the blue one.” Just as she had finished her sentence, the young man silently swiped a bar of blue soap and hid it in his folded arms.
“Whoa, he really did it. That thief! He’s not going to get away with that is he?”
“He will unless one of us stops him, and it won’t be me.”
“Yeah, you’re not usually one for confrontation, are you?”
“So what about you?”
“What am I supposed to say, my friend knew you were going to steal that, so give it back right now?”
“So you believe me then?”
“Well, why don’t you show me something else, because that could have been pure luck,” Malaya said folding her arms.
“It wasn’t luck. I even said it would be blue, and was it blue?”
“Well, yes, but it still could have been luck,” Malaya answered unmoved.
“Alright,” Lily sighed searching once more for someone to demonstrate on. After a few minutes of hearing nothing but the hum of people walking by, Lily could hear the buzzing that was becoming more and more familiar to her.
“I hate her. I don’t see why she thinks taking me to the mall will make everything better, because it won’t. I wish she would leave me alone. I need to make her leave me alone somehow.” The thoughts were coming from a young girl dressed in black. Everything she wore was a shade of black. Black heavy boots, black leggings, and a black t-shirt with a skull slapped across the front of it. Her short, spiky hair was streaked with red highlights. Her face was angry and her hands were curled into fists. The older woman was talking to her about something, but the girl wasn’t really listening.
“I can’t take this anymore. I don’t want to be here. I wish I had been born into a different family. I don’t belong here. I can’t possibly belong here with her. I wish I was older so I could move out. Grrrrrr. Why won’t she stop talking? She knows it irritates me.” Lily watched the girl become increasingly irritated. Every inch of the girl’s body was tense. Her jaw was clenched tightly as she stared angrily at the floor.
“Do you see that girl in black?”
“The one with the psycho dye job? Yeah, I see her,” Malaya said.
“She’s going to scream in a minute.”
“Why?”
“It seems she can’t stand her mother,” Lily said sadly thinking of her own mother.
“I think her mother looks nice,” Malaya said. “I mean she’s taking her shopping. What’s so bad about that?”
“I think her mom is just very different from her and she doesn’t feel like her mom supports her.”
“Oh, okay.”
“This isn’t going to be pretty,” Lily warned. The girl in black had stopped walking.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU,” yelled the girl exploding with anger. Her poor mother looked absolutely shocked. “WHY ARE WE EVEN HERE? WE DON’T LIKE ANY OF THE SAME THINGS. I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE WITH YOU. I DON’T WANT TO BE ANYWHERE WITH YOU. I HATE YOU,” the girl said spitting out venom along with her words. She stomped off back the way they had come. Her mother followed her appearing both hurt and humiliated. When they were gone Malaya sat in stunned silence.
“What a brat,” she said under her breath. She grabbed Lily by the shoulders. “You really can hear people’s thoughts, can’t you?”
“Yes,” Lily said quietly, not wanting the other mall patrons to hear their conversation. Malaya jumped up from their bench and spun around in excitement.
“Do you know what this means? We can single handedly take down the Westview High School bullies once and for all! This is so cool, I mean, I know I was just joking about that saving the world thing, but you really can save people. You can save them from being harassed at school. This is awesome!”
“I don’t think I can do that. I’m a nobody.”
“Um, yeah, you’re a nobody with the gift of the century! Seriously, can’t you see how amazing this gift is?”
“I don’t really see how this is a good thing, but you can explain it to me on our way to get some more ice cream. Oh, and can you keep it down a little? I don’t want people to think we’re crazy,” Lily said glancing around at the mass of people surrounding them. She hoped no one would pay attention to a couple of teenage girls. Although if anyone had heard them, she wasn’t sure they would take it too seriously anyway.