- Major spoiler to the book, Harry Potter, is present in the beginning -

-READ AT YOUR OWN RISK-

I stared at the book in front of me. The words on it becoming a blur, some random gibberish that sprawled onto the page.

I can't believe it...
Dumbledore died?!

Before dropping the book out of shock, I of course inserted my handcrafted wooden bookmark in.

I went to lie on my bed for a while. Looking up at my white ceiling, I felt my heart go heavy.

After all that Professor Dumbledore has gone through, I guess his death was bound to happen anyway.

But still. There must be another way... Maybe they can revive him with magic?

Oh for Pete's sake! Let the old man die peacefully, Venus.

I didn't want to bathe in my sadness any longer so I unplugged my charged phone and watched some videos.

- Spoiler stops here -

Halfway through watching Lindsey Stirling's Master of Tides video, the call screen came into view.

It seemed like it wasn't in my contact list but I answered it anyway.

"Helllloooo? Who is this?" I questioned, my voice louder than it should be.

From the other side, I hear the choppy voice of a male. "Woah. Before anything, lower down your voice, sheesh! You blew off my eardrums for a second there. Second, helloooo. Third, I am the great Ryland Fletcher!"

After hearing the name, I had an annoyed look on my face. He always manages to annoy me.

What does he want this time?

"What did you call me for?" I asked, trying my best not to hint my annoyance in my voice.

"Hey, tone your annoyance down a notch," looks like I failed, "and listen to me."

"Uh huh," I said while checking my cuticles. I really need to do something about them soon.

"So, I was wondering if you would go to my house. My parents want to meet you."

My eyes widened. "What?!"

Before he could say anything I said, "First off, Ryland Fletcher, we just met this week. Second, I have social anxiety. I could barely talk to the kids at school. How much more adults? Especially ones that I need to make a great impression on so I could stay friends with you. Besides, how do they even know me?"

"Um, I told them about a while ago. They were wondering where I went because I just left the house with a goodbye and no explanation. I mentioned Gabriel and you but the minute they heard your name, their eyes brightened and now they want to meet you. They literally pushed me to call you the minute they thought of inviting you over for dinner."

I thought about the invitation for a second. How the scene would unfold. I already see myself slipping up and spilling iced tea all over my attire. My anxiety started to rise up. My hands were sweating and they were slightly shaking.

I tried to stop my voice from wavering when I said, "I don't think I should go. I don't want to seem like a total failure and a loser when your family sees me."

"Just do this for me please?" He pleaded, "It's not often that my family gets excited for something that happened in my life. Besides, they're going to love you! From the short amount of time I've known you, you're a pretty easy girl to like."

I fidgeted with my fingers as I weighed the options. I sighed after a while and complied.

"YAY! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" Ryland screamed like a little kid from the other side.

A felt a small smile bloom on my face. "So, when do I go there? What do I wear? Most importantly, where do you live?"

"Woah, there. You sounded stalkerish when you said that last line."

I rolled my eyes.

He continued, "Well, as for the day, my mom said it would be on Sunday night, dinner time. That's tomorrow. For what you're gonna wear, just wear something decent, I don't care and neither does my family... Probably. My house is at - wait I'm not gonna tell you! I'll pick you up at the park. You know, Springdale Park?"

Oh, that park. The owner of that park is actually also the owner of the park in our old town, the one me and my family used to have picnics on.

"Uh huh. Alright. See you tomorrow I guess. Bye!" We exchanged farewells and ended the call.

I looked at the clock, 10pm. My mom's still awake.

I opened the door slowly to reveal a dark hallway dimly lit by the light coming from my room.

I walked across it and knocked on the door opposite of my own.

"Mommmm!" I whisper yelled. "I can hear you watching your K-drama from here!"

That was a lie. I didn't hear it but she watches it all the time so who's to day she isn't watching it now?

I hear footsteps when I pressed my ear against the door.

I pulled back as I felt my mom's hand turn the doorknob from the other side.

The door opened and I was greeted with my mom intently watching her K-drama like I guessed.

"Heyyyy, mom! What's up?"

My mom grumbled, "More like, why are you still up?"

"Ey! Sorry for disturbing you but I have to ask you something."

"At 10pm?"

"No, at 10:02pm."

My mom rolled her eyes. "Get on with it, then."

"Um, so Ryland invited me to a dinner with his family. Can I go? We'll be meeting at Springdale Park."

"That's what you were going to tell me? Of course you can go! You need to haul your butt out of this house anyway."

"Mom!" I whined, "I go out 5 days a week for school!"

I hear a phone ring from a notification. My mom checks her phone and saw it was hers.

"Oh look! A new tweet from my idol. Time to retweet it and like it!" She said while retreating back to her bedroom.

She closes the door in front of me, leaving me in the dimly lit hallway.

"Of course."

-

I scanned my closet. "Noooo, I have nothing to wear!"

What am I going to do?

Going shopping probably is the best thing to do. Though, I hate it. I'd do anything to avoid it.

But desperate times call for desperate measures.

I racked my brain on who to call and go with in this expedition of mine. I simply can not bear this alone.

My mom? Probably.
Gabriel? Probably.
Ryland? Probably.

Ryland would be the best choice, though. In that way, he could judge if what I'm wearing is appropriate for said dinner.

I got my Samsung Galaxy S8 from my bedside table and called him.

"Hellooo?" I said.

I heard shuffling from the other side. "Hey, Venus! What's up? Are you ready for the dinner later?"

"No, of course not!" I exclaimed, "It's still 8:56am!"

"Oh alright. Why'd you call me though?"

"Um, I was wondering if you could go...... Shopping with me?" I nervously said.

"Shopping? Yeah right," he said sarcastically.

"Pleaseee? I have no one to go with!" I pleaded.

"What? Don't you have any girl friends or something? And what about Gabriel? Why can't he be the one to go with you?" He complained.

"Yeah, no. I haven't made any girl friends. Gabriel was an option but you're kinda the best option out there because then you can tell me what's appropriate for the dinner." I stated simply.

Huh, I thought it would he comply much easier than this. I knew boys hated shopping but I never knew they hated it as much as I do.

Ryland's side goes silent for a while. Two seconds or so later he responded, "Alright. Fine. I'll go with you."

"Yay! Pick me up alright? I live in 42nd Shirley Avenue."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank me later. Bye!"

"Bye!"

The line clicked dead. I sighed in relief. Looks like I wouldn't go alone after all.

I disappeared into my bathroom and prepared for today.

-

I flew down the stairs as soon as I heard someone honking outside.

"Bye, mom!" I yelled to her as I threw open the door.

"What the?" I shielded my eyes from the bright light that was in front of me.

I walked closer and moved my head to an angle where the sun wasn't reflecting the object.

"Woah." My voice was barely above a whisper. I was taken aback by this beauty in front of me.

It was a silver Chevrolet Impala. From where I was standing, it looked majestic, like something you would find out of a heavily photoshopped magazine with the sun glinting at all the right places.

The window of the passenger seat rolled down and I was met with the face of Ryland with sunglasses on.

"Hop in," he said.

Too appalled to speak, I just nodded and got in the backseat.

I sneaked a peek at the driver seat and saw it was someone unfamiliar.

"Oh. That's my driver, Julio. We're just juniors, y'know? I'm not qualified for a driver's license just yet," Ryland said.

I swallowed and spoke, "Is this your car?"

Wow. My voice sounded so tiny and strained. Where'd the rest of it go?

Ryland swung his head to look at me and smirked. "Yeah. My parents gave it to me last Christmas. Like it?"

"A lot."

He continued to smirk more.

A deep male voice shatters the silence. "Where do we go, Sir?"

"Hey, Venus. Where do we go?" Ryland asked me.

"Um, the mall?" I replied in a duh tone.

I felt Ryland roll his eyes. "Which one?"

"I couldn't care less. Just tell him to go to some random mall with good clothes," I said nonchalantly.

"Alright," he then looked at the driver and continued, "Drive to Blue Moon plaza. I keep on hearing my sister babble about their fabulous clothing stores."

I don't particularly know which mall that is. No surprise there, I barely go out of my house to go anywhere other than the park or school.

"Huh, it's too silent." Ryland went to turn on the radio.

Stay by Alessia Cara and Zedd blasted and now we were jamming to it.

"ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS STAY," Ryland sang on the top of his lungs.

I continued with an equally loud voice. "A MINUTE. JUST TAKE"

"YOUR TIME. THE CLOCK"

"IS TICKING. SO STAY."

The car ride continued on like that. Me and Ryland jammed to songs in the radio and when a song with lyrics we weren't familiar with would come up, we would just mumble random words.

I saw the driver shake his head at us slightly in amusement.

Not only until my voice was tired and my body exhausted from dancing did we arrive at the Blue Moon Plaza.

"Wow. This place is quite far from home," I commented.

"Yeah. It is." Ryland opened his door, "C'mon. We don't have all day."

I opened the door from my side and with my bag hung over my shoulder, I stepped out of the car.

I hear it behind me as Julio drove away probably to park it and enjoy this mall too.

"Woah," I whisper yet again in amazement as I see the mall in front of me.

We were dropped off in the front and from this point, we could see all of the mall.

There was a large square in the middle which was tiled and had some benches to sit on.

Water light shows also happened there. I stared at them, mesmerized.

I forced myself to look at the other parts of the plaza.

Surrounding the square were three buildings, each having three floors.

I could see people coming in and out of the shops. Some were just hanging around near the edge which had glass borders and a metal tube on top of said borders to keep us from falling.

In the corner of my right eye, I see a guy from the third floor spit over the edge.

As fate would have gotten it, the saliva fell on some girl's head.

She looked up and saw the guy who did it smirking. She gave him the evil look together with the middle finger and angrily marched up the stairs to get to him.

"Welcome," Ryland's voice catches my attention, "to Blue Moon Plaza!"