Let Me Be Your Escape (Part 5)

Part 5 - My Second Only Weakness!



The drive to the Citadel Factory Outlet turned out to be exactly like I thought it would be. Toby and I threw funny banter at one another, though Toby's wittiness beat my flimsy attempts by atleast a good mile.

I had also remembered that this was my first real look into the city of Los Angeles since I'd gotten there. And if L.A. was to be my home, then I'd better learn the lay of the land.

Which for me, would be easier said than done.

"So what kind of stores do they have in the Citadel Factory Outlet?"

Laughing, Toby answered, "But I just told you."

"But I already forgot."

He sighed, "Well there are plenty of shoe stores, stores that only carry clothes considered to be of the highest fashion, of course there's the food court, and I think that there might be a pet store, but don't hold me to that."

"Then it's your basic mall?"

"I guess you could say that."

The drive took only 30 minutes at the most, and on the way there, I saw trees that I would never have even imagined existing in Kentucky.

Palm trees.

I had honestly never seen one in my entire life, and all that I could say about them was that the movies didn't do them justice.

When we actually arrived at the Citadel, I was speechless. It was 3x bigger than any mall that I'd ever been to. And standing in front of it, was a metal tower that stood atleast 50 foot tall.

"Bu-bu-I thought you said it was your average mall?!" I stuttered when my voice had finally been found.

"You mean it's not?"

I shook my head quickly, "No! This place would eat the mall back home for lunch!"

Toby walked towards the front entrance, while making another raspberry noise, "Shoo gurl, I doubt that."

However, just as I had suspected, the Citadel Factory Outlet WAS 3x bigger than the mall in my hometown, and that to see it front the front, wasn't just an optical illusion.

Inside, I saw what seemed to be like hundreds of stores dedicated to nothing but clothes and shoes.

Whatever happened to an actually legit bookstore existing within a mall?

Acting on its own, my body sighed.

Placing a hand on my shoulder, Toby asked, "What is it? Not what you thought it would be?"

"No, that's not it, but I'd kind of been hoping to find a bookstore..."

Laughing boisterously, Toby took off at a fast pace, pointing to something in front of him, "Is that all? There's a BarnesAndNoble this way, you silly nugget!"

My happiness began to climb again, "Really?"

As the excitement filled me, I took off, running ahead of Toby, turning my head from right to left.

I heard as Toby continued to laugh louder.

But he just didn't understand about how important books were to me.

So not letting up, I raced faster to BarnesAndNoble, and when it was finally in my sight, nothing could stop me.

The layout of the store was much like that of any of the others that I'd been to. Making it easy to find exactly what it was that I was looking for.

Toby was still somewhere behind me, but I figured that he'd catch up soon...

If he didn't get distracted that is...

My eyes roved over the shelves of books, my fingers sliding over their spines. Stopping only if I found a book that I'd potentially want to buy.

About ready to move onto the next shelf, I froze.

It couldn't be....could it?

But they'd gone out of business....hadn't they?

I slowly removed the book from the shelf, and smiled.

Toby wandered into the store less than a minute later, still laughing with amusement. "Brixta, where you at gurl?"

He heard an "I'm over here" coming from not too far from where he was already at, and following the sound of my voice, he quickly found me.

Bouncing up and down like a little bunny, I giggled. I was in the manga section of the store, and in my hands I held one of the books from a series that I loved.

The book was held so that the cover was facing me, and all that Toby could see was the maroon and white back, and the intricate cross in the upper right corner.

"So what'd you find?"

Taking a deep breath, I excitedly said, "Trinity Blood: Reborn on the Mars, Volume 3: Empress of the Night!"

He looked confused, "What?"

I held the book out to Toby, so that he could get a clear view of its cover, but when he saw it, he let out a silent shriek of fear.

"A book! My only weakness!"

I cleared my throat, my excitement finally beginning to wane. "I thought that your only weakness was alliterations?"

He went back to acting normal, or as normal as could be considered for Toby, "Oh, right..."

His eyes grew wide in terror, "A book! My second only weakness!"

Sinking to his knees, he began to imitate the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. "I'm melting! Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world!"

Toby had finally laid down completely on the floor of the bookstore. Tongue hanging out the side of his mouth and all.

Unable to resist the nagging urge to laugh at Toby's strange antics, I slowly began to walk away, from what was supposed to be his dead corpse, snickering.

In my mind, I realized that along with Toby being able to act like himself around me, that I was able to do the exact same with him.