Chapter 13 - Follow the Map

"I miss the taste of a sweeter life

I miss the conversation

I'm searching for a song tonight

I'm changing all of the stations"

"Let's gooooo!" Ellie excitedly said once I approached her. The classes had ended, Dylan had gone to his basketball practice and now I had the crazy mission of going shopping with Ellie. And it was no normal shopping. Costume shopping.

"Oh, I texted Roxy and Lori and they're going to meet as at the shopping centre!" Ellie informed as we got out of school and walked to the bus stop.

"You can say mall, you know." I informed Ellie with an amused expression.

"I prefer to mantain my britishness, thank you very much."

I laughed. "So, do you have any ideas for costumes?"

"So many! Have Dylan and you already chosen your theme this year?"

"Nope. But you can join us, this year. We would be like the Three Musketeers!" I laughed.

"Oh, I don't want to intrude!" Ellie replied, but it was obvious that she did want to join us.

"You won't, it'll be fun!"

"If you say so!" Ellie smiled. The bus then came and we talked about costumes on our way to the mall.

When we finally got there I saw Roxy and Lori talking, and after Ellie and I got out of the bus, we walked towards them.

"Hi, girls!" Lori and Roxy greeted.

"Hello!" We responded.

"Is your brother coming?" Lori curiously asked Ellie and me and Roxy exchanged amusing glances.

"I don't know." Ellie replied and Lori face dropped to a sad expression, but she immediately recovered. She wasn't one to cry for boys.

"Let's go shopping then!"

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We started at some basic shops, because neither Lori or Roxy were going to buy costumes. I wouldn't say that shopping was my favourite thing in the world, but I also didn't hate it. And their enthusiasm was contagious.

I bought a leather jacket that I had fallen in love with, Ellie bought some pair of jeans, Roxy a new pair of boots and Lori a sexy black dress.

"I bet my brother would love to see you in that dress." Ellie laughed. Lori passed a hand through the dress.

"He can see, but he can't touch." She chuckled and we all laughed, making the people at the store looking at us as if we were insane. Well, we kinda were.

After some more normal shopping the four of us finally managed to go to a costume shop. It had all kind of costumes. Me and Dylan had bought our Robin Hoods costumes there.

The shop was filled with Halloween costumes as it was that time of the year. There were vampires, ghosts, werewolves, skeletons...

"I think I'll go as a gynecologist!" We heard a guy say to his friends. It did not take us more than two seconds to burst into laugh. That was the effect of a group. If I was alone and I had heard that, I'd probably roll my eyes and try to fight the urge to go tell him some truths, but right now, with my three best female friends, all I could do was laugh.

And we laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Untill one of the shop's employer had to expel us from the store, because even if the joke (it was a joke, right?) wasn't that funny, once you start laughing in a goup as crazy as ours, it's very hard to stop.

So we didn't buy anything in that costume shop. Instead we went to eat an ice cream.

We sat on a table and started to talk about our school lives, which, in my situation, wasn't a thing I really wanted to talk about.

"In our school every guy tries to hit on Lori, it's incredible!" Roxy said and Lori shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal.

"Oh, but in ours the two hottest guys in school are after Kiara!" Ellie said excitedly and I rolled my eyes. Why did I know the conversation would led to those two jerks? Why on Earth did my life revolve around those two guys so much lately?

"Really?" Lori asked even more excited than Ellie. "You didn't tell us!"

"That's because they're not interested in me." I said while glancing at Ellie.

"Yes, they are!" Ellie fought back. "You're the only one that can't or don't want to see it! They're totally into you!"

"Fine. But I'm not interested in them. And can we please talk about something else? I'm sick of talking about boys, especially those two! It's like our lives, my life, is only about them! We girls should be way more independent."

"Watch out, because Kiara Raven's on fire!" Lori chuckled.

"She's right, you know." Roxy came in my defense. "Girl power!"

"Just because I like observing boys and flirt with them doesn't mean my life is all about them. I have a lot more things to worry about. But you have to admit, sometimes they're so cute!" Lori was not far away from drooling, I tell you.

"Pff. I wish I'd meet a guy who was cute." I said and it was like I had said the worst thing in the world, because all three stared at me with disbelief in their faces.

"Girl! You have the cutest guy as your bf, for God's sake!" Ellie squeaked. I bit my lip, because Ellie was right. How could I forgot Dylan? He was nothing like Matthew or Aiden, in fact I didn't even know how could I have such luck. Dylan was the best friend anyone could ask for.

"Yeah, I know." I agreed. "And he's almost your best friend, too!"

"Kiara, no one could ever compete with your lifetime beautiful friendship." Roxy told me, and that made me realize how precious mine and Dylan's friendship was. And it also made me hate Aiden and Matthew even more because they were the ones that had made me argue with Dylan.  

"He's an amazing person." I simply replied. You know when you don't have words to describe something or someone? Because there aren't enough words to describe them, it's just not fair, they deserve so much and the words don't do justice to them. That was how I felt about Dylan.

"Not to mention he's really hot." Lori said and I rolled my eyes amusingly. We were back to boys, but in reality, we had never really left them.

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After the ice cream, we decided to go see some more costumes, but we didn't really find any that we liked. We didn't want extravagant costumes, and we didn't want to win the 'best costumes' award. We just wanted something cool, something that could be our theme and that we would remember.

As we didn't come to a conclusion we decided to finish the shopping for the day. I got home when it was about 7.30 p.m. My parents were going on a business dinner so they weren't home. The lights in Dylan's house were turned on, indicating Dylan's parents were at home, but the lights in my house were also turned on.

I smiled. Pizza day!

It was a tradition me and Dylan had, that everytime one of our parents were in a dinner, me and Dylan would go dinner together so the person whose parents were out didn't eat alone. Neither mine or Dylan's parents minded, they had total confidence in us to let us alone in an empty house.

I petted Rusty outside and noticed Dylan had already given him food. I went inside the house and smiled when I heard 'Maps' by Maroon 5 playing and Dylan singing along. 'So I'm following the map that leads to you'. And it was true. Dylan and I always followed the map that led to one another.

He immediately shut up once he noticed me standing in the doorway. He was standing in the kitchen trying to find the napkins. I felt the scent of pizza coming from the living room.

"Hi, there, singer." I greeted, with a smile on my face.

"How long have you been there?" He asked, trying to make na annoyed expression that only managed to make me laugh.

"Not long. But enough to record a video and put it on Youtube."

"You did not."

"You know me well, Dylan." I smiled again. "And the napkins are here." I said while opening a drawer.

"Thank you. How did the shopping go?" Dylan asked while shutting down the music.

"We didn't find any costumes, but it was fun." I informed him, while entering the living room with two trays filled with napkins, Coca colas and plastic plates. Two pizza boxes were standing in the coffee table. Dylan and I comfortably sat on the couch. We didn't use to turn the TV on because we liked to talk to each other without background noise.

I told Dylan about our day, not with many details because even if Dylan was a nice guy I knew he didn't like to hear what we girls had been doing. I told him about the gynecologist joke and how Ellie, Lori and Roxy found him to be so hot.

"They said I had the cutest guy as my best friend, which I have to agree. They also said you were hot, which I don't know if I can exactly agree." I mocked with a smirk, taking a big slice of my mushroom piza.

"I have the cutest girl as my best friend as well." Dylan said while staring into my eyes. A small smile appeared in my face. I think what I liked best about Dylan was that he wasn't one to flirt. Everytime girls told him he was hot or something he didn't reply with a flirty comment, but with a sincere smile and a honest 'thanks'.

"I know you have." I raised an eyebrow and tried to mimick a cocky tone. Then me and Dylan burst out laughing. 

"So I'm following the map that leads to you

The map that leads to you

Ain't nothing I can do

The map that leads to you

Following, following, following to you

The map that leads to you."

This chapter is dedicated to emilysitara, because she made an awesome trailer for this story! I loved it! The trailers's on this chapter, you should totally check it out, as well as her other works!

The music for this chapter is 'Maps' by Maroon 5, which you can find in the trailer!