I never did find out why Sean Mori wasn’t wearing a shirt that day.
The runway show was only six weeks away and there was work to do. So far, I was the only model who had signed up to show for Elliot. She needed at least six more. There was nothing anywhere in the job description that made recruiting other models a requirement, but all the same, I wanted to help Elliot out. You can’t have a fashion show without models.
So everyday, I worked the food court and the lobby, approaching people who looked to be my age and handing out flyers. Over time, my fear of running into people from my old school started to shrink. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely recognized some kids here and there, but it wasn’t as nearly big of a deal as I made it out to be. Everyone had their own friends and was concerned with their own interpersonal drama. They could care less about some blast from the past who happened to have blue-green hair.
To be honest, that part left me kind of sad.
Elliot was a workaholic even during her lunch breaks, so she could never meet up with me for a quick bite to eat. Part of me would have taken another shot at talking to that weird Sean kid, but I never saw him in or around the food court. Elliot told me that Sean worked on the second floor in an arcade called The Final Dungeon.
As much as I was curious about Sean, I would have to be really desperate to show up at his place of business and just strike up a conversation. I mean, what would I even say to him? No, it would be better if we could simply run into each other by accident again. With his shirt on this time.
Hell, maybe I was desperate enough to go see him.
At the moment, I was preoccupied by how insanely hungry I was. I gripped the ten dollar bill that my mom gave me that morning like my life depended on it. As I approached the counter of a burger joint called the Grape Grill, a distantly familiar voice called my attention.
“Aqua?”
I tore my gaze away from the glowing neon menu and looked at the cashier. The uniforms they wore made them all look the same at first glance. But underneath the purple cap was a face that I did in fact recognize.
The worker suddenly broke out into a grin and said, “You don’t remember me, do you?” Before I could reply, he said, “Hang on. Don’t want to hold up the line. Can I take your order really fast first?”
I told him that I just wanted the burger meal from the kid’s menu (because for some reason I never grew out of enjoying those), paid him and stepped off to the side so my order could process and other people behind me could go.
I took a guess that this was the cashier’s lunch break because he wrapped up pretty fast at the counter and took off his hat. Just as he was rounding the counter to meet up with me, something in my brain clicked.
Reyes.
Roberto Reyes.
“I do remember you, Bobby,” I said once he came close enough.
Bobby’s eyes widened. Then he broke out into another boyish smile. “Do you want to catch up? Over at that table maybe?”
I let Bobby lead the way, trying to figure out how he got so mature. Because the Bobby that I knew was a total class clown.
As soon as I took my seat, I opened my kids meal.
“Bobby Reyes,” I said, shaking my head with a slight chuckle.
I had just turned eighteen. My parents bought the newest iPod for my birthday instead of the cell phone that I had specifically asked for. So I dyed my afro electric teal in protest, but they didn’t care. My kid brother joked that my hair finally matched my name – Aqua.
None of my friends really got to see my so-called rebellious transformation because I lived two cities over and I didn’t have a car to drive yet.
I begged my mom to let me apply for a modeling gig at the shopping complex where half the senior class hung out, but she said that there was nothing wrong with the mall just off the highway near our house. Her argument was that it was closer to where we lived, on the way to her job, and just as good as the mall across town.
She was right up until the last point.
Ocean Park Mall was the site where someone managed to rob an entire store. Whoever it was never got caught. Somehow they pulled it off without tripping any alarms. An entire department just completely cleared out. How does that even happen?
The scandal was big enough to hit the local news. It was a miracle that the mall didn’t get shut down. Still, a whole bunch of businesses packed up and left. Only a handful were left standing.
Nowadays, it seemed like the only things Ocean Park was good for was escaping the summer heat or grabbing a bite to eat in the 2.5 out of 5 stars food court. Every now and then Ocean Park would hold special events. Things like pop idol meet and greets, book signings, niche culture conventions, and that runway show that my mom signed me up for.
“Aqua Simone Moore,” Mom huffed as she drove me to Ocean Park for my first fitting, “wipe that gloom-and-doom look off your face. You always look so unsatisfied and I cannot for the life of me figure out what is wrong with you.”
I didn’t answer. All I did was slump some more in my seat, which I knew she hated.
Mom narrowed her eyes at me – as if that would do anything – and finally sighed.
“Aqua, you know your father and I try to give you and your brothers everything that we can.”
But nothing that I ask for, I thought to myself. Just because she and Dad substituted one thing for something else didn’t mean I had to like it.
Not in a million years would I ever say this to her because that would get me in a world of trouble. Mom would go home and tell Dad and before I knew it, I would be listening to a thousand lectures about how I’m not grateful enough and how they don’t know how I got this way.
Nevermind that I made perfect grades, stayed out of trouble, and almost never asked to go anywhere cool – but who cares when I’m not grateful and looking content whenever they choose to give me alternatives to the things that actually mean a lot to me.
I could have explained to my mom for the umpteenth time why it was important for me to have a cell phone to start keeping up with my friends over the summer before we all went away to college the next year. Or that the reason that I needed to land gigs at Arrow Crest Mall was for similar reasons.
I wanted to be near my friends. I wanted to spend time with them before this part of our lives was all over and we were flung across the country to different campuses. It wasn’t too much to ask for, right?
Apparently it was.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said when she dropped me off. I tried to put on my best I-promise-that-I’m-one-hundred-percent-grateful smile right before she drove off.
From the outside, Ocean Park Mall looked like your average shopping complex. Not the kind of place where businesses came to get robbed. But the moment you walked inside, it became clear that Ocean Park was well on its way to becoming a dead mall.
I looked around and sighed.
The first thing I noticed was the outdated paint job from the eighties. My eyes scanned the giant palms that were thoughtfully arranged to give the space a comfortably populated feeling. I followed their trunks up to the vast atrium ceiling. I suspected that the pyramid design usually let in a lot of natural light, but today it was raining. It made the already lonely space feel more like an indoor graveyard.
I wandered over to one of the central fountains and took a seat on the ledge. The sound of rushing water did little to soothe my nerves.
If I had a cell phone right now, I could see if anyone was willing to meet up.
I grumbled the thought aloud, but the truth was, I wasn’t so sure if any of my friends would come all the way out here just to hang with me.
Judging from the conversations I had on my home landline last night, all of my friends had some excuse as to why they couldn’t make it this week.
Work.
Babysitting.
No gas money.
They all seemed pretty legit, but I probably could have gotten one of them to say yes if I pushed hard enough.
But who wants to work that hard to convince their friends to want to go out their way? I felt like I was good enough to be worth the inconvenience. At least, I did before going into each of those conversations.
I wrapped my arms around my bare shoulders and did my best to not look as pitiful as I felt. After glancing around to make sure that no one was looking, I bowed my head and let my anxiety consume me.
There was a strong chance that I knew some of the kids that hung out at Ocean Park. Some of them probably even worked here. I used to attend the middle school in this area before my parents enrolled me in the charter school on the other side of town.
I hadn’t kept in touch with anyone since I left. I wasn’t the only one from that feeder school who didn’t opt to go to the nearest high school. From what I gathered, transfer kids like me were considered stuck up. As if I had a choice in where my parents decided to send me to school.
I prayed that no one recognized me. Maybe I would be lucky and no one from my old school would cross my path.
But that was very hopeful thinking.
“Aqua?”
My head lifted automatically without even realizing that my worst fear had already come to pass. I hadn’t even been here for five minutes before someone recognized me.
“Uh, yeah?” I said without thinking twice. The last thing I needed was someone thinking there was something wrong with me.
“Whoa, it really is you. Your hair was black in the headshots you sent, so I wasn’t sure.”
I stood up, realizing that I was talking to one of the designers. When it came to these small business boutiques, it was very important to get to know your designer as best as one could. This person had sort of shaggy, dirty blond hair with a natural redness to her cheeks and lips. When she smiled, I was hit with a wave of breath mints.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you wait,” I said, jutting out my hand to shake the designer’s. She was about four inches shorter than me. I wasn’t that tall for a model – only five feet, seven inches.
“Nice to meet you…” I said, shaking her hand sincerely but not knowing how to address her.
“It’s Elliot!” She said brightly. Then craned her neck a bit and added, “Wow. You have really great bone structure. Your pictures are awesome, but they don’t do you justice.”
I gave her a genuine thank you and couldn’t help but laugh a little.
“Everyone says that when they meet me.”
Elliot let go of my hand. “Well, it’s true! I’m excited to work with you. And don’t worry about being late. I’m totally early. You can come with me now if you don’t mind helping me open up?”
Most of the mall stores weren’t open yet and I wasn’t about to hang out in an empty food court, so I agreed to tag along. Plus, I already felt comfortable around Elliot. I was curious to learn more about her point of view as a designer.
As it turned out, she hadn’t had her store up for very long. She said that she was just starting out in the business and renting out a space in Ocean Park was the best decision financially.
“I mean, I know this place is supposed to be haunted or whatever. But I just don’t have that many options, you know what I mean?”
I was doing just fine listening to her until she said the word haunted.
Elliot must have seen the look on my face because she snorted and said, “C’mon, Aqua. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard the rumors? What with that store getting robbed and no one having a single clue who did it or how they even pulled it off? Everyone’s saying it was probably a ghost.”
Based on her tone, I’m guessing that no one actually believed this rumor. Not even her.
I did my best to laugh along with Elliot as I helped her unlock the padlock to the store and pull back the gates. While Elliot was lifting the metal curtain, I noticed someone coming around the corner.
This person wasn’t wearing shoes.
Or a shirt for that matter. Just a pair of dark denims.
I blinked, trying not to stare. But that was impossible.
A guy with dark shoulder-length hair walked past us. He was close enough to me that his shoulder swept some of my teal curls to the side. He seemed pretty damn confident for someone walking around shirtless inside a shopping mall, but there was a shadow hanging about him as well. As if he barely registered that he was walking so close to us.
“Morning, Sean,” Elliot said in a voice that suggested this wasn’t the first time this had happened.
The six-foot dark cloud of a boy had already passed by us, but he stopped sort of abruptly and looked over his shoulder.
His eyes scanned us once, lingering on me just a hair longer. As if he was trying to figure out who the hell I was.
“Uh, yeah. Good morning.” His brows came together in the faintest degree of frustration. “Um…”
“Elliot!” The shop owner chimed, clearly finding Sean’s spaced-out reaction quite endearing. Then she clapped me on the back and said, “And this is Aqua. She’s going to be working my looks in the runway show next month.”
Sean blinked a couple of times. I wondered if he had even heard of a fashion show before. That’s how clueless he looked.
“Right.” Sean’s eyes had finally cleared in understanding. “See you then, I guess. Um… Elliot.”
Elliot snapped her fingers and shot Sean a wink. “Yeah you will!”
The muscles in Sean’s face eased a bit. It wasn’t quite a smile, but it was something pretty close.
“And... Aqua.”
I don’t know if he did this purposely, but Sean turned slightly at the waist when he said my name so that his chest was facing me.
“See you around.”
He almost made it sound like a question.
I honestly can’t remember what I said. Probably just “yeah.” Nothing memorable, witty or cute, that was for sure.
When the guy had left, I asked, “Who was that and why did you make him talk to us?”
Elliot gave a heartfelt chuckle as she flicked on the lights to her shop.
“That was Sean Mori. Sorry, but I absolutely could not help myself. He’s hilarious and adorable and I had a sneaking suspicion that meeting you would get him to say something other than, ‘Uh hey.’”
For a second, Elliot embodied Sean’s particular flavor of spacey-hot-mess when she imitated him. Then the designer broke character and flashed me a sly grin. “Turns out I was right.”
I scoffed as I followed Elliot to the checkout counter and leaned on the corner while she set up the register.
“Please. He didn’t even smile. He was totally checked out with both of us.”
Elliot snickered and shook her head, but she didn’t try to prove me wrong.
“What is up with that guy anyway?” I said, thinking back to Sean’s lean muscle definition. He wasn’t a Greek god or anything, but… I liked what I saw. “I mean, who were we talking to just now?”
“Well, Aqua, if the rumors about this place are true,” Elliot closed the register and sighed, “then you just met our resident ghost buster.”
