She walked among the crowd of people in the mall, finding it hard to avoid bumping into shoulders on that busy Sunday afternoon. It was barely past midday, why was it so crowded? Mia grumbled under her breath, she had hoped for the mall to be less crowded, but it was better than being home.

Elias said they would be waiting for her in front of the cinema, but had suggested they go get something to eat since the movie wouldn’t start until a few hours later. She wasn’t particularly hungry for anything, so Elias and his friend could pick where to eat.

She was also curious about Elias’ friend, who the pervy boy had talked wonders about. That made her a little jealous, surely no one talked about her like that…

Finally seeing the bright logo of the cinema overhead, she sped up her pace just a little. In front of the movies the space was wider, the masses of people spreading throughout. A much needed breather. She scouted the area for a moment until she found that distinct shaggy hair and those black frames. He must have been talking with his friend, but she couldn’t see said person in this sea of people. Really, why were there so many people at this hour?

“Elly!” She shouted, waving her arm up.

“Oh, Mia!” Elias smiled as he waved back. Turning completely to face Mia, he revealed a pretty redhead holding on to his other arm. “We were just wondering which way you would come from.”

“Ah.” Mia looked up at him after realizing she had been staring at the smiling girl clinging to him. “The bus took a little longer than I hoped.” She laughed.

“Don’t worry about it. We got here not long ago, right?” Elias turned to his companion, who nodded in agreement. That was one bright smile the little girl had. “Mia, this is my friend Jamie. Jamie, this is Mia.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mia!” The redhead reached out her hand.

“Same.” Mia smiled politely, taking Jamie's hand.

Jamie was so brilliant, so pretty, so… Why had she even accepted a stranger’s invitation? She was obviously a third wheel in this scenario…

“Elias tells me your full name is Amelia! That’s such a pretty name!” Jamie both took her hands and shook them excitedly. “Maybe I should get a pretty name like that as my alias. What do you think, Elly?” Jamie turned to the tall boy, eyes aglow.

Now it felt weird calling him by that nickname too…

“As if. I think Jamie fits your childish character perfectly.” Elias snickered. 

Mia looked at the boy who had stumbled over his words when they’d first met. It was almost staggering looking at the guy she had considered shy, being so open, almost aggressive to the small girl with them.

“Rude” Jamie pouted. “Anyway! Mia! You should have let us pick you up from work! Coming all the way here in the bus must have been so tiring!”

“Ah, that’s alright. I work pretty far from here, I wouldn’t want to have you drive all around town just for me.”

“I suggested picking you up because I figured you lived in the area, but I never expected you to work on weekends.” Elias admitted.

“You should still have accepted our offer… We wouldn’t mind going to pick you up from work.” Jamie now clinged to her arm. They had just met, but this redhead was acting as if they knew each other for years on end.

“It’s fine really!” Mia chuckled, her cheeks flushed as she very discreetly tried to squirm away from Jamie’s grip. “Anyway! What do you guys want to eat? I’m ok with anything.”

“We were thinking pancakes. Jamie here has a very sweet tooth.” Elias pointed a rude finger at his friend.

“I’m just in the mood.” Jamie frowned, but still looked really cute. “But if you want something else, just tell us!”

“Pancakes are fine.” Mia said.

“Pancakes it is then.” Elias clapped his hands.

As they walked down the busy mall, Mia found herself being pulled by the small redhead. She must have been half a head shorter and despite her round baby-face, she carried herself maturely. Or maybe it was Jamie’s olive, knee-length skirt and white blouse that gave her that feeling… Contrasting to her black, knee-torn jeans and baggy purple shirt…

She noticed Elias look at them once in a while, a satisfied smile on his face. “Why are you laughing??? Why did you even invite me when it’s obviously just you and your girlfriend!?” Mia cried within. And Jamie was overly friendly! Clinging to her like they were old friends. Why wasn’t she clinging to Elias like earlier? “Calm down, Mia. At least you’re not home, you’re not at home.”

***

“Here are the menus, please let me know when you’ve decided what to order.” Said a polite waitress as she walked away.

“I want the super special tower with lots of whip cream and strawberries, oh! With sprinkles and chocolate chips!” Jamie jumped in her seat.

“I’m not going to eat the rest if you don’t finish it.” Elias warned.

“That’s fine, I can just ask them to pack it to take home.”

“I’m not going to carry it.”

Mia laughed at their little banter, finding it amusing how they could be themselves with a complete stranger with them. Elias and Jamie looked at each other and back at her before laughing along.

“So what are you going to have?” Jamie asked Mia, sitting next to her.

“I think I’ll have the blueberry waffles.” At her answer, the other two started for a brief moment. What? Were the blueberry waffles that bad?

“Sounds great! Wanna guess what Elias is getting?” Jamie smirked.

“Guess?” Mia turned to Elias, raising an eyebrow.

“Go on, try guessing.” Elias leaned against his seat, crossing his arms and legs.

“What’s your guess, Jamie?” Mia tried.

“Nope, I know what he’s getting, you have to guess.” Jamie giggled.

“That’s not fair…” Mia looked down at her menu, searching for a possible answer. She didn’t know the guy much to really be sure of her guess, and he looked so cocky looking at her as if saying “you’ll never guess.”

Alright… He was a twenty-something guy, living on his own, a total nerd no doubt… Kinda plain looking, even if there was this captivating glint in his eyes behind those glasses. But he did strike her as the kind to make generic choices. No crazy foods for sure.

“I’ll go with the butter pancakes.” She finally answered.

“Pff, she called you basic.” Jamie scoffed.

“It was a good guess.” Elias laughed.

“Alright then, what are you getting?” She asked.

“Blueberry waffles.” He grinned.

Mia blinked her eyes a couple of times, Jamie laughing at her side. Ah, now their reaction made sense. Well… It really wasn’t a crazy order.

“Is that why you asked me to guess?” Mia laughed.

“Yup!” Jamie beamed.

Mia had to hand it to them. Even if she was intruding on their date, they were doing their best to include her and she appreciated that.

After ordering and eating, which Elias did end up carrying Jamie’s leftovers, they headed to the cinema and got a big bucket of popcorn for all three of them.

“You better not drink too much soda.” Elias warned the small redhead.

“I know daaad. Geez.”

“I’m being serious, Jamie.” But he was dismissed with a wave. With a sigh, Elias turned to Mia, who walked next to him. “I hope you don’t mind fantasy movies.”

“I don't really mind as long as it's not horror.” She smiled. “I was kinda expecting we’d watch a romance movie.”

“Hmm we don’t really like romance- of course there are exceptions but Jamie is especially picky about it.”

“Wow really? I thought she’d be the type that loved cheesy romance movies.” Mia laughed as she walked ahead.

“She?” Elias raised his brow.

The movie was quite interesting, apparently it was a special showing of a foreign movie, but Mia couldn’t tell if it was Chinese or Japanese or… something else. They were asian, she knew that much. The effects were pretty decent, and the plot made up for the weird-obviously wired jumps. Whoever thought of subtitling foreing movies was a genius.

About an hour into the movie, Mia noticed Jamie squirming next to her. Looking from the corner of her eye, she saw the redhead pulling on Elias’ arm, whispering something in his ear. The boy then sighed and shook his head, before waving his hand at Jamie, at which she shot up from her seat and carefully walked past Mia.

“Excuse me.” Jamie giggled as she passed by.

Ah, the restroom. Mia smiled at the passing girl and continued watching the movie, but before she could get invested in what was going on again, she thought it was a good moment to go to the ladies room. Getting up, she walked away.

She could have sworn she heard Elias say something, but when she looked back, he only smiled at her. Shrugging it, she continued walking.

The cinema halls were comfortably empty, and when she walked into the restroom, she found Jamie in front of the mirror.

“Hey Jamie. Can you wait for me?”

“Ah!” Jamie gave a jump at hearing her voice. “I-It’s just you Mia. Haha don’t scare me like that…”

“Sorry.” Mia giggled, walking into the stall.

“Um, I’ll wait for you outside, ok?”

“Huh? Why? Just stay right there.”

“T-The restroom’s smell makes me dizzy.” Jamie insisted, eyeing the restroom's door impatiently.

“Oh.” Mia didn’t smell anything in particular, in fact, it looked like the place had been cleaned recently. But she also thought it would be dumb to try and figure out what exactly bothered Jamie. “Alright, I’ll be out in a moment then.”

“Y-Yeah!” And as if being chased out, Jamie rushed out the door.

When Mia joined Jamie in the hall, the redhead kept her head down, averting her eyes away from Mia all the while. Did she add blush? Because her cheeks looked pretty red compared to before.

They went up to their seats, but as Mia sat down, Elias now sat in the middle, Jamie taking the spot that had been the boy’s until then. Mia shot Elias a suspicious gaze, but he only smiled.

“I’ll explain after the movie.” He assured her.

“Did I say something to upset Jamie?” Mia thought, not able to concentrate in the movie. But she couldn’t recall anything. What happened? They had been talking just fine until meeting in the restroom.

Her fists were hurting from how tight she was closing them when she felt a heavy but gentle hand on her head.

Looking up, Elias was still focused on the screen before them, but his hand patted her head kindly. He leaned closer, never taking his eyes away from the movie.

“It’s okay, don’t worry.” He whispered to her before continuing to explain what had happened in the movie while they were away.

She tried her best to focus once more on the screen, and she was somewhat able to enjoy the rest of the movie. That is until the credits started rolling.

Mia tried taking deep breaths to calm herself, and Elias kept telling her that everything was alright, but why wasn’t Jamie the one telling her that? Why was she being avoided all of the sudden? What did she do wrong?

Elias ushered her into his car, which she found it hard to refuse and was driven to a park with wide open areas and wood tables and benches everywhere you looked, families having picnics right and left. They managed to find a spot, where Mia sat on a bench and looked up at Jamie, who now stood in front of her. Elias meanwhile set a few snacks and drinks on the table.

“I’m very sorry Mia!” Jamie blurted out.

“H-Huh?” Mia blinked, confused.

“I wasn’t expecting you to follow me to the restroom… It startled me and then I was rude to you…” Jamie said while looking down. “I’m sorry…”

“H-Hey, it’s okay.” Mia reached for the small redhead’s shoulders, but she moved away.

“It’s not okay!” Jamie looked up, eyes teary. “It’s not okay because I’m a guy…” All of the sudden, Jamie’s sweet voice lowered at least an octave.

“W-What?” Mia’s voice trembled.

“I’m sorry, Mia. This is also my fault.” Elias stood next to his short friend. “Remember that I told you about my best friend? This is him.”

“Him.” Mia repeated, not really asking.

“I’m sorry, Mia.” Jamie fiddled with his hands.

“No- I.” She sighed. “I really am the one who should be sorry. When we met earlier I was a little surprised that you were a girl. I was so confused- Still am, like, what?”

“We should have explained earlier.” Said Elias.

“I should have just come as myself.” Jamie laughed softly. “But I wanted to give you a good impression, and I thought you’d be more comfortable with another girl around…”

“I appreciate that.” Mia smiled. “But I don’t want you to be uncomfortable on my behalf.”

“Oh no! I’m not uncomfortable at all!” Jamie waved his hands in front of him. “I acted weird earlier because well… I went into a girls’ restroom and you showed up. I felt pretty guilty.”

“Oh.” Mia gasped. “I’m sorry.”

“No no! Don’t be!”

“How about this? We’re all sorry.” Elias dropped his hands on their heads. “But really, Mia, we’re the ones at fault here. We’re sorry.” He smiled.