“Ellie, stop looking so depressed. Let’s go do something fun.”

Opening my eyes, I lifted my head off my knees to see Anthony giving me a concerned look. I half-smiled at him. “Fun?”

He nodded. “It’s Walmart. We could play Frisbee, or Clue, or ride around in those cars for little kids.”

“I don’t know…” My eyes drifted down to the floor, where my empty bowl of cereal was placed. After eating, a sudden depression had set into me. The realization of being trapped, even if Anthony was here, scared me. I knew the chances of us dying were close to zero, but there were always the what ifs.

“If you’re still scared about the ghost thing, I really was joking. Sorry,” he apologized, a regretful expression on his face.

I shook my head, smiling at him. “It’s not that, Anthony.”

“You know, these next few days will be really hard to go through if you continue to be so morose.”

“So you want me to be happy and pretend we’re trapped in here for fun?”

“Yes,” he deadpanned.

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s a little easier said than done…”

He heaved a heavy sigh, shaking his head at me. “Alright, Ellie. That’s it.”

“That’s what?”

He sprung up from his lawn chair, moving in front of me in two, long leg strides. Before I could protest he pried my arms from around my legs and then pulled them away from my chest, placing my feet flat on the floor. After that he grabbed my hand, yanking me to my feet. “We’re going to go have fun.”

“We really shouldn’t mess around in here—”

“I’ll take all the blame if we get in trouble.”

“Anthony…”

He pursed his lips at me. “Ellie.”

After a moment I sighed in defeat. “Okay, fine. What do you want to do?”

“What do you want to do?” he responded, grinning widely. “Choose anything.”

I thought about it for a moment. We were completely alone in Walmart. No matter what we did, we wouldn’t get in trouble for it… There were millions of possibilities. What I wanted to do hit me with so much force I was surprised I didn’t fall over backward. “I’ve got the best idea!”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Full store Nerf gun fight.”

Anthony stared at me blankly for a moment. I stared back at him, my exhilaration slowly fading. Did he think that was childish? Did college guys not play with Nerf guns anymore? My eyes widened in horror as comprehension dawned on me. Of course college boys didn’t play with Nerf guns! Only immature middle schoolers did! How could I have been such an idiot—

“That is an awesome idea!” he exclaimed, his eyes glowing in excitement. “I have to warn you though; my roommates and I have Nerf wars all time. You’re the first college girl I’ve met that has ever wanted to be in one though. All the girls at my school think it’s childish.”

I scratched the back of my head nervously. “O-oh really? Call me weird then…”

“Actually, I think it’s cool,” he responded, his eyes piercing into mine. “Come on, let’s go find some Nerf guns.”

His hand grabbed mine so fast I barely registered it as he began tugging me in the direction of the toy aisle. A small blush spread to my cheeks as my eyes zeroed in on our entwined hands. We weren’t holding hands like couples did, with interlaced fingers, but we were still holding hands— something I would have never even dreamed of doing with Anthony.

“How do you usually play?” Anthony asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Uhh, well usually we have more members so my friends and I play capture the flag.”

He nodded appreciatively. “Same here. What should we do for one-on-one?”

“We could do one of those Western style movie scenes. You know? Where they like take ten steps back from each other and on the count of three turn and see who can shoot the other first?” I suggested jokingly.

“Let’s do it,” he responded seriously. “I’ve always wanted to try that… We could also do a five count out war.”

“Just five?”

He gave me a smug sidelong glance. “Scared?”

I shook my head defiantly. “I think I can take you.”

“Well let’s see about that. The Nerf guns are in aisle nine in the toy section—”

“I know.”

Another grin spread across his face. “I always knew you were cute and cool. Come on, let’s go.”

Beaming from the compliment, I obediently followed him out of our little campout area, and toward the toy section. The rumbles of thunder over our heads weren’t bothering me anymore— as cheesy as it was, being near Anthony made me feel safe. I was almost ready to burst out humming. One question was burning in my mind though: What time is it? I looked around for any hint but there were no watches or clocks, only clothing at the moment since we were passing through the clothing department. My gaze fell on the brunet in front of me. “Anthony? Do you know what time it is?”

“Time to get a watch?”

I should have expected that. “Seriously,” I pressed.

He raised his wrist to his face before looking over his shoulder at me. “Eight o’ clock.”

“Eight?” I repeated, my eyes widening. That meant we’d already been stuck in here for three hours. It didn’t feel that long!

“I was supposed to get out of work six hours ago,” he sighed, letting his broad shoulders sag. “Although I guess it’s a good thing I fell asleep.”

I furrowed my eyebrows at his back. “Why’s that?”

“If I hadn’t you’d be stuck in here all by yourself.”

“Oh.” That would have really sucked. If I’d been stuck in here alone, I probably would have passed out or something. “I guess it’s a good thing too.”

I couldn’t see his face, but I had a pretty good feeling that he was grinning. “Like I just said.”

I smiled, but decided not to respond. I could have made a smartass response, but I didn’t want to do that to Anthony. Just in case he took it the wrong way. We arrived at the toy department a few seconds later, making a beeline for aisle nine. A giddy excitement rose in me when my eyes landed on the first Nerf guns in it. Anthony paused in front of the array of styles, scrutinizing each one. I wondered closer to him, randomly picking up one of the guns to look at. Even though I loved having Nerf gun fights, I sucked at naming the guns.

“We should both use the same type of gun,” Anthony commented, picking up a semiautomatic. “Is this good?”

“Uh, sure,” I replied as he handed me the cardboard box. “Is it okay to just open these?”

His answer was tearing open the gun he got for himself. “What nobody knows won’t hurt them, right? If worst comes to worst I can just pay.”

His logic made sense. Shrugging, I carefully opened my box and slid out the gun, frowning when I noticed the metal twisty ties holding it to the cardboard. “Ugh, I hate these.”

“So do I,” he told me, sounding just as disgruntled. “These also only come with ten darts. I’ll open a pack of ammo so we can each carry around twenty.”

For the next five minutes we both stood in silence, struggling to liberate our Nerf guns from their bindings. After they were free Anthony easily ripped open a plastic bag of ammo, taking a handful and counting out ten before giving the darts to me. I thanked him, taking them, and putting them in my jacket pocket. He then counted ten out for himself, shoving them in his dress pants’ pockets.

“Are we going to have any rules?” I inquired as he started loading his gun. After a moment I decided to copy his actions, shoving the darts into the barrel.

“Do you want any rules? I was thinking a free-for-all. Head shots don’t count.”

I nodded in agreement. “That sounds good to me.”

He grinned, looking at me and cocking his gun. “Ready to do this, cow girl?”

“I’m ready to beat you,” I teased, suppressing a giggle. A giggle. This guy could make me act more like a girl than all my other friends put together. And some of them were the definition of girly-girl.

“We’ll go to the garden center, that way we have that open space to have a face off. The April order hasn’t come in yet, so no plants will get in our way,” he informed me, heading toward the center. “We’ll do two out of three Western style and then the five-count-out.”

I trailed behind him again, nodding my head. His back was becoming a familiar sight to me. Part of me wanted to reach out my hand to touch it— see how muscled it really was under that tight blue shirt— but I managed to keep myself under control. It would have been extremely creepy to pet his back. I grinned at the idea. Creepy, but amusing.

The trip to the center was a short one. In my entire life, I’d only been in it maybe once or twice, so when we entered it I still found it staggering. Beyond the sliding doors, the ceiling was much higher than the rest of the building, and the air was muggy and humid. The rain and thunder also sounded ten times louder out here too. I pulled at the zipper of my sweatshirt, wondering if I should take it off or not. I didn’t want to get too sweaty… But only expecting to go to Walmart for five seconds and then back home, I’d only worn a camisole under it. Would it be awkward to just wear it? I did it in school but…

“It’s hot in here!” Anthony complained, pulling at the collar of his work shirt. He glanced back at me, giving me a pouting look. “Do you mind if I take off my shirt? Not to make it awkward or anything, but if we’re going to be running around in here…”

Did I mind? The only thing that I minded was the voice in my head screaming at me to tell him to take it off so I could see his bare chest. Gritting my teeth at my hormones, I nodded my head. “I don’t mind.” If he was taking off his shirt, then I could take off mine.

He dropped his gun to the ground before taking the bottom of his shirt and yanking it over the top of his head. Disappointment washed through me when I realized he was wearing a wife beater. So much for seeing him in all his bare-chested glory. After a moment I decided if he could run around in a tank top then I could too, so I discarded my jacket, leaving it by the entrance door. For a second I studied my camisole. Was it too revealing? Would it be weird?

“Okay, so load your…”

I looked up from my shirt, wondering why he’d trailed off. When I noticed he was staring at me, or more precisely my chest, I blushed, dropping my gaze again. I didn’t want him to catch me catching him checking me out. It’d be less embarrassing if I just pretended I hadn’t noticed. Although it was kind of flattering he’d actually want to check me out.

“Er, load your gun,” he finished awkwardly and I guessed he’d realized he’d been staring at me. My assumption was proven correct when I looked up at his embarrassed face. “Well count ten steps from the middle?”

“Sure,” I responded, cocking my gun. “I’m ready to roll.”

He threw me a quick grin before marching to the center of the room. I jogged after him, coming to a stop about a foot away from him when he halted. Slowly, he faced toward me, a serious expression on his face. “This Walmart ain’t big enough for the two of us…”

Pressing my lips together to stop from laughing, I nodded my head. “I’ll be sheriff of this here ghost store.”

“Let’s let our guns do our talking,” he responded, stepping toward me again. “Turn around.”

Doing as he said, I turned my back to him. On the count of three, we each took ten medium steps away from each other, counting each one out loud. At ten I paused, a silly grin crossing my face. Never in my life had I imagined I’d be having a Western-style standoff with the guy I liked.

“One,” Anthony said loudly. “Two…”

I braced myself. When the word three resounded in the air, I twisted on my heel, aiming blindly with my gun. A dart shot by my arm, just barely missing it. My dart, on the other hand, missed Anthony completely. He smirked, loading his Nerf gun again before aiming another shot. Once again I barely managed to wrench my body out of the way of his dart. Trying to keep my hand as steady as possible, I aimed and fired as best as I could. A low swear left my mouth when he easily dodged it.

“Your aim sucks!” he called teasingly.

“I’m just warming up!”

He gave me a skeptical look, shooting another dart at me. This one was easier to avoid. When I went to load another dart in my gun, I didn’t hear the click that let me know it worked. I glanced down to see what was wrong, frowning as I pulled at the stuck dart in it. Just as I freed the dart, I felt something soft hit my arm and then a falling dart met my gaze. My jaw dropped and my eyes snapped up to Anthony. He gave me a smug look. “One out of three.”

“That was a cheap shot!”

“You said there’s no rules.”

Gritting my teeth, I loaded my gun, moving toward him slowly. He raised an eyebrow, cocking his own gun. Just as I pulled the trigger of mine, he shot off running, eluding the dart. “Hey!” I called after him, watching his retreating form.

“Catch me if you can!” he shouted back, escaping out into the main building.

I tore after him, nearly running into the sliding doors because they didn’t open fast enough. Anthony was nowhere in sight when I exited the garden area. Randomly choosing to go right, I began to jog down the aisles, searching for him. The first five aisles I passed were empty, but on the fifth one, I caught him peeking down it. Running as fast as I could, I shot out from it, looking around me wildly for him. At the last second I saw a dart coming at me from behind, and I threw myself to the side to avoid it. Anthony’s loud, and attractive, laugh filled the air.

“That’s not fair!” I complained, twisting around to scowl at him. Once again I met air. “Come on!”

Suddenly another bullet came flying at me, this one hitting my shoulder. I wrenched around, aiming my gun in the direction it’d come from. Once again, he wasn’t there. I jerked when another dart hit me in the back of my leg.

“Two lives down!” a taunting voice informed me.

“Where are you?” I demanded, slowly rotating in a circle.

Without any warning, something hit the top of my head. Confused, I reached up my hand, pulling down a dart. How had Anthony managed to hit me on the top of my head? Unless… My head snapped up to the ceiling, my eyes meeting the little cheat’s on the way. Anthony was on top of one of the aisles, grinning down at me broadly. I quickly aimed my gun at him, but he disappeared before I could squeeze the trigger. A low thump came from his direction, revealing to me that he was back on the ground. Seconds later he burst from the aisle, running away.

“Anthony!” I shouted after him. “Stop running and fight like a man!”

“I’m just a poor college boy!” he responded, laughing again. “Besides, I’ve always wanted a girl chasing after me!”

His last comment made butterflies appear in my stomach, but I tried to ignore them. We were still in the middle of a war. Moving swiftly, he ran down the electronics aisle and to the right. Pausing, I debated on what my best course of action would be. I could chase after him, but I obviously wasn’t fast enough to catch him… My eyes widened when I realized the electronics lead to the video game area, where I could cut him off. I grinned evilly. Perfect.

Sprinting as quickly as I could, I headed straight for the videogame area. As I grew closer, I raised my gun, ready to shoot him when he appeared. As I turned the corner, Anthony entered my gaze— way too close. I didn’t have time to move away before he crashed into me roughly. Ricocheting off his unbelievably hard chest, I toppled over backwards, landing on my back. With a cry of surprise, he followed suit, landing on top of me and crushing me to the hard floor.

“Shit! Sorry, Ellie,” he apologized, immediately pushing himself to his hands and knees so he wasn’t crushing me.

Groaning, I opened my eyes to see him hovering a few inches over me. A blush crept to my cheeks at his proximity. “I-it’s okay…”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m, um…” It was kind of hard to focus with his handsome face so close to me. It was in kissing distance. If I just reached up the tiniest bit our lips would touch— No, Ellie, I scolded myself. I couldn’t think about kissing him. If I did, he’d probably freak out. We hardly knew each other. “Could you get off?” I mumbled begrudgingly.

His eyes widened a fraction of an inch and he quickly pushed himself to his feet. “Sorry!” Grinning sheepishly again, he held out a hand for me to take.

“Thanks,” I said with a smile, allowing him to pull me to my feet. “And sorry for running into you.”

“It’s both our faults,” he responded. “I guess that’s why there’s the no running rule in stores.”

I touched the back of my head gingerly, wincing when I found a sore spot. This didn’t go unnoticed by Anthony. He furrowed his eyebrows in concern. Before he could say anything I held up my gun. “Ready to finish this?”

“Is your head okay?”

I mocked a hurt look. “That was uncalled for!”

For a second he looked confused, but as comprehension dawned a smile crossed his face. “Nice play on words,” he complimented. “But after we finish this, we’re putting a bag of green beans on your head.”

“Green beans?”

“Those are the best frozen vegetables for head injuries,” he insisted, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

I cocked an eyebrow. “You know this from experience?”

“Nope,” he deadpanned. “But I like green beans and frozen vegetables are the closest things we have to icepacks here. I want you to ice it.”

I laughed, flattered by his worry. “Oh, okay.”

“So do you want me to give you a five second head start?” he asked, giving me a teasing look.

I opened my mouth to decline his offer, but snapped it shut. Keeping the sly look off my face, I nodded before running around the corner of the videogame aisle, making it seem like I was going to run to the right. Instead, I took a left, going almost in a complete circle around the aisle, so that Anthony was just on the other side of it. I peeked around the corner and slowly moved myself around it, going back to where I’d been standing a few seconds before. Anthony was creeping down the aisle, his gun raised and ready to shoot. Holding my breath, I aimed my gun, and fired at his back. This time the dart hit its target.

“Hey!” he cried, spinning around in surprise.

I smirked at him. “Gotcha!”

“You’re so paying for that,” he threatened, advancing toward me.

A short laugh escaped my lips before I turned and starting running away from him. I could hear his pounding footfalls running after me, spurring me to run faster. For some reason, I couldn’t stop laughing. I was having fun— the most fun I’d had in a very long time. Maybe being trapped in Walmart wouldn’t be so bad after all.

_____________________________________________________

Yay! The next chapter is up! Hopefully it'll be more interesting to you guys now…

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Today's song: Graveyard Dancing by D.R.U.G.S

Today's story is A Summer in Europe by xxthunder! Here's the summary :D

When you put together two crazy girls and a summer in Europe, you're bound to have a bundle of chaos. 

Jasmine and Emily have been attached since birth. They're beautiful and full of life and occasionally seek revenge against one another. Nothing can go wrong, right?

They'll go through hot crabs, killer lollipops, and sticky men? Something's not right here. And what happens when a crazy girl falls in love? 

Europe's about to be invaded by Jasmine and Emily, and nothing will be the same after they come back.