I was not surprised that it turned out to be the local mall. Even in this day of online shopping, teens still go to the mall to see and be seen by their piers and interact. The food court is the center of the mall. The hand held stuff like sandwiches, burritos, sodas, and smoothes. The second floor is ethnic foods, the third floor is sit down places like soup and other plated foods. At the edges of the food court are places that sell tea, ground coffle, kitchen gadgets, precooked meals and meal kits.
Clothes stores make up most of the mall, from gym stores that have men`s clothes on one side and women`s on the other. Shoes stores, toy store. Game stores. Fitness centers with outdoor entrances. A old department store now divided in to sevel independent sections.
She meets me on the third floor of the food court in a perfumed tent were we were served some Mideast western fusion crap. The waiterus leaves a spicy sweet soup on our table. "As I said it`s complicated, the simple part is I am turned off by egomaniacs" she says. "Well that cuts off seventy five present of our schoolmates" I say. "More like eighty" she says. "And the rest" I ask. "I was not always a girl" she says. "I was always cute, but when I was thirteen a hormone factory exploded and my neiborhood was covered in a lavender mist" she says. "it was not the color of the mist, but the invisible stuff in the mist, that was the problem for Saul and his friends" she says. "Saul?" I says my voice going higher. "Yes, Saul was my name, I was a boy" she says. "after the mist, I changed, I grow breasts, my hips and ass grow sexy, my waist pulled in, my face became pretty. My friends changed too the girls grow dicks and balls, and well the boys grow like I did. The kids in my neiborhood were from early teens to twenty some thing newly weds who just moved in. Needless to say the company was sued and after a year adjustment, my parents moved here because they heard this was a good high school, about half my middle school moved here too" she says.
"so why do you not date one of them" I ask. "I grow up with most of them, to be honest some of them did not adjust well, needless to say our parents were shocked that most of the former boys got pregnant, some of the girls too" she says. "You got pregnant" I say not a question.
"Yes, I did, she is three and takes a lot of energy to take care of" she says. " So that is why you do not date?" I ask "Yay having a kid puts a real cramp in your social life unless you want to hang out with other moms. That is why half of my former friends now go to a special school for teen parents" she says. Selina smiles at me.