She crosses the mall's tile floor back to me with a scrap of loose-leaf paper edged between her index and middle finger. How? She was only there with the guy for five minutes!

"Score." she says, with that signature face of hers. Her eyes were squinted, and her mouth raised by an imaginary fishing pole.

"Haha, rad man. Rad." I reply. Her grin washes away for a moment. Oops. I think it's because I used her favorite word.

"So, what's his name?" I jump back, trying to revive the conversation.

"Oh yeah, haha. Um..." she rolls her eyes over to the side of her brain and thinks. "I'll ask him when he texts back."

Typical. Alex sees a guy, tells me to hold on, and comes back as his future girlfriend, knowing nothing about him except her rating for him. I'd kill to be Alex.

"Hey, guess what?" she asks. I answer, and she starts yakking away on some random story. I can't even hear her, because she's a midget and I'm a giant, so there's a good foot away from her mouth to my ears. She's exploding with hand gestures, so when she changed to a new one I just nod and go, "Uh-huh." By the time she's done, we're already at the food court.

She clocks her head ten minutes 'til and stands there. Alex's a vegan, so every time she doesn't pack herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she usually skips a meal. I'd save a life by not eating for a few hours, she always tells me. I want to Alex someday. Now I'm all guilty. My stomach's playing the bongos though, so I head over to China-Wok for teriyaki chicken. When I come back, she's on the phone. Mr. Giraffe Neck she met earlier, I assume. She sees me and tells him she's got to go. Before the hang up, she listens to him and says, "Yeah, same here."

"Haha, this guy's a dork." she says.

"What happened?" I ask.

"Just told me I'm the chick of his dreams." she snickers back.

"Oh, wow." I mumble, searching for a table. She helps me look. We find one and I completely unwind on the metal chair, but she never sits, so she paces around me. I forget her for a minute and lose my mind in my blackened chicken. I hum up a little song until I notice everyone's eyes are on me. I wipe my mouth. Sweat forms on my back until I turn around and realize it's her. A toddler was hurling toward her with purple smoothie

grasped in his fists. He stumbles and clutches something to hang on to. Her shorts. Alex's face flushed as she crouched down to her ankles, covered in all black apparel, except for her flowery underwear. Her Chuck Taylor's trap her shorts under them as she tried to yank them up. For once, I wish I wasn't Alex.