II. A Mall World After All
Quinn trudged in from the mall parking lot. The weather was still terrific, but still he managed to trudge, maybe thanks to the pool of overlong jeans around his Chucks. Also he was thinking about Her.
Might as well be pouring down rain, he thought, and me standing under her window shouting something sad. Yeah. Total John Cusack movie action, he thought, still managing to stare at his feet as he opened the door and received a blast of mall air conditioning in the face. He passed the food court.
"Hi, Quinn!" piped Cara at the Pretzel Twistery, tossing her blonde hair. "Want a free Honey Cinnamon Apple?"
"Hey, Cara. No thanks," he muttered. She'd never notice me even if I was throwing rocks through her window. Someone'd have to throw ME through her window. And I'd be all broken and bleeding on the floor and she'd go, 'What is THIS disgusting thing doing here....?'
"Quinn!" exclaimed his former classmate Julie, arms loaded with stock from her job at the Sugar Buzz. "Hey, we're overstocked on sours, I know you love sours.... Want some? I won't tell my boss."
"Hey, Julie. Nah, I won't steal your inventory," he said with a weak smile. Dear god. Can anyone be more pathetically ignored than I am?
He passed Garden of Luxuries. "Hi, Quinn!" chorused the entire female staff, as a whiff of of Vanilla Lemon Body Spritzer wafted into the hallway. He waved halfheartedly. And was finally at his work.
No wonder she doesn't want me, he thought, hanging up his jacket in the back and revealing the yellow polo shirt and the "Game On Electronics/ Quinn Donovan, Assistant Manager" nametag. He stepped out into the brightly colored mess that was his store. He actually liked working there, for some godforsaken reason, but...
...No wonder she won't look twice at me, he thought. I'm 21 and I work at the mall.
-----
"So do I," said his friend Emily over lunch. "And I'm 21." They were in their usual UberCoffee comfy chairs, Emily being on her lunch break too. They'd known each other since they were seven, but despite that and his mad crush on She Who Is Yet Unnamed, he thought the green of the barista's smock went well with her eyes. I'm in a thoughtful mood today. Crap. I hate those, he thought.
"Yeah, but you're home from college on break," Quinn said, sipping his whipped cherry vanilla mocha latte that, as far as he could tell, contained no actual coffee,which was how he liked it. "This is my JOB. I'm just not a college person."
"So?" said Emily. "We're 21. We've got time to figure out what we want to do. You're making pretty good money. You get to be around video games all day. What else could you...." She saw his face fall. "Oh."
"A girlfriend, a girlfriend, Quinn needs a girlfriend!" laughed Laurel, one of Emily's Ubercoffee buddies who'd become a lunch regular with them. Quinn didn't know her well, except that she'd been a freshman when he was a senior, and during her high school years she started hanging around with Adam's sister Kat. He'd seen her around in Adam's basement a few times. And she was definitely cute. Kat'd kill him, but... "Are you applying for the job?" he said with the classic wicked grin.
"Me? No. Me? No-oo. No." She laughed. "No! Hehe. No."
Oh dear. She'd overdone it. Quinn was blushing furiously. Laurel stared. Quinn Donovan, legendary sarcastic b*****d, with.... EMOTIONS?
Huh, thought Laurel, who'd only known him through his legendary high school exploits and the aforementioned visits to Kat's basement. This may call for.... a SCHEME.
Wow, it had been a while since she'd schemed. She restrained the gleeful grin, the frantic rubbing together of hands and the manaical laugh. Her schemes should be famous, but they weren't.
That was because they worked.
"See, I'm already seeing someone," she said. "I might have a friend or two who's single, though. And interested," she added tantalizingly.
"And my best friend's little sister's age," Quinn sulked. Emily watched, fascinated. After working with Laurel for a few months, she knew the younger girl's powers of persuasion weren't to be taken for granted.
"Okay, that matters when you're in HIGH SCHOOL, but in case you haven't noticed, we've all graduated now," Laurel said. "And I can tell you that there's a friend of mine who's liked you since she was a freshman."
"I'm not going out with Kat."
"Not Kat."
"Who then?" Your invisible friend Marlys? The ghost of Amelia Earhart?
----
Laurel tied up her dark brown curls for speed, and used the last five minutes of her break to race over to Booktopia. It was a slow day there. Delaney, her best friend since practically birth, was at the counter, pretending to look busy while surrepetitiously glancing at the latest in the Series of Unfortunate Events.
"You're coming to a movie with us tonight, OK?" Laurel said, skidding to a halt in front of the counter.
"What? Hi. What?" She pushed up her glasses and pulled herself together. "A movie? Really? Which one?"
"We're thinking...."
"I don't care. I haven't seen a movie in weeks. I don't even care if it's one of those ones with the exploding helicopters. I don't even care if it doesn't have Jude Law." Del grinned. "What time?"
"Probably a 10:30 show, to give them time to close, and...."
Del paused. She and Laurel were the only two of their Usual Movie Crew who worked at the mall - and neither of them were closing that night.
"Laurel, who's 'them'?"
Laurel grinned. "You'll like this," she said.
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