Six days had passed since they arrested Sean Mori outside of Ocean Park Mall. The mall was open again, but Sean hadn’t returned to work. When I next saw Elliot, she confirmed that Sean had been taken in as a suspect. Adding to this, she said, “But the cops let him go once they saw the footage of the victim having what was very clearly a heart attack.”

Sean was the one who found the body and notified mall security. Naturally, the way it all happened had freaked everyone out, which made him a prime suspect in what might have been a murder case.

I guessed the reason Sean wasn’t coming back was because of the sheer humiliation of getting arrested outside of your own place of work. 

“I can’t believe they reopened the mall that fast,” Elliot said as I was helping her unlock her shop. “Not that I’m complaining.” 

Other people definitely were though. The logic behind reopening the mall was that the death had not been an act of murder. Clearly, that didn’t mean anything to some of the shop owners who were convinced that customers weren’t going to waste their time making their way out to the storefronts.

Not to mention, there were those like my parents, who really weren’t happy with the idea of me going back to work. 

“But Mom, Dad! Bobby Reyes works at the food court and his parents are letting him go back to work.”

At the time I had no idea if this was true, but I knew they would take my word for it. It wasn’t until later when I was hanging out with Bobby that I discovered he had used the same lame excuse with his family.

We were sitting by the lockers inside of Disco Haze, the all-in-one roller rink and indoor skate park. In the middle of getting on our skates, Bobby had me cracking up.

“So I told my lita: you remember Aqua Moore from middle school? She was the pretty tutor that you said I absolutely had no chance with?”

I tried to contain my giggles in the palm of my hand, but it wasn’t working. Bobby’s facial expressions were just too good.

He went on. “Yeah, well guess what? She’s a model and she’s got teal hair now, and her parents are letting her go back to work at Ocean Park because they aren’t superstitious hags like you!”

“You did not say that to your poor grandma,” I managed to gasp between fits of laughter. “She’s just looking out for you.”

Bobby dropped his comedic eyebrows and smiled normally. “You’re right. I would never say that. She’d fry my ass, but you’re right. Lita is a chronic worrier. I did tell her that you were here and you needed me to protect you from the ghosts. That worked out pretty well.”

I finished strapping and tying up my skates, planted both my feet down on the starry shag carpet, and patted a little rhythm on my legs.

“I can protect myself from the ghosts, thanks.”

Bobby glanced down at my feet. “Okay but can you tie your skates on good?”

I gave him a playful shove, insisting that they were on right. Bobby said they weren’t on tight enough and if I didn’t let him help me, I was going to sprain my ankle. I knew he was probably exaggerating, but I let him kneel down and secure the skates.

“So you really thought I was pretty even back then?”

Bobby made eye contact with me over the top of my knees. “You’re really going to ask me this while I’m trying not to stare at your legs?”

He was doing a good job so far, despite the fact that I was wearing my shortest pair of cutoff denims.

Before I could respond, he lowered his eyes back to the task at hand and whispered, “Yeah and I still do.”

He suddenly got up and helped me to my feet. By the time he pulled me onto the rink, the moment had already passed, so I didn’t comment on his little confession. That didn’t stop the little flutter that went on inside my chest, especially as Bobby held my hand through the first number. We had the whole place to ourselves for obvious reasons. Still, the DJ played one summer hit after another as if it was a packed house. 

The room was already bathed in a dark neon purple glow, but the longer I skated with Bobby, the more pronounced the lights became. We synced our pace to the core of each track, coasting and speeding up as the rhythm pushed and pulled us along. 

Bobby made me laugh every now and then by letting go of my hand and pulling off a goofy dance. I played along and tried to match him with a dance of my own. But in the end, he was the king of everything cool and hilarious.

The disco ball triangulated the glowing speckles against the walls and our faces. Bobby smiled behind a constellation of magenta-tinted freckles. Somewhere in our dancing and racing, the music broke into the same realm as the lights, and they blurred into each other.

I realized I was sweating by the end of the song. So was Bobby. 

“Wanna grab something to eat?” he asked.

Fifteen minutes later we were in the concessions area, sharing a stack of cheese fries.

In this part of the hall, it was difficult to focus on any one thing with all of the arcade lights blinking their brains out. But that all changed as soon as Bobby brought up our next topic of discussion.

“So, didn’t you say that you were hanging out with Mori? Did you see him on the day the mall closed? That was… rough.”

Caught off guard, I nearly let melted cheese drip on my shirt. I guess this meant that Bobby was finally ready to talk about Sean.

“Can I ask why you were acting so weird the last time I brought him up?” I said, getting right to the point.

Bobby looked a little sheepish. “My bad. I should have explained what that was all about. Mori and I, we used to be cool, but… how can I say this?” He looked off at the three unevenly hung disco lights suspended over the rink. “He’s the kind of guy who bites off more than he can chew and he doesn’t like asking for help.”

Yeah, I get that much, I wanted to add, but I let Bobby finish what he had to say.

“We don’t really talk much nowadays, but after everything that’s happened, I don’t know. I kind of want to see if he’s okay.”

Before I could stop myself, I blurted, “I do too.”

Bobby’s eyes got bigger. “You haven’t talked to him this whole time?”

I put down the cheesy fry and shook my head. Way to make me feel guilty, Bobby! 

Sure, I had Sean’s number all this time, but I hadn’t known him for that long. I didn’t want to go blowing up his phone after something like that. Plus I didn’t want him to think I was looking for answers about us at the moment.

“Sorry,” Bobby said, “I really didn’t mean to pry.”

I told him that it was okay and took a deep breath.

“I want to be there for Sean, but I don’t know if it’s the right time. And besides, how do you tell someone who’s been through something like that: hey, it’s fine if you don’t want to pursue a relationship, but it’s also fine if you still do. It’s weird.”

Bobby gently teased, “I think you’re the one making it weird, Aqua. C’mon.” He stood up. “Let’s just head over to the Final Dungeon and see if Sean’s coworkers know when he’s coming back. But we gotta hurry because my shift is gonna start soon.”

The thought of walking into Sean’s place of work and asking around for him kind of terrified me, but with Bobby there, it didn’t seem so bad. So I ate the last crispy fry, left all of the limp, over-cheesy ones and tossed the checkered tray into the garbage.

On the way to the arcade complex, I said, “Hey Bobby, can I tell you something weird that happened to me on my first day here?”

“Go for it!”

As chipper as Bobby was, his attitude might completely change after hearing what I was about to say.

“Okay, don’t freak out, but when you and I were catching up over in the food court, I accidentally threw away my grape soda. I tried to get it back, but…”

“It was gone?”

I chill went down my spine and I hugged myself on instinct. “Creepy! How did you know?”

Bobby shot me a knowing smirk. “Where have you been, Aqua? That kind of thing is so normal around here, no one even brings it up anymore. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if those soggy cheese fries you just threw out are gone by now too.”

Based on the conversations that I had with Elliot, I already knew that. But experiencing it for myself and then hearing it from Bobby made it too real. Not to mention the pod of killer whales swimming through the walls, but I wasn’t about to bring that up.

“So, what do you think happens to it? The food, I mean.”

Bobby shook his head. “That’s a question for the great all-knowing Sean Mori. If you want, though, I can give you a replacement grape soda over lunch. It’ll be on the house.”

I rolled my eyes. “Bobby, you can’t do that.”

Bobby shrugged and turned his palms up. “I’m getting paid unfair minimum wage. I can do whatever I want.” He looked at me more seriously and added, “Really. If you need a drink, I can do that for you. I can get you a thousand grape sodas if you want.”

What would I do with a thousand grape sodas except die of caffeine overdose?

I didn’t ask because we were right outside the Final Dungeon.