, and let ourselves be engulfed again by the harried crowd.
We were almost at the ATM when I slowed to a stop, causing severally angry adults to swerve around me with a scowl. Tiana backtracked a few steps to where I was, and we moved together to stand against the wall.
"What's up?"
I bit the inside of my lip until I tasted blood before answering. How could I explain?
"I don't want to be me anymore, Tiana. I'm so fucking sick of seeing myself in the mirror, hearing myself speak, knowing what others think and say about me… I just…" I trailed off. Who did I want to be? Ordinarily, I would have said in a second that I wanted to be Tiana, but in light of her desperate need to run from her life, I wasn't so sure. One thing I was sure of was that I needed to change, and I would. Without any further explanation, I grabbed the cuff of Tiana's jacket and steered her into the store behind us. I knew how I could do this on a budget.
It was only ten minutes before I was standing in the handicapped stall of the mall washroom, the door shut and Tiana at my side. I screwed my eyes shut and tried to ignore the sound of her sewing shears. It had been easy to steal what I needed; body jewelry was tiny, and the jacket fit snuggly over top of my zip up hoodie. In the crush of people taking advantage of a sale in the store, walking out even with the hat in hand hadn't seemed too challenging. One thing I had always adored about this mall was the lack of security sensors on the doors, and it was here that Tiana and I had taught each other to shoplift on weekends when we were too young to be afraid of consequences. Neither of us had ever been caught.
The difficult part had been in convincing Tiana to participate in her part of my plan, but I knew her well enough to see that the fight had left her when I agreed to run away.
"Done," she said softly. I opened my eyes a crack, but her expression betrayed nothing.
"How does it look?"
Apparently mute, she unlocked the stall door and held it open for me. I watched my feet march their way to the sinks, meet, and stop before I dared raise my eyes to my reflection. The breath caught in my throat.
The green eyes that looked back at me from the mirror were mine, still ringed in black and full of shock, but the face which housed them was utterly alien. Tiana had painted my lips with eggplant purple makeup, and reluctantly pierced the bottom one at the center. A silver ring was on display there, matching the three silver studs in each ear. My hair, previously a jet black mess that fell almost to my elbows and obscured my face, had been cropped into shaggy layers, the longest of which were even with my chin. I could no longer hide behind my bangs, as they, too, had been chopped to roughly eyebrow length. I pulled the brim of my new bowler hat lower, compensating. Even the black leather jacket, which I had been unsure of, seemed perfectly at home on the frame of this marvelous new me. The elderly woman sharing my row of sinks shuffled off, and I pulled Tiana into a tight hug, a smile on my face for the first time in days.
"You like it?" she asked anxiously, her voice muffled against my shoulder. I was speechless, so I said the only words that fit.
"It's perfect."
I offered to transform Tiana, returning the favor, but she declined with a nervous giggle. She was still unsettled as we finally stood in front of the teller machines a few moments later.
"What if we need some more later?" her chip had been swallowed into the machine, but her finger still hovered over the button that would confirm her transaction, emptying the contents of the account into her hands. I suppressed a sigh with difficulty.
"That's completely irrelevant. Once they found out that we're gone, and once your mother realizes you've taken her chip, too, we won't be able to access the accounts. I'm pretty sure the YCF will contact the bank or something. They're run by the same organization, after all."
Tiana pursed her lips in distaste, but lowered her finger onto the touch screen. I grabbed the money that was spit out and stuffed it into my bag before she could change her mind. She seemed decided, though, and had one hand holding her dark pink hair back from her face while the other rummaged in her rabbit-shaped bag. Eventually, she produced the keychain with her mother's bank chip on it and clicked it into the small hole in the machine. The card disappeared, sucked away, and a variety of options sprung onto the screen. Before she could select one, however, a new window ballooned to the front. Tiana read it to me in a whisper.
"Mrs. Crystal Deborah Giblet is informed that her daughter, Miss Tiana Lynne Giblet, age sixteen, has emptied the contents of her account. This message has been automatically delivered at the request of Mrs. Crystal Deborah Giblet. Please contact the government banking agency with any concerns. We thank you for using your official government bank."
"As if there was a choice," I muttered. Tiana looked panic-stricken.
"What if they email her that, too?" she asked, still in an urgent stage whisper "she'll find out I'm gone! She might even be able to find out what ATM I withdrew from!" Tiana paused, "She'll make us go back. I know she will." She slumped against the edge of the machine, a curtain of hair obscuring her face, but I saw her wipe her hand quickly across her cheek, banishing the tear that would have been a flaw to her ever composed exterior. Quickly, I completed the transactions that emptied her mother's account and my own, and closed the flap of my bag on top of a mess of bills before going to my best friend's side.
"Come on. We're only ten minutes from the train."
Both terrified and trying not to show it, we returned to the sky train station and took off, for the second time that day, towards the city center and an invisible future.