"Annnd that's it!" Sandy exclaimed happily.
"Thank god." I thought to myself and finally put some space between us.
I leaned against the large screen in front of us and grabbed my pounding chest. I didn't know how much of that my heart could take. I'm also feeling a little lightheaded. Those prompts were definitely something.
Sandy skipped her way by me and yanked the curtain open to be met with the anxious eyes of Gia, mischievous eyes of Danny, and the innocent eyes of Rom. Gia had her arms folded and was tapping her foot expectantly. "Finally," Gia let out. "What took you so long?"
Sandy immediately went into her shell and told her meekly, "Sorry…" Before turning to get the photo strip out of the machine.
I staggered out of the booth to join her and the kids. I still had to put my hand on the entrance to keep my balance. Danny walked up to me and whispered in my ear, "So what you guys do in there?"
I gave him an incredulous look, "Take pictures… What are you getting at?"
He smiled. "Is that all you did? As long as you used protection, its fine."
I smacked him playfully in the back of the head, "Yes, that's all that happened." I told him forcefully.
This must be his way of getting me back at the conversation we had when we left the house. "Oooof!" a blunt pain emanated from my chest.
I looked down to see that Rom had thrusted herself headfirst into me. Gia was beside herself with laughter and Danny was right along with her. "Rom…" I grunted, "What was that for?"
She back away and looked at me with her small cheeks puffed out. This was the first time I've really seen her miffed at something. "What did I do?" I asked through winces.
All I got in response was laughter and a pout.
"Hey Mark!" I heard Sandy call for me at the end of the booth. She was blissfully unaware of everything. I looked over to see her completely focused once more on the slips of pictures printing out. Wait… Didn't I only pay for one slip for Sandy?
I made my way over to her, and she innocently turned to me and gave me a slip saying, "This is yours." And then held hers up to her mouth and gave a wink, "And these are mine."
I looked at the slip in wonder. "Didn't I only pay for one slip?" I asked in amazement.
I studied at the five picture we took and pondered how this could be when I heard Sandy wispily say, "I guess the booth just glitched out and printed two."
I looked back up at her in wonder and her hazel eyes darted away from mine right away. "You're lying." I said in realization.
She kept her eyes away from mine and started moving back to the kids. "Nooo, why would I do that?"
"You did…" I said dryly before getting out my wallet, "You paid for an extra one after the fact, didn't you? Here's the money for my slip—"
I started to hand the money out to her, but she whipped around and pointed to me proudly, "Aha! That is why I lied!"
My mouth dropped. I really do keep wanting to pay her back for things she got me. "Ahem!" Danny let out which was quickly followed by Gia's ear grating voice, "Can we go now?"
I went around Sandy to Gia and asked irritably, "Weren't you the reason we stayed here in the first place?"
"And now you're the reason we're still staying here," She argued. "And you need to stop walking in on other people. I didn't have time to tell you in the booth, but—"
I didn't bother to stay to hear her finish. I just started to leave out the door of the arcade and shouted back, "Now you're the reason we're still staying here!"
Flabbergasted Gia stared at me for a second before grabbing Mark to run forward ahead of me. Sandy and Rom followed behind them in a more relaxed manner. I waited by the door for the two girls to make sure everyone was accounted for. As Sandy passed me, she said playfully, "You're a child."
"I know you're not the one telling me that!" I exclaimed, keeping in stride with her.
She bragged, "I am a mature adult!"
To that, even Rom started to giggle at the apparent absurdity of the statement. "Rom!" Sandy shouted.
Luckily for me, the food court was considerably louder than the arcade, so Sandy's shout was easily drowned out and no one paid us any mind as we weaved through the rows of tables. I was happy to see Rom in a better mood, but it still bothered me. What did I do to make her upset?
"Hey Sandy?" I asked to which she responded with an aggressive, "What?!"
I smirked at her reaction. She was clearly thrown off by Rom's giggles, but it wasn't in an angry way, not really. Rom would just have to deal with Sandy wrestling on top of her again like she did when they were playing on the PS5, but that's not why I called to Sandy.
"Can you go on ahead and keep an eye on Danny and Gia for me? I'm kind of worried they'll go straight to your car instead of waiting for us before going into the parking lot because Gia is annoyed with me." I explained to her.
She gave me a teasing smile, "What a mom…" She commented to my annoyance, but she went on ahead anyway.
"Being a mom is a good thing." I repeated Sandy's words in my head to ease the blow. But now it was just Rom and I walking through the bustling food court, and after a couple of awkward seconds that seemed like minutes, I told her, "Hey Rom? I'm sorry."
"W-wha-?" She stuttered in wonder.
I looked down to her and saw her cute blue eyes staring at me curiously. Her normally pale cheeks become flush from my sudden apology. I explained to her, "I did something that made you upset right? I'm sorry."
"Y-you don't need to apologize." She told me quietly. "It's my fault really."
"Nonono!" I confirmed to her.
I don't know very much about these types of situations, but from what I have learned, it's usually my fault. Understandably so too, I do and say stupid things, so I'm sure I did something. "I just hope you don't hate me haha!" I said with a lighthearted laugh, but the laugh was covering up the years of experiences that did lead to people hating me.
I looked back in front of me to make sure I wasn't going to run into anybody again when I felt a tug on my wrist. I looked back to see Rom staring at me with eyes I've never seen her have before. Her blue eyes were more vibrant than ever, and they had a seriousness that I had only ever seen with Sandy. "I could never hate you." She told me firmly.
"Wha—"
Suddenly her cheeks became flusher than ever before, and she suddenly darted out in front of me. "Hey! Wait fo—"
I started after her before running into what seemed like a brick wall. I looked up to what was a mountain of a man. I honestly had to do a double take to make sure it was an actual person because he looked exactly like one of those guys you see on those Chad memes. Well, aside from his hair, he had his hair in a bun. He looked really annoyed at first, but quickly after looking at me he and his two friends burst out in laughter.
"What are they laughing at?" I wondered to myself in annoyance before my question was quickly answered by his bodybuilder friend.
"You really made that boy cry!" He exclaimed in between laughs.
"Cry?" I thought, "The fuck is he on about?"
I reached my hand up to my face and felt the familiar dampness of tears in my eyes.
"Wha-? Why am I crying?" I asked out loud incredulously at myself.
"Listen man," the guy I ran into said to me as he put his monster of a hand on my shoulder, "It's really not that big of a deal really!"
"I-uh…" I started to stumble out before I felt a familiar small presence beside me.
I looked down to see Rom looking up at me. She never took her eyes off me. I thought it was odd but when I looked at her hands they were trembling. Ah, she must be scared of the three mountains in front of me. Who wouldn't to be fair?
An idea lit up inside of my head on the spot, and I told the guys, "Um—sorry about that! I was just scared I lost my sister! We really have to go now, byeee!"
I quickly grabbed Rom's shoulder and ushered her away from the trio. When we got around ten feet away from them, I finally breathed a sigh of relief and checked to make sure Rom was feeling okay. Rom was in fact not trembling anymore, but she had the same cute pout she had at the photobooth. "What's the ma—" I started before she exclaimed, "Mark, you idiot!"
She ran off to the door of the mall, and I tried my best to keep up with her. Because she was so small, she was able to fit into places in the crowd I couldn't and I never was able to catch up to her until we reached the mall entrance where Sandy and the lovers were. I couldn't really apologize to her now, and Gia just exclaimed triumphantly, "Finally! Told you that you were the one keeping us here!"
She and Danny then exited the door, and I looked at Sandy who shrugged and left with them saying, "I have to keep an eye on them, right mom?"
Rom still pouted at me as she followed behind Sandy, leaving myself standing dumbfoundedly as the last one in the mall from our group. I was still shaken from me tearing up and Rom pouting at me again. She did look cute when she did that though, so if it didn't mean she was upset at me, I wouldn't mind it. I eventually just sighed and shook my head. I'll worry about it later. I don't want to get left behind and be alone in the mall. I want to stay with the group.
"All in all, I think my trip idea was a success though…" I thought to myself as I exited the doors and followed after everyone else.