to check whether
any of his friends might have wanted to come along, keep him
company in the line. Isaac was never going to vacate a warm bed for
even one night, of course, but Clyde and Justin were always able to
find a hint of adventure in even the most unfortunate of
circumstances.
But, they'd probably cackle at him for being
a big geek, waiting all night just to get his hands on a new
iPad. Why can't you just wait until the next day, or the next
week, when the rush will be over? They'd probably say something
similar, anyway. Even if he told them it was his sister's birthday
was the following day, and it was seriously important that he get
her desperately-desired tablet before then, they probably wouldn't
understand.
For the first couple of hours he tried to
focus on his book - a chunky Stephen King tome he hadn't gotten
around to reading yet, even though it had been out for a while.
"Hey, how's it going?" his mom called at
about eight o'clock, worried about her little man.
"Oh, fine, yeah. I got a good place in
line."
"Are you warm enough? Do you want me to bring
some more clothing?"
"It's sunny out."
"It won't be for much longer. It gets cold at
night when there's no clouds, Dylan."
"I'll be fine."
He talked quietly into his iPhone, not
wanting to be overheard, especially by the girls up ahead. He
didn't think they'd be listening in - they had their own constant
stream of conversation about this album or that album or the latest
relationship status of friends not currently present to protect
themselves from gossip. Even so, he didn't want them knowing the
only person who knew he was here was his mother.
A little later, as the sun started to drop
rapidly drop the other stores of this open-air mall, and the breeze
took on a slight chill, he started to regret not asking his mother
to bring something warm. He had a thin sweatshirt he could put on -
but he'd been using that as a cushion the past couple of hours,
after his butt went to sleep on that hard concrete sidewalk, and he
was loathed to go back to bare ground.
But seriously, when he glanced over and saw
how attractive those girls were, and how much more stylishly they
were dressed - and clearly more popular than him at whichever
school they attended, you could tell from their bounding
self-confidence levels - there was no way he could have faced a
visit from his mom in front of them. How humiliating that would
be.
So he'd suffer in silence.
The light faded, and the light of his kindle
came on. Stephen King was always good for passing time - his
conversational style had never failed to comfort Constant Reader
Dylan, even if it was supposed to be horror fiction.
While he did his best to respect their
privacy, some of the girls' conversation did catch his ears from
time to time.
About 10 o'clock, a group of three guys
turned up to say hello to the girls, and Dylan found himself trying
to work out if any of them were actually dating. The girls were
batting their eyelids like crazy as the guys were standing above
them, hurling out gentle taunts about waiting in line all night
with a bunch of tech geeks, the guys pushing out their chests like
big pigeons to flaunt their athleticism, and Dylan had no doubt the
three of them had been on the school football team or whatever.
Probably had sports scholarships to somewhere impressive.
Dylan had never had particular ambitions in
the field of sports, but he did find himself envious of the easy
way in which the guys just walked on over here and started up a
conversation with these girls.
He'd been sitting here for hours, and hadn't
even introduced himself. Well, their backs were facing him. They
hadn't exactly invited it. Probably would have thought it pretty
weird.
The guys weren't going to stick around too
long, however, after they discovered that nothing they could say
would persuade the girls to bring their queuing ambitions to a halt
and come hang out. They certainly weren't going to join the girls
and
any of his friends might have wanted to come along, keep him
company in the line. Isaac was never going to vacate a warm bed for
even one night, of course, but Clyde and Justin were always able to
find a hint of adventure in even the most unfortunate of
circumstances.
But, they'd probably cackle at him for being
a big geek, waiting all night just to get his hands on a new
iPad. Why can't you just wait until the next day, or the next
week, when the rush will be over? They'd probably say something
similar, anyway. Even if he told them it was his sister's birthday
was the following day, and it was seriously important that he get
her desperately-desired tablet before then, they probably wouldn't
understand.
For the first couple of hours he tried to
focus on his book - a chunky Stephen King tome he hadn't gotten
around to reading yet, even though it had been out for a while.
"Hey, how's it going?" his mom called at
about eight o'clock, worried about her little man.
"Oh, fine, yeah. I got a good place in
line."
"Are you warm enough? Do you want me to bring
some more clothing?"
"It's sunny out."
"It won't be for much longer. It gets cold at
night when there's no clouds, Dylan."
"I'll be fine."
He talked quietly into his iPhone, not
wanting to be overheard, especially by the girls up ahead. He
didn't think they'd be listening in - they had their own constant
stream of conversation about this album or that album or the latest
relationship status of friends not currently present to protect
themselves from gossip. Even so, he didn't want them knowing the
only person who knew he was here was his mother.
A little later, as the sun started to drop
rapidly drop the other stores of this open-air mall, and the breeze
took on a slight chill, he started to regret not asking his mother
to bring something warm. He had a thin sweatshirt he could put on -
but he'd been using that as a cushion the past couple of hours,
after his butt went to sleep on that hard concrete sidewalk, and he
was loathed to go back to bare ground.
But seriously, when he glanced over and saw
how attractive those girls were, and how much more stylishly they
were dressed - and clearly more popular than him at whichever
school they attended, you could tell from their bounding
self-confidence levels - there was no way he could have faced a
visit from his mom in front of them. How humiliating that would
be.
So he'd suffer in silence.
The light faded, and the light of his kindle
came on. Stephen King was always good for passing time - his
conversational style had never failed to comfort Constant Reader
Dylan, even if it was supposed to be horror fiction.
While he did his best to respect their
privacy, some of the girls' conversation did catch his ears from
time to time.
About 10 o'clock, a group of three guys
turned up to say hello to the girls, and Dylan found himself trying
to work out if any of them were actually dating. The girls were
batting their eyelids like crazy as the guys were standing above
them, hurling out gentle taunts about waiting in line all night
with a bunch of tech geeks, the guys pushing out their chests like
big pigeons to flaunt their athleticism, and Dylan had no doubt the
three of them had been on the school football team or whatever.
Probably had sports scholarships to somewhere impressive.
Dylan had never had particular ambitions in
the field of sports, but he did find himself envious of the easy
way in which the guys just walked on over here and started up a
conversation with these girls.
He'd been sitting here for hours, and hadn't
even introduced himself. Well, their backs were facing him. They
hadn't exactly invited it. Probably would have thought it pretty
weird.
The guys weren't going to stick around too
long, however, after they discovered that nothing they could say
would persuade the girls to bring their queuing ambitions to a halt
and come hang out. They certainly weren't going to join the girls
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