Purple | Cole Stewart -VERSION DISCONTINUED

Chapter Eleven: "Shopping" Part II

I jumped out of the van, sliding the door shut behind me. Zu jumped out the other side, and Liam and Chubs slid out of the front seats. The four of us gathered on one side of the van, looking at the unnamed store in front of us.
We had circled the parking lot for over 10 minutes before Liam finally decided it was safe to go inside, and I was itching to get inside and find a change of clothes.
“Okay, everyone remembers the plan, right?” Liam asked. The plan he was referencing wasn’t really a plan at all. Zu and I would go to the women's section together, and Liam and Chubs would go to the mens. Once we were finished, we would gather what other supplies we could and meet at the front of the store after roughly an hour or so.
“Alright team, meet you back here in an hour,”
I looked down at Zu and smiled. She smiled back, and we headed inside.
We had already decided to check out the kds section first, under the assumption that there would be more options for Zu there because most kids were in camps these days.
Zu walked along the racks with a purpose, only stopping to grab another piece of clothing. I saw a sparkly backpack lying on the ground and grabbed it to hold everything she was picking out.
“You sure you can carry all of that?” 
She looked at me and nodded eagerly.
“Okay, but don’t try and make me carry any of it when it gets too heavy, got it?” I think we both knew that was an empty threat as soon as the words came out of my mouth.
“All right, pick something to wear right now and go change, I’ll pack the rest into your backpack,”
Zu studied her pile for a moment before making her big decision. She picked out a pair of plain skinny jeans, a striped shirt, and a pink jean jacket. “Good choices kid.” she nodded as if to say I know before skipping off to change behind a display.
Once I started sorting through the clothes she had picked out, I realized there wasn’t as much as I had thought. There was one pair of leggings, one pair of shorts, two t-shirts, and a second jacket on top of the one she had taken to change into.
By the time she came skipping back to me I had managed to fit everything into the backpack, and I was quite proud of myself for it.
“Shall we move on to oof-” I was cut off by Zu, who grabbed the back of my shirt and started pushing me along in front of her.
I didn’t even try to fight her, not wanting to ruin her good mood. I waved to Liam as we passed the mens section, where he was looking through a rack of dress shirts. He smiled at me, and I smiled back helplessly.
Once Zu saw the surprisingly full racks of colorful dresses ahead of us, she let go of me and ran forward before grabbing items off of hangers seemingly at random. Once she was unable to carry her things, she dumped them in a pile on the floor just like she had done with her own, and went back for a second armful.
“Hey Zu? I’m gonna go find some jeans or something, are you okay here for a minute?” She nodded without looking up from her work. She had moved on to sorting the clothes now.
I found the jeans section pretty quickly, because the store we were in wasn’t particularly large. I could see maybe four pairs of jeans on the shelves, so I grabbed all of them and then picked the pair that fit me best. Once again, I had lost weight while in Camp, so I had no idea what sizes of clothing I was supposed to wear. Just another inconvenience to add to the list I guess.
The jeans I picked out were still too big for me, so I grabbed a belt off a nearby rack as well before heading back to where I had left Zu.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
She didn’t even look up, still completely focused on picking out clothing for me. And from the looks of it, what she had picked was a lot more extravagant than I was hoping for. I saw at least three dresses pass through her hands and into separate piles.
So I turned back around to find some things that I would be more comfortable in. I would still take some of the things she picked out for me of course, but I wasn’t going to do all of running from the government in a sundress.
I ended up back in the kids section searching for T-shirts, because for whatever reason there were absolutely none that I could find in the women's section.
I grabbed three, changing into the first one. It was white with red sleeves and a red neckline. Because it was a kids shirt, it was way too small on me, making it a crop top, but it was comfortable and I could move in it, so I didn’t really care.
The other two shirts I grabbed were small as well. One was plain black, and one had a band logo on it that I didn’t recognize. I was quite happy with them though. Running for your life was a lot easier when you looked good. At least in my opinion it was.
I returned to Zu, who had finally finished sorting all of her choices. When she saw me approaching, she grabbed the first dress and held it up, tilting her head in a silent question.
The dress was red and absolutely covered in ruffles. As much as I hated to let her down, I hated it. I shook my head.
She shrugged and threw the dress to the side, picking up the next item. I sighed quietly. This was going to be a long process.
By the time we reached the end of Zu’s pile, I had accepted a pale yellow sundress, a dark green sweater, a large button up shirt, and a fur lined leather jacket.
“Alright, let me take those from you so we can go find our other stuff,” I said, reaching out for the now neatly folded pile of clothes. Zu gladly obliged. When I took the pile of clothes from her, her hand brushed my own.
I wouldn’t have thought anything of it if she hadn’t jumped back like I had stung her. “What’s wrong? Zu? Did I do something?” She shook her head, wrapping her arms around her torso. 
“Okay,” I said softly. “Why don’t we just go find the rest of our stuff now?” She nodded slowly, looking down at her feet.
We worked through our mental list of supplies in silence. Zu kept her eyes on the ground when she could. I decided to speak up while we were sitting on the ground repacking our backs to fit the new things in.
“Zu?” She doesn’t acknowledge my question, so I continue. “Did you- um, did you freak out because you touched me? Because you’re Yellow?” I asked. She nodded slightly. I exhaled. At least I had an answer now. 
“Okay, that's okay. You didn’t hurt me, just so you know. I promise.” She nodded again, and I could see her shoulders relax slightly, which was a good sign.
I didn’t ask her anything else until we were walking down the center aisle of the store towards the main doors where we were supposed to meet Chubs and Liam.
There was a pair of yellow rubber gloves hanging on a rack in front of us.
I stopped, causing Zu to as well after a moment. “Do you think that those would help you?” I motioned to the gloves.
Zu looked between me and the gloves with shock written all over her face. “I think I’m going to take that as a yes then,” I muttered, mostly to myself.
I reached up and pulled the gloves down, pulling off the tags before handing them to the awestruck little girl beside me. She slipped them on quickly before hugging me tightly, burying her head in my chest. “Well I’m glad you like them,” I said, chuckling a little.
“Well, you two certainly beat us out for most fashionable,” This came from Liam, who had seen us from where he and Chubs had been waiting at the door and walked over to join us, Chubs trailing along behind him.
“Why thank you, kind sir. Are we ready to move on?”
“We are if you are,” Chubs replied.
“Well then let's get back on the road, shall we?” the four of us walked out of the store together, ready for more traveling to god knows where.

Word count: 1490

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