Evander
I end up making a fool of myself for the rest of the drive as I attempt to horribly sing along to every following song that plays, but I don't regret any of it as I get to watch Nya smile and laugh and even sing along with me at times.
When the map on her phone says that we've arrived at our destination, I reach forward to turn off the radio, looking up to see the large, intricate mall now in front of us.
Nya takes us through the various streets and turns until we're in the parking lot, attempting to find a space close to the front entrance, but is unsuccessful considering that the entire place is practically filled with cars. Her next option is to take us through the large parking structure to the side of the mall—to which it's still surprisingly full—but eventually we're able to find an empty space on the third floor.
Once she's turned off the car, she unbuckles her seat and grabs her phone, now using her thumb to scroll through what I'm able to tell is her messages. I don't say anything when I notice the small twitch of her lip, indicating that something, or someone, isn't making her very happy.
Even though I don't necessarily have to, I find myself waiting for her to be done looking at her messages for me to get out, and she seems to notice after a few more seconds. She shuts off her phone and shoves it in her pocket, rolling her eyes before I see her reach up and grab the hood of her sweatshirt, bringing it over her head and then reaching down to pull up the zipper.
She begins tugging at the strings of the hood, tightening it so that nothing but the skin on her face is exposed to the air, and I can't help the mild confusion at the fact.
"What are you doing?"
When she turns to look at me I nearly laugh at the sight, and she seems to notice this when she gives me a—surprisingly playful—roll of her eyes.
"I'm not about to leave my hair exposed in this humidity. Plus, it's raining. I don't need it getting wet with that nasty sky water."
I nod with her sentence, but the smile on my face refuses to go away as she continues to stare back at me.
It doesn't take long before she decides enough is enough, opening the driver's door and stepping out of the car. I quickly do the same, and once she's locked it she puts the keys in her pocket, beginning her way towards the stairwell at the other end of the parking structure.
I'm not far behind as we make our way down the flights of steps, and once we're at the bottom I notice how she tightens her grip on her sweatshirt. I look forward and notice that the mall entrance is not that far away, but we'd need to cross the wide road to get there.
"Are you gonna try to run?" I can't help but tease her, lightly bumping her shoulder with my elbow.
Her lips turn up into a small smile.
"Shut up."
That's all it takes for her to begin her light jog, and I decide it would be best if I copy her idea of covering my head with the hood of my jacket, making sure to stay right behind her as we run through the pouring rain. Luckily both of our jackets are thick enough to prevent either of us from getting wet as we finally reach the large overhang of the mall that goes around the entire outside.
She doesn't waste a second before entering one of the sets of double-automatic-doors, and once we're inside we're immediately greeted by the sound of chatter and footsteps and the smell of the various restaurants of the food court somewhere nearby.
Luckily this particular entrance we chose—which I now know is on the rear side of the mall—doesn't have many people walking near, giving me the chance to have a quick look around.
My eyes scan over the few stores near us—all of them being some sort of hardware and tool stores, but I'm unable to see much further forward, considering this place seems to be as big as a fucking palace.
In my peripheral I can see Nya reach up and pull down her hood—to which I do the same—feeling her hands on and around her curls to—I assume—check and make sure they're dry. Once she's satisfied with her hair's condition, she begins doing the same that I was a moment ago, taking a second to look around before noticing what I didn't—a large electronic map of the mall mounted to a nearby wall.
We both walk over to it and start trying to find stores that might have formal attire, but after I look at the names of a few I realize that I'm not going to be able to figure out anything due to the unfamiliar nature of the names of the various stores. The only thing I'm able to understand with the map's help is that we're currently on the second floor, and that the mall is in the shape of a large, sideways rectangle. There are three floors total, with escalators and elevators being evenly placed every few hundred-feet increments, and in the direct center on the first floor is the food court.
I'm not able to tell if the stores have any specific layout here, whether it's by terms of products they sell, how high-end they are, and other shit like that, but I know that there's a small red circle in the bottom right corner of the map, with an indicator labeled, "you are here."
"Fuck, this place is huge."
Nya bends over and places her hands on her knees to help her get closer to the map, and I try my best to keep my eyes on the ground and not let them travel to her ass, knowing that if I do I wouldn't be able to hide the blush in my face.
Luckily she doesn't stay bent over for long, now standing upright and taking out her phone before snapping a photo of the map. It seems she is familiar with the various stores, and after a few more seconds of looking she begins walking to the left, and of course I'm never too far behind.
The best way I could describe both the second and third floor layouts would be to imagine that both floors are the same as the ground floor, but with large rectangular cutouts in the middle, save for the few "bridges" connecting either side of the mall, essentially making them both, I guess I could call them long walkways or balconies.
I walk over to the edge, where a long line of glass acts as a fence, and look down at the floor below me to see that there's a lot more people down there then there are up here. I do the same and look upwards to the third floor, of which it seems that it isn't all that crowded. When I look back ahead of me I see that I can say the same for this floor, considering there really aren't that many people we walk past or by.
Nya continues to look down at her phone as she walks, and I even have to move her at times to make sure she doesn't run into anyone. She always mutters either a small, "thanks," or a, "sorry," but never brings her eyes up until after what feels like maybe five minutes of walking.
She finally looks up from her phone and at the store to our left, a small boutique that—at a first glance—looks like it really only has women's clothing. And once we walk in and Nya begins walking around to observe the clothing, my assumption is proven correct.
I realize that there really isn't any need for me to be in the store, due to the fact that there isn't really clothes for me here, along with the small glance Nya gives me over her shoulder, the confused look on her face clearly indicating that she wasn't expecting me to follow her in.
I don't say anything out of slight embarrassment, and make my way outside the store, waiting by the entrance for her to be done looking.
After about ten minutes of waiting, I feel my phone buzz in my pocket once, leading me to take it out and check my notifications. On my screen I see a message from Sam, simply him asking me, "what happened?"
