Playing The Game

Playing The Game - Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

It was Saturday morning and I still couldn’t decide on an outfit. Normally I’d just wear jeans and a t-shirt, but this was Game Over. My usual just wouldn’t cut it.

I sighed and fished my mobile from pocket, typing in one word: “Shopping”, before hitting send.

* * *

An hour later I was walking into Valleygirl with Allie.

“So, what’s with the shopping emergency?” she asked, concerned. We both knew that if the other sent that one little text, we were to go straight to the mall and meet within the hour. We normally only ever did this after something bad had happened, and we needed to vent. We’d started doing this a couple of years ago, when Allie’s parents had split. She was pretty upset about it, but her mum was devastated. Apparently Allie’s dad was having an affair with some chick from his office. Allie’s mum got drunk every night, crying about how she obviously wasn’t good enough for him. Allie was kind of scared at first, so we went shopping a lot to calm her down.

Eventually her mum got a new boyfriend and they got married, and now they’re all one big happy family, but we kept going on our emergency shopping trips.

I smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry. It’s nothing major. Not even an emergency really, just Branden. He’s been calling and texting me constantly ever since… you know.” I was only half-lying. Branden had been bugging me, and I was still heartbroken, but I really needed a new outfit for tonight.

Allie put an arm around my shoulder. “Honey, that’s totally an emergency. He’s a jerk; you shouldn’t have to put up with guys like him. You need to talk about it, and that’s what shopping is for.”

            I smiled. I knew I could always count on Allie to make me feel better.

She smiled back. “Now let’s go buy you a brand new outfit to mend your broken heart.”

            We dove for the racks and started shuffling through them, searching for the best clothes. Another reason we liked to go shopping so much: money wasn’t a problem for us. My mum is a famous model and has starred in a few commercials and even a movie, so we were pretty well off, and Allie’s mum inherited quite a bit of money from her grandfather, who was a famous designer (he is the reason my mum decided to go into the modelling business to start with), as well as Allie’s dad paying child support, and he is the boss of some big company so he got paid a lot of money. So we were free to buy designer brands without having to worry about the cost.

            100 shops, 50 outfits and ten iced mochas later, we were sitting out the front of our favourite café drinking more coffee, loaded with bags. I’d found a couple of awesome pairs of jeans, a cute t-shirt, a new jacket—amongst other things—and, for tonight, sparkly gold skinny jeans, a white halter neck top with swirly gold patterns on it and a gorgeous pair of gold kitten heels.

            I looked at my watch. It was almost 5:30. “Hey Allie, I have to go. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

            Allie frowned. “Why? It’s only 5:30. Why don’t we go see a movie?” she suggested brightly.

            I shook my head quickly. “Sorry, I can’t. I, uh… my mum has this meeting with some big designer, and she, uh, wants me to come along,” I lied quickly. She did have a meeting tonight, but I definitely wasn’t going! “You know how much she wants me to follow in her footsteps. So, um, bye!” I hurried back to my car before Allie could ask any questions. I sighed. Another lie. God, I hated lying to her. Oh well, I’d make up for it later. Right now I had more important things to worry about. Game Over!