Part 1

HEY, THIS IS ALSO ON WATTPAD.... comment for me please. I wanna know what you think!!!! (: Please and thank you. <3


It's not fair," my sister whines as my mother drags her away from the rack of overly expensive jewelry. In her defense, my mother bought me one necklace, but lately we've been tight on money and this is for the wedding we're going to next weekend. I have a necklace perfect for the dress shes wearing but she'll have none of it. She's only 7, she doesn't understand the money situation.

"Honey, sis has a necklace perfect for your dress. You're going to look wonderful," my mom says, exasperated. We've been having this fight for 6 minutes now and I can tell my mom is going to give in soon.

"you know what, Madison?" I ask her, looking down at her little teary eyes and feeling bad. "I'll give you this necklace after the wedding." I hold up the shiny new silver necklace that matches the silver decorations on my dress. I could always borrow it from her, I suppose even though it's tough to part with something I've wanted for a while.

"really!?" she jumps excitedly, all her previous sorrows forgotten.

"sure," I say. "deal?"

"yeah," she smiles up at me. She adores me. And although we don't always get along, my sister and I are pretty tight. "Thanks Andie!" she says, still beaming, her grin stretching from ear to ear.

"anytime, sissy," I say, ruffling her hair as we walk back out into the mall. She hugs me around the waist and trips me up, making me drop my bag with the necklace in it.

Before I can bend over to pick it up, there's a hand darting into my vision. Funny, I think to myself, it's not mine or my sister's. When I look back up I see the face of a guy I recognize from school. Or somewhere.

"thanks," I say kind of awkwardly, waiting for him to hand back my bag.

"welcome," he says. I'm surprised to hear that he has a British accent. I smile at him in a friendly manner and he does the same as I take the bag.

I walk away after another moment. For some reason  I got the notion that he wanted to say something, and it's confirmed as I walk further and I hear him cursing himself. I look back, a crooked smile on my face, trying to catch what he looks like before I get too far away. He's staring after me and I blush a little bit as I turn back around to watch where I'm going.

Later, I decide that I'll get ice cream for my sister and my mother and I at the Baskin Robbins on the way out using some babysitting money I have saved up. As I'm paying for the three small vanilla cones I drop a handful of change on the ground. Bending down to pick it up I come face to face with the same guy who picked up my bag earlier. The first thoughts that come to mind are, is he stalking me? And why is he so dang nice? I laugh at myself inwardly and break the eye contact, reaching for a quarter that rolled a little further out of reach. I start to lose balance and the guy places his big hand on my arm, steadying me.

"thanks," I laugh. "again."' he cracks a smile, his especially white teeth distracting me for a second.
"Hi, I'm Arden," he says, leaving his hand on my arm.

"I'm Andie," I say. "do I know you from somewhere?" I ask slowly. It's unreal, how familiar Arden seems to me although I've never heard that name before.

"I don't think so. Then again, I have one of those faces," he laughs. "I just moved here."

I smile at him. "well thanks," I say, "we should probably stand up."I look around me and up and the cashier lady is bent over the counter looking at us.

"I have your cones," she says impatiently.

We both laugh before standing up. I grab the cones and go to hand my sister's and my mother's off when suddenly there's a loud crack, like a gunshot or something.

Everyone around me is screaming and ducking and there's a lady across the mall crying over the body of someone. Oh my God, I think to myself, that was a gunshot. A hand grabs mine and I'm being yanked to the ground. "ow!" I yelp as I hit the ground, hard.

"shhh," Arden says in my ear right before the gunman starts shouting orders to the crowd. Where's mall security!? I look to my left to find that Arden was the one who pulled me down.

The gunman keeps screaming out commands. He doesn't want anyone to move, talk or call for the police. I curl up in a ball next to the ice cream counter, my ice cream slowly melting in my hand.

"you might want to get rid of that," Arden says in a hushed tone after a minute or two of melting. I whimper a little bit before throwing it to the side, away from any people. I'm shaking really bad from fear and confusion. Arden slides closer to me the next time the man turns around.

"it'll be alright," he comforts me, putting an arm around my shoulders. I lean on him, too scared to care that he's a complete stranger. But my sister and mother quickly come back to mind. I look around the open food court for them. They were just right here! Luckily I find them a few yards away from where I'm sitting. But they're out in the open on their own. My sister is crying uncontrollably and my mother who is normally the rock of the family, unphased by anything, has a worried look on her face as she tries to quiet my sister.

Arden flinches when he sees the man with the gun raise it and hold it above his head. He's losing the crowd's attention.  How much time has gone by? No mall security or anything. He has a gun and he's shot someone for heaven's sakes.  I can't control my thoughts. I need to calm down, everything will be alright.

Arden turns to me, "do you have a phone?" he asks slowly and quietly.

"yes?" I say, still scared out of my mind. I don't want to draw attention to us by pulling it out. The guy has a gun, he could shoot us. A shiver runs through my body, prompting Arden to give my shoulder a squeeze.

"it'll all work out and we'll be fine in the end," he whispers in my ear. "just pull out your phone. slowly now," he instructs me as I do what he asks. "let me see it," he holds his hand out for me to hand him the phone.

I'm still too scared to make my own decisions and I hand over my phone. He dials 911 and holds it behind my head, leaning over to conceal himself. There's enough people in the food court that he shouldn't even be noticed.

"the mall. Food court," Arden says slowly and quietly, sounding surprisingly calm. "there's no mall security in here, and theres a man with a gun, threatening all of us." I hear the operator ask him to stay on the line. They want to know what the gunman wants, but I haven't been able to comprehend his words past the part where he has a gun and can kill any one of us at any time.

Finally, after what feels like forever, he hangs up the phone and hands it to me. "DID YOU JUST CALL THE POLICE!?" the man booms, I shriek and hide my face in Arden's armpit, which I can't help but notice, smells delicious. But when I look back up the man is storming in someone else's direction. I let out a huge sigh of relief as I shake in Arden's arm a little more. I feel terrible for the people on the receiving end but I'm glad it wasn't us.  He holds his gun in their face and yells. But when they deny it repeatedly he leaves them alone.

Arden gives me another comforting squeeze. I drop my head on his shoulder. I have no clue what I would have done without him in this situation. "thank you,"'I whisper in his ear.

"for what?" he asks, his voice more raspy as he speaks in lower tones.

"being here," I whisper again. I look at his face and he's wearing a big goofy grin.

"no problem," he laughs quietly. The man with the gun is still running around, pointing it at different people. I never thought about his motive to do this, he never said anything about why. But I suppose it's because somewhere else, he has a buddy who's stealing something or holding up another crowd.

Eventually, the man settles down and isn't as threatening. I think reality is hitting him. The police come though and they refuse to come inside because he's armed and apparently dangerous. The person on the other side of the food court who got shot lost a lot of blood on the floor and I imagine they're dead, which makes me feel especially sad.

And finally, a police squad comes in, and some go to get the man, who basically surrendered himself.  Most get sent around the food court to see if everyone is ok, plus the EMTs going to the seriously wounded person. One officer comes up to Arden and I and asks if we got hurt and if we were the ones who called the police and all sorts of things that I felt too exhausted to answer. In any case, Arden and I have to go back to the police station to answer more questions.

In all the chaos, I can't find my mom and sister. And the police officer is getting impatient with me because I insist on telling her where I'll be. How am I supposed to get home? There has to be something that says she has to be at the station with me. Or something. I don't want to be alone.

Arden grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. "text her on the way there," he says. "I'll make sure you get home ok," the smile on Arden's face is convincing and I follow the police officer and Arden as they lead the way out to Trooper Burnham's squad car. He's not very friendly or all that nice and he demands that we climb into the back seat. This whole experience is just really scary.

I sit next to Arden silently on the way to the station. I don't know what other questions can be asked. The guy obviously had a gun and he obviously shot someone and we were all obviously scared out of our minds. My head thumps on the window as I lean over. I feel exhausted after that experience.  Out of my peripheral vision I notice Arden flinch and look over. He's awfully nice for someone I've never met before.

At the station we sit in the main waiting area forever. That's where I remembered to text my mother and tell her everything was alright and I'd have a police escort home by 6:00. Of course she was a little outraged. She walked out without any problem but we got stopped.

***

It is 6:00 by the time they even get to us to ask questions. Apparently we were 2 of many randomly selected witnesses to recreate the event in the mall today.

The officer talking to Arden and I explained why there were no security officers and why the man knew this. They were called down for an emergency in the lower left wing of the mall, opposite where the food court is. There was a bigger scene there apparently. Of course the man had it planned so that he and the guy in the lower left wing would tie up any security and civilians that they could while others went and robbed stores. The police are still sorting through who got robbed and how much since two of the robbers got away.

After all this is explained to us, which, it's not as if I had paid attention through most of that, the officer asks us for our addresses. I give mine first and then Arden. We both give each other a strange look. One number off.  "you're my new neighbor?" i ask, smiling.

"I guess so!" Arden says happily. "what a coincidence," he laughs. We wait for the policeman to enter our addresses into his gps so we can go home. I can't wait to be home. Today got really stressful.

Fred, our escorting police officer is much more friendly than the one who brought is to the station and keeps trying to strike up conversation but Arden and I are just too tired to keep up with one.

The car stops in front of my house and Arden and i get out. It pulls away as soon as the door is shut, not giving us a chance to thank the driver or anything. "well then," I laugh, watching him drive away. "I'll talk to you later Arden," I smile at him. It's dark outside and I can't read his expression. The cold air nips at my fingers and body and I grab both sides of my coat, pulling it tighter around me before walking away toward my house.

"seeya," Arden says, turning toward his own house which is right next to mine.

I walk in the door to my house and my mom runs over to hug me. "oh," she sighs. "that was the scariest thing ever!" she hugs me tighter.

"yeah," I agree with her. "I'm going to bed."

"well goodnight," she says, looking at the clock. It's early for me at 8:30 to be going to bed but I'm exhausted and I have a lot on my mind. "I love you," she adds right before I close the door.

"you too mom. Night." I say loudly through the door, hoping she hears me. I gaze out my window, looking at the house next to mine.

 As I'm about to put the curtain back in it's place I see another curtain open on my neighboring house. It's Arden. Embarrassed, I feel like closing the curtain but our gazes meet and I'm mesmerized. Butterflies swarm my stomach.

 After the moment is gone I let the curtain go and flop onto my bed. Despite today's scary events all I can think about is Arden. I fall asleep in my jeans and without taking a shower, Arden still on my mind.