Minnesota Mallrats

[Ciel†]

(Sorry guys. The things that have been happening on the forums have distracted me. )

Jessica was nervous not so much that Jennifer was staring directly at her, after all she had attempted to avoid the girl completely. It was more Geoff, who seemed to be extending an invitation to her to join the group. Jessica had no interest in joining. Moreover she just came over so she didn't appear rude! She LIKED Geoff... but really, she felt like she shouldn't. She liked to avoid group hangouts or stuff of that nature because it made her a nervous wreck. Jessica wasn't SHY but the thought of a lot of people including her drove her a little nervous. Her hand rubbed her arm just a bit, turning around to look at Jake.

Geoff had said that he was picking something out for Jennifer... Was she using him too?

She was about to turn Geoff down when he offered to pay for something in the store... It was certainly a friend gesture, considering that the two weren't close. This made Jessica hesitate.

"Anything?" She said under her breath, looking back at the section of boots she just came from. Wow, that really was a nice gesture. She looked at Geoff and smiled back at her. Winking back seemed excessive in her opinion and if she did Geoff might take it the wrong way. "Sure, I don't see why not."

Jessica didn't want to be a leech, feeding off the guy's kindness but wasn't she allowed to be selfish once in awhile? It didn't even matter that Jennifer was with them now – the chances of Jessica even talking to her for more than five seconds was slim, thankfully. Or so she thought, as the same Jennifer walked upto here Jessica was standing and asked her if she was a friend of Geoff. Jessica was surprised by the sudden question and just tilted her head.

"Yeah," she said with a forced smile, "I-I am a friend of Geoff's. We know each other from school."

It wasn't a lie, really. They both knew each other, though barely. She liked Geoff enough. "What about you?" She asked without a hint of detestation, which Jessica tried her best to hide. "Are you a friend of his?"

[Pickle Jello†]

Jake thought he was about to have a conversation with Jessica, but then Jen stole it. He watched those two talk for a few seconds. He just sighed. He decided to follow Geoffrey's advice now. He walked over to Eva and said "Hey, should I help you?"

[KingKamor†]

(Sorry to hear that, Ciel. Good luck with things.)

Eva was going to follow behind Jen, but she didn't want to overwhelm the new girl, so she stayed behind near the rack of shirts. Jen's comment about the shirt gave her the hint that Eva wasn't at all fashionable. Does this really look that bad...? she thought to herself as she held it up to her chest again.

She spotted Jake out of the corner of her eye and let the shirt fold over her arm. His offer piqued her interest. She might have simply needed a guy's opinion to know which clothes to wear. "Sure." She held the shirt up to her chest again and asked, "How does this look? I like the design, but Jen doesn't seem to like normal t-shirts."

[DAv†]

Realising that perhaps looking over to the swimwear wouldn't do himself favours, Geoffrey brought himself back to Earth, holding the red shirt he had picked up earlier in front of Jen, he gave her a smile "What do you think? Scarlet red's always a good colour on a woman I feel. What do you think?"

Seeing that Jen and Jessica seemed to be getting on, he looked over to where he got the top from, seeing he might as well treat both of them "Would you like something similar at all Jessica? Might suit you, they've got some really good designs here."

[Killer_Moth†]

What about you? Are you a friend of his?

Was she a friend of Geoffs? She had hardly spoken to him before that morning. Now, all of a sudden, she was with him in the mall, and he was picking out outfits for her. Sure, she'd flirted with him, would probably fuck him if he wanted to, but what did that make them. After all, she was pretty much using him as rebound, somebody to make her feel better about herself after her last date had gone horrible wrong.

"I'm not sure what we are. We're just seeing where things go." That was probably the most honest answer. Also, it had the girlfriend implications that she hoped would put the girl off in case she had any designs on him. No sense in complicating matters. If she was going to get Geoff, then the less competition the better.

She looked around to see where he was. Jake was talking to Eva. She still had that t-shirt with the God-awful design on it. Damn. The girl never seemed to listen about these things. Still, let her make her own mistakes. Geoff was coming over with a red shirt. That actually looked okay. It was fairly striking, in its way.

As he brought the shirt over, she took it appreciatively. Yes, this would definitely work. "Wow, Geoffrey. Good eye. Yes, I think the red will definitely look good." Wait. Was he offering the same treatment to this girl? Jessica, at least she had a name for her now. Maybe she would have to progress things somewhat.

She leaned over to Geoff and again whispered in a sultry voice. "You know, if you want, I could use a hand with this in the dressing room." She lightly stroked his chest as she walked past him, heading to the changing area.

[Ciel†]

(Thanks KingKamor. )

Jennifer's answer was rather blunt, and not the kind of answer she had been expecting. Of course that was the type of answer she should have 'expected' from Jennifer. Jessica expected her to be the type to go after a guy for really one silly, pointless reason without really knowing the person. This irked Jessica so much that she almost sighed loudly. She held the impulse in however - after all there were other people here who were friends of Jennifer and it would rude to do that.

Geoffrey came up to show her a shirt, tanned in a scarlet red with a nice design drawn on it. Red wasn't Jessica's favorite color but it looked nice at least to her eyes. She looked at Geoffrey with a tiny smile.

"Sure," she answered with a nod. "I don't w-want to use you but if you don't mind getting that for me. I didn't bring any money with me." She was telling the truth. Jessica had no plans to buy anything so she left her money at home. "I..."

Jennifer walked past Geoffrey and whispered in his ear. Jessica stopped in her tracks, just staring at Jennifer as the girl stroked his chest and walked away. Jesus Christ... There was really no doubt about it - Jessica's presence was distracting Geoffrey and it was clear Jennifer didn't like that. Jessica could see this loud and clear on her face. Jessica balled her hand into a fist and just as quickly released it. There was really no reason to say anything - Geoff wasn't going to abandon her just like that... she hoped. It would be very rude and personally Jessica didn't know what she would do if he really did leave.

She looked back at the shirt, pretending to eye it for another moment. "The red one looks nice. Do they have one in a medium size?"

[Pickle Jello†]

((I'm sorry.))
Jake looked at the shirt Eva showed. When she said that Jen didn't like normal T-shirts, he quickly glanced at Jen and made a quick chuckle. He then looked back at Eva. "I like it," he replied. "It's interesting. It's from an Impressionist, right?"

[KingKamor†]

(No problem. Glad to have you back.)

"Yeah, it's by Monet. I've always liked his work, so yeah..." She held up the shirt in front of herself and took a good look at the print. The giant, almost random splashes of color coupled with the definite shapes of two people in a boat in the ocean and an orange sun rising above the water simply enthralled her whenever she saw it. The print was of high quality, as well. She could see some of the brush strokes very clearly, and might even have been able to tell some of the brush techniques that might have been used. She chuckled to herself and hugged the navy blue shirt to her chest, fighting back a squee. "Fuck it, I'm getting this! Thanks for helping me decide," she said to Jake.

A smile spread across her face as she draped the shirt over her arm and walked towards another rack of shirts. Eva was not aware of the reasons why Jen and the new girl seemed to have so much tension between them, but she decided that it would have been best to stay out of it.

[DAv†]

Geoffrey found himself feeling a little hot under the collar as Jennifer whispered in his ear with her invitation. He watched her leave, his eyes not leaving her body as she walked towards the changing room. Geoffrey was fully aware of the girl's reputation and realised she was almost certainly after a fling but why stop some good fun along the way? It took Jessica's question to bring him back down to reality and he quickly turned back to look at the much shyer girl. He knew that leaving her alone would be a bad idea but he couldn't imagine Jennifer being very happy if he stayed.

After a few seconds of inner debate, Geoffrey decided to take the merely unpleasant road as opposed to the two outright disastorous roads. He handed Jessica the shirt she'd been eyeing and started to escort her to the changing room "Medium? I'm sure we can get you into a small with your figure Jessica. And don't worry about money. Like I said, I've got a fair bit of cash to spread around." He said as he hoped he had avoided a scene...

[Killer_Moth†]

As she walked into the changing room, she chose a cubicle that gave her a good view of the proceedings outside. After all, Jen wanted to be sure that Geoffrey was following her. She was horny, and could do with some action. Not that it had to be here and now, but if she was going to do him and dump him, she'd rather he be primed and worth her while. Besides, he may be worth hanging onto for a while, especially if he was going to buy her stuff.

Keeping an eye on Geoff, she wondered what he was going to do. She smiled as she saw him walk towards the changing room. Yes, this will go very well. I could do with a boy toy. He was young, good looking, probably eager to get his hands on me, and he's bringing that girl over here with him?!

What was he doing? Was he after some sort of threesome? No, that would be too out of character for Geoffrey. She briefly wondered what had happened with Eva and Jake, dreading leaving her friend alone with the other boy. Then her emotions kicked back in again. All right, Jessica. If you want to fight me for him, you're on!

As her targets approached she drew the curtain across the cubicle and took her own top off, leaving her in just her bra. Waiting until the footsteps were near enough, she stuck her head out and got his attention.

"Well, Geoff. Do you want to give me a hand in here? I could do with someone to help with the zip." Jen hadn't even noticed if the top had a zip or not, but the excuse had worked before. Thankfully, the assistant on duty seemed to not be paying any attention again, so she could get him away from 'Plain Jane' and all to herself.

[Ciel†]

Jessica really wasn't interested in Geoffrey... or maybe she was and she was just trying to cover it up. Or maybe she hated Jennifer so deeply that the thought of her using Geoffrey like a fiddle did not sit right with her. All of these were possible reasons for why she had a deep empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. She fingered the cloth of the shirt that Geoffrey had shown her. It wasn't like she was being forced to stay here. Only her own free will could do that to her. Jessica could leave at any time and no one would care but...

"You think so?" Jessica asked Geoff, looking between the dressing room and the boy who would be paying for the shirt. She knew exactly what Jennifer was planning on but she wasn't sure whether she should intervene or just let the girl have her fun... wow. Bad choice of mental wording. Now she had images in her head that she wanted to get out. Very bad images.

"Um, Geoff. Can I speak to you? In private?" She said suddenly, and quite sternly. "It won't take longer than a minute."

[Pickle Jello†]

Eva seemed very happy with how he liked the shirt. Jake didn't understand why. It was just a shirt. A piece of clothing with two sleeves that covers the torso and shoulders. People wore them everyday, going as far as 3000 BC by Egyptians. It wasn't even just recent that women started wearing. In comparison with when it was invented, yes, but women have been wearing shirts for all of Jake's life. This one just happened to have a Monet painting. Monet wasn't anything new or exciting either. He has been around since the 19th century. He was probably the most influential Impressionist in history, so everyone has seen him.

Well, I, the narrator, kind of forgot where I was going, so I'll just continue with what was happening now.

Jake could hear that there was tension between the three other people here and didn't want to butt in there. He just decided to talk to Eva.

How should I start a conversation? he thought.

He decided to just say something normal so he just said something that could start a conversation, maybe some tangents (the greatest invention of mankind).

"So, Eva, I'm wondering, what kind of music do you like?"

((So I decided to post now to continue this thread. I think that DAv is gone, so what should we do about that, since it will be kind of necessary to fill in the gap?))

[KingKamor†]

((How do you know that DAv is gone? It was your turn to post, anways))

As Eva grabbed a pair of jeans from a rack, she responded to Jake, "I like alternative. People like OK Go are my favorites." She decided that she did not have to look at him as she spoke, and continued to peruse through the jeans. "OK Go's song 'Don't Ask Me' is one of my favorites right now."

Each new pair was dark in contrast with the pair of jeans she was wearing at the time. If she came home and started to suddenly wear brand-new looking pants, then her father would have noticed right away. Eva made it her duty to find a pair that looked nice and worn compared to the others.

[DAv†]

(What the Devil are you on about Pickle? It was your turn to post, I was waiting for you.)

For a long moment, Geoffrey was more than a little conflicted. The promise of helping Jen in some fashion was more than a little alluring... On the other hand, it seemed as if Jessica really had something important to talk to him about. Weighing his options, a quick talk with Jessica semed to be best, at least until he found out what the matter was. He quickly rushed over to the changing room and whispered "Slight emergency. I'll just be a minute."

Moving before Jen could protest, Geoffrey returned to Jessica "What's the matter?"

[Pickle Jello†]

(Never mind, it just looked like to me that it was his turn, I guess it was mine, anyways this is all sorted out. Let's just go.)
Eva was not looking at Jake when she was speaking. To him, she seemed kind of annoyed by him. He felt like he should shut up now. He sighed a little and just gazed around the place. He started to regret going on this trip even more. He hoped he wouldn't have to have to start interacting with people he didn't want to after this. He could never bring himself to tell someone that he didn't want to talk to them and that he needed space, leading to him feeling awkward. He then let his imagination run. He started thinking about food, but he didn't want to say that he wanted food out loud or walk out into the food court. Both options would make him look like real stupid.