The Mall - Part 2
Claire bent down to tie her shoelaces, which she had deliberately stepped on earlier.
In front of her was the Candivean Garden - A giant cube with a facade that was meant to inspire a Victorian Era architectural theme. It looked like an afterthought to her.
Nevertheless, it was the largest mall in her City, and consequently her district as well. Three massive floors, a large outdoor food court, a plethora of fountains, clothing shops, arcades, home decor shops, cinemas, and the whole deal. It was their group's destination.
And she did not want to go in there.
"Come on already!" Leon complained as she fumbled with the laces for the third time. "The others are near the entrance already."
That they all were. Jerry, Benni, Carol, Seb and Glen. Everyone was waiting at the entrance. Well, almost everyone. Claire had seen Benni dragging Glen ahead with her. She loved dragging the poor guy along.
Leon grumbled.
"Go on ahead, I'm not stopping you!" Claire huffed. Jeez, could a girl just stall in peace?
"I never expected you to be someone who had trouble with shoelaces," He scoffed.
Claire almost groaned. She wasn't going to get him off her tail. He wouldn't let her stall any longer. Or, well, stall alone while not being bothered. She decided to stop messing around any more. She had to face this sooner or later, anyway.
"And I didn't expect you to care." Claire stood up and stuck her tongue out at him.
Leon, unfortunately, was looking at the entrance and didn't notice. He did hear her, however, and replied with a quiet "I don't care" mumble.
Kids.
Claire passed him as she made her way to the entrance.
"W-wait. You're done with the lac-" Claire heard Leon from behind her, followed closely by his hurried footsteps. "I- I mean, finally!"
She joined the waiting three at the entrance.
"Let's go!" Jerry cheered. She grabbed Claire's hand and dragged her inside, all the while gesturing the rest to follow.
Claire just let out a nervous laugh.
As the doors opened, Claire found herself in a mall that looked emptier than she had expected. There were people around, for sure, but she could never imagine a mall without it being filled to the brim with people. It was a thing that always surprised her.
She gave her thigh a little pinch. All right. She could do this. She could have fun here without feeling terrible.
She blinked. And found herself in the back seat of a SUV.
"No really! I'll make you try their kebabs!" That was Leon.
"C'mon man, I don't like that stuff and you know it." Glen.
She was back in Seb's car, before they had even reached the Mall's complex.
She let out a small whimper. The time shenanigans had started already.
===
Claire underwent a rollercoaster of feelings in her short time in the mall. At times, her friends would make her laugh and the activities they did would be fun.
Like that time, not too long ago, when Benni threw a bag at Glen, who fell while trying to catch it.
"Oh my god, that was just glorious!" Carol laughed out loud. The others joined her.
"I'm really sorry!" Benni herself was barely holding back her laughter. She was holding Glen's hand and looking at him, apologising. "I'm sorry!"
Her smile, which she couldn't hide despite trying, was really funny to Claire for some reason.
Glen just sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.
"Heh-", Claire snorted. "You really just dived for it! That was amazing!"
Jerry chuckled. "What prompted that?"
Glen had escaped her vision briefly, so she turned to find him. She wanted to know what had prompted him to do so as-
Glen wasn't in the group. Neither was Benni. And everyone was looking at Claire.
Noticing her confused state, Jerry clarified, "You just suddenly broke out into saying something about diving."
At other times, she would get into situations like this, where the similar hallways made her not notice that she'd gone back in time mid-sentence.
Claire whined. This was awkward.
===
Claire had been here for about eight hours from her perspective. Her phone had told her it had actually been less than two. She hadn't gotten lost yet, per se. At least not in any fashion that did not seem to be the mall designers' intentions.
She swore the nearly identical hallways and somewhat vague signage were the way they were to make the visitors get lost here.
She was currently bringing a pair of shorts for Benni to try on. It seemed like she was the only one who really came here with the intent to shop. The most anything else had bought were snacks.
"Finally!" Benni snatched the shorts from her hand out of nowhere. Claire swore she didn't even see her.
"Sorryyyy-" Claire mumbled out an apology. It had turned out that she'd gone back in time to a moment where Benni, while inside the trial rooms, had asked her to bring her a pair of shorts she'd seen before. Claire had likely been roaming around looking for them when her future self decided to take over. Simply said, the future - or well, current her - had no idea what she was meant to be doing, and simply walked out of the store, leaving Benni to wait there for an embarrassingly long time.
Benni just shook her head. "You just wait here now! Don't run off before I come out!"
Claire nodded sheepishly. "Okay… Sorry again."
Benni nodded and headed back into the trial rooms.
"Oh shi-" Claire heard an exclamation followed by a crash.
She turned to see that one of the nearby mannequins had fallen over. She could barely spy a figure dashing away from the scene.
A figure she somewhat seemed to recognize. And whose voice also fit the exclamation she'd heard earlier.
"Was that Mack?" She wondered out loud.
===
Claire had expected she likely wouldn't leave Jerry's side during the entire trip, but it was increasingly turning out to not be the case.
This was one of times again. Benni was, understandably, off on her own and she's dragged Glen with her too.
Carol had also disappeared not long ago, and so had Seb. Claire was certain that wasn't a coincidence.
And Jerry had to go take a call.
That left her alone with Leon.
"You really should try the Kebabs from that place."
And he was raving about the Kebabs again.
"You've told us all about them." Claire hummed.
"Yeah! they're that good!"
Claire turned to look at him. He looked like he was holding back a saliva waterfall.
"You're just craving some of those yourself, aren't you?" Claire theorised.
That seemed to have hit the nail, for Leon couldn't help but just stutter.
"I- That's not-"
Claire's phone rang. She pulled it out to see a message from Benni.
"Lucky you," She turned to Leon and grinned. "The others are getting hungry too!"
She beckoned Leon to follow her. "Let's get us all a seat in the food court!"