I woke up at 6:00 a.m. that morning to go shopping with my best friend Jess. I jumped out of bed and glanced at my calendar, Black Friday, my favorite holiday! I met Jess at her house, and we drove over to the mall. “Hey there! Ready to go?” I said as she hopped into the car. I took in her gorgeous blonde hair, her perfect eye shadow, and designer jeans. Then I glanced in the mirror at myself, I was not beautiful. My hair was dark, (almost black) and my eyes were an ugly grey- not blue- not hazel- not even green, just grey.
“Oh, my Gosh, Marissa! You have to meet this guy I know! His name is Tom, and……and…. I think I love him!” she looked up into the sky with a theatrical dreamy look.
“How can you possibly be in love? You’re 18!” I looked at her, she broke out of her dreamy trance and looked at me, questioning.
“You mean you don’t believe in love at first sight?”
“ Uh, no. Do you?” I rolled my eyes, in a loving way. She got that dreamy look again.
“Well now I do!” she said, breathy. We pulled out of her neighborhood. Love at first sight was only in the movies, I was 17 and wasn’t even interested in boys yet. I never had a serious boyfriend or even had a huge crush on anyone. It was funny that Jess and I were friends, she was the polar opposite of me, pardon my cliché, but I guess opposites attract!
We pulled up to the mall, where people were raging at the front doors. The mall had opened at 3:00 but there were still door busters and sales going on all over the place. It would be a madhouse. We had to park all the way down the street in this little alley. I got out of the car, and saw a guy walking past our car, just as we made eye contact he stopped and winked at me and smiled. That moment froze in time, I stood there and watched him walk away, he was about my age and he had black hair like mine. He was good-looking for sure but still gross! Ugh! I thought to myself, who does he think he is?

It took us a good 15 minutes to walk down to the mall. We went to one of my favorite stores first, they had really cute skirts on sale there.

“So, tell me about this Tom of yours, why is he so awesome?” I asked Jess while flipping through a rack of 2 dollar tees.
“He’s just so……..so…..cute…..and nice,” she replied.
“And?” I smiled at her.
“And smart,” she was flustered.
“ When did you meet him again?” I asked getting back to my shirts.
“Well, he works at the smoothie shop here and I met him there two days ago,” she smiled. In love! Right. “Yeah, I was hoping we could stop by there today and see if he is there!” she said casually.

“Yes,” I said, I was skeptical, and I think Jess needed a little reality check. “I’d like to meet this Tom” and I threw in, “Hey maybe he’ll have a friend!” all for Jess! (she thinks I will be alone forever, if I don’t have a boyfriend now)
“Yeah! That’s the spirit! Let’s go right now!” she grabbed my hand and practically dragged me to the smoothie shop. Of course when we got there, there was a mile long line, but when Jess looked ahead too the cash register she sighed, “Aww man, it’s not him, I guess he doesn’t work today, but this guy isn’t too bad looking himself,” and she threw a little wave. He waved back at her but he wasn’t looking at her, he was looking at me! It was the guy from the parking lot, who winked at me! I looked away quickly, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him for long, not because he was good looking, but because he looked like me! His pale skin, his ash black hair, the only difference were his eyes. They were impossible to miss, bright blue, clearer than the oceans of Greece. “huh, he looks like you, Marissa.” Said Jess still looking at him.
“Yeah he’s probably a jerk” I said looking away when I realized he was staring back. I was right, when we got to the counter he leaned over the counter and said,
“Hey, hot stuff, what can I get for you” and he flashed me a smile that most girls would fall for, I rolled my eyes.
“A medium strawberry smoothie, no whip please,”
“Coming right up, honey!” and he winked again! I was disgusted, did he think I was falling for that? Jess and I sat down at a table and waited for my smoothie. A couple minutes later I t was ready and the guy who winked was waiting for me at the front. I went up and grabbed my smoothie, but when I tried to walk away he grabbed my hand and spun me around to face him.
“I was thinking you and me could go to dinner tonight, I know this great place, they have the best-”
“No way! I don’t even know your name!” he just looked at me for a second, he blinked.
“Fair enough, my name is Johnny, you?” he flashed his smile again.
“Uh, Marissa……listen its been fun, but I gotta go now, bye!” I turned and pulled my hand free.
“Marissa!” he yelled after me, “see you around!” doubt it, I thought.
“what was that about?” Jess asked me when I got back to the table.
“That guy you think is cute, he just asked me out,” I rolled my eyes.
“Whoa, do you even know his name?” she said.
“That’s what I said!.....it’s Johnny,”
“Hm, I always liked the name Johnny,” she said.
On the way home, alone in my car I began to think about that guy, Johnny. Such an interesting person, was it a joke? Or a dare, maybe. Or he was a stalker! No, no, maybe he just liked me.