by C. L. Stone
Gabriel snapped his fingers in the air at the two of us. “Are we ready for fitting?”
I slid my eyes over to look at Nathan, pleading silently with him to help me.
He shook his head, grinning. “Nu uh,” he said to me. “We’ve all gone through this. It’s your turn to get poked and prodded by him.”
Gabriel led the way to where the fitting rooms were. They were unattended and the fitting area was empty.
The boys joined me inside. Nathan dropped the clothes onto a bench outside the individual rooms and collapsed into the seat next to the pile. Gabriel picked out a couple of shirts and shorts and handed them to me. “Get in there and do it.”
I locked the latch on the door to the fitting room and froze nervously in front of the mirror. My fingers traced over the buttons at the neck of Kota’s shirt. Cotton fibers kissed my fingertips in return. His shirt didn’t look terrible on me, even if it wasn’t the best fitting thing. It felt far different than when I was wearing Derrick’s shirt. Just like when I had worn Victor’s shirt at school, I felt comfortable. It was like wearing a piece of the boys with me, and I felt protected. My heart warmed at the thought of all of them and I wondered what they thought when they saw me wearing something that belonged to them. Did they feel this same connection with me that I did?
I undressed and put on the new clothes. I sucked down some courage and opened the door again. My chin dipped to my neck and I shuffled forward in my bare feet.
Gabriel and Nathan had been talking and they stopped and turned their eyes toward me. Nathan’s eyes lit up. Gabriel, however, lifted his fist, thumb down.
“No,” he said. “It’s awful.”
I looked down at the pink cotton t-shirt and the jean shorts he had given me. “What’s wrong with them?”
“They don’t fit.” He picked up another set of clothes from the pile. “Try these.”
I slid my eyes to Nathan.
“Your turn,” he mouthed to me from behind Gabriel’s back.
I sighed, locking myself back into the room. According to the mirror, the shirt appeared to fit just fine. The shorts looked a little weird on me but they sat on my hips. What did he mean?
I tried on the next pair of black cotton shorts. They sat low on my hips and were too short. They almost felt like underwear. I pulled on a green t-shirt with quarter sleeves.
This time I just stood inside the doorway. I didn’t want to step forward and let other people who might be around see these shorts on me.
When the boys turned to me, both of their mouths dropped.
My cheeks flashed with heat. “Too short,” I said.
Gabriel nodded. “I like that shirt, though. Keep that.” He picked out a skirt from the pile and tossed it to me. “Keep the shirt on but put this on with it.”
I spent an hour in Macy’s trying on several dozen items of clothes and in different combinations. Gabriel nitpicked his way through the collection, discarding the unwanted clothes into a bin and created a separate pile for anything that met his approval.
He was relentless with his opinion. “Too tight. Too short. Doesn’t fit.”
“What do you mean when you say it doesn’t fit?” I asked when he rejected what seemed like a perfectly good shirt. “It’s the right size.”
“No,” he said. “It doesn’t fit you. Your personality. Your style. It’s not what we want.”
“What do we want?”
“Clothes are telling everyone who you are in one glance. What do you want to say?”
“What am I supposed to be saying?” It was confusing. How can people know what you are like by your clothes?
He laughed, his bright blue eyes lighting up. “You know it when you feel it. Don’t worry. I’ve got this. Just trust me.”
When I was done and back in Kota’s shirt, I slumped onto the bench next to Nathan while Gabriel went out to find a smaller size in a pair of shorts he liked. “I’m exhausted,” I said.
Nathan laughed. He dropped his palm onto my back. “Sweetie, you just started.”
“Tell me that after we’re done here, they’ll be happy,” I said.
The corner of his mouth lifted and he shook his head at me. “They’re busting their asses to make you happy.”
“I’m fine!” My voice strained as my tone rose. It probably sounded like I was complaining but I was tired and stressed. “I keep telling them that. I’m happy.”
“Your sister just gave all your clothes to the bratty girl next door and your parents never let you out of the house and you’ve had all kinds of crazy things going on, and you’re happy?”
“It’s not that bad,” I said. “I’m here with you.”
He nodded slowly. His blue eyes appeared to glow. “What do you want to do?”
“I... I want them to know they don’t have to do this for me. It’s just a little overwhelming.”
“You’re not used to the attention,” he confirmed.
“Maybe.”
He chuckled again. “You’ve landed yourself in the wrong group of friends. We’re always up in each other’s business.”
“Is this what it’s always like?” I asked. I turned my head to face him. “Is this normal?”
His jaw set and that serious look returned. “It’s been different with you here.”
I raised my eyebrow at him, confused by his comment. “In a bad way?”
He flinched like he was bringing himself out of his deep thoughts. “No. I mean with us,” he said. “We’ve been together for so long. I guess we just worked out this system. We do our part.”
“What’s your part?”
He half smiled again. “Right now I’m holding clothes while Vic’s run off to play and Gabriel’s probably getting a one-over by the salesladies as he’s picking out girl clothes.”
I laughed at how silly and simply he put it. He seemed pleased with this. “So what’s my part?” I asked. “I mean am I just throwing everything out of whack, or what?”
He shrugged, nudging me with his arm. “We’re figuring it out. Don’t worry about it.”
It was easy for him to say. I thought about how Kota was out with the others right now at the diner. I could easily picture him relaying orders and the others falling into line. Silas and North were probably trading swings with sledgehammers, with Luke busting in to give them a break with his antics. Would they have done all that last weekend if I hadn’t gotten into trouble? I felt like I was the weak link in this otherwise very put-together Academy troop.
Nathan stared at me while I was thinking and I blushed. He parted his lips as if he wanted to say something, but before he could, Gabriel returned, a more clothes tucked under his arm.
“Last load,” he said. “Then we’ll go somewhere else. I think I’ve looked at everything here.”
I sucked in a breath. “Round two,” I whispered to Nathan under my breath.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” Nathan said, nudging me in the back as I stood.
♥♥♥
After Gabriel had seen everything on me and made his choices, he chased me off to go find Victor while he and Nathan carried the approved set of clothes toward the registers.
Grateful for the breather, I took a walk around the store, glancing in different sections for Victor. I headed toward the men’s section, thinking maybe he was getting things for himself. Something caught my eye as I crossed the walkway.
Victor hovered over a glass case. He was signing a credit card receipt. The attendant slipped a black box across the glass toward him. She leaned on her elbows as she watched Victor’s penmanship. She was pretty, with black hair and dark eyes. She batted her eyelashes at him and said something.
My feet were moving of their own accord and I stepped closer just in time to hear Victor say as he put his credit card back in his wallet, “...just some crazy beautiful girl I met at school.”
The words gave me pause. The attendant continued to smile sweetly at him. His eyes drifted to her, an eyebrow arching in confusion. She sli
pped away from the counter to take care of another customer.
Victor turned, and spotted me. “Sang?” His hand went to the counter and the tiny black box disappeared into his pocket. “Is Gabe finished?”
I was suddenly struck with trepidation. He didn’t want me to see what he bought. Had he met another girl at school? Why was he buying jewelry? Was it for her? Was he going to try to win her over with a gift? The thought of it made my heart burn. Why should it concern me, though? We’re friends. He could like whoever he wanted.
In response to his question, I simply nodded. I was surprised to find my finger at my lip, pushing it to my teeth.
His head tilted and he came closer to me. “Why do you look like that? Are you okay?”
I blinked, trying to draw up a smile. “It’s um... Gabriel,” I said. “I think I’ve tried on everything in the store.”
He laughed and shook his head. The fire in his eyes smoldered. “I’m sorry I left. I was just browsing. I’ll stick nearby so he’s not driving you crazy.”
He found my hand and held it. The move confused me. Would the girl he liked think it was okay we were holding hands? Was the real reason he didn’t hold me in his lap this morning because he was conscious of how the other girl would feel? What would she think of him sleeping in the bed with me?
My heart fluttered as his thumb traced over my hand. I was so conscious of every fiery look he gave me, the way he drifted as he walked beside me, and the way his lips curled gently up in the corner as he lead me toward the registers.
Gabriel and Nathan stood in line as the attendant was ringing up items. She eyeballed them curiously. When Victor and I stepped up beside them, she seemed even more confused.
Victor surveyed everything on the counter and nodded in approval to Gabriel. He let go of me so he could take care of the purchase. I stood behind him, my cheek pressed to his shoulder, smelling his smooth berry and moss fragrance.
“Say it,” he said over his shoulder to me.
“Thank you, Victor.”
“You’re welcome, Sang.”
Nervous
At the fifth store, Victor bellowed at Gabriel for wanting me to try on yet another skirt in a different color when I had already tried on twenty. I was slumping against Nathan as we sat on a bench together. My stomach growled.
“You’re speaking my language,” Nathan said. He stood up with the handful of items Gabriel put into the yes pile. “We need food.”
“I agree,” Victor said, looking pleased with this distraction. “Let’s go.”
“Aw,” Gabriel said, but he relented. I wondered if he was hungry, too.
My arms were overloaded with bags as we left the store. Shoes were now included with everything. I had boots that were meant for skirts and sandals meant for jeans. Gabriel rattled fashion advice off his tongue so quickly that I was dizzy with what I was supposed to do with it all. Nathan took half of the bags from me but insisted I keep the pink Victoria’s Secret bags. “People are going to think I’m a pervert,” he said.
We were trailing back down the walkway toward the entrance we had come from when Gabriel stopped short in front of a sporting goods store. His eyes squinted as he scanned the racks.
“No,” Victor said to him.
“But I just realized she doesn’t have a bathing suit,” he said. “She’s got to have one. Just one. I swear.”
Victor’s eyebrows rose together and his fire gaze fell on me. “Do you have one?”
I really wanted to lie in that moment. For one thing, I didn’t want to spend another hour trying on bathing suits in front of the boys. Another reason was I had lost track of how much Victor had spent and I didn’t want to spend another dime. But the way his eyes were so intense on mine, I couldn’t think and lying was impossible. I simply shook my head, my finger at my lower lip. “But I don’t need it,” I insisted. “I mean, it’s September. There can’t be too many opportunities to swim before winter.”
They laughed together. Victor reluctantly nodded at Gabe. “One swimsuit. And she’s not trying on all of them.”
This time Gabriel insisted Victor and Nathan wait toward the front part of the store. I didn’t want to be left alone with Gabriel and I pleaded silently with Victor for him to come with us.
“If you’re not back in a half-hour, I’m taking Sang back and leaving you here, Gabe,” Victor said.
“Don’t worry,” Gabriel said. He hooked an arm around my neck. “I’m getting the hang of her style.”
I dropped the bags at Victor’s feet with a sigh. Nathan merely grinned, looking somewhat smug about the idea of me getting another round with Gabriel.
I followed Gabriel to the section of women’s bathing suits. Despite what the guys seemed to imply, swimming was out of season. There were only a couple of racks.
Gabriel thumbed through different suits. He completely skipped over the one-piece suits and mumbled something about the possibility of mixing and matching tops and bottoms.
“What do you think?” he asked me, holding up a blue halter top and a skimpy bikini bottom.
My cheeks heated. “It’s... um... pretty.” There wasn’t an easy way to reject his selection without saying that I thought it wasn’t to my taste.
“Hm,” he said, taking another look at it. “The color isn’t good.”
Gabriel selected a variety of suits and we headed further into the back of the store so I could try them on. “Pick your favorites first,” he said. “We’re limited on colors and sizes, so we’ll just go down the line.”
This time there was only a crinkly curtain separating me from the rest of the store. I realized at that moment that I would have to get almost naked to try on the bathing suit. My eyes drifted to the corners of the curtain next to the walls. Could there be cracks where people could look in?
I shoved the thought to the back of my head. I removed my clothes and I tossed them carefully to the floor, except for Kota’s shirt, which I hung on the wall to keep it clean and also wanting something nearby so I could shield myself if I needed.
I started with the most modest two-piece Gabriel had picked out. It was a black pair of shorts and matching halter top that barely left any skin revealed along my midsection. If I pulled the hem of the halter down, it completely covered the area.
When I was finished, I wasn’t exactly sure if I wanted to open the curtain. I didn’t want to step out and be seen. “Gabriel?” I called softly.
The curtain slid to the side and Gabriel appeared. His eyes swept over me. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s just ugly. I thought I said pick your favorite.”
I blushed. “I was just...”
“Nervous?”
I nodded.
He sighed, reaching out and tugging at a lock of my hair. “Your next choice better be a pink one.” He closed the curtain again.
I went through the choices carefully. There was a black, white and hot pink plaid suit. It had a moderate bra top and the bottoms were plain black, but there was some pink plaid material designed to look like a miniskirt. While it wouldn’t cover my mid-section, it was flirty without being too much like a string bikini that I had worried Gabriel would insist on. I thought maybe it would be a little too bold, but I really liked the color, and if I was completely honest with myself, I thought it would surprise Gabriel.
After I put it on, I checked myself out in the mirror. It fit perfectly. The miniskirt hem covered my butt just enough but when I swung my hips, I could see the black suit part underneath covering me. It sat a little lower on my hips than I wanted but I couldn’t deny how it made my hips look nicer.
The top felt like one of the bras I had just bought and curved around my breasts snugly. I picked at the cups and the straps, trying to see if I could swim in it without it falling apart. It seemed to be solid.
I called for Gabriel again. I folded my arms around my stomach, waiting for him to appear.
He opened the curtain quickly as if he’d been standing by, waiting. His critic
al eyes started to sweep over me. His face changed, his eyes started shining, his lips parted slowly and his cheeks tinted red. He blinked, stumbled through the opening and closed the curtain behind himself.
I stepped back a little to allow him room. He whirled on me. I bit back a shiver, feeling intimidated that he was seeing me in this.
His eyes drank me in, his head tilting back and forth. “Move your arms?” His tone was gentle, the softest I’ve ever heard it.
I dropped my hands to push my palms against my thighs. My eyes sank to the dingy utility carpet below his Converse shoes.
“Turn around.”
I turned in a slow circle.
“Now do it once more and bend over.”
My head shot up, my mouth parting as I looked into his intense blue eyes. “Gabriel...” I felt myself tremble again, surprised by his request.
He jerked his head back, looking as shocked at me as I felt. He stepped forward, closing the gap between us. His palms found my cheeks and he held my face up until I was looking into his eyes. “Sang,” he said. “Will you please trust me?”
I parted my lips to say something but the words eluded me.
His eyes darkened. “I would never hurt you,” he said with an intensity that matched his eyes. “I handle the clothes. Okay? I know every inch of the guys’ bodies because I’ve dressed them all since I was little. If you stick with us, if you let me, I’ll know yours, too. Not in a perverted way. It’s just what happens.”
I still couldn’t answer him. My cheeks were on fire. It wasn’t me being embarrassed anymore; it was his words and those crystal eyes.
He leaned his forehead against mine. “Please, god,” he breathed. “Don’t look so scared. I swear it on my dead momma’s grave that I’ll never lay a hand on you. Never.”
“Gabriel,” I whispered, surprised. “You... your mother...”
His ears turned red. He lifted his forehead away from mine and nodded. “Yeah. When I was little.” He pressed his palm again to my cheek. “But I’m talking about you, now. If I’m asking you to do something, there’s a reason, okay? I just wanted to make sure it doesn’t slip around when you move. That’s all.”