Werewolf Chapter 9

Chapter 9

We just pull into the mall parking lot as the song comes to an end. I smile and shake my head as Lucas reaches for the radio dials and changes the station. Some pop song comes on and he starts singing along as we circle around the lot, looking for a place to park. Lucas finally finds and pulls into a spot not too far away from the front doors.

“Ready?” I ask.

“Yeah.” He turns down the radio and reaches into his back pocket for his mom’s shopping list.  “Let’s see what we need.”

“When your mom asked you to go to the store for her, I was expecting it to be a grocery list, not a run to the mall type of thing.”

“It mostly is a grocery list. There’s only a couple things on this list I can buy here, but I need to get some Christmas shopping done for my family. They’re always with me when we go shopping so I can never buy anything for them. Christmas is only a couple weeks away and I haven’t even thought about what to buy for my parents yet.” Lucas puts the list in his pocket and we get out of the car.

We walk hand in hand to the door. Inside, there are hundreds of people who all had the same idea we did. Shoppers rush from store to store with multiple bags on each arm. Some of them have small children in tow while others leave their kids to play or sit in the hall while they run in a store for a few minutes. The whole scene is so chaotic and overwhelming that I cling to Lucas’s arm and don’t let him go as we weave our way through the crowd.

“So where do you want to go?”

“I figured we’d start in one of the department stores. Those are bigger and definitely have more stuff than all these little specialized stores.” Lucas says.

We turn down one of the long hallways and make our way towards the end of the mall that has bigger stores. We go into the first one and browse through the first floor before taking the escalator up to the second floor.

“What do you think my parents would like?” Lucas asks.

“Maybe one of these bed sets would be nice. This comforter is literally the softest blanket ever.” I say, holding up the bundled package of blankets and sheets.

“I’m not sure about that. My parents don’t spend a lot of time in their bed and they already have blankets.”

“What?”

“What?”

“You just said that your parents don’t spend a lot of time in their bed.” I stifle a laugh.

“So?”

“Lucas, that just sounds bad.”

Realization dawns on his face and his cheeks start to grow pink. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that neither of them are home very much since they both work long hours. They basically come home, spend a little time with us, then crash.”

“Still sounds bad.” I laugh.

Lucas gives me a light push on the shoulder. “You are so dirty minded.”

“I know.” I look around at some of the other stuff for sale. “Do you parents travel very much?”

“Kind of. We go on a family vacation once a year and they both have to travel for work sometimes.”

I walk over towards some suitcases all stacked up. “Maybe they’d like a new luggage set. You could buy one of these five piece ones and they would just share it.”

Lucas walks over and browses through the options. “Maybe. These things are pretty expensive usually though.”

“I know. They’re like $200 normally, aren’t they?”

“Sounds about right.” Lucas shakes his head. “It’s literally just suitcases. Like, that’s not even the expensive part of traveling but it’s insanely expensive to buy them.”

“I know, babe. You don’t have to buy this though. It was just a suggestion.” I try to think of other things his parents might like to have. “Don’t they drink a lot of coffee?”

“Yeah they do actually. I swear, my mom has some kind of addiction to caffeine.”

“Maybe they’d like a new coffee pot or mugs or something. They have some pretty nice travel mugs here.”

“That’s true. Let’s go look at those.”

We walk through the store until we get to the home appliances area. Lucas starts looking at prices for coffee makers and I slip over to the mugs.

Suddenly my phone starts ringing. It’s Alex calling me.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Charlie, where are you right now?”

“I’m with Lucas. We’re up at the mall doing some Christmas shopping.”

“You have to come home.”

“What? Why?”

“Kris was here today.”

“What do you mean?”

“She left some kind of message threatening us and now David and Blake think she has something planned.”

“What was the message?”

“Charlie, there’s blood everywhere. You have to get back here.”

“What? Is everyone alright?”

“All of us are, but there’s a human who’s not.”

“Alex, I literally just want one day to be normal. I’ll be home in a few hours.”

“Charlie-”

“No. I’ve been trying to deal with all this stuff for months. I won’t even make a difference if I’m there so I’m staying with Lucas until tonight. I’ll be home later on.”

“I really don’t think that’s a good id-”

“Alex. I’ll be fine. It’s not like she could find me up here anyways. I’ll see you in a while, just update me then.”

“Charlie, no-”

“Bye.”

I hang up and slide my phone back in my pocket. I literally just want to spend time with Lucas. It’s understandable that this situation with Kris is getting worse and that she probably is planning something, but right now there’s nothing I could add that would help the pack. It won’t make a different if I’m home in five minutes or five hours. I wish everyone would understand that too. I shake my head and go back to looking at all the coffee mugs.

“Hey, is everything okay?” Lucas walks up behind me and slips a hand around my waist.

“Yeah. Everything’s alright, Alex is just being annoying.” I smile softly. “Did you find one they’ll like?”

“I hope so.” He shifts the box he was holding so I can see it. “I picked out one that can make individual cups of different sizes. Right now, my parents only have an actual coffee pot and sometimes they don’t actually need that much coffee. I think they’ll like this thing.”

“I think so too.” I lean against Lucas’s shoulder and smile to myself.

“Did you find any mugs they might like?”

“There are so many here. I’m not even sure which ones.” I laugh.

“Do you think I should get matching ones or just ones they’d each like?”

I think for a minute. “Maybe just ones each of them would like. That way it’ll be more thoughtful than just grabbing two of the same thing.”

“Good idea. Here, can you hold this while I look?” Lucas hands me the box.

“Yes. I got it.”

He looks for a few minutes and picks out two different mugs before we head downstairs to the registers. We get in line to check out, but the line is long and slow moving.

“Looks like it might be a few minutes.”

“At least we have time.” I say.

“Speaking of time, how long are you staying today?”

“Probably not too much longer. There’s kind of a crisis at home right now and Alex wants me to come back.”

“Oh jeez. Okay, I’ll bring you home as soon as we finish here. I can do this other shopping later.”

“No, it’s alright. It’s not like the world will end if I get home a few hours from now. I’ll finish shopping with you and then I’ll go home after.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I just need gifts for my sisters and then I’ll be done for today. I mean, I still need to get your present, but I can’t really do that when you’re with me. I’ll do that some other time.”

“Good idea. I mean, it wouldn’t be fun if I was there with you while you picked it out.”

“I know.” Lucas laughs. “What do you want for Christmas by the way?”

“Surprise me.”

“I can’t even shop for my parents by myself, Charlie. I’ll be completely helpless if I have no idea what you want.”

“You’ll think of something.”

“I hope so.”

“Next in line, please!” One of the cashiers yells, trying to get our attention.

“Oh, we’re next babe.” I turn and start walking over to the cashier. “Let’s go.”

Lucas pays for the gifts and we head back out into the mall.

“Where do you want to shop for your sisters?”

“I’m not sure. Probably some random store that sells a bunch of stuff for kids. Maybe there’s a toy store around here somewhere.”

We start walking and see a toy store up on our right. We go inside and Lucas picks a random doll for his youngest sister who’s only six years old. For his other sister, a 13 year old, Lucas decides to get her a CD and poster for some new boy band she’s into.

With all the gifts for his family taken care of, we head back out to the car. The gifts all get loaded into the trunk and we drive to the senior center to drop off the Christmas cards for his mom.

I wait in the car while Lucas runs them inside.

After that, we make a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up the stuff his mom actually needed before heading back to his house.

I stay for a couple hours, hanging out with him and his family before going home.