It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 25

“Oh my gosh, Bri, I’ve never had so much fun clothes shopping in my entire life!”

My eyes flicked to Kyla as I let out a small grin.  Kyla spoke animatedly, her hands flying through the air as she described the events of her afternoon.  Everyone in the group sat at a huge café area, seated at the table nearest the front doors.  Different mini-restaurants spread out around us, taking people’s orders and handing others their food.  The restaurants were motley, going from McDonald’s fast food to Chinese food.  I’d gone to some place called Pandorita’s where they served me spaghetti and some Sprite.  It was pretty damn good.

“That’s nice,” I said, stabbing the huge meatball on top of my spaghetti with my fork.  The thing was huge!  Easily as big as a tennis ball.  No joke.

“Seriously!” Kyla shrieked enthusiastically.  “They were so enthusiastic about what I should buy, and they told me what colors went good with my tone.”

I shook my head, smiling.  “Shop with them from now on, okay?” I laughed shortly, cutting off a part of the meatball and plopping it into my mouth.  As I chewed I shot my friend another bright smile.  “I don’t want to try to live up to your shopping expectations.”

Kyla shot me a grin.  “Sure thing.”

I glanced at Kyla’s plate.  She’d purchased Chinese food.  I scrunched my nose as she scooped some up in her fork and plopped it into her mouth, chewing delightedly.  I hated Chinese food.  Everyone thought I was crazy for having such a distaste for it, but that was the way it was.

I turned my gaze to Shelley and Garner, who were having an intense argument about Joyful Noise.  I couldn’t concentrate on the words that they were saying, however, because all I could picture in my mind was Shelley attempting to push him into the trashcan.  The thought caused me to snicker out loud, making me scramble to cover my mouth with my hand.  Laughing caused for dropped food.  Which was not good.

“Oh my gosh, you two!” Paula said loudly, her distaste for their bickering showing freely.  “Will you stop it?  Some of us are trying to eat here!”

“You can eat while listening to people argue,” Meghan pointed out, taking a sip of her Mountain Dew.

While Paula shot Meghan a pointed look, Kyla turned to Dannon and me, a bright smile on her face.  “So, what did you two do?” she asked curiously.

I glanced at Dannon from the corner of my eye.  He sat next to me, fiddling with the noodles he’d purchased.  He didn’t really look like he was eating them.  In fact, for a moment, it looked as though he was going to be sick.  I blinked, tempted to ask him if he was okay.  But then he looked up and he looked perfectly the same.

Wow, my mind was going crazy.

“We went to Borders,” I said finally as though stating the obvious.

I snuck another glance in Dannon’s direction, partially not convinced that my mind made up the sickened-looking expression Dannon had on his face.  He looked like he was in pain—maybe with a headache or something.  Or maybe he looked like he wanted to vomit.  I couldn’t be sure.

But no.  One look at him and I could see that my mind made up the whole thing.  Dannon was fine.

“What did you do at Borders?” Kyla pressed, leaning her chin against her hand as she stared at us.

I gestured to our bags of books settled beside us on top of the table.  I refused to set them on the floor out of fear that someone would steal them—or worse, step on them.  Dannon, seeming to have the same concern, set his bag on the table to, out of reach of anyone’s feet.  “Uh, we bought books.”  I cocked an eyebrow.  “Isn’t that obvious?”