Page 3 of Saving Micah

All six of us have been friends since Kindergarten. We know each other like we are brothers and sisters. Oddly enough, none of us have dated each other. The guys date older girls and us girls aren’t that into dating just yet. The down side to living in a small town, there aren’t many guys to choose from. Everyone around us, we’ve known since before we were even in school and have no desire to have as boyfriends. Yet.

Chance hits Levi on the back. “Don’t take all of the hugs man. It’s my turn. I haven’t seen Mi in days.” He gives me his sweet smile with his exaggeration. He saw me yesterday at school. I giggle at him.

“What are we, chop liver?” Kelly says with a laugh as she moves in to hug Levi and I move over to Chance.

“Never Kel. Never.” Levi says with a snort as he hugs her. We all make the rounds like we didn’t just see each other. We made these exact plans yesterday. I hug Zant last and like always, our hug last a little longer than all the rest. I grab on to the hair at the base of his neck. For some reason, that is my most favorite feel in the world.

“Ok you guys, what is the plan? We don’t particularly want to go look at swim suits with you girls for hours.” Levi says. He is the most outspoken of the guys in our group. Chance is the quietest of them all and Zant is somewhere in the middle. He talks to me more than he does anyone else. I think it is because we are the most comfortable with each other. We spend more time alone together than we do with any of the others.

I laugh at the look on Levi’s face. “You guys are not going with us to watch us try on suits anyway. Don’t even think that, big boy.” I say as I poke him in the chest. He laughs. “You guys go get what y’all need and we will go get started finding the perfect summer attire. We will all meet back here in what, an hour?” I ask as I look at the girls. Kelly is nodding. It never takes us long to shop. We look at Macy at the same time.

“What? Why are y’all looking at me? I won’t take longer than an hour. I think I already know what I’m getting.” Macy says with a stern look on her face. We giggle and start to head to the department store.

“One hour girls.” Zant says. “Don’t make us come looking for y’all. You know Levi will embarrass you if we have to find y’all.” He says this as he pushes Levi backwards toward the opposite end of the mall. We pick up the pace because he is right about that.

“Oh, I love that one Mace.” I tell Macy when she steps out in an orange one piece that is cut out on the sides. Orange is her color with her naturally dark skin and dark brown hair. I always have tan envy when I’m with her. My hair has gotten darker the older I get but it is nowhere near as beautiful and dark as Macy’s. And the color white is based on my skin color. I’m exaggerating, but I have to work for a tan every year. She just keeps a natural one all year long. Some things in life are totally unfair.

Macy fidgets with the suit a little to make it fit just right. She looks in the full-length mirror. “Yeah, I like this one the best. I picked it out of the magazine last week. It basically called my name.”

I turn to look at Kelly. She is walking out of the dressing room in a yellow one piece that has a skirt over it. It’s cute, but I don’t think the color is right for her.What do I do here? Say something or not?

“No. Kelly, that makes you look like big bird.” I gasp and look up to see Chance, and the look on his face would be comical if I weren’t so shocked that he spoke up. Against something, at that.

Kelly starts laughing. “Thanks Chance. I was wondering if these two were going to be honest and say something.” She eyeballs Macy and me.

Busted.

“What are you doing here? Where are the other two? Please tell me they are somewhere else. It hasn’t even been an hour.” I say this as I look over his shoulder and around the store. I don’t see them and let out a sigh of relief.

“They are at the game store. I wasn’t feeling it so I came to make sure y’all didn’t need any help from a guy.” He says as he winks at me. I know why he is really here, but my lips are glued shut.

I giggle and push Kelly back into the dressing room. “Here you go, big bird. This isn’t working for you.”

I pick out a pretty blue two piece that is more of a tank top and a bikini bottom. I always wanted a blue suit so that is what I am going with this year.

Kelly chose a black two piece that is a little like mine. It has more design to it and has shorts. It’s a much better choice over the big bird suit. After making our purchases, we follow Chance to the game store to meet up with the boys. He sent a text to Zant to make sure they were still there before we walked all that way.

“Did you girls get some hot stuff?” Levi, the ever ladies’ man, ask us when we walk up.

“Shut it, Levi.” Macy tells him while she looks at the ground.

I wonder what that is about. Usually she smarts off to him and brings full fire when she does. She almost looks shy right now. I look at Kelly and she isn’t even paying attention. She’s watching some guys in another group walk by. I keep looking at Macy so she will look up. She never does.

Huh. I will figure that out later.

“Ok, you guys, what next? Where are we headed?” I say to get everyone moving and we all just start walking. We make our way to the food court and grab ice cream. Several people from school are here as well. We speak when someone speaks. We have a small mall. It’s mostly just a few of your bigger name brand department stores with a few smaller stores in between. The mall isthehang out spot in town. With all the craziness that is going on in the world, inside and outside are unsafe places. We could encounter a ‘mall shooter’ any day, but we could also encounter a shooter out in a parking lot as well. It’s not like we haven’t had a drive by or several in my life time. I’m convinced no city in the United States is free of some form of terror at some point. Something happens everywhere at one point or another. No one is exempt. That’s just life. Evil walks amongst us and no matter where you go or where you hide, it can find you just as easily as God’s goodness can.

We finish our ice cream and decide to just walk around and window shop. We still have a while before we all need to be home for supper.

Zant comes up beside me as we walk. “Hey Mi. Am I eating with you guys tonight? Did your mama say? Roy isn’t home. Again.” Zant calls his dad by his name. He quit calling him dad when we were in elementary school. I understand why. Roy is a very mean man and in no way what you would picture when you think of as a dad to someone. He’s the type that would kick little puppies just for drunken giggles. Those type disgust me and he surely does. He has been giving me the creeps since Mrs. Lucy passed.

“Of course, you are eating with us. You know you never need to ask. Mama would let you move in with us if she could.” I tell him this again. I’ve told him that he never has to ask to come over. Mama and Daddy both have told him the same thing. He’s just too polite to simply take us up on it.

“K. Thanks.” He says as we keep walking. We are several feet behind the others at this point. Apparently, we had slowed down to talk.

“What’s going on Zant? You are quiet today. Is everything ok with you? I didn’t see you this morning and I woke up to your dad… Roy banging on something over there.” He isn’t acting like his normal goofy self to me and no matter how good he thinks he is at hiding his feelings, I can tell.

“Everything is fine, Micah. No need for you to worry about me.” He says it smoothly but, I can ‘feel’ the command in his statement.

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