I really don’t feel like writing. I’m going to experiment here. Here’s a slice from a novel I wanted to write as a teen, but dropped years ago. I may revisit this… But it’s a story about a young, lesbian romance, descriptors that I don’t fit… but we’ll see… The novel was to be titled South of Perfect:

Sunday came and my mom asked me if she wanted me to come to the mall with her. Having nothing better to do than eat cookies and watching some movie, I accepted. The mall is an interesting place. I don’t ever go really, unless mom decides to. I don’t think I would even choose to do that to myself. The mall is a sprawling tribute to the world of the past in my eyes. When the most people had to do was to spend money endlessly. Now malls sit as a place where people can try on clothes before finding them online cheaper. The music is all contemporary but played at such a low level, almost to seem like suggesting an idea of happiness that is lost by being able to see. Looking around before rolling in to the mall itself, you see how many stores are in a bad state. Who the heck would go to a store devoted to weapons and action figures? And that’s on the more exciting end of the spectrum of mall stores. On the other end, you have a useless frozen fruit bar kiosk that didn’t even have an employee in it (or at least one I could see). Construction noise provides ad-libs to the current hop-hop track that I had heard in at least four different ads for Old Navy. People stand in the food court holding samples that have long gone stale by sitting there for hours. I’m not of age to work yet, but I know my last choice would be this mall. Everyone acts like they’re not having a bad time, but I see it in their eyes. There’s a certain sadness that comes with being trapped in the walls of this mall. It almost feels like you want to leave every single second you’re inside. But you press on, hoping to find something to be interesting. However, there’s never anything interesting at this time of the year. Just entering an Arizona summer where all clothes seem useless. Even functional items like appliances no longer serve a purpose and all those stores have closed anyway. Now we use the mall to pass time, pay a visit to someone you know who works at one, or actually try to find something you need. In my mom and I’s case, we were trying to find me a new bathing suit. I must have zoned out when my mom told me, but apparently the next day I was supposed to go to a party at my mom’s boss’s house. It was news to my ears, but I’ve missed things like that before. So, I just accepted it and kept on moving along. We looked in a couple places, but we couldn’t see anything that I was particularly into. I wanted something modest, because I was more than likely not even going to swim for very long. I think my mom wanted to hook me up or something, because it was a constant barrage of skimpy bikinis that my mom gave me to try on. After about the 6th thin bikini, I asked her why she kept trying to put me in these things that barely qualified as clothes.