The Same Story Twice

Adrian

It was Danielle's idea. She showed me a video of a YouTuber who’d spent 24 hours at a Best Buy and convinced me we could pull off the same thing at the mall. And she told me this wouldn’t be dangerous like the Fourth of July. 

We went to Danielle's house after school and walked to the mall. We arrived there a little after 5. 

Danielle's older sister's friend used to work at the Francesca's by the big water fountain. Danielle said there was a spot inside the JCPenney where we could stow away, and that kids from her sister's school had done it before, so nobody even cared anymore.

We found a small closet near the escalator and figured that was the spot. And it was empty, cobwebbed in the corners, like nobody used it anymore. Danielle had bought a portable charger at one of the kiosks beforehand but she paid for it with my card, because her mom checked her receipts and would ask why she needed one. She'd told her mom she'd be working, then sleeping over at my place. I'd told my mom we were studying at Geoff's and I'd be staying at Danielle's. Danielle and I sometimes went to the park near her house at night, so she was worried a random $29.99 charge would make her mom suspicious. So she was concerned her mom would be concerned. So she used my card.

We ran on phone flashlights for a few hours, swapping the charger back and forth, both of us just below ten percent battery level because neither of us thought to charge up beforehand. Danielle hadn't charged the charger either, even though the instructions told her to, so really, neither of us used our phones all night.

Around 1 a.m., once we were sure the store was empty, Danielle found a pile of rings, each one ostentatious in its own flip-up box, and set up a stack of blazers as a target. Her parents had paid for an axe-throwing class for her birthday, and we'd gone the weekend before. She dropped into the instructor's voice: half newscaster, half carnival barker. “Aim like you're throwing at someone you hate,” she said. But Danielle had set up the blazers in front of this glass case and when I launched the ring, I missed, and the case shattered into crushed ice. 

After I was done crying, I’d realized she had already set up the mannequins in this crime scene-style pose. They fell from the air conditioner breeze and into the glass case, feet pointed just so, like they’d just fumbled into the perfume. She’d even cleaned up the blazers, each back on its hanger. She brushed her hands together and told me these things happen all the time in retail, nobody would even bat an eye. 

By 4 a.m. I was trying to get her to think about leaving. For a while there, it was like she wanted to live in that store. She paraded around the display beds, waved kitchen utensils like she was planning dinner, kept talking about some imaginary husband who'd step out of a dressing room so the two of them could just live there forever. It got a little unsettling, but I figured she was joking. Until I asked how we were supposed to sneak back out, and she looked at me like I'd just shot her fake husband in the chest.

Danielle had already asked me to get Geoff, my boyfriend, to pick us up right before the mall opened at 6. He'd park near the exit, we'd run for it, probably set off an alarm, but he'd peel out and drop us near my mom’s apartment before we got caught. We thought our story was solid: I'd told my mom I was studying at Geoff's, Danielle had told her mom she was studying with me, and Geoff had told his mom we might swing by to study together. Which was true, since he really was studying. So when we showed up at my place at 6, I was going to say we'd stopped by for breakfast before class.

But Geoff was cramming for an AP Gov test and didn't know when he'd be up, so he told us he might sleep in. I didn't want to make him stay up or drag himself out of bed for us, so I told him we’d just take the bus if he couldn’t drive us. That's why his text just said “canceled” at 3 a.m. Danielle seems to think I've got Geoff on some kind of leash. I’ve told her before that real relationships don't work like that outside of TV, but she keeps telling me to keep him in line anyway.

When security showed up at 5 a.m., Danielle said we were going to get shot. We ran, and she grabbed my backpack to get ahead of me. She knew there wasn't a car waiting outside but her backup plan has always been to book it. Neither of us guessed how fast mall security can run. 

I guess I figured, if Danielle said it was safe, I should've known better. She's always getting me into something. 

^

Officer Fisk rubbed his eyes. Adrian and Danielle were neighbor girls, born the same summer 15 years before. Like a pair of wind-up toys, they turned up downtown every June through September, always finding some new way to get in trouble. Neither of them had ever told the same story twice.

Danielle

Adrian is a known liar. Everybody says so, even her own mom. Last year she told the new girl she had cancer. I don't even know what she thought that would get her. And her boyfriend's a creep.

Everything that happened was basically an accident. Unlike the Fourth of July incident, this really wasn’t my idea. 

We went to Adrian's house after school and left for the mall a little later. 

Adrian told me her boyfriend's friend group was throwing some big after-hours thing at the mall. It was technically a Christmas party for the JC Penney employees, but the managers had left early and one of his friends was locking up. As long as we didn't trash the place, we could stop by.

Adrian had just started dating this guy (a college freshman dating a high school sophomore, by the way, but who cares?) and he’s constantly asking her to skip class and bring him lunch because he doesn't want to spend gas money. And the worst part is she does it, because her parents pay for her gas. He's using her right in front of everyone and she doesn’t even care how pathetic she looks. 

When we got to the mall, Adrian had to call him. And she does this deep, breathy voice when she talks to him, like a sleepy lounge singer. He asked told her to buy a portable charger before the party.

Her boyfriend – God, he’s such a liar – told us to hide in this weird closet under the escalator before closing. Liar. He acted like we were breaking into the White House. We couldn't be seen at the party while the managers were still there, but he said the party didn’t start until after close, so we had to hide. He said the closers never check the closets and called it a mall tradition or something. He's always inventing “traditions,” like we live in the Goonies. 

After about 20 minutes of silence, we exited the supply closet. I found a mannequin and Adrian and I set up a whole fake wedding with it. I felt like little kids again, marrying each of our dolls off with big, teary speeches. But when I went to tip the groom for the kiss, my fingers slipped. The groom knocked into the bride and Adrian dropped both. The newlyweds dove straight through a perfume cabinet.

When the glass shattered, we lost it. I like to imagine I was calm, but I know any camera would have shown two chickens, no heads. Still, we’re good at thinking together in a crisis. I can’t even remember who started moving first. 

It was actually kind of a good idea, if I'm being honest: we propped the mannequins in front of a big air conditioner, feet pointed toward the airflow, so it'd read as an accident instead of two people wrecking a display. It was a good idea for two high schoolers at 3 a.m., at least. 

Once the adrenaline wore off, we started wondering where this big party actually was. We realized there was nobody else in the building. Adrian checked her phone and found a text from Geoff that just said “cancelled.” It was after midnight at this point. He didn't care that he’d left the two of us stranded in a locked mall and couldn’t even bother to tell us until hours later. I started crying and Adrian just kept making excuses for him. He probably mixed up the dates, he's just a bad texter, he's tired.

I think we ran because we genuinely thought we’d die if we didn't. We didn’t think of a plan for how to sneak out when the mall opened. I tried to grab Adrian's hand and she clawed at my palm. I guessed she was still mad, since I'd just called her loser boyfriend a future deadbeat and her a future deadbeat’s wife. Maybe that was mean. She tried to pull my arm back and I shoved her off and just kept running for the parking lot. Which is where you found me.

I guess I figured, if Adrian said it was safe, it probably was. That’s how it’s always been. 

^

Officer Fisk set his notebook aside and tented his fingers. The girls weren't in trouble, at least not as much trouble as they thought they were. Their parents would pay for the perfume and the glass case, just like they'd paid for the stolen raffle prizes from the Fourth of July fair and for the fire-damaged fairgrounds, and Adrian and Danielle would lose their last privileges for their last week of summer. And about nine months later, they'd wind up again.