[[Dedonus/DotCom Collab]]

There was an awkward silence of which Max was blissfully unaware as she stood on her toes to peer around Mario's shoulder. Someone had hired something that was probably supposed to be a clown to stand in front of the OK! Toy Store and hand out balloon animals for kids. Ironically enough, Max had never feared clowns (she didn't really understand why people thought they were so scary...they were grown-ups in face paint and technicolor wigs. It inspired more hilarity than fear, but to each his own...), but she was terrified of balloons. More specifically popping balloons. But they were pretty, and the twins loved them. She stood there, just staring for a moment, until she looked up and realized Jason and Iikka must have ditched, for pants or a wine aerator or something. She'd forgotten now.

She looked over at Mario, still standing there, shell shocked or bored or both.

"Don't you have to go, too?"

"Well, I could..." Mario began to answer Max. Mario thought this could be the perfect opportunity to get away from Max because usually when you get her attention, she sticks to you like Gorilla Glue. However, if he were to leave Max there, he could not meet up with his track friends because they would probably want to wander around the mall for a little bit. Mario would feel bad if he told Max he had to leave and then later have her see him with his friends still at the mall. He felt that was dishonesty and he would never do such a thing, or he would like to think that he would not. On the other hand, if he would leave and actually go home, what would entertain him on a Friday night while he was at home?

Then another thought popped up in Mario's head. If Mario would leave Max her, she would probably have to walk all the way home in the dark. While crime was not as much of a problem in Bradbury, there was always that one off-chance that some wacko might do something stupid. Mario's conscious just could not live with that. Maybe Mario could stick around for a little while and walk her home so that she did not have to head homeward alone. Or they could go to his parent's house and see if they would give her a lift home. Or something along those lines. Mario would think of something sooner or later.

"...but I don't really have anything important to do tonight."

Max stared at Mario for a moment, head tilted to the side, her eyes studying his face. She'd been called naive and gullible and idealistic (and lots of other, less nice things) for as long as she could remember, but no one could say she was stupid. She hadn't missed the long (well, "long" for Max was more than a single heartbeat, but that was neither here nor there) silence before Mario answered, in that way that usually meant people were thinking, and even more usually meant people were thinking about something they didn't want to tell her.

Which meant it could be a surprise!

...it just normally wasn't.

"Oh," she said, then let the single syllable hang in the air between them in an effort to give Mario a chance to talk. Then, bored, she piped up again. "Well, I think I'm gonna go by that GameStop downstairs to see if I can find a discount copy of that Kirby game. You wanna come? OH! Or we could go to the donut place over there," she pointed to neon sprinkles painted on the wall a few storefronts down from where they were. "It's almost closing time, and sometimes they give the leftovers away!"

While Mario did not have anything against donuts, he did not have the appetite for them because he had eaten several slices of pizza back at his father's pizzeria, Nova Roma. However, Mario did not want to explicitly state that he was full because he had a little too much pizza since he thought that would be almost too stereotypical for someone of Mario's background. The best way to approach this situation was to give some information, but not all of it.

"Well, I just ate not so long ago, but I'll come with you if you really want to get a bite. Just as long as you don't get hyperactive from having too much sugar in your system." Mario said the last part with a laugh.

Suddenly Mario's cell phone rung. When he checked to see who had either called or texted him, Mario discovered it was his younger brother, George. Unlike Mario, George was more into video games and more indoor related activities. Apparently, Mario's brother wanted Mario to go and get him some Xbox points for some reason or another, if Mario was still at the mall. Mario rolled his eyes. Why could George got the points himself earlier in the day? George promised to pay the money back to Mario. While George was usually good on this promise, Mario would prefer getting the money up front so he would not have to worry about not being paid back.

"Well, looks like my brother wants me to pick something up for him for his Xbox. Looks like we're going be heading in the same direction."

With anyone else, the trip through the mall, back down to the first floor, past the Donut Queen, and through the GameStop (half a dozen donuts heavier), would have taken the better part of an hour. But Mario was stuck with Max, and Max was stuck with an idea, and way too much sugar. That, and the mall was closing. 

They'd just stepped out of the GameStop, purchases in hand, when the warning chime for the mall closing went off over their heads. Most of the other stores were already closed. The kid who'd helped Max find Jason's Kirby game was locking up the store behind them. Max had nearly had a heart attack when Mario's phone had rung. The ringtone was nothing like hers, but she'd long since trained herself to expect bad news when someone called after dark. The thought had her itching to get home, and as Max turned to Mario, there might have been almost a hint of nerves visible in her expression. 

More excitement, though. 

"Hey, so I live over in the apartments on the other side of town. Um...I know this short cut out past the main road." Then she realized how weird that sounded, and tried to fix it. 

"It's through that abandoned construction site, y'know? I bet we could find, like...giant metal piping there."

Or not.