by C. L. Stone
“Gotta stop that stuff before it becomes a habit,” he said.
Victor passed the controller to me. “Your turn,” he said. He patted my leg and got up, walking around the couch and disappearing down a hallway.
I picked up the controller, rubbing my thumbs over the buttons, feeling the warmth of Victor’s hands still on the smooth plastic. He didn’t hate me.
“You know how to play?” Gabriel asked.
I sat back on the couch, pulling my feet off the floor. “A little.” Total lie. The closest I got to a video game was watching one on television or on the rare occasions I could get on the home computer. Most of the time though I was so busy downloading new music that I didn’t waste time with games. The Soul Caliber logo splashed across the screen. I wasn’t familiar with the game and had no idea which character was better. I picked a scary looking one that resembled a zombie pirate.
Gabriel picked one of the girls in a skimpy outfit and half of her breasts hanging out. He pushed the button for the game to start.
“Kick his ass, Sang,” Nathan said. He lifted his hand from around my shoulder, folded his arms at his chest and leaned back to watch.
I pushed the buttons for my character to move across the screen, smashing buttons to get him to jump and do random attacks. I really wasn’t fighting as much as I was trying to figure out what the different buttons did. Still, I was scoring some hits against Gabriel.
We were halfway through when Victor came back with a bottle of Starbucks Frappuccino in his hands. He snapped the top open and stood over his old spot. He bent over, putting his fingers on my stretched-out leg. “Move for a second.”
“Sorry,” I said, lifting my knee out of the way.
“No, hang on.” He sat down again, holding his drink up. He reached out for my knee guiding it until it was pressing against his thigh, his hand resting on my leg. “There,” he said.
Victor had distracted me badly and now it was even worse as my leg was in his lap and his hand was on my inside knee. My heart thumped and I wasn’t even watching the game anymore. My eyes kept going to his hand.
“Hang in there, Sang,” Nathan said, bringing my attention back to the game.
“I’m trying.” I started smashing all of the buttons at the same time. My zombie pirate did some special move and I managed to unlock and drove a sword into the girl. It was enough to get Gabriel’s girl to die and the game ended.
“Ha!” Victor laughed. He held up his coffee in salute.
“How’d you do that?” Gabriel asked, pushing a button to skip the replay of the fight.
I shrugged, blushing. “Don’t know. Smash all the buttons?” I passed the controller over to Nathan, looking at him. “Playing?”
Nathan’s fingers brushed against mine as he took the controller from me. He scooted until he was sitting at the edge of the couch, putting his elbows on his knees as he played.
Victor held out his half-finished coffee to me. “Want some?”
I shook my head. “I’ve never had coffee. It’s bitter, isn’t it?”
They all laughed. Victor pushed the edge of the glass bottle to my hand. “Try a sip.” I hesitated and he grinned at me. “It’s sweet. There’s chocolate in this. It’s a mocha.”
I took it, wrapping my fingers around the chilled bottle. The condensation on the outside of the bottle wet my hands. I held it to my lips, letting the coffee wash over my tongue. It was almost like milk with a unique additional taste in it and a hint of chocolate. I licked my upper lip after. “It’s not bad,” I said.
“Want one?” Victor asked. “There’s more.”
“I’ll get her one,” Gabriel said, tossing the controller onto the couch after he’d already been knocked out by Nathan in the game. “I want one, too.”
We spent a good portion of the morning taking turns playing the game. I won a couple more times. Smashing buttons only worked for so long, though. Still, it was nice just to be included with them and with something where I wasn’t causing them any trouble.
The coffee, however, made my insides shake like crazy.
♥♥♥
Around nine-thirty, we headed out to Victor’s BMW parked in the driveway.
“Shotgun,” Gabriel called as we all approached.
“Sang gets shotgun,” Victor said.
“Aw,” Gabriel said. “She didn’t call it.”
“I drive, I get final say.”
I blushed again, trying to look sympathetic to Gabriel. Gabriel sauntered forward, opening the passenger door for me.
“Maybe on the way back?” I asked him.
He smirked and shook his head. “Just get your pretty ass in the car.”
I got in quickly, trying to mask how hot my face felt. He shut the door for me and got in behind me. I slipped my seatbelt on so Victor wouldn’t get after me about it.
A thrilling sensation swept through me as we started out of the neighborhood. I was leaving my family behind to go hang out with my friends. It was hard to fully enjoy it knowing I had to escape my parents’ house.
In the back of my mind I was worried my sister would sneak into my room and maybe take something else. What if my mother went looking for me in one of her crazy rampages? One of these days, I hoped I could get permission so I could feel more confident and fully enjoy going out. It was a fantasy I knew wouldn’t ever happen.
As it was, I had to settle for knowing that for the moment there was nothing to do but enjoy the day as best I could. There wouldn’t be very many opportunities like this.
I kicked my sandals off, putting my feet on the seat and drawing my knees up to my chest.
“What’s wrong?” Victor asked, his fire eyes catching mine again, the same intensity from this morning returning. “Are you cold?”
I blinked at him and shook my head. “No, I’m fine.” It was another warm day. I didn’t understand why he would ask. The car was cooling quickly with the air conditioner on full blast but it was far from chilly.
He eyeballed me for a moment, a lock of his wavy hair falling across his forehead. It was stunning against his beautiful face. He flicked the air conditioning lower on the dash. “You tell me if you’re cold.”
“Really, it’s okay. I’ll tell you if something’s wrong.”
“Will you?” he asked quietly, but before I could answer, he was skimming through radio stations.
♥♥♥
We got to the mall a little after ten. The parking lot was nearly empty, but I guessed it was still early for some people on a Saturday.
When Victor had parked, Gabriel jumped out and opened my door for me. I thanked him and he seemed pleased. As we approached the mall together, Victor strolled ahead and held the door open for me. I thanked him, too, wondering how much longer they would continue to open doors for me. Was I still the new friend they were being nice to?
“Where are we going?” Victor asked me as we gathered inside.
I blinked at him, pushing a finger to my lip and feeling nervous now. I knew he intended to buy a couple pieces of clothing for me. I thought about what Mr. Blackbourne had told me about how the boys handled any situation, helping each other. I tried to swallow down my pride. “I don’t know where to start. Any department store ought to have...”
“We’re starting with underwear,” Gabriel said. He grabbed my hand and tugged me down the hallway of the mall.
“Gabe!” Nathan called after us. He jogged until he was on the other side of me, taking hold of my arm. “We can’t take her for that.”
Gabriel rubbed at his temple, looking confused. “Of course we can,” he said. He pointed to a Victoria’s Secret store a couple of shops down. “It’s right there.”
“I mean,” Nathan said in a lower tone, “We can’t buy her underwear. Come on.”
“What the fuck?” Gabriel blinked at him. “She’s a fucking girl. She needs underwear. And bras that are the right size. Have you seen her bras?”
Nathan narrowed his eyes at him. “I don’t expect
you to have...”
Gabriel twisted his lips. He hooked a couple of fingers in the neck of Kota’s shirt that I was wearing and tugged it down over my shoulder to reveal my bra strap. He dug a finger under it, pulled and let it snap back against my skin. I winced, reaching up to rub the spot.
“They don’t fit her right,” Gabriel said.
“How would you know?” Victor asked, standing by with his hands in his pockets. His tone was more curious than trying to challenge him.
“It’s my job,” he said. “What do I do? What the hell am I here for?”
“Okay, shit,” Nathan said. “We’ll get her some underwear.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Guys,” I said. “I don’t think...”
Gabriel hung his arm over my neck and led me toward the store. “If you say something stupid like you don’t deserve new things or try to tell me to shut up, I’m going to spank you in front of everyone here. Now let’s get busy.” He seemed much happier now that he was directing the way the shopping trip was going.
My face was radiating heat as Gabriel hung onto me as we walked through the open doors of the shop. Tables of underwear were out on display and mannequins modeled in suggestive poses wearing sheer lingerie.
“Go ahead,” Gabriel said. “Pick out what you like.”
I pushed my finger to my lower lip as my head tilted from side to side. Where did I start? My fingers traced over the lace of a pink bikini. My eyes flitted to the different pairs. I’d never been shopping before. What did I do?
Nathan stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. His cheeks were red enough to match his hair as he stared at the displays on the walls. To me it seemed like he was trying to avoid eye contact with everyone in the store. Victor merely looked curiously at some of the racks, fingering the material of a couple of the shirts.
Gabriel snapped his fingers close to my face. “Come on, Trouble. Pay attention.”
I flinched at him, blowing out a puff of air. “I’m nervous.”
“Stop being nervous,” he said. He pointed to a pair of pink boy-cut panties. “There. You love pink and that style is in fashion.”
Victor materialized next to me. “She doesn’t need her underwear to be in fashion.” He nodded to some of the more frilly pairs of panties. “Get what you think you’d like.”
“Do y'all need any help?” An attendant in a black dress suit and a heavy gold necklace came up beside us. She was in her late forties, with red hair piled high on her head. Her skin was heavily tanned and her lips were buried under a thick layer of deep red lipstick. She studied my face and the guys standing next to me.
“Our friend,” Gabriel said, elbowing me, “needs a bra fitting and new underwear. Can you take her measurements and help her pick out some stuff?”
The woman smiled. She reached out her hands to me, wrapping one around my arm. “Come with me, honey. I know exactly what you need,” she said. “You boys want to wait by the registers? How many does she need?”
“Ten of each, at least,” Victor said, the fire in his eyes subdued. “And whatever else she wants. Don’t let her come back until she has enough.”
The attendant smiled a toothy grin and took up my hand to stick it through her arm. “I’ll take care of her.”
I swallowed, allowing the woman to guide me to the back of the store and out of sight from the boys. I kind of felt relieved to be out from under their curious faces. Was Victor serious? Why did he say so many?
“Don’t worry,” the attendant said. “I know it’s tough shopping with boys when you need stuff. They all have their own opinions.”
I wondered why she didn’t consider it strange for someone like me to be buying underwear with boys. Was this normal?
Within a few minutes, she had me measured and helped me to select a variety of bras to try on. She showed me into the fitting rooms and instructed me on how to ensure the bras were fitting correctly.
She asked my preference on color, and I told her I liked pink. She made sure that every piece of underwear had some bit of pink attached. She would hold up something and I simply nodded at her suggestion. I was too timid to interject an opinion. She had me pick a couple of different styles; sporty, vivid, elegant and cute.
I finally had to tell her to stop. I had lost count of how many items she had given me. “I think this is enough,” I said.
“Make sure you get what you like,” she said. “Your friend said whatever you wanted.”
I nodded. “It’s nice of him, but I’d like to keep it simple.”
She smiled, knowingly. “Honey, you’ve got to take advantage of it while you can.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant, but she laughed softly at me, removing the collection from my arms and walked ahead of me to the registers.
Victor was standing by the counter. He caught my eye as we approached. The attendant held up the pile. “Is this enough?”
Victor nodded quietly in approval.
I slid next to him, my cheek hovering close to his shoulder to hide my blushing.
“Where are the others?” I asked him quietly.
“I made them wait outside,” he said. “They wanted to buy half the store for you.”
I turned my face away, rolling my eyes and pressing a palm to my warm cheek. He took my hand and held it, his thumb smoothed over my skin; it calmed me a little.
“Add that pile, too,” Victor said to the attendant. He pointed to a small collection of shorts and shirts that were folded nearby on the counter. Most of it looked like clothes one would sleep in or made for exercising.
The attendant beamed. “Would you like to open a line of credit?”
“No,” Victor said. He let go of my hand to take out his wallet. He slapped a black credit card on the countertop.
“You have some very nice friends,” the attendant said as she finished up the order.
Victor sighed, removing his cell phone from his back pocket. As he tapped the screen, the attendant finished ringing up the order and the final price glowed green on the display.
Over eight-hundred dollars.
“Victor...” I said nervously, touching his elbow. I hadn’t looked at the tags and I was floored. Was this how much clothes cost? He had to be out of his mind. I felt sure the moment he saw it, he’d refuse and want to send back most of it
He glanced at the screen. His eyebrow lifted but he seemed unaffected and went back to typing in his phone as the attendant swiped his card.
“Vic...”
“Just say thank you,” he said calmly.
I sighed. “Thank you, Victor,” I said in a small voice.
He did a half smile, tucked his phone into his pocket, signed the slip and put his card back into his wallet. “You’re getting the hang of it.”
♥♥♥
I had two pink bags dangling off my arm when we left the store. Gabriel and Nathan were waiting just outside the doors. They had their heads tucked close to each other as they talked. When they spotted Victor and me, the conversation ceased abruptly. I half worried for a moment if there was some Academy business that was about to call them off.
“Okay,” Gabriel said, slapping his hands together and rubbing them. “Go put on a new bra and pair of panties and we’ll get started.”“Right now?” I asked. I was already feeling overwhelmed.
“Yes,” he said. “If we’re going to get clothes that fit you right, you need to be in a bra that fits you. Just slip into the girls’ restroom and go put something on.”
We found the restrooms and I went in to change in the stall. I put on a pair of pink and black striped underwear. Confidence started to thread its way through my skin. I felt daring. I found a white bra and put that on, too. It did feel much more comfortable than my old one. I wondered how Gabriel knew mine didn’t fit. I didn’t even notice.
I stuffed my old things into the bottom of the bag and tossed the tags in the garbage. I met with the others out in the hallway. They all turned to me. Gabri
el nodded his head in approval.
“Yes,” he said. “Much better. Shit, you do have boobs.”
Nathan smacked him in the arm.
“Ow, hey.” Gabriel rubbed at the new red mark on his skin. “I was complimenting her. Jeez, I can’t tease her. I can’t compliment her.”
Nathan narrowed his eyes at him but said nothing.
I followed the guys into a Macy’s. Gabriel floated to the racks with the newest clothes on display. “Stand still over here,” he said. He directed me with a finger until I was beside him.
One by one, he held up blouses, skirts, shorts, pants and everything else hanging on display. He would tuck the hanger into my neck or to my waist and flatten the material over my stomach or thighs to get an idea of how it would look. I think he pulled down nearly one of everything. When he didn’t like something, he’d hang it backward on the rack. When he did like something, he passed it off to Nathan to hold onto.
Victor had mysteriously disappeared.
“Nathan?” I asked while Gabriel had drifted away toward the jeans. “Where did Victor get that black credit card?”
Nathan juggled the collection of clothes in his arms. “Don’t you know? Victor’s parents are loaded. They gave him that thing when he was still in diapers.”
“Won’t they notice all this?” I held up my arms where the pink underwear bags were still hanging.
“Probably not,” he said. His lips curved in the corners. “If they did, they wouldn’t care. They only get interested in what he does when he’s about to play the piano at one of his fancy concerts.”
My eyes widened. I knew he played piano, but I hadn’t heard about this. “He plays for other people?”
“Well, yeah. He’s really good. He hates the concerts though. His parents are usually the ones that sign him up for that. They like showing him off.”
I sighed, thinking about what it must be like to have parents that were rich. A warm spot fluttered in my heart for Victor. I reminded myself to thank him again for everything later. It was important to me to let him know.
My insides rattled thinking of the eight-hundred dollars he’d already spent so far.