The Nearby Mall Bathroom

"There's a girl's bathroom just a little ways ahead," the woman took Lauren's hand like she was a child and pulled her out of the store.

Lauren wanted to protest the infantile treatment, but she didn't know how. The only reason these people thought she was a kid in the first place was because she ran into that grade schooler's clothing store when she though she saw the person who stole her purse.

Lauren thought that the best thing she could do would be to just pipe down and try to guilt these people into calling her a cab later. Her mother would be at work by now so she could just go in, put on some of Vannessa's clothes and then... Walk all the way home. Ugh. Walk to a friend's place and try to hitch a ride? That might be the best way, she could pay them back with pizza.

Lauren needed to keep up with this planning in her head, because she desperately didn't want to think about the way her drying clothes were rubbing her all over and probably already badly irritating her skin. She didn't want to think about how she was being lead through the mall by the hand like a child who might run away, and most of all she didn't want to think about the humiliation of wearing that dress.

The woman ushered Lauren round the corner into the bathroom. It was actually remarkably clean, which Lauren was very grateful for as she hardly wanted to change in a filthy bathroom. It must have been cleaned just the night before.

On the right side of the bathroom there were three large and sparkling sinks, and then a row of six toilet stalls, with a seventh large one on the far end. The left wall was dominated by changing tables and safety equipment.

The whole thing was pretty spacious, actually. Lauren was pretty sure they could fit double the stalls in here if they rearranged things sensibly.

Lauren's mind immediately assumed that she would be left to undress herself in the large stall at the end. She could get the gross, hardening clothes off of herself and wipe off any soda residue on her body with toilet paper. Then she could just wait inside until that guy came back with something to wear.

But of course, like any _actual _child, the decision was not up to her.