Eden (14 page)

15

Minutes later we made our way into the mall.  I was still hyperventilating at the experience of crossing the highway in a way that I never had before.

“Quit being a baby,” she laughed at me quietly, “You must’ve crossed that highway hundreds of times before.”

“Sure,” I agreed between deep breaths, “although I’ve never been pulled across the highway at super speed before.”

I took a second to massage my sore shoulder.  I was surprised that she hadn’t pulled it out of the socket.

“Sorry about that,” Eden apologized guiltily, “I get so excited when I am with you that sometimes I forget to control myself.”

“I’ll live,” I consoled her, “don’t worry.”

She beamed a smile at me that was so beautiful, I felt weak in the knees.

“Are you sure that you are ok?” she asked, helping to support me.

“Yeah, I’m alright,” I assured her.

“Where did you want to go?” I asked once my legs felt solid enough to support me again.

Eden looked around, taking in the stores that surrounded us.  Suddenly her eyes seemed to focus on something and a quiet squeal escaped her lips.  Following her gaze, my heart sunk when I saw where it led.

“You want to go to the candle store?” I confirmed.

She just nodded her head as a child-like smile crossed her lips.  How could I resist?  Before I could protest, Eden took me by the hand and practically dragged me over to the candle store.  I was horrified to see that the same middle aged woman from last week was behind the counter.

“Is this where you got that bamboo candle?” she asked as we crossed the threshold into the store.

“Yes,” I said shortly, trying to hide myself in the small store.  It was hopeless.

“Welcome back,” the lady smiled at me, coming from behind the counter to greet us, “Can I help you with anything?”

“I just wanted to look around, thank you,” Eden replied happily.

Her hand was grasped in mine and we were much too close, I thought to myself.  Looking up at me, the woman seemed to share my sentiments.

“So this is your half-sister?” she asked with a knowing smile, noticing that Eden and I were holding hands, “It’s wonderful that you two get along so well.”

I groaned in answer, not trusting myself to say anything at that moment. When we made our way to the other side of the store, Eden whispered in my ear.

“What was that all about?” she asked.

“You don’t want to know,” I replied miserably.

“You can tell me later,” she laughed quietly.

Her laughter sounded like the musical tinkling of bells in my ear.

Before we left the store, Eden had purchased two jar candles and a torch lighter.  With her purchase wrapped safely in a thick brown bag, we exited the shop and made our way back into the mall.

“Where are we off to next, madam?” I asked taking her hand again.

“You sound like the adults from my childhood,” Eden laughed, reminding me that she had grown up in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “I find it quite charming.”

“Thank you, milady,” I bowed.

“Milady is too old, that’s before even my time,” she corrected.

“Sorry,” I laughed sheepishly, “I’m just glad that you still aren’t wearing 80’s hair or anything.”

“1980’s or 1880’s?” she asked.

“1980’s,” I clarified, “I’m not even sure what 1880’s hair looks like.”

She gave me a strange look, as if trying to decide if I was making fun of her age or something.  I remember my mom telling me that women are very sensitive about that, I’d better watch it for now on.

“So any idea of where we are heading next?” I asked, getting back to my original question.

“Other than the book store, I haven’t been inside the mall at all since I moved here,” she admitted.

Eden was about to say something else, but was cut off suddenly by something that she saw.

“I didn’t know that there was a Forever 18 store in this mall,” she squealed, “Can we go there?”

“Sure,” I agreed not knowing what else to say.  It wasn’t like I could stop her even if I had wanted to. I winced as my poor shoulder was almost wrenched from the socket for the second time that evening.

I was relieved to finally step from out of the woman’s clothing store and back into the mall.  We had been browsing inside for the better part of an hour.  How can girls spend so much time in one store?  It wasn’t that bad being trapped in the store with Eden, she was clearly the most beautiful girl in the store; the recipient of admiring stares from both other men and women. When we left, another huge bag was added in her hand.  She had bought a few outfits for school.

“Do you want me to carry that?” I asked feeling ridiculous because she could carry me under her arm as easily as she was carrying her bags, but it was the gentlemanly thing to do.

“I got it,” she smiled at me.

After spending an hour in a girls’ clothing store, I felt that I more than deserved a trip to Game Shop now and steered us in that direction before that happy twinkle could light in her eyes again.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“I want to stop by Game Shop,” I told her, “I want to see if anything new has come out this week.”

It was a lie.  I had just been there the night before and knew that nothing new worth buying had come out, but I couldn’t resist showing Eden off to the employees there.

Sure enough the second I entered the store all eyes fell on Eden, it was like an alarm went off, an alarm that sounded only when girls entered the store.

“H-hey, Tom,” Brian stuttered from behind the counter.

“Hey, Brian,” I answered nonchalantly like I was used to entering game stores with beautiful brunettes on my arm, “How’s it going?”

“Okay,” he managed after a few seconds, “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh,” I uttered in mock surprise, like I had only just now noticed the goddess on my arm, “This is my girlfriend, Eden.”

“G-g-girlfriend?” Brian managed to ask after many false starts.

“Hi, Brian,” Eden replied, sending a stunning smile in his direction.

Brain didn’t say anything; he just started to shake, like a girl had never spoken to him before, much less smiled at him - although this was Brian, so maybe that was true.

“H-hi, Eden,” he finally managed, “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” she returned with an equally dazzling smile.

I had to get Eden out of here quick, if she flashes another smile in his direction, Brian might faint.  Not only that but I could see all eyes in the store were trained on Eden, it was like ninety percent of the patrons here had never seen a girl before.

“Well, we have to get going,” I said grabbing Eden’s hand and heading for the exit, “See you later, Brian.”

“See you later, Eden,” Brian waved back, oblivious to my very existence.

Making our way back into the relative safety of the mall, Eden and I headed further down the strip until we hit the music and movie giant, FYI.

“It’s getting late,” Eden announced looking at her watch, “its 8:30, I think we should head back home.”

Looking outside of FYI, I noticed a small curtained booth in the middle of the plaza.  Taking Eden by the arm, I led her to it.

“What is this?” she asked surprised.

“It’s a photo booth,” I informed her.

“What does it do?” she asked.

“It should be obvious,” I laughed, “Get inside.”

After Eden entered the booth, I put some quarters into the machine and sat down beside her in the booth.

“What do we do?” she continued her line of questioning.

“Just pose and smile,” I instructed her, placing my arm around her and holding her tight.

We took many different pictures in many different poses, some of them were cute and some were just plain silly.  After the photos were taken, we were able to browse them on the computer screen and add cute graphics, word bubbles and words onto the film.

When we were all done, I hit the print key and the set of pictures were printed on a sticker page, which I gave to Eden.

“Is this for me?” she asked with obvious glee in her voice.

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t buy you any of the outfits or candles that you got tonight,” I fumbled, trying to find the right words, “I just wanted to give you something to remember tonight by.”

Eden looked, lovingly, down at the page of photos in her hand.

“Of all the things I got tonight,” she told me truthfully, “these pictures are the most precious to me.”

What could I say to that?  I just leaned over and kissed her.

We made our way back across the highway, at my pace this time, and arrived back at Eden’s house by quarter to nine.  We still had a few minutes until my curfew was up, so I walked Eden into her house.

Standing in the little foyer, we held hands and faced each other in the darkness.  Her face was hidden in the shadows of the darkened doorway, but that only made her appear more beautiful to me.

“I had a wonderful night with you, Thomas,” she told me shyly.

I was stunned, I hadn’t done anything tonight.  It was all Eden.

“I had a wonderful night, too,” was all that I said in reply.

“Dinner was awesome,” I continued after a brief pause, “It really was,” I stressed seeing

the doubt in her eyes.  “It was the best steak and potatoes I ever had…just don’t tell my Mom that.”

We both had a short laugh at my comment and I took that opportunity to lean in closer to her and kiss her lightly on the lips.  The kiss turned more passionate as we drew in closer to each other.  I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her even closer; all without breaking the contact between our lips.  My tongue gently probed between her teeth and into her willing mouth.  Moans of pleasure escaped both of us as our kissing grew from a light touch into a passionate mashing of our lips.

Suddenly Eden pulled back, breaking contact.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, thinking that I had done something wrong, something to offend her.

“It’s almost nine,” she pointed out.

Relief flooded through me when I realized that I hadn’t done anything wrong.  I had wanted everything to be just right this night.

“I love you,” I whispered in Eden’s ear.

“I love you, too,” she whispered back sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine, “Now go home.”

I laughed quietly in her ear and pulled away from her, giving Eden a parting peck on the lips.

“See you tomorrow night?” I asked.

“Of course,” she confirmed, “and I’ll see you in school.”

“Bye,” I waved as I raced across her yard to my house next door.

“Good-bye,” I heard her call.

Turning around I could only see her dark silhouette outlined by the deeper darkness of the doorway.