I'm NOT a Slut Anymore.

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

            During the weekend, I managed to sneak out and go shopping for dresses with my friends. My parents weren’t home and wouldn’t be home until later so Lynn came and picked me up with the others. We headed to the mall.

As I sat on an ottoman in a dress shop, I began to think that I would rather be at home than watching my friends get dresses for a dance I wasn’t going to. My mood had taken a turn for the worst after everything that’s been going on.

            “Come on Callan. You should try this on.” Hailey held up a dress and I looked at it. It was a pretty pale blue color, but what was the point.  I wasn’t going.

            “It would look great on you,” Lynn said, agreeing with Hailey.

            “No it wouldn’t.” I looked away from the dress and stared at nothing.

            “You think she’s acting depressed because of the A word?” Hailey whispered to Anna.

            “Probably.” The A word? Did they think I was dumb enough to not know who they were talking about?

            “I’m not like this because of Aiden, Hailey.” I was depressed because of Carrie, but the fact that Aiden still wasn’t around was bothering me. “I just don’t like the dress.” I said.

            “I’m not really liking any of the dresses here either. Should we go to a different shop?” Kim suggested.

            They all shrugged and we ended up leaving that shop empty handed. Walking through the mall, we headed towards another shop. It was the weekend and a lot of people from school came to hang out at the mall so I shouldn’t have been caught off guard by what happened next, but I was.

            As soon as we rounded a corner, Mark and his ex-girlfriend, or current girlfriend now, were walking hand in hand. Recently, Mark and Shelly completely rekindled their relationship. I personally thought Shelly didn’t deserve Mark. Mark caught my eye and a flash of pain flickered across his eyes before they hardened towards me. He noticeably squeezed Shelly’s hand and she finally seemed to notice that we were headed towards them.

            Mark appeared as if he wanted to avoid conflict, yet Shelly stopped and waited for our approach, whispering something to Mark in his ear.

            My friends noticed them, but I was sure they didn’t expect Shelly to stop. I was asked by Kim if I wanted to just ignore them, but I didn’t. I thought that maybe if I spoke to Mark, we could be on better terms and maybe even friends.

            When we reached them, I gave Mark a small smile, trying to be friendly with him. “Hi Mark, Hi Shelly.” I glossed over her name. She was inconsequential to me. Mark, however, I still liked and I wanted to know if he had forgiven me so we could move past our failed relationship.

            “Can I talk to you Mark?”

            “Anything you have to say to me, you can say right here.” I didn’t like how cold he sounded. I also didn’t like Shelly’s smug face. Mark’s face was contorted into a glare, making me uneasy about talking to him at all, but I still wanted everything to be fine between us.

            “I just want to know if we could ever be friends again.” I said, hesitantly. He paused for a moment and as I waited for his reaction, my stomach dipped as his expression hardened even further. Hate was the emotion I saw in his eyes. I recognized it completely now. And by the look of hatred, I realized that it was a mistake to talk to him at all. I should’ve just ignored him.