"who do you have?" niki asks while we walk. she covers her mouth quickly.

"only if you want to tell me though," she adds in quickly. i giggle.

"george," i say. "you?"

"karl."

"okay, i think we got some pretty easy people to shop for." we take a turn into a random store and walk around. tangerine by glass animals plays softly in the background.

"i love this song," i accidentally say out loud. niki smiles.

after a little bit of browsing, i find something and snort.

"what?" niki asks. she looks over at what i picked up for george. "oh god, valerie." she sighs, laughing, and shakes her head.

"i can't wait to see his reaction," i say.

"get something serious, too." she's still smiling, so i know she's not mad. i groan and pick something else up for george. i find niki in the middle of the store, with two cans of karl's favorite monster and a sweater.

"do you think karl will like this?" she shows me the sweater. it's a dark blue baggy knitted sweater. i nod.

"definitely his style. it's cool," i say. niki gives me a thumbs up and we pay for everything. we got our shopping done fairly quickly, so we walk around the mall to window shop and look at random stores. at noon, my phone buzzes. i look at it.

incoming call: tommy

i raise an eyebrow as i answer.

"tommy? is everything okay?" i ask.

"it's time for lunch!" he shouts. "come meet me and tubbo at the food court. bring niki too, obviously."

"i'll ask if she wants to do that-"

"no. you are coming. chop chop, bitch." i laugh.

"fine. i'll go get her. we'll be there soon."

"see you soon." tommy hangs up.

"tommy?" niki asks. i nod.

"he wants us to meet him and toby for lunch," i say.

"sounds good, let's go."

after a few minutes, we find the food court and see tommy and toby anxiously waiting for us. toby jumps around and waves us over. tommy tries to get him to settle down, probably embarrassed. i giggle.

"hello," niki says as we approach them.

"hi guys!" toby says enthusiastically.

"no need to yell, tubbo, they're right there," tommy says, shaking his head.

we get in line for mcdonalds, since that's the only place i've heard of, and make our orders. i haven't eaten here since i was a kid, so i get the chicken nuggets and an m&m mcflurry. we also buy a two large fries for all of us to share.

once our food is ready, we sit down. tommy sits next to me, niki across from me, and toby diagonally. i open my barbeque sauce and ranch and dip my nuggets into both of them.

"what the fuck..." tommy mutters as he watches me do this.

"don't tell me you've never tried ranch and barbeque," i say.

"no, nor do i want to."

"it's really good!" after eating the nugget, i take a fry and dip it into my mcflurry. tommy scrunches his nose.

"i swear, you americans are so weird. or maybe it's just you," he says.

"ice cream and fries are even better than ranch and barbeque," i shoot back.

"weird food combinations pog?" tubbo says.

"EXTREMELY pog." i shoot an annoyed glance at tommy as i say this. he rolls his eyes. as we eat, brooklyn baby by lana del rey plays in the mall.

yeah my boyfriend's pretty cool

without thinking, i glance over at tommy when i hear this lyric.

but he's not as cool as me

tommy catches me staring and looks at me with a raised eyebrow. i smile slightly and silently laugh.

cause i'm a brooklyn baby

"this is deffo flirting," toby whispers to niki. niki tries to hold back her laughter.

i'm a brooklyn baby.