Watch Out

By CL
The people in the overcrowded mall were packed like sardines in a can. Stores were festooned with colourful lights and decorations, each trying to outdo the next. There was a merry atmosphere in the air. My friends, Mary and Stacey, and I were out shopping for our classmate, Mandy's, birthday.

" Ouch! Cari! You're stepping on my shoe!" Mary squealed.

" Sorry!"I apologised sheepishly.

"Do you think Mandy would like that photo frame?" Stacey asked, pointing to an orange photo frame in the display window.

"Let's check that thing out," I suggested.

Stacey walked briskly to the shop, at the same time was sending a message with her mobile phone. A man carrying two big boxes of glass bottles walked out of the shop. The boxes blocked his view.

Seeing the impending danger, Mary shouted," Watch out!"

'Crash!' It was too late. The boxes dropped onto the floor and Stacey and the man fell down. The glass bottles in the boxes broke into a million pieces. A crowd quickly gathered around the commotion.

"Stacey! Are you alright?" Mary and I rushed to Stacey immediately. Stacey winced in pain.

"Don't you watch where you are going?" the man hollered, staring at Stacey with his bloodshot angry eyes. Stacey's face turned a bright shade of red.

"What about you?" she shouted back, fuming.

Seeing that things were beginning to get out of hand, Mary said calmly,"Stacey, please don't make a scene. Just apologize."

"I am not totally at fault! Couldn't he have taken one box at a time? Then, his view would not be blocked!" Stacey retorted. I helped Stacey up.

"Ouch!" Stacey shrieked. She had stepped on one of the pieces of glass. Blood gushed out of her foot. Stacey moaned and groaned in pain.

"So, what are you going to do about my losses? These bottles are not exactly what you would call cheap!" the man said to Mary and I, ignoring Stacey.

"Look, sir. We will pay you for the glass bottles but she really isn't totally at fault," I said meekly, afraid that he would erupt like a volcano again.

"Cari, shouldn't we bring Stacey to the clinic first?" Mary asked.

"There is a clinic on the fourth floor. I'll take you there," said a shopper.

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

"I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong as well. How about this, you pay a third of my losses, and I will let the matter rest," the man said after thinking for awhile.

"Fine. I'm sorry too," Stacey apologised reluctantly. She was then taken to the clinic. Mary accompanied her. I paid forty bucks for the bottles and helped the store owner sweep up the mess. The man let the mall, still grumbling a little.

"Sorry for all the trouble caused," I said to the store owner.

The owner smiled and replied," It's alright." I smiled back and walked to the clinic.

"Cari! Over here!" Mary shouted to me when she saw me outside the clinic. I walked towards them.

"Stacey, you okay?" I asked, concerned.

"Fine. The best part has yet to come. When I get home, my mother will treat me like a princess," Stacey replied, grinning like a cheshire cat.

Mary and I laughed at Stacey who was always the optimist. Since that incident, Stacey never dared to use her phone while walking after learning her lesson the hard way.