I was feeling pretty shitty and totally off my game during the rehearsal. When Elliot noticed and asked me what was up, I pretended everything was fine. There was no way I was going to tell her what happened with Sean. 

How would I even put into words everything that went down? 

You know Sean Mori, right? Well, he dumped me. Actually, we technically weren’t really dating yet, but he dumped me anyway. And then you want to know what he did after that? He kissed me! To avoid a conversation with someone else. Crazy, right?

Maybe Elliot would have helped me laugh the whole thing off, but the wound was too fresh and besides, Elliot had her own things to worry about. It was days before her fashion show. The last thing she needed was her premiere model having a meltdown over a boy in the middle of her store.

So I sucked it up and kept working. When we were about halfway through the dress rehearsal, Elliot gathered myself and the other models together in the center of the boutique to make an announcement.

“Now we have to go to the event space and meet up with the other designers from Arrow Crest Mall. It only makes sense to practice our looks one good time with their people.”

This came as a small surprise, but now I was really glad that I hadn’t whined to Elliot about Sean. Meeting up with the Arrow Crest Mall crowd meant that Elliot was going to run into her old roommate and rival designer, London Graham. From what I could tell, this was the last way Elliot wanted to spend her afternoon. 

As we were leaving the store, I put on a brave face for Elliot and gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. “It’ll be over soon. London’s probably just as stressed out about her models doing well in the show as you are.”

Elliot sighed and shot me an appreciative smile. We both knew that I was being very optimistic. The reality was that London probably had three times as many experienced models for every one of Elliot’s amateur ones. 

When we finally met up with the other designers and models, I was surprised to see one of my friends from school. And yeah, this was definitely one of the friends who hit me with excuse after excuse whenever I tried to make something happen with them at the beginning of the summer.

Even so, I liked Mercedes. And to be fair, she hadn’t lied to me. She actually had a summer job. What she had done was withhold information because what I didn’t know was that she was also going to be modeling over the summer. It made me wonder about the reasons why she would gloss over that detail.

Thankfully, Mercedes wasn’t weird about it in the moment and seemed genuinely pleased to see me. While the designers were working out the logistics of the order in which the collections would walk, Mercedes and I caught up with each other.

I couldn’t believe how nice it was to see a friendly face. We even hugged. Somehow I could feel the long hours of working with a passionate designer weighing on Mercedes’ shoulders much like they weighed on mine.

“Aquaaaaa! When London said we were showing at Ocean Park Mall, I knew the name sounded familiar!” Mercedes said with a bright smile as soon as she let go of me. “So this is the mall you were telling me about.”

My smile dropped a little before I could catch it. 

So then. Mercedes was one of London’s models. 

I don’t really know why that would bother me. London and Elliot’s beef had nothing to do with me and my friend. At least it shouldn’t, right? So then why did it feel like something was telling me to be wary of her?

I shook off the feeling and prompted Mercedes to tell me everything.

“Models! We’re starting the rehearsal in five.”

Mercedes and I shot each other a we’ll-talk-later look before taking our places behind the stage. When the assistants told us the order and where to stand, I blocked out all my thoughts from earlier and just focused on the runway.

Afterwards, I was super hungry and asked Mercedes if she wanted to join me for a bite to eat. She said that she’d love to, but she probably wouldn’t order anything.

“The food here is pretty good,” I said, knowing that she most likely didn’t think the food court at Ocean Park had anything decent. At least not compared to Arrow Crest.

Mercedes waved her hands apologetically. “Oh, no. It’s not that. I’m just not hungry is all.”

We worked our butts off, so I had no idea how she could be anything less than starving. But I didn’t think anything of it beyond that.

That was, until I sat down with yet another order of Grape Grill signature fries and witnessed Mercedes’ eyes grow two sizes.

“Whoa! Those smell sooo good!”

I offered her one. She reached out slowly and said, “Okay, I’m actually really hungry.” 

Mercedes snatched the fry and stuffed it in her mouth. “Just don’t tell anyone, okay? London doesn’t want us eating carbs or… basically anything really.”

Even though Mercedes admitted this so casually, it didn’t come as that much of a surprise to me. In most modeling circles, there was pressure to maintain a certain weight, whether it was normal for your body or not. Sometimes agencies were very forthcoming about their expectations and sometimes they were not. Mercedes just happened to find herself in a position where that sort of thing mattered to the designer.

The longer Mercedes and I chatted, the more I found my mind drifting to other places. Namely – you guessed it – Sean.

I watched the mall tear a man’s heart out of his chest while Sean tried to stop it from happening. I didn’t have much doubt that Sean would hurt somebody, but now I had the real proof. I don’t know if the truth was a better option, though.

“Hey, Aqua, you all right?” Mercedes asked when I had zoned out for too long. 

“Huh?”

“You kinda got that same look that you get when you’re on the runway.”

I hesitated to tell Mercedes about Sean. I needed to focus on the upcoming show. Explaining every weird boy problem that I had would only cloud my head at the worst time possible. But the more time that had passed between us since that kiss, the more annoyed I became. I needed to get this stuff off of my chest somehow.

In the end, I didn’t tell Mercedes what was going on. I would have had to work around the topic of the mall being haunted. It would have been easier if she was a regular here. But an outsider wouldn’t understand the phantom idiosyncrasies going on inside Ocean Park’s walls. 

By the time Mercedes and the rest of London Graham’s party had to leave, I was still annoyed and frustrated with everything. I still had a couple of hours before my mom would come to pick me up, so I wandered the mall. 

It wasn’t fair that it felt like I cared more about Sean’s feelings than he cared for mine. Otherwise, why would he kiss me and leave me without an explanation or even a thank you for covering for him?

In my head the question prompted: You know what would really piss off Sean?

Going to the carousel without him, that’s what. Touching the carousel even though he practically forbade me from doing that.

I was prepared to break all the rules just to make a point – completely out of spite to Sean, if I’m being honest – but there was one little roadblock in my way.

Sean had the keys to the network of inner tunnels connecting the biggest department stores. I suppose Elliot had a key too. I could easily steal it and bring it back, but I didn’t want to risk creating mistrust with my employer and potentially ruining a pretty solid professional relationship.

No, this act of defiance was between me and Sean alone.